V8 ZJ Tierod Upgrade

[FlexdXJ]

So, while I was at the salvage yard looking around, I asked them how much if I pull it off. $20...I know what I'm doing in a couple years.......

Fixed.

 

[XJosh95]

Yeah... even at half that price, I see it as "hey I can blow up 5 or 10 of these before I woould be better off buying a brand new one"

Exactly!

Fixed.

Jog on!

That seems high. Is that $200 with or without a new draglink? You should already have the same draglink that you'd find with the zj setup.

Yeah, that was with the draglink. I got the part numbers from post #10. At any rate, $20 is way cheaper and even if I have to replace a couple ends I'm still going to come out ahead.

 

[bchulett]

I'll get a pic tomorrow if Mikegronholz doesn't beat me to it. Here are the walk in prices from O'Reillys all moog's
DS1312 $64.99
DS1238 $100.99
ES3096L $35.99 each
ES2079S $20.99 each

Total of $279.94 to do it all (1-DS1312, 1-DS1238, 2-ES3096L, 2-ES2079S)
Total of $121.97 without the drag link setup (1-DS1312, 1-ES3096L, 1-ES2079S)
plus tax if applicable

Anyone have the OEM PNs from Jeep? ...

 

[shaman1204]

I am battling some sloppy steering issues after installing a 3" lift and 31" Kumho Road Ventures. Seems to be ok at regular street speeds, but highway driving (55+mph) the steering gets sloppy, I have to constantly correct it to stay straight, like it wanders. I have had an alignment done after lift. Looking to do this upgrade. Will this kit work for me? I have a 2000 XJ with 100k miles. I am a newb, and would just like to upgrade everything at once while im in there.

Here is the kit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JEEP-GRAND-CHEROKEE-93-98-5-2L-TRACK-BAR-TIE-ROD-BALL-/400154911592?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5d2b176368

 

[kastein]

When you had the alignment done did they adjust the caster or just the toe? Unless you brought it to a 4x4 shop they probably just did the toe and with it lifted, you can get wandering if your caster is off.

 

[shaman1204]

When you had the alignment done did they adjust the caster or just the toe? Unless you brought it to a 4x4 shop they probably just did the toe and with it lifted, you can get wandering if your caster is off.

Thanks for the reply. I'll stop by the shop and ask.

 

[smokerkenny]

.....So, while I was at the salvage yard looking around, I asked them how much if I pull it off. $20...I know what I'm doing in a couple weeks.

when i replaced my p/s gearbox, i noticed that my draglink tre was pretty much shot. i could move the bolt up & down inside the tre (a lot of play). i'm also experiencing a loud pop/crack from the drivers floor panel. i had to put it back together, but scoped out the local jy & found a zj v8. when i asked the yard how much for the tie rod & drag link, they said $50/ea. i could pay a little more & get brand-new parts! should i pull 'em, or go for something else? (i'll try 2 talk 'em down when i go there for some other parts.....)

 

[kastein]

go somewhere else, or buy new. That is ridiculous.

I would not pay more than 20 dollars for a used tie rod, I've paid that for a couple but only because I'd already pulled it and didn't feel like going somewhere else and pulling another one.

 

[mxracer624]

I did the zj tie rod and drag link swap on my 89 and i cant be happier. Its much beefier, feels much more solid offroad and it cured my death wobble! i got them from the JY and then used the PN on this thread for the MOOG hd TRE's which are now $43 each. but after some degreasing, sanding and a few coats of some grey hammered paint the steering feels and looks good as new! the only problem i see is that at full tuck on the pass side the drag link does hit the sway bar bracket.. i just havent gotten around to taking a cutoff wheel to it. It wont take much to clear it so its really not much of a problem!

 

[InlandZJ]

I did the zj tie rod and drag link swap on my 89 and i cant be happier. Its much beefier, feels much more solid offroad and it cured my death wobble! i got them from the JY and then used the PN on this thread for the MOOG hd TRE's which are now $43 each. but after some degreasing, sanding and a few coats of some grey hammered paint the steering feels and looks good as new! the only problem i see is that at full tuck on the pass side the drag link does hit the sway bar bracket.. i just havent gotten around to taking a cutoff wheel to it. It wont take much to clear it so its really not much of a problem!

How much lift do you have? I did the V8 tie rod draglink swap for $32 at the riverside JY. I'm at 5" of lift and still get the shimmy in the steering wheel but not DW. I have lower ca's and stock uppers with knew bushings. RE adj track bar is about a year old. Every thing seems to be tight but, I need to adjust the toe alittle. It is a solid tie rod for sure just debateing wether I should drop is down an inch or so.

