Six months previous to last Saturday's fire, I followed the tech tips regarding installing modern tie rod ends and a new drag link on my 51.
I couldn't find anyone with a tapered reamer locally so I used a carbide bur to make the tapers in the steering arm and sector shaft. I really took my time and used prussian blue to get my 'home-made' taper to fit the modern tie rod ends for the drag link. The drag link came out perfectly.
While I was at it I replaced the old ball and socket tie rod ends with replacements from Custom Classic Trucks. I got the old ball ends out of the steering arms with little difficulty. I installed the new ends on my tie rod, set my toe in, and went for a test drive. AHHHH----tight, controlled steering. Life was good. I had previously replaced the king pins and adjusted the steering box to factory specs, and the pickup steers great.
About a month later I was working on something else and dropped a wrench in front of the 51. Naturally the wrench bounced under the pickup, so I had to get down to ground level to retrieve it, and it was at that moment that I noticed that my tie rod was below the front axle. I immediatly flashed back to the hours I spent carefully grinding out the holes for the tapered shafts on modern tie rod ends, and I was NOT looking forward to repeating the procedure.
I put the job off for as long as possible, until one nice Saturday afternoon. I thought I would do the easy side first, so I removed the steering arm from the passenger's side first. I had my die grinder with the correct carbide burr ready to go, and my wire welder was ready to fill the large end of the previous taper. I removed the nut from the CCP tie rod end, preparing to get ready to beat on the steering arm to get the tie rod end out, when the tie rod end came out of the steering arm. It was then that I remembered that the CCP ends were NOT tapered and that all I had to do was remove the tie rod end from the other steering arm and reinstall the tie rod in the correct position (above the steering arm). I was figuring on an 'all afternoon' project, which I completed in 20 minutes. I didn't even have to re-adjust the toe-in.
