• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Rusty's rod end at pitman arm snapped in half..wtf?!

Blaine B.

NAXJA Forum User
Well let's see, I have the Rusty's Tierod Conversion and just got done installing some Rough Country control arm dropbrackets already. Yadda yadda yadda, I also have the Rusty's tracbar and all 4 adjustable control arms...sitting at 7" lift.

So about an hour ago I went out to give it a testdrive since I had just put the drop brackets on.

I get back in the garage, turn the wheel to straighen out and I hear a pop...I lose all steering.

I check it out, it turned out that the rod end at the pitman arm just cracked in half!

I've NEVER seen this happen before. Scary stuff! If there is a God I'm thanking him for not letting this happen on the road....

Not sure if it is related or not but it was pulling alot towards the left.

I'm thinking about just replacing all 4 rodends with a known quality replacement just to be sure. After buying their steering I didn't think I'd have to touch it for quite some time...

Scary to say the least, lucky that it only happened in my garage.

RodEnd.jpg
 
WOW:eek: That is a tad scary!! Glad it did not happen to you on the highway at say 70ish...............!! Guess the rod end is cast and not forged.... Looks like we are running the same tracbar!
 
Here's what I did, I ordered all Moog rod ends from Summit...they have the cheapest prices...

So 4 rod ends + shipping is $169. Cheaper than any place locally. Nobody has this Moog part in stock including Summit so the ship date is around January 9th.

I'm hoping I can find one rod end tomorrow just to get me by for the week. I'll probably hit up AutoZone for that. Just something temporary to get me back on the road.

I ordered 2 of each lefthand and righthand rod ends (es62L and es140R)

Which, the left hand thread or right hand thread would be at the pitman arm?

Thanks and goodnight.
 
Well, you'll obviously have to take off the old remains of the TRE at the pitman arm end, so just take it off first, that way you'll know which thread it is, then go to autozone.
 
AutoZone is out of their DuraLast replacements, both the lefthand and righthand thread.

Even their cheapo DurLast brand is like $25. Bah! Got the Moogs at Summit for $36 x2 and $41 x2.

I heard Rusty's ships them with Moog or TRW rod ends. I know Moog is great but I do not know about TRW...the instructions for the steering conversion list both Moog or TRW too.

So I'm not sure if mine came with Moog or TRW. Regardless I bought the 4 moog replacements and still need to go around and try to find something to get me by with one of the rod ends until the moogs show up.

Move this to modified if you'd like since it isn't concerning the OEM steering.
 
Last edited:
Heard bad things about Moog TREs...I went with the premium ones from NAPA. They showed me the difference, its very substantial....I also have a setup with all the same LH TREs, so I only need to carry 1 type of spare. Makes it easy and you also don't have to worry about your shit getting misaligned on the trail if you whack it on something.
 
I did the same thing with my Rusty's junk... hence my sig's details... I just made it non-adjustable, butt-welded a piece of tube to the TB, and the TRE. So far, so good. Got the TB for cheap, and am planning on using a different setup soon anyhow, so saving the adjustability wasn't a huge deal to me.
 
So you are saying it would be better to use all 4 lefthand or righthand threaded rod ends instead of 2 of each?

And they'd all work without tapping new threads in the draglink or tierod?
 
no, ya can't just use the LH or RH threaded rods... I think what he was saying is that's what he did when he made/bought his steering setup, just in case one was to fail, he's got a spare at all times. You wouldn't be able to just buy new ends for your steering, unfortunately :(

LH/LH rod ends on the tie rod are nice though. Once it's aligned, as mentioned before, you can roll it on a rock and if the tie rod were to spin, it would in theory just slide over on the ends a bit,rather than toeing in or out...
 
Ok. Well I will keep my order as it is then for the 2 each of left and right hand Moogs.

I'll call Rusty's tomorrow. They'll probably offer to send a new rod end but I'll just tell them I ordered new Moog ends already. Maybe they'll give me something. This could have been alot more serious if this happened on the road. I'm not quite sure how the hell it didn't and just decided to go once I was in my garage (was about to continue work and put on a fuel tank skid)

Also I'll try to find out what they were using on the setup from their shop; Moog, TRW, or whatever else they could have been using.
 
no, ya can't just use the LH or RH threaded rods... I think what he was saying is that's what he did when he made/bought his steering setup, just in case one was to fail, he's got a spare at all times. You wouldn't be able to just buy new ends for your steering, unfortunately :(

LH/LH rod ends on the tie rod are nice though. Once it's aligned, as mentioned before, you can roll it on a rock and if the tie rod were to spin, it would in theory just slide over on the ends a bit,rather than toeing in or out...

I have PSC's HD Tie Rod....its threaded LH on both sides, uses the same TRE as the stock one that attaches to the pitman arm. So...I have 3 TREs on my steering setup, and they're all exactly the same.

This is just for now. I am soon going to WJ steering. Just have to decide if I want to go with TREs or Heims....
 
I have PSC's HD Tie Rod....its threaded LH on both sides, uses the same TRE as the stock one that attaches to the pitman arm. So...I have 3 TREs on my steering setup, and they're all exactly the same.

gotcha. sounds like a nice setup to me :)
 
Back
Top