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Largest diameter Tie rod you can fit under an Xj

I don't know about an xj, but I had a tie rod for my toyota that was 1 inch .25 wall with a 1.5 inch .25 wall sleeved over the top that I got from Rockstomper I think. I used to put the floorjack under the middle of the tie rod and jack up both front wheels. That included a winch, bumper, 4.3 v6, and 38.5 sx's, so it was a heavier truck, and the tie rod didn't bend. So I think that should be beefy enough for an xj.
 
I haven't had a problem ever since I went with my V8 ZJ setup. I am only on 32's (they are swampers so they are big 32's LOL). BUUT! I rock crawl and otherwise wheel my rig pretty hard and is holds up well - even when you drop down onto rocks - the stocker would bend just at the sight of a large boulder!
 
I have gone through two stock ones, and I actually have a V8 ZJ one sitting in my garage. But i can get up to 3'' cold rolled or heat treated round stock at my school for free. Roundstock, octogon, hexagon, or square.

I have a stock cover.
 
well than, grab a bunch of round stock of various sizes and send to me, I'll even pay you 10% markup on what you paid... deal?

is the hex stock round in the inside? or how would you thread ends onto it?
 
yea, you want it strong... but if you're using a 3" steel rod, 1st off, my rough math says that's going to weigh about 300lbs?!?! What kind of steering do you have? That's going to screw up weight distribution, all sorts of stuff isn't it? It'd be like driving around with a fat guy riding on your bumper all day.

Also, if it's THAT strong, and you hit something hard, instead of breaking a tie rod, you're going to break the tierod end... or worse, the knuckle, or stearing box... Seems to me, bending the tie-rod is the cheapest problem you could run into, and so I would keep that as the weakest link if I could.
 
I probably won't make it out of 3''. Too heavy. Probably 2'' or 1.75''. Either way, tie rod is unsprung weight. Its below the springs, so it wouldn't affect weight distribution. But it would affect tire wear.

As for the rest of my steering setup, I was planning on machining some bolt on flanges that use two of the unit bearing bolts and the original tie rod bolt hole to get a little more beefyness. I was also planning on doing a draglink out of the same metal as the tie rod, maybe a tad smaller.
 
2" is probally overkill too. I have a 1.25 od dom and it is plenty strong. I even checked a ditch with my front pass tire at about 25 and didn't affect anything. Weight unsprung or not will kill your gas mileage.


Parakeet
 
1.25" .25 wall.

Thats plenty beef and even at that size, it may still come in contact with the front diff cover at full lock.

and if you want it even stronger go chromoly.
 
Its all solid.:eek:

We have some really big lathes, so I was gonna put it one, and Taper down the ends to about 1.5'' or 2''. Drill out the ends and tap them.

2"....still....
Are you planning on running down trees with your tie rod? Lol....jesus...
 
I'm starting my build tomorrow. I probably won't be able to finish as winter break is next week.

So far my plan is to machine some "extensions" for my steering knuckle ends where the drag link/tie rod meets the knuckle to get the tie rod away from my diff cover/ coil buckets and also convert to OTK steering. I will be using full size Chev tie rod ends.

2'' solid octogon tapered down starting 4'' from the ends. tapers down to 1.5'' or 1.75'' depending on how thick the TREs are going to be.

I am machining the extensions from 2''W x 1''H x3''L High carbon steel. There will be backing plates cut out and welded to the extensions that tie them into 2 of the unit bearing bolts. The extensions tie into three places. the 2 unit bearing bolts and the old existing tie rod end bolt hole.

I'll elaborate more tomorrow, its 2 AM.

Suggestions? Comments? Ridicule? Tell me why I shouldn't?
 
Well, taking into consideration your intentions and previous posts, I think you should use a telephone pole for your tie rod.

:D
 
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