Fixing a bent tie rod centerlink

Yesterday, a few GDXC members headed out for a day run and one person running 33's (don't think he's an XOC member) folded his tie rod while attempting to climb over a rock. I managed to get it on video and as he's coming over the rock the passenger side front tire turned itself inward almost 90 degrees.

Anyway, trying to get the thing off (and also back on) was the real pain. What do you use to keep the bolt from turning while your taking the nut off or putting back on? Something needs to hold the bolt while you screw/unscrew the nut. We did manage to keep the bolt from turning by wedging a bar in there and applying pressure, but it took forever. The bolt kept turning with the nut. What is the correct way to do it? BTW- we ended up pounding the centerlink into submission and getting it back on fairly straight. Enough to limp home anyway.

Bolt or ball joint taper ?

If it's the ball joint taper, then it should not turn when loosening the castle nut.
Getting the castle nut tightened is tougher though, and you need some force on the ball joint so it can get a bit of grip. This is where an impact wrench does wonders.

Please post the video of the action, it will be a good learning video.

My apologies for not knowing the right terms so I'll try and describe it better....if you were in front of the X looking straight ahead at the passenger tire, it would be the vertical bolt farthest away from the tire (i.e the right side of the tie rod). The leftmost side, the joint where it connects to the wheel, was easy.

Ian: if you dont mind, how is it going to be educational ?
i seen 4 Xterra tie rods go south , and nither of them was doing anything out of ordinary

just curious what you were talking about

ooops...forgot to mention that video was taken with my handycam. I can transfer it to vhs if anyone has way to convert it or something.

Basically, if you are looking straight ahead at the X, the drivers side tire is trying to climb the rock. The passenger tire comes foward normally, and as the driver side starts to climb the rock , the pasenger tire turns severely inward. One those things you just sorta cringe at when you see it.

They are actually very hard to bend.
You saw 4 people with poor driving skills, or poorly set up vehicles bend them.

I dont think so Ian

the set up was tires 33-31
the driving skils were OK, nothing too crazy

one was straight up hill with rocks smaller then "The Wall"
one was hole in the ground covered by mud, not too much power was needed.

no crazy jumps,
no crazy tire spin,
no crazy jumping.

Perfect solution to the problem- EOE HD Tie Rod Adjusters. I doubt anybody'll fold one of those in half...

I think that is BS too. If they were so hard to bend no one would be buying EOE tie rod adjusters, or is everyone that owns an X besides you a bad driver?

I've seen enough video of people to know that a large portion of the "HaRdCoRe DuDeS" haven't a clue what they are doing behind the wheel.

That leads to broken parts.

The EOE tie rods are an excellent investment no matter how you drive.

I am just ribbing ya a little man. I agree, some people drive off road like morons (read Chia ), but broken parts are somewhat inevitable if you take your truck off road at some point. I do know what you are talking about though. I have seen some big ass built up Jeeps break on trails that I went up with no problem. Too much gas and no brains is usually the mixture. Maybe a few beers thrown in for good measure.

I also think that it is important when you are looking at a difficult trail that you don't let others pressure you into running it if you don't think your skills or your truck are up to it. Screw them. It is not their life or their truck.

Actually, anyone who seriuosly dogs on someone that is not comfortable with running a trail is not worth going with anyway. If they were they would realize that it would be safer for everyone concerned for that person not to be on it if they don't think they can handle it. Sorry for the long ass off topic post, but I have seen this too many times.

It's called "Jeep syndrome", but it can happen to anybody in any vehicle.

It's the problem of thinking you can do anything because of the name plate on your vehicle or the modifications you've done to it.

Offroad driving is 98% driver, 2% vehicle.

Is this the part you are refering to. Tie Rod connector Ball Joint .
It is tuff if the thread is a bit damaged, Just make sure you can run the nut back on without having to use major force (by hand) all the way to the end of the thread before you put it back on the truck, or else the ball joint will spin and spin unless you put presure on the ball joint so it doesnt spin anymore.