 

[mxracer624]

I'm at 4.5 in. Try to get your alignment done and see if that works.. if it doesn't how old is your steering damper? I know a lot of people on here say it can't be the damper but on my other jeep I tried everything.. finally th last thing I did was take the damper off cause it was old, ended up being so blown that just holding it in my hand it would compress itself with its own weight. After I replaced it with a new one no matter what I did I couldn't get the wobble to come back.. and the steering had no more play and wasn't all over the road like it was before.. and for $30 for a heavy duty pro comp one even if it didn't solve my problem then ohh well.. but it did so it was win win!

 

[InlandZJ]

I'm at 4.5 in. Try to get your alignment done and see if that works.. if it doesn't how old is your steering damper? I know a lot of people on here say it can't be the damper but on my other jeep I tried everything.. finally th last thing I did was take the damper off cause it was old, ended up being so blown that just holding it in my hand it would compress itself with its own weight. After I replaced it with a new one no matter what I did I couldn't get the wobble to come back.. and the steering had no more play and wasn't all over the road like it was before.. and for $30 for a heavy duty pro comp one even if it didn't solve my problem then ohh well.. but it did so it was win win!

I went from 4.5 to over 5" . I also have the knew damper Procomp HD. .I'm thinking to drop back down to 4.5 in before all the head aches. Glad you fixed yours eace:

 

[Johnnie Walker]

Honestly, unless the zj tie rod is on the cheap. An aftermarket tie rod with beefier TRE's is the way to go.

 

[InlandZJ]

So early am. I'm heading down to align this money pit. I'll have the tech drive it and see what he thinks could be the problem. I think I pushed the envolope on the lift height being over 5" on short lowers. Live to ride another day. Too much down time and not enough whellin.:tear:

 

[XJCruiser]

I'm looking to do this upgrade and my local yard doesn't have any that aren't tweaked from accidents or affordable. If I were to look into a "kit" what would I be looking for?
http://www.jeep4x4center.com/jeep-steering-parts/grand-cherokee-zj.htm
I'm assuming this?
http://www.jeep4x4center.com/product-information.asp?number=52037996K this includes parts 14, 15, and 16
Any help would be much appreciated. I know a while ago we had a vendor who sold the tie rod and drag link as a complete kit fairly cheap but can't seem to find the post anymore, possibly no longer a vendor? As far as I can tell Morris 4x4 is the only vendor that carries it now. Thanks

 

[Redsnake]

Bumping this old thread again...

I'm looking to upgrade my '01 XJ and since I've ready thru this entire post... please advise if this is true.

(pic borrowed f/above)

Since I have an '01, would I only need to upgrade the circled areas? Or would/should I upgrade my drag-link as well?

Here is my current/OE '01XJ and what needs to be upgraded

 

[XJRN]

Drag link should be the same. Only the tie rod should be different.

 

[Redsnake]

Thanks for this thread... I changed out my tie-rods to the V8 ZJ this weekend and did the garage floor alignment. Overall a pretty easy and straight forward swap. Plus w/the new parts it was EASY to adjust the toe-in and to adjust my steering wheel back to 'straight'...

Like has been mentioned before, there is NO comparison of how much beefier the ZJ tie-rod is compared to the OE XJ tie-rods.

 

[SonicCougar99]

I hate to bump this thread again, but there is some great info here and I just want to make sure I've got this right before I buy stuff. I have an 89 XJ and the steering is very sloppy, TRE's are worn, and I get death wobble when I hit a pothole on the interstate. I am pricing out the items in one of the previous posts (with the MOOG part numbers) and after shipping, comes to $217.62 for all new parts, including the drag link. Do the tie rods and drag links themselves ever suffer any wear, or give any reason to buy new over trying to scrape together at a junkyard (which are scarce in my part of AZ, so I would have to consider gas costs to drive to a JY and hope they have what I need, plus the cost of cleaning them up and making them all good to go)? I don't mind spending a reasonable amount of money for all the parts being new and shipped straight to my door, I was just curious as to what others thought. And if I do find these items in a JY reasonably, all I then need are the two TRE's and adjusting sleeves, right?

 

[kastein]

The drag link has one of the TREs forged into it, there isn't any way to replace it without replacing the whole drag link. So does the V8 ZJ tie rod - it's a kinda dumb design, but worth it for the strength upgrade.

Don't know what junkyard prices are like in AZ but I regularly get used (in decent condition, I haven't gotten a bad one yet) V8 ZJ tie rods for $10 or $20 at the junkyard up here.

Just to be clear, you don't want to use the ZJ drag link, someone ran into issues using one of those recently, though I'm not sure how it caused them. Just get an XJ drag link off any 91-01 (aim for later, due to lower miles and less wear and tear) LHD and use that.

Unless you get the stuff brand new, then I suggest using rockauto.com and finding a 5% discount coupon, they give them out like candy and have prices that are already great.