tie rod ends

looking at the steer linkage both tie rods have worn an oval in the end at the gear and have a lot of slop.....I took one off and it looked like it could have had a bushing in it at one time......
if they are worn enough to make ovals in stead of round holes, will new bushings  help?.........I think I know the answer......but i need  pro advise........can i take them off and weld some flat washers on the rod end, and then new bushings ?

Pictures would be a huge help with this, I THINK I know what you're referring to but not completely. There are different tie rods and drags links, some have replacable rod ends, some have non servicable ball ends pressed and stamped into machined sockets and then you have your good old plain round stock bent over at the end and held in a hole with a cotter pin or e-clip. I'd guess based on the oval hole situation you have the bent round stock? You could weld a washer but it will probably wear quickly, I had the same issue where a plastic bushing wore out so what I did was find a steel bushing with the right ID for the rod and opened the hole up on the bellcrank for the bushing then tack welded it in place.

I could be wrong, but I think he is talking about where I have drawn blue arrows and the bushings would be the green arrows.



If I am wrong, I'll hide the post.

yep # 20, that must from uncle jack's website.......I went ahead and took it apart today and it was just a piece of plastic.......hard to believe they would engineer some thing like that for a back and forth part, and it takes a beating to boot........, I'm sure i can find something better than piece of plastic....for a bushing [ like Brianator mentioned] I'm trying to go thru all of the steering stuff before I put the deck back on.

I've  got my hub tubes made for the front wheels, i just need to get enough clearance for a washer on each end of the axle to cover the bearing........this job was a lot more work then I would have thought......I'll take some pics of that for sure when i get it done.....I should have them in place and tacked in tomorrow.....
again thanks alot I hope some of my shenagiguns will help others......

I wonder if you can find a bronze bushing that you could change the plastic one for?

I 'm thinking maybe even some kind of tubing copper, brass, or stainless, it doesn't have to be anything special but cut the right length, and of course the id has to be close, I'm sure we all have grinders for the od,..... the nut holds it all together on the shaft.......I haven't thought about it enough  my hub project has tied me up pretty hard...

I got my oversize hubs welded in  and bearings packed, then started on the steering rod ends....I had plastic bushings in both rods, but not much left of them...the good thing was that the rod ends turned out to be round......just under 1/2".......I got lucky and picked up a piece of 1/2"  od schedule 40 pipe in my junk drawer, i had to do a little machining on the od and drilled the id to I think it was 25/64" and cut 3/8" off for each side...... I made sure I got a tight fit.......