I bent my steering tie rod, not much but enough. Drives ok and straight. I want to straighten it out and sleave it to streangthen it and weld the ends of the sleave. Anyone see any potential problems with this or should I start with a new tie rod. I already know I'm cheap but is this too cheap?

the only thing I can think of is it will be very difficult to straighten out the bent tierod good enough to sleeve it properly.

Prime example of our oddball moderator. Leaves a poll up regarding wheel color opinion, but moves a post with some actual mechanical content. IMO sleeving a tie rod is a touch beyond the average newbie ("how big of a tire can I fit on my rig?") question but whatever . . . Come to think of it, can newbies weld at all? Follow the land cruiser forum example of moderation OS.

Kellymoe,
That ought to hold up fine, probably better than the original. That is if you can straighten it enough to get it in a close fitting tube.

-Ike

I did this with a really bent toy tie rod. Just use a sleeve that has a very close id to the od of the original tie rod. If the sleeve is thick enough when you pound it on there with a bfh it will naturally straighten the tie rod. I hope this helps.

Dane

I didn't think my question was too newbie, but whatever. Thanks for the reply and I will go ahead and start welding.

If the tie rod is bent already, it may be better to reinforce it with something along the lines of a piece of angle iron, rather than round tubing (square tubing?).

BTW- the factory workshop manuals clearly state that one should not do what you're considering (As much as I try to stop it, the years of safety work surface when I least expect it).

Prime example of our oddball moderator. Leaves a poll up regarding wheel color opinion, but moves a post with some actual mechanical content. IMO sleeving a tie rod is a touch beyond the average newbie ("how big of a tire can I fit on my rig?") question but whatever . . . Come to think of it, can newbies weld at all? Follow the land cruiser forum example of moderation OS.

Kellymoe,
That ought to hold up fine, probably better than the original. That is if you can straighten it enough to get it in a close fitting tube.

-Ike
Thanks for your input. Sorry I missed the wheel color poll. :shaking:

Making a new tie rod isn't exactly difficult unless the use of a tap and some
cutting oil scares you.

EDIT: I found Slade's post about wheel color and I have dealt with it. I was out of town with no net access for five days and have a bunch of catching up to do.

You seem to have an opinion as to how things should be run, but I've never seen you use the report this post to the moderator function before:p .

PT,

I did see that in the manuel but you know how that goes. I had not thought about the angle iron or square tubing. Maybe even V channel. Whatever, I will be working on it soon. Thanks to all who took the time to reply. I'll figure out sooner or later what is technical enough to post on the Rover board:)

I have used both angle iron and a sleeve, and imo the sleeve technique is the better way to go. I dont know about the safety of it as brought up earlier, but it worked for me on a trail only rig. The problem with the angle for me was being able to straighten the original tie rod enough to be able to get a good weld bead along the lenght of the angle iron. I would use the sleeve technique again if necessary.

Dane

Dane,

Thanks for your input. It is used mostly as a trail rig thoogh it is used occasionaly around town. I am thinking sleaving it tis the wat to go. The weld has to be good obviously but I was worried about water sneaking past the weld rusting from the inside out (a hidden danger) I'll just be extra cautious with the welds to prevent the possibility of water getting in there.

Drill and tap a hole in the sleeve and fit a grease fitting on there. NO water will get in and the grease will prevent rusting.

Ron

Drill and tap a hole in the sleeve and fit a grease fitting on there. NO water will get in and the grease will prevent rusting.

Ron

Seems to me that trying to force grease into a sealed (welded) assembly won't do much unless one were to O-ring the ends to allow grease and air to escape. Silly lawyers, leave the engineering to us :flipoff2: -I tell my best friend that if he won't work on Rovers, I won't practice law.

Shopboy II and I have discussed tie rods ad nauseum and finally realize that the tie rod is the least expensive component in the system and should be considered to be consumable. My newest one is 4340 Cr-Mo-this is one of the few parts I commonly break on my truck while wheeling (see, I dod break parts while wheeling!).

Peace,
PT

http://pugsly.bechange.com/ETC/pugsly001.jpg

When this happened, the trail repair was sleeving it with the hi-lift handle. IIRC, at least 6 months later it was still that way...

Correct me if I'm wrong but a bent tierod will make the tires toe in. That looks like something just broke.

here is my rockwell rod and i am still bending it :mad3:
it is sleeved with a 1.5 in pipe and a truss

Correct me if I'm wrong but a bent tierod will make the tires toe in. That looks like something just broke.

On Rovers there is a connecting rod (tie rod) between the knuckles that goes behind the axle housing. He's bent that pretty bad to the back of the vehicle...it would pull the rear of the tires together and toe them out at the front as shown.

Unless you knew Rovers you wouldn't realize what had happend just from looking at the pic.

Fixing a bent connecting rod on the trail would work about the same as the front tie rod too.

Fixing a bent connecting rod on the trail would work about the same as the front tie rod too.

huh?

On Rovers there is a connecting rod (tie rod) between the knuckles that goes behind the axle housing. :smokin:

[QUOTE=Serious One]On Rovers there is a connecting rod (tie rod) between the knuckles that goes behind the axle housing. He's bent that pretty bad to the back of the vehicle...it would pull the rear of the tires together and toe them out at the front as shown.QUOTE]

Thanks for letting me know. Learn something new every day. :flipoff2:

Correct me if I'm wrong but a bent tierod will make the tires toe in. That looks like something just broke.

Not if the tierod is on the back side.

OOPS should of read the whole thread. :p