Bought a pair of modern style tie rod ends for my '51. They're advertised as 32-59 Car/Truck, and I expected them to be standard tapered shank where they go thru the steering arms, but I was really surprised to find that they are basically straight with a step in the shank. Other oddities (pointing to their source as offshore) are M10x1.5 bolts where they clamp on to the rod, but with 5/8 hex heads (kind of a bastardized bolt). My first clue was the 8.8 marking on the bolt head. I haven't removed the balls from the steering arm yet, but expected to just be able to use a taper reamer on the holes after removing the balls. I have removed the ball from the pitman arm, which appears to be the same shank size as the tie rod balls (judging from pics in the catalogs), and these tie rod ends flop around in the resulting 5/8" nominal hole.
Has anyone had experience with these? It looks like in order to use them, I'd have to bush the holes in the steering arms. I'm tempted to send them back and go with the original style balls on the steering arms and rebuild kits for the original style tie rod ends.
Here's a pic.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
