Steeering

NotMatt · Jun 10, 2006

Alright... My brain is scrambled after researching D44 steering to death. I guess I need a little bit of a push or some assurance that I'm on the right path here.

Here's what I'm working with...

'91 wrangler
wagoneer D44
Chevy flat top knuckles
MAD4WD highsteer arms with chevy 1-ton tie-rod end tapers.

My plan is to have the drag link and tie-rod seperate (no inverted-T stuff). My pass. side arm has plenty of room for both tie-rod ends, and MAD4wd already reamed the holes I will need.

This is about as far as I've gotten. I need to build a drag link and tie-rod. I thought about using DOM and getting weld-in inserts for the tubing size I use and the tie-rod ends I end up with, does this sound reasonable? Should I use something other than standard 1.25" DOM for the tie-rod and drag link? Should I just get some thicker stuff and tap the ends for the TRE's? Are jamnuts going to be enough to keep it together, or is there a better way?

Next up... anybody got any MOOG or other part numbers I can give to the parts store monkey for a simple left and right hand threaded 7/8" TRE? or an application? I know they're going to look at me funny when I say "Chevy 1-ton tie-rod end".

Does this plan sound sane? I want this to be "bulletproof"... I'm sick and tired of dealing with stupid steering problems. Oh yeah, and it's too late to try to persuade me to use heims. :flipoff:

Six-Nine · Jun 10, 2006

1.5" 1/4" wall dom, weld in inserts(7/8"x18) moog es2010L,es2010R and jam nuts(those can be tricky to find)Sound like you are on the right track! Good luck. Here's mine- before

after-

MarcW · Jun 10, 2006

i would pm kelly and ask about his steering, looks to be dam bulletproof. solid cromo? i forget.

fubar73cj5 · Jun 11, 2006

Dean at Bent Metal made mine, I believe they are 1 3/8, 3/8 DOM threaded L/R running 5/8 chromoly heims. I'm not too concerned about tweaking them.

Edit: Tapped, no welded inserts

NotMatt · Jun 13, 2006

Thanks for the pics Joe. I'm going to have to measure the taper on my steering arms... seems like one on the pass. side is smaller than the other. I think I'll write some part #'s down and take my arms down to the parts store with me tomorrow at lunch.

Once I figure out what TRE's I'm going to use, I can order some inserts, jam nuts and tube.

Paulie · Jun 13, 2006

MarcW said:
i would pm kelly and ask about his steering, looks to be dam bulletproof. solid cromo? i forget.

That would be bunks work

MarcW · Jun 13, 2006

thats what i thought. :redneck:

Bunk1 · Jun 13, 2006

I'll be having another run of DOM tie rods/drag links in late July. No more chromo for awhile.

NotMatt · Jun 13, 2006

Alright, here's where I'm at...

After looking at my steering arms for a bit, I realized that the tapered holes that MAD4wd reamed for the tie-rod were a bit smaller than the ones they reamed for the drag link. This is "normal", because the tie-rod ends are a smaller taper than drag link ends on "1 ton chevy" stuff apparently.

Anyway, after thinking about it for a while, I decided that since I need to order the proper 7 degree reamer ANYWAY to ream out my pitman arm, I'm going to go ahead and ream out the tie-rod holes in my arms as well, so I can run the same ends on both the drag link and tierod. The parts I'm going to run are Moog part #ES2026R and #ES2027L. I will have two of each. According to partsmike (see this page: http://www.partsmikeparts.com/tre_comparison.htm) these are GM 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton and 1 ton drag link ends with up to 30 degrees of misalignment. Overkill on the tie-rod end and should be plenty for the drag link.

Anybody see anything wrong with that? I don't see any reason why the "drag link ends" can't be used as TRE's as well.

Also, the reamer I'm buying is from these guys: http://stores.ebay.com/XKUT. It's #5952 according to OlyWaXJ on Pirate, and has a 7* taper like the GM TRE/DLE's.

Six-Nine · Jun 14, 2006

NotMatt said:
Alright, here's where I'm at...

After looking at my steering arms for a bit, I realized that the tapered holes that MAD4wd reamed for the tie-rod were a bit smaller than the ones they reamed for the drag link. This is "normal", because the tie-rod ends are a smaller taper than drag link ends on "1 ton chevy" stuff apparently.

Anyway, after thinking about it for a while, I decided that since I need to order the proper 7 degree reamer ANYWAY to ream out my pitman arm, I'm going to go ahead and ream out the tie-rod holes in my arms as well, so I can run the same ends on both the drag link and tierod. The parts I'm going to run are Moog part #ES2026R and #ES2027L. I will have two of each. According to partsmike (see this page: http://www.partsmikeparts.com/tre_comparison.htm) these are GM 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton and 1 ton drag link ends with up to 30 degrees of misalignment. Overkill on the tie-rod end and should be plenty for the drag link.

Anybody see anything wrong with that? I don't see any reason why the "drag link ends" can't be used as TRE's as well.

Also, the reamer I'm buying is from these guys: http://stores.ebay.com/XKUT. It's #5952 according to OlyWaXJ on Pirate, and has a 7* taper like the GM TRE/DLE's.

The only issue I see is that the 2026 is 8.75" long and the 2027l is 6.5" long, so you have a much long tie rod- I'd rather have more dom than all that tie rod end.

binderbound · Jun 14, 2006

I run 1.25x.25 wall dom with weld in inserts. 3/4x3/4 high miss rod ends. Works wonderfully.

bobracing · Jun 14, 2006

After doing all the research and making mistakes, I would call one of the places up tell them what you want and have tapped heavy wall versions sent to the house. Yes, it will cost a bit but all the parts will be there. I figured out after getting done that it was about the same price. If you have to do it, wouldn't recommend inserts, find someone (or business) with the correct taps.

I also ran into a problem with the Sky arms and the draglink hole needed to be reamed out more for the high mis-TRE, believe the waggy steering arm did too. If your going to do this by hand, be ready for sore blistered hands the next day.

Here is a couple of pictures, don't like how they came out, wrong parts too, but work for pushing around the shop right now.

Can't remember (probably PBB) where but did see that a waggy TRE worked on the driver's side (late '70s?), correct taper and short.

As for the Jam nuts:
Jay W on this board is out of Toppenish and had them for reasonable price
Sky Manufacturing out of Portland has them too.