Heim joint replacements for outer tie rod ends

So after replacing tie rod ends every year because of my lift and me going off road more than I should on a daily I finally decided to replace the factory outer tie rods with a set of 3/4" heim joints.

Bought some left hand thread tie rods and a pipe with an inner diameter of 1/2" and outer diameter of 1 1/8".

Drilled out one side for the factory right hand thread 16mm inner tie rod and tapped it 2" into the pipe.

Then drilled out the other end for the 3/4" heim and tapped it for left hand thread 2" into the pipe.

I used 5/8" misalignment bushings and a 4" 5/8" - 18 bolt. I did have to drill out the hole for the bolt since factory tie rods are tapered. If I thought about it before I think I would have gotten a full thread 5/8 bolt and taped the hole all the way through just for extra strength.

Originally the pipe was 4" long but I ended up having to cut off a 1/4" off each end for it to fit with the rough country lift kit.

These pictures are before I found some castle nuts, but I did get a pair and drill a hole for the cotter pin.

I may get some shorter misalignment bushings soon and also thinking about welding on a L bracket sothe bolt can go through on the top.

Next project is making some inner tie rods out of heim joints.

 

Good work.
I used then on a dodge plow truck that was eating front end parts

 

I run a heim setup on my truck from FFR. The only difference is my tube replaces the inner and outer tierods, the bolt is tapered to fit like factory and I have boots to protect the heims. It's a stout setup for running big wheels on the street, but guys do off-road them.

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Where did you get the covers for your heim joints?

 

Is that a red head steering box with some sort of bistein stabilizer?

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Got them off Amazon. One of my first set of heims developed a click from dirt getting in them. These boots fit perfect and seem to do their job so far,

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The red/Orange you see is my brake caliper or you see the bilstein shocks. I have a factory replacement ac delco steering box. It's not as tight as I would like, but doesn't wander or anything. I wanted to get a redhead but couldnt find a direct replacement. I later found a guy on here that used one from a 2500 or something. Thats a kyb stabilizer.

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