The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks '65 tie rod end

I have a '65 that somewhere in it's life has had powersteering added to it. The driverside outer tie rod end is bad. It's not from a '65 (they were 5/8" and mine is now 11/16"). The closet I found by ordering sevral different years, is from a '71. But the '71 has a very slight bend at the joint - mine doesn't and the the taper bolt is shorter. It goes into the spindle but the castle nut won't go on far enough to get a cotter pin through it. I ground the spindle to make this work, but am concerned with replacing other parts. Anyone have any ideas what year it could be from?

johntsmith, does your truck still have the six lug wheels or has that also been converted (to five lug wheels). As well, do you now have front disk brakes.
The reason I ask is that one way of switching over to disk brakes it to put a disk set up from a 73 to I think 87 on. (that gives you the five lug)
To do this you have to use the inner tie-rod from a 73-87 as the outer tie rod.
Maybe this is what you have?

It's been converted to 5 lug and power disc brakes. I thought the same thing and after ordering the '65 tie rod end, then ordered a '73 but the taper bolt is too large a diameter to fit in the spindle. The '86 I ordered was also too large and the tie rod was about an inch longer. Didn't know about swapping the inner for the outter. I'll get one on order and see if that solves it. Thank you. John

I went to order the inner tie rod end for a '73 but it is left handed threads - mine is right handed. Also it is a little over 8" long and mine is a little over 6" long. So that's not it. I checked, both driver and passenger inners are left handed. This is frustrating. BTY my '65 is a Chevy.

John

Maybe it is an aftermarket disk brake set-up and the spindle is driving the difference.
Are there any markings on the spindle, caliper or other parts that may indicate a manufacturer.

Nothing would indicate that the spindles are anything other than something taken from another older vechicle. That was the trouble with the truck, alot of the parts were rigged from other cars/trucks and made to sort of work. The linkage for the trany was made out of 3/8 copper tubing with bolts brazed on either end. Same went for the throttle linkage. I need to find a site that shows all the dimensions of all the different ends and match mine up.

Try these web sites
This one talks about the A-arms
http://www.webrodder.com/article.php?AID=188&SID=60
and this one talks about the tie rods
http://www.webrodder.com/article.php?AID=192&SID=60
The article is about a 63 however for your 65 this will all apply.