tie rods

[Mick66]

Had HD torsion bars put in the front of a 1995 NJ 3.5ltr petrol wagon recently and lifted 2".

Went 4x4 driving and the driver side tie rod completely pulled apart. ie, the thread pulled out of the adjusting nut in the middle (excuse my description of parts i am no mechanic)

my question is, should there have been any adjustment made to the tie rods after the lift or would there have been additional stress put on the tie rods ? a wheel alignment was done and the mechanic said he didnt need to adjust the tie rods.

In the shop getting new tie rods but just curious

[gemster]

Yes Defiantly ....I think you Should have had a Wheel alignment AND Camber re-adjusted or New camber kit installed AFTER the work was done... These both items need to be done when you do any sort of front-end work or any sort of torsion bar work... as the tie-rods would be too over-tensioned if not done after... Hence your Nut pulling off...
Another Q? could the 'Mechanic' possibly used the old nuts on the New Tie-rods?
Possible...
I don't think you have raised it too high to cause an issue... I could be wrong tho...
But, are all the other tie-rods the same and a good brand?... I would be changing them all as they have been over-tensioned now if the alignment was done Before this work was done... and there are plenty of crap ones on the market ATM too.

How long was the car on the alignment rack for? as they can't do a proper alignment in 5min.... Mine was... Grrrr
I was told by the alignment 'Apprentice ' that Gen2 Pajeros are hard to get perfect.. BS I say to that one...

If it was my 'Mechanic' re, new rods with old nut, I would definitely say Yes. That's why he is My Ex 'mechanic'..
how did you get home?

Gemster....

[stumagoo]

Going to jump in here - if you have a genuine 2" lift from stock have you done anything else.... 2" from the stock unsagged height needs the bumpstops trimmed as a minimum

Stock droop has 18mm of travel from ride height to its bumpstop and that worksout to be about 45mm of suspension travel so a true 2" lift is not really possible hence my question

After the above is considered you need to look at the tierods themselves - There is no reason even 2" of lift will pull the rod out of that adjuster unless its been set wrong ie you have the steering wheel removed and repositioned to cover a incorrectly set up geometry - if this is the case you will have more turns one way available than the other as the steering box wont have been centred... and the tierod is on the last few threads to get it steering true.


The other option is it has incorrect tierods or cheap replacements however due to our geometry the tierod needs to be screwed in (more thread in the adjuster) when lift is done as the control arms are unequal lengths and the top arm pulls the top of the wheel tighter when lifted creating negative camber - if this is corrected then teh tierods really should not need much adjusting as they are on much the same arc as the lower control arms.

Finally I run a genuine 3-4inch suspension (I wind it up and down depending on where and what I am going/doing) lift. I dont have any issue with the tierods being too short - I do have issues with them binding on full droop. and to get this lift I have some serious mods to the front end to allow the travel and retain some form of drop out... at 4" lift I still have nearly 50mm of drop out available... yes I have nearly 6" of travel more than stock

[gemster]

Thanks stumagoo I knew you would come into this... I thought of your lift as I was typing the Response....

Gemster....

[Mick66]

thanks guys, There was a front end alignment done but mechanic said he didnt need to adjust the tie rod ends. the other thing he mentioned was the damaged tie rod was bent which was potentially caused by hitting a rock ?? I have attached a pic below. Confusing thing for me is 1 side of the tie rod pulled completely out of the adjuster and stripped it on the inside.

Answer to getting it off the hill.
Lucky enough to have a mechanic mate of my sons who came and took the middle adjuster off and turned it around the other way. He then cross threaded it but was able to join both ends. Thanks goodness it would have been an expensive recovery job.
We also had a ratchet strap keeping it all together. Quite a stressful drive home but we made it.

[stumagoo]

several things jump out at me in this pic.... you have very little angle on your CV - so I would be expecting between 1 and 2 inch lift is all you have... 2" and above is very unlikely in your case. and I doubt your alignment was a long way out either

The lock nut is a godd way up the thread so I doubt that its out of adjustment range unless the nut had been moved. To see this much thread pulled out of the adjuster I would suspect someone has either shredded the thread by tightnening it up against the lock nut or the tie rod was cheap and nasty (still not something I would have expected).

if the tierod outer ball joint has play in it and the thing is bent then its also likley a cheaper tierod and has been binding - this would explain the bend as well - binding is when it the balljoint wont allow enough angle to deal with the suspension drop out... there are a few cheaper brands (like roadsafe) that are notorious for this issue - and while it does not show up in general road use offroad it can cause big problems.

[Mick66]

thanks

thanks for the reply, new tie rod, 33" muddies and just had a fantastic day in the Wombat State Forest near Daylesford VIC. All seems ok now.

[Kaldek]

My NH Pajero tie rod nuts are frozen to the tube and an alignment is currently impossible. Considering new tie rods here if I can't un-freeze it with some heat, so....how cheap is "too" cheap for a set of tie rods?

[stumagoo]

I have WASP on mine and they got a pretty good review there are some other brands that are ok as well - I avoid roadsafe and another of the repco sold ones (its not whiteline but has the word white in the name)

555 from Japan are the goto for the best of the bunch from what I have been told and there is Moog from the states which I found out is rebranded 555 for a lot of their stuff

[Kaldek]

So the answer to my question appears to be that $90 for a full set of WASP tie rod ends is fine.

That's cheap to me. I'll see if I can un-freeze my adjusters with the ol' Burnzomatic 8000 first.

[Mick66]

tie rods

my mechanic put genuine mitzy tie rod ends and had to get the middle adjustment "tube" in the as a japanese part as opposed to chinese because that part doesnt normally get stripped out. your price seems too cheap I would suggest Mitzy genuine tie rod ends.