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HEIMS, what goes where?

xcm

xcm

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Southern Oregon
Heims, an intimidating subject... I was hoping to spur chat about what size heims should be used where, SPECIFICALLY on both a mild prerunner, or full race xj, and hopefully everything in between.

The economy is tough, so lets try to skirt things on the cheap side, without cheaping out, its easy to throw evolution joints at everything in an imaginary world... this is not that. carrying spares is cool, changing out heims every 2 or 3 wheeling trips IS NOT.

For example, whats the minimum heim to be run safely in a steering setup? 3/4link? trackbar?
tube inserts, or tapped tube?
those who DD on heims, please report in on lifetime, ESPECIALLY if you dont park inside a garage or your jeep sees a lot of mud/water.
whos the best sources?
 
I ran 3/4 inch chromoly heims on my old Jeepspeed car's steering and on the axle side track bar mount. I ran misalignments and 1/2 inch bolts which seem way smaller than everyone elses set ups, but we never broke a heim or bolt and we beat the poop out of that car.

The tie rod/drag link/track bar were all 1.25 OD X .120 wall 4130 with threaded inserts TIG welded in.

Hope this helps!

Chris
 
my XJ has a 5/8 heim on the frame end of the tracbar. its been heavily abused mostly by mud and is non greasable/rebuildable. its been on there for 4 years with 3 of those being driven 60+ miles a day, and its still as tight as the day i put it on there. i dont remember what brand of heim i used when i built it but it has held up much better than i thought it would. the tube is also tapped, no insert.

edit: when i said 5/8 heim i meant the bolt through it is 5/8", it has a 3/4 shank.
 
Last edited:
All my heims are 3/4" shank x 5/8" through bolt. I used to get them from Poison Spyder, I think they might have been QA1 ends, roughly $30 each.

I use them on both ends of each upper link in the rear 4-link, both ends on the single upper in the front 3-link, and both ends of the panhard (8 joints total). I've been wheeling/driving the rig with this setup since April of 2007, and while it's not a daily driver, it does get wheeled pretty hard a few times a month (more, when possible :D ).

To date I've had zero failures, and recently replaced two of the joints in the rear 4-link because they had developed some play. "Some" is pretty relative...in a suspension with no bushings at all, you can feel/hear even the slightest bit of slop. I keep those two in my parts bag as spares because they're still in no danger of actually failing any time soon. Aside from that, all the joints are original, no issues.

As long as you go with a quality rod end - QA1, Aurora, or FK are the three brands I can think of - you should be fine. There are cheaper ones from places like Midwest Control or McMaster which look nearly identical but wear out much quicker.
 
I run 3/4" bore, 7/8: shank, misaligned down to a 5/8" bolt for most of my steering / trackbar.

I run a 5/8" heim in my single upper link - no issues to date.
 
On the knuckles, the tapered holes are about 3/4" on one side and 5/8" on the small side. Unless you use some sort of a bushing or weld up the hole and re-drill, a 3/4" bolt is about your only option. The tie rod doesn't need misalignment spacers, so it's not a big deal, but your drag link, if you do cross over steering, will need to misalign a lot. I have used these for over two years with great success on my draglink.
ItemDetailScreenBallJointSuperSwivel.gif



and they can be found here
or do a search there for part number 6960T51

-Dan
 
Last edited:
Loose_Nuts_Enterprises said:
On the knuckles, the tapered holes are about 3/4" on one side and 5/8" on the small side. Unless you use some sort of a bushing or weld up the hole and re-drill, a 3/4" bolt is about your only option. The tie rod doesn't need misalignment spacers, so it's not a big deal, but your drag link, if you do cross over steering, will need to misalign a lot. I have used these for over two years with great success on my draglink.

I should have mentioned in my earlier post I drilled out the knuckles and welded inserts in to get it back down to 1/2" ID.

Chris
Click to expand...
 
The bigger the heim, the more surface area there usually is, to spread the load out. This will help them last longer.

