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Big Daddy tie rod issues!

xjtrailrider

xjtrailrider

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Roanoke VA
Anybody else running one?

I tried to install mine today and as usual nothing went as planned, the Big Daddy tie rod is a piece of junk!

The threads on the drivers side are not chased good or are powder coated. I have been fighting it on with a pipe wrench and pipe 1/16 of a turn at a time and still have about a inch more to go. My arms are wore out! Big daddy is getting a call on Monday. Of course I do not have a left hand tap of that size (or any size as far as that goes) to chase it with. I did run a wire brush down into it to clean the threads but it only helped for the first inch or so. The passenger side is threading on easily as did the jamb nut.

I know the TRE is good, I am able to turn the old tie rod on and off by hand, but the jamb nut and Big Daddy tie rod is a fight to get on on the drivers side. Now it is on and I probably will not be able to get it off the TRE, I will most likely have to send it back to them with my TRE still in it. On top of all of that the flats for a wrench are rounded off and the pipe wrench has chewed an otherwise nice tie rod all to hell.

Part rant/part question but I just wonder if others have had problems with their stuff.
 
I have one and ordered new tres along with it. It was a b#$* to get the tres all the way in and I just barely got them where they needed to be. Maybe yours is just a little worse making it just about impossible. Also those flattened areas for a wrench do suck, didnt help much at all. Once on its a nice and beefy tie rod though haha. Besides install I like it.
 
This probably comes a little late to help,--But if you have an old TRE that fits cut a V notch in it (in the threads) to make it look like a tap. And use it like a tap to clean and chase the threads.
I had to do that with a Rustys track bar,the chips were still in the hole from when the threads were cut.

Wayne
 
Wayne Sihler said:
This probably comes a little late to help,--But if you have an old TRE that fits cut a V notch in it (in the threads) to make it look like a tap. And use it like a tap to clean and chase the threads.
I had to do that with a Rustys track bar,the chips were still in the hole from when the threads were cut.

Wayne
Click to expand...

Well I got the old TRE out and the threads are good on it, it threads right into the old tie rod by hand.

I ran a wire brush in and out of the Big Daddy tie rod several times and pulled a bunch of powder coat out so that is what the issue is.

I'm on my way out to pick up a new TRE for the drivers side, the inner is good, it threads in and out by hand. I'll try a brand new one in there and see what happens. My old outer was a little loose anyway so its time for a better one, I'll keep the old one in the spare parts box as a trail spare.
 
I but a BDO tie rod used from someone on this board (don't remember who). They shipped it with old tre's that weren't installed. The left thread tre was so hard to install that I had to put the tie rod in a vise and use a 2 foot wrench on the tre to turn it. All the while, I was shooting oil on the tre threads and it was getting hot.

Anyway, you pretty much turn it now with a decent enough sized cheater.
 
I'm running a Big Daddy and I love it!!!
 
Its on there, 7 hours later! I bought a new Moog outer TRE and it wouldn't thread in either. I ran a Osborn steel wire bottle brush in there about a hundred times and kept pulling out powder coat. I still had to clamp the tie rod in a vise and use a pipe wrench to thread on the new TRE until it was all the way in and then ran the drag link end in by hand and installed the outer and adjusted the toe-in.

WHAT A PITA!!

But I should never bend or break that tie rod, its pure beef, my arms are sore from carrying it around!
 
I got one for free from a friend of mine. Im glad that i saw this thread. Im gonna go out nad get one of those heavy tube style brushes that goes in the end of a drill and let it set there for a about 10 min eat at the power coating.... yall are right. it looks like they sprayed inside of it some how.
 
The XJ is on its second Big Daddy tie rod. The first one went on with no problem and I ran it for a couple of years. But when I went to adjust it after swapping some parts, I found that it was completely fused together.

"Galled" might be the word. I couldn't get the ends off. I even took to a friend's offroad shop and they couldn't get them off.

That was actually my fault. When I first put the ends on, I didn't use any anti-seize. I bought another Big Daddy and used plenty of anti-seize.

Moral of story - Use anti-seize. If you didn't, go back before it's too late, take it apart and put anti-seize on the threads
 
johnnyc said:
The XJ is on its second Big Daddy tie rod. The first one went on with no problem and I ran it for a couple of years. But when I went to adjust it after swapping some parts, I found that it was completely fused together.

"Galled" might be the word. I couldn't get the ends off. I even took to a friend's offroad shop and they couldn't get them off.

That was actually my fault. When I first put the ends on, I didn't use any anti-seize. I bought another Big Daddy and used plenty of anti-seize.

Moral of story - Use anti-seize. If you didn't, go back before it's too late, take it apart and put anti-seize on the threads
Click to expand...

I did use antisieze
 
shmoken875 said:
I never thought it would have bent either; when I swapped a waggy 44 in I sold it to my buddy, and a month later he bent it! I didn't even believe him, but sure enough that thing was bent like a banana.
Click to expand...


Yea he probably tried to get towed by it too..
 
shmoken875 said:
I never thought it would have bent either; when I swapped a waggy 44 in I sold it to my buddy, and a month later he bent it! I didn't even believe him, but sure enough that thing was bent like a banana.
Click to expand...
That's pretty surprising as usually the TRE snaps before the tie rod bends. I've never experienced it personally, but have witnessed it. Good idea to carry trail spares if you can.
 
fasteddieyj said:
That's pretty surprising as usually the TRE snaps before the tie rod bends. I've never experienced it personally, but have witnessed it. Good idea to carry trail spares if you can.
Click to expand...

I carry 2 stock tie rods, all 3 TRE's, both knuckles and a drag link as spares.

You never know:dunno:
 
Ha, I had the same problem with the tie rod I got from TnT. One side, we threaded in the TRE by hand, all the way in. The other side, me and a buddy had to use some special snap-on locking grip pliers to turn the rod while the TRE was bolted to the spindle.

Oh yeah, and the weekend after the install, I bent the tie-rod. Only slightly, and it bent up instead of back towards the axle, so it still works.
 
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