After weeks of work, the control arms are ready to install. Stock lowers:



Moog uppers (stocker shown for comparison):



A full how-to is here.

The Bullet Proof Steering tie rods arrived last week. The photo below is a comparison with Moog parts:



Beefy heims, grade 9+ hardware, and trick upper washer to catch the tie rod in case a nuclear explosion destroys the heim:



With just a little more machine work to the spindles, I'm finally ready to redo the front suspension.

 

HOLY THAT LOOKS AWESOME BATMAN
Nice Job Tim please do let us know how it goes....

`Nuclear Explosion : o ()
Rectum, DAM NEAR KILLED HIM....

 

Looks damm fine Tim, I will be ordering up those bulletproof tierods....

 

Unless your machinist is willing to do the job while you wait, you may want to buy a new center link ($45) to drop off with your spindles. Although you can probably drill straight holes in the center link with a drill press, by the time that you buy a $30 3/4" bit, you have almost paid for the labor to have someone else do it.

For the bump steer spacers, I ordered a set of stainless Harley rear axle spacers, and picked up some 3/4" industrial bushings (thin washers) from OSH. Just in case none of those work without excessive stacking, I also ordered a cut-off saw so that I can cut some custom-length spacers.

The tools and outside vendor services for my front suspension redo have been twice the cost of the parts.

 

Tim,
If you truck is still a daily driver keep a close eye on those heims. Road grime will wear them very quickly. Under race conditions we replaced ours several times a year just to be safe.

 

Very trick and extremely sano! Well done.

 

Very nice, but 20 hours to do the install

 

These are not your ordinary heims!

". . . many "heim" joint manufacturers know their product is primarily used by racers that view those pieces as "disposable", therefore the cheapest brands sell the best . . . Our Bullet Proof Spherical Rod Ends™ are designed with the utmost quality, maximum performance and longest service life in mind and manufactured with the absolute best materials and with the highest tolerances possible, without cost or profit being a limiting factor. . ."

The BPS heims are truly remarkable pieces. Their Web site is a testament to their obsession to make the best linkages humanly possible.

But I will be sure to follow your advice and inspect them frequently anyway.

 

I never buy rod end/heims from speed shops. Most have no idea what grade they are selling. Find out the grade if you can. The industry standard grades them in a similar fashion to bolts however they are not required to be marked with their grade like a bolt is. Tie rods are pretty low stress but obviously very critical. Keep an eye on them. If the ball starts to feel at all loose replace them.

 

Tim,

I am going to order a new center link, and I have a laser guided drill press, so i should be able to handle the drilling....

 

You really should check out the BPS Web site, Silver. They have full specs on their heims. They are obviously very proud of them.

I've never seen anything like these. They are so tight that you can't even move them without a big lever. They are supposed to be tighter after five years than most are new.

Think about it for a minute -- what is a ball joint? It's a spherical bearing! Designed properly, a heim should be able to last every bit as long as a BJ.

Again, I will keep checking them. I'm well aware of the rap on heims.

 

The problem is making a jig to keep the part steady. For the center link, that's not a huge deal. You could even get a helper to hold it for you.

But for the spindles, it is a huge deal. The angle of the tie rod hole is not in line with anything else. The whole spindle will need to be tilted and c*cked to make the tie rod hole vertical. Since you have a welder, maybe you can fab a jig up. I don't, so it's off to the machine shop for me.

 

I wish I had a welding outfit Tim, the closest thing I have is a shadetree mad scientist in georgia......it is not as hard as you think it is to drill the hole in the spindle....

 

Have you got the link for PBS? I'd like to check them out.

I had to make custom tie rods for my dune buggy. The heims seemed like the way to go. They look trick and are lighter than factory tie rod ends.

I ended up making my own. It didn't take long on the sand dunes to loosen up the heims and I could here them click. Then after lots of miles I had one snap right where the threads meet the shoulder. Lucky I had a spare and wasn't going fast.

I then tried the teflon lined joint and it first bent and then later on snapped in pretty much the same place. I went back to the malleable iron stock tie rod end. They are heavier and don't look as nice but they worked for my offroad application.
Don't make noise and can be lubricated. The will bend but I haven't had one snap off.

Since I did my experiment (years ago) They have started making larger sand limo 4 seat jumping rigs. The big engine high dollar ($75k+) rigs. The are all chromed out and use the large 3/4 heims all over the front. I have come across one in the dunes and several back at camp that were done in by broken heims. They are so hard they have a tendency to snap on high impact.
I have never seen them break at the ball socket or seen that part sepaerate. It is always on the shaft near the threads.

Another point to anyone going this route is to make sure and use a jam nut on both ends of your tie rod to lock the heim in position. I have seen professional built rigs that only do it at one end so the rod won't turn. They leave the other end turned in without the nut. This puts stress on the threads of the heim as well as inside the tie rod threads. You need to use a jam nut to lock the threads or it will rattle and wear out the threads.

I'm scared to try heims again as they always broke at the most inconvenient time.

Maybe this PBS outfit has the problem solved. Hard metal is good if it isn't brittle. I learned that the hard way. I would like to check out there site.

I think all of my problems and many in the dunes is from stress that is caused from poor design. Even though we check full range of motion to make sure there is room to articulate the heim. We sometimes go beyond that in a full turn on impact. Hitting a hole or curb or whatever. Tims urethane bushings will keep things in line. Using rubber its hard to predict how much extra movement you will get. Most of the new sand cars are all heim. I think they build them for looks rather than function. Sand is more forgiving than street.

I have faith in Tims research and workmanship. But folks need to be aware of problems.

I've always admired Tims way of staying on the cutting edge to improve his truck and the way he uses it in real world driving. Thanks for all your sharing pictures and contributions Tim

 

A perfectly straight .7500" hole is not something that I can achieve with a drill press. I tried to jig it up, but it won't work.