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Drag link.

In another post about driving faster I mentioned checking the steering balls and cups/springs etc and I also mentioned about replacing your steering and drag link balls with the ones held in by threads and a nut/lockwasher (as opposed to the weld-in type which I don't suggest using). The screw held ones are best in my opinion because you can easily rotate them 90 degrees twice a year (or whenever you grease your chassis) and this will prevent them from becoming egg-shaped and/or oddly worn. If the balls you get aren't made with them, file a couple of flats on the mounting flange so you can slip a wrench in and rotate them after you loosen the nut. Makes it easy to see what 90 degrees is. I also mentioned I'm a fan of the new-style tie rod ends. If you disassemble and service your drag link (which is a good idea every few years), please follow the right re-assembly scheme because there are 2 different ends to that part. The sequence is: Steering gear end: first goes the spring, followed by the stepped spring cap followed by the two ball seats followed by the end plug. Control arm end is different: first the two ball seats followed by the stepped spring cap followed by the spring followed by the end plug.

Now a week or so ago I found a drag link I had saved looking through some old stuff and I wanted to share with you something else you may have encountered or maybe you will encounter at some point in time...it is in my opinion both interesting and worthwhile. You can see two AD drag links in an image below. One of them I bought brand new from a dealership here about 45 years ago. It is perfectly straight which is how they came from the factory. The other one was removed from a junk yard truck maybe 10 years ago. You will see one end of it is bent. I've seen this before. Somebody deliberately bent it so that the end which attaches to the control arm tilts upward just slightly. Probably you've been told your drag link should be parallel to the ground and in a perfect world that's true. It minimizes bump steer and helps prolong the life of your drag link parts. In the AD world unless you've removed a few leaves from your front springs or had your axle dropped 2 inches this won't be the case. The ball end on your pitman arm will sit about 13.5" on center from the ground which is 2" higher than the ball end on your control arm (which centers around 11.5"). And that means you have a drag link that sits at a forward leaning angle of about 12 degrees. So the end that connects to your control arm with a straight drag link will invariably rub against the side of the ball while you're driving and over time will cut grooves in that ball and the post that holds it up. It will also cause that ball to wear oddly. Please look at the two images I attached. You'll see the balls cut by the drag link and the odd sloping wear pattern on the control arm ball caused by the angled link. So what happened is that somebody bent the drag link so that the part which connects to the control rod will sit more or less level with the ground when it is mounted. If you stop to think about it, the end that connects to the pitman arm will also be subject to rubbing metal on metal...but not quite as viciously nor as often because that will only happen on sharp turns or U turns. So which is best? I'm not certain but I sort of think saving the control arm ball makes sense.

And yes, bending it does alter the length...but only ever so slightly. If you bent it at both ends you'd have a doubling of the shortening situation, but I've never seen one bent like that.

Some of you may recall that many years ago you could buy parts that would allow you to make an adjustable drag link and I did that. It lasted 3 years before it allowed so much wobbling and play that it became essentially worthless. You can't buy one of the parts now...hasn't been made for about 10 years. As I recall it was a tie rod end for some Jeep product...maybe a Wagoneer?