I have a 57 Chevy 3100, does anyone know of a person who rebuilds drag links and tie rod ends. Or in stead of rebuilding would moving over to the "newer" tie rod ends be a better choice.
I have a 1957 Chevy 3600 (NAPCO). I bought new tie rod ends and have been happy with that. I don't know about about non-NAPCO trucks, but the driver's side tie rod end was hard to find. I did find the MOOG replacement eventually. I also used the adjustable drag link because I installed power steering and was concerned about correct length. It seems the adjustable is about the same size as my stock one anyway. That seems to be working fine also. don
Watch this video, I switch to the newer style and felt like it was easier to drive. Could have just been me, the older style ( ball and cups ) I had were rebuilt and tight. It would be worth pulling one apart and checking the BALL for out of roundness. If it is out of shape, it's well worth going to the newer style, same amount of work anyway. If the BALL end is in good shape, you may get by with just a cleaning, adjustment, and greasing. Getting the old BALL end out is the hardest part, you don't really need the press like in the video, but it's handy if you have one.
You can buy new balls for everything. However my experience has been the metal isn't as hard as the originals and will wear egg-shaped pretty rapidly. At least mine did that in a year or so of use, which made all that work pretty useless. Personally I look at this like toilet paper. You can get by using sticks and leaves and rocks, but who really thinks that's a good idea?
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
