Needed, Easy way to unbend my tie rod

It's bent



Now how do I get is back to at lest almost straight?

Thanks

Daryl

Loosen it, rotate it so it's smiling at you and put a floor jack under it.

But if it's that bent I'm not sure I'd trust it to retain any sort of strength once you get it back close to straight.

trash it and get an RE heavy duty one. You will be much happier.

jeepme said:

trash it and get an RE heavy duty one. You will be much happier.

Click to expand...

Well, That's in the works. but isn't going to happen for a while. Any opinion about the set up from Poisen Spyder? (Can't link straight to it. Toward the bottom of page on the left side under HD Steering Systems.)

Thanks

Daryl

Ways to straighten a tie rod:

Turn it and use a jack to push it back up, like has been said.

If you have a winch, run the cable around the axle housing and then to the tie rod, and pull it straight.

Find a log (or pipe), drive the front tires to the log, run the winch cable (or chain) under the log and up to the tie rod, then drive forward slowly climbing the log. The cable will be pulled down, straightening the tie rod as you begin to climb the log (or pipe).

Take it off and straighten it by hooking it on something, then put it back on.

Once the tie rod is straight, it will be weaker. You can weld a piece of angle iron along it, which will make it pretty strong, or get a new heavy duty tie rod.

Another option is the ZJ V8 steering. It's beefier than the XJ stuff, parts available everywhere.

http://www.stu-offroad.com/misc/tierod-1.htm

Tie Rod End - ES3096L – $33.89
Adjuster Sleeve – ES2079S – $21.19
Tie Rod - DS1312 – $58.95

Those(Moog) prices from the local Carquest.

I would not recomend straightening it. It wont be safe. I know BLAH BLAH BLAH, but... Go to a junk yard and pull a good one off of a wreck $40.00. It is your life, it is not worth it. Just my $.02! :soapbox:

Big Daddy's Off-Road HD Tie-Rod is about $75.

chances are, you wont be able to spin the bar 180 due to the fact that it will hit on other stuff when I bent mine on the trail, I pulled up to a tree and wrapped a chain around it at the highes part of the bend, then wrapped the other end around the tree. Put it in 4 lo and watched the bar as my wife backed up. Which pulled the bar down and forward. Then I hooked a come a long to the chain as close to where it was tied to the bar, hooked the other end to my rear crossmember and pulled the bar back to center, then spun the bar around and jacked it straight. When I was back in the hotel parking lot, I used the jack again to adjust it a little more (had to drive from Colorado to Iowa the next day and didn't want to thrash my brand new tires).

Easiest thing to do would be to unbolt the left rod end from the knuckle, beat on the knuckle with a BIG hammer to pop it out of the taper,loosen the sleeve on the other end, spin it 180, TIGHTEN the sleeve, put the left rod end back on and just thread the bolt down finger tight, and use a bottle jack to ease it back up.

Goodl Luck!

PS: I have been really lazy and haven't replaced it yet. (3 months ago). I fiddled around with the alignment and it tracks nice and straight. If you can get it STRAIGHT, and don't abuse it, you can probably get away with using it for a while. I hit mine hard enough to spring a leak in my damper. Just make sure you don't see a bunch of stress cracks or a significant gouge (evil stress riser) around the bent area.

Joel

and I might disagree about welding anything to it, unless you are an experienced welder, you can weaken it a lot more that what you would do by cold working it...a lot of that stuff isn't just regular mild steel, even if it is, you could create voids in the welds. The false sense of security from that extra steel could be disastrous, the vibrations from driving would be focused on any cracks in the welds which would cause metal fatigue. It would be much safer and easier to just replace it then.

remove it, go to the junk yard, get another one, go wheeling, remove new bent one, go to junk yard, get another one, go wheeling repeat as necessary
-the story of my life until i do an otk setup

Thanks for all the great replies. Looks like it's the junk yard tomorrow. Now I'd really like to see a review of the Poison Spyder HD steering system I linked to earlier. You see I won a 50% off coupon from them at the SWFWDA fall quarterly run and meeting on Clayton OK. I am thinking that will be how I spend it. Mainly because they don't have much else for XJ's But I'd still like to hear that it's not bogus. Cause 50% off crap is still 100% crap. Anyone running their set-up? Heard about it? You understand.

straighten it! and weld some angle iron to it and use it for a spare. on Goatmans winch trick, a good way to keep the hook from sliding around is to use 2 pairs of vice grips one on either side of the hook. i also like the v8 zj steering stuff as a middle of the road upgrade before going to some serious steering rods, its inexpensive too for a beefy drag link and tie rod compared to anything out there for the same price.

Hunter

I tried Goatmans trick of looping the winch line around the axle tube, but only managed to rip my nice abrasion guard (on rockstomper amsteel blue line) due to the very tight turn on the aluminum hawse fairlead. So, I now run the bumper up to a tree, spool the winch line out to another tree where a clevis, tree saver, and snatch block reside, and then loop the cable back to the bent tie rod. I first have to loosen the rod and rotate it so that the winch will pull the bend out. I had to do this a few times now on my D44 front with high steer arms and a tie rod running arm to arm even with the middle of the arms. I don't think it's possible to get a tie rod up high enough to prevent damage! Maybe if it can be run behind the steering knuckle. BTW, I found some DOM tubing in the scrap steel place that slips over the stock xj tie rod snuggly and have reinforced a few like that with a couple little plug welds to hold the sleeve in place. Cheap way to add a little strength to the stock stuff. Jeff

Wanna sell that 50% off coupon ?
is it good on all merchandise?
I could about half their inventory.
Heres your chance to get your RE (hint hint)

When you get your "new" rod, if it's a stocker, it will definitely help to weld on a length of 3/4" angle iron like Goatman said. I did and it's still straight after repeated contact.

Ok, maybe not arrow straight.
But it's a stocker that's taken hell.