centerlink question.....

I dont know alot about steering so i am wondering what the center link does,i think it holds both tie rods together. and why does it break alot with larger tires or when wheeling? also if it gets broken while off road any ideas on getting it to the road?

Your centerlink doesn't *break*, but rather the bushings at either end will wear out, causing the steering to feel loose/sloppy. When it get's really bad the centerlink will loosen up to the point where it will bang against your frame. But, this will not stop you from getting back on the road from the trail. I would however worry about the tierod adjusters though as they will take the brunt of the force after the centerlink has worn through. If you do a quick search you will find threads about bent and broken tierod adjusters. To be safe just get upgraded adjusters and carry the stocks as spares. To avoid this you can upgrade your steering system to either a Calmini or SLR unit. Hope that helps.

The centerlink (or relay rod) is primarily there to do nothing more than send the steering input from the pitman arm (attached to the steering box on the driver's side) over to the idler arm on the passenger side. In our case, the tie rods are also attached directly the the centerlink, which is the cause of our problems. When the tie rods take an impact from the wheels, they push up on the ends of the centerlink and cause it to "twist" up away from the idler and pitman. The more this happens, the more the non-replaceable bushings wear out making the steering loose, and causing toe-in of the suspension and tire wear. This will eventually cause the nuts on top of the tie-rod end going through the centerlink to strike the frame. If this happens when the wheel takes a load, the tie rod will bend or snap.
The 2 replacement steering systems out there remedy this two ways.
SLR remakes the centerlink with replaceable bushings, and reinforces the rest of the system.
Calmini redesigns the whole system to move the tie rod ends so they connect directly to the pitman and idler, releiving their redesigned centerlink to doing nothing more than relaying the steering input to the passenger side.

Brent

Nice reply Brent, very informative, A++