I think it is usually sound advise to use the biggest rod end, that will fit your space constraints....if you can only fit an 1 1/4" tube for your tie rod, without hitting your diff cover or anything else, use the biggest rod end you can fit in that 1 1/4" tube.

-Dan
 
thanks to everyone who chimed in, lots of questions answered.

i was starting to wonder if i shouldnt use my midwest control 3/4'' shank, 3/4'' bore necked to 5/8ths would be strong enough for a crossover steering setup, but rather move up to 7/8'' shank, 3/4'' bore...

i wouldnt have thought the 3/4 // 3/4 stuff would be strong enough for rear axle 4 links... but it seems to be enough
 
vetteboy said:
As long as you go with a quality rod end - QA1, Aurora, or FK are the three brands I can think of - you should be fine. There are cheaper ones from places like Midwest Control or McMaster which look nearly identical but wear out much quicker.
Click to expand...

Both mcmaster and midwest control have good products you just need to know what you want and only buy the chromoly hiems
 
xcm said:
thanks to everyone who chimed in, lots of questions answered.

i was starting to wonder if i shouldnt use my midwest control 3/4'' shank, 3/4'' bore necked to 5/8ths would be strong enough for a crossover steering setup, but rather move up to 7/8'' shank, 3/4'' bore...

i wouldnt have thought the 3/4 // 3/4 stuff would be strong enough for rear axle 4 links... but it seems to be enough
Click to expand...

I just did a crossover setup and used 3/4'' shank hiems. I have no fear of breaking them on my dd/ moderate trail rig. I even have heims on my tracbar ( wow what a difference that makes). I think you will be fine with the hiems. Just keep the jam nut tight because that it what causes most failures.
 
i just did a heim steering setup... i am running into some bumpsteer issues, but other than that it is waaaay more responsive and tight than the steering i had before it :cough JCR cough... not that their setup isnt good, it just didnt work out well for me.

btw: i used midwest control 3/4 3/4 down to 5/8 bolt.

iPhoneUpload.jpg
 
to further spur, what is your guys favorite HI-MISSALIGNMENT joint? as for use at the pitman arm.

the one goatman links to, appears to just be a regular, non notched ball rod end. wouldnt this be good place for one with notches for extra missallignment? or are the spacers the source of the joints max angle? does this mean you need a larger bore, necked down significantly to get the max angles?
 
?

HRSMX10T .625” 3/4-16 32,100 lb 19 degrees
... i tried to track down my ruffstuffspeciaties sourced 3/4 x 3/4 necked to 5/8 bolt ends from midwest control, im guessing them to be
MXM-12 3/4-16 0.751 with 18 degrees...

is 1 degree woth buying another joint?
 
I have 4.5" lift and I'm keeping my D30 under my rig. I have the RuffStuff el-cheapo 3/4 heims as well and I am going to be running an inverted Y setup on it off the top of the knuckles with 1.5"x0.25 wall DOM.

I am confident with my plan for my steering, but I am a little curious about the Seals-All seals... can anyone verify if they actually work well or do they just hold junk and dirt in there? I was thinking of picking some up since my jeep sees mostly steer miles and it'd be nice to have some protection on the joints but maybe just carrying a can of WD40 and some lithium grease with me might be a better way to go?
 
xcm said:
you need to move that axle side of the tracbar! angles do no match, and explain your bumpsteer.
Click to expand...

the angles are actually pretty gosh darn close:
iPhoneUpload-1.jpg


my bumpsteer actually shows up when hitting a bump with an individual tire, and it pulls the steering wheel towards that side... when hitting even hard bumps with both tires there is no effect...

xcm said:
to further spur, what is your guys favorite HI-MISSALIGNMENT joint? as for use at the pitman arm.

the one goatman links to, appears to just be a regular, non notched ball rod end. wouldnt this be good place for one with notches for extra missallignment? or are the spacers the source of the joints max angle? does this mean you need a larger bore, necked down significantly to get the max angles?
Click to expand...

I just used high misalignment spacers which spaced from 3/4 to 5/8 on the pitman arm side and knuckle side of draglink.
 
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