The tie rod connectors, are they being broken because of the amount of stress that a larger wheel and tire combo places on them, or are they trying to use the power steering pump to gain leverage? I am asking because I don't want to be out in the middle or nowhere and snap one.

why dont you get two of them from EOE, and install them
this way you will never be stranded in the middle of no where becasue of tie rod adjuster bending on you

Or as Todd (EOE) suggested to me...install the beefy ones and keep the old ones as spares with your tools to help somone else out with He also mentioned that this has been happening a lot lately.

Charlie

Sounds like a plan.

The wrong offset wheels will definetely stress your steering components more, other parts to watch are your centerlink and idler arm. I switched to the Moog idler arm which is a stronger design than the stock one and added a steering stabilizer...and of course I run the EOE HD tie rod adjusters as well.

In the past month I have heard of close to 10 failures of the Nissan tie rod adjusters and I am beginning to think metal fatigue is also playing a part, I will try and get some more info from new customers on how much wheeling they have done, tire/rim combinations and how many miles overall and see if I can make any correlation between things.

As you already said, sounds like the combination of the wrong offset and larger tires is the major problem. Especially the offset. What I don't get is, some people say the tie rods bend/break very easily and others say you really have to be doing some major wheeling for them to fail. So which is it?

We managed to kill both in Moab. My Moog Idler arm bent, and the bushings inside it failed. That put my relay rod into the frame when turning, as the idler had 2 inches of end play. It was interesting finishing Golden Spike with very little steering.

Did you mention they were rebuildable ? I'd like to look inside it.

XToolbox bent an EOE tie-rod about 40 degrees on the same run.

Why don't we get a company like this one to come up with a solution, if we could convince them of the need and that there are enough of us ready to buy a kit or parts.
I hear SLR is working on something but how long to we have to wait before someone gets hurt.
How about a poll for who would fork out 400-600 or? bucks for a bullet proof steering setup?

Performance Unlimited

Chris

Would you really trust a steering system from a company that says not to use their products on the street ?

We already have companies working on steering fixes, just give them time.

Um, no, I guess I missed that part, oh well.

Spencer Jr. showed us some serious steering parts they had when he came to West-X, but that was 6 months ago, so I hope they are getting close.

Chris

(inside joke)

Hey Dustin, inside joke like this you mean?

Brian\'s EOE bend

How was Big Saturday btw?

-alfonse

The pictures Brian sent me this weekend were amazing, I can't imagine the catostrophic failure that would have occured if he had the stock Nissan tie rod adjusters.

Ian I am not sure if the Moog idler arm has rebuild kits but I think they are warrantied for life.

What material are the EOE tie rod adjusters made from?

Made from stainless steel with a tensile...sipate stress.

Brent

Duh! I guess I should have looked on their site first. I'm still tired from Moab.

Thanks.

I'm still suprised that the EOE got bent but I guess nothing is bullet-proof under the right circumstances. I made a point to check my stock tierod adjusters after I saw the bent one but mine were ok. I must have taken a different line over the obstacle, plus I have smaller tires and less lift.

Apwired,
Big Satruday was fun being with the EJS, it felt like I was in a Parade going down Main Street with everybody lined up waving on the sidewalks.

I heard a few people say things like, "What's that?!"
"That's one of those new Xterra's."
"Are they good offroad?"
"I guess."


Top of the World was fun, and on the way back we went down Cowskin Canyon and did two river fords across the Dolores River where the water was deep enough I could splash my hand in the water out the door.

But overall I had more fun on the GONEMoab runs. It's alot more fun when you're on a trail with friends rather than a bunch of strangers driving Jeeps.

My review says chromoly.

Has the material changed or did I get it wrong ?

I think the only way to never bend or break anything is to stay home. But that would suck so I'll risk it.

Actually I think the strength will be limited to the diameter of the threads.

With out larger diameter tie rod ends your tie rod will probably still be one of the weaker links in the front end.

The only problem is if you make it too strong you will just break something that is harder to replace on the trail.

The material was changed to Stainless with the last run of adjusters, this was primarily for the purpose of eliminating any possible corrosion. When I talked with my steel supplier about changing materials they let me know the strengths between the old and new EOE adjusters is virtually the same. I knew someday there might be a failure at the threads if the situation was just right, it's good to know the chamfered edge where the threads start was not a weak link and the adjuster did not break in half.

I would verify that with several other experts before sticking with the SS versions. The metals added to SS to make it resist corrosion do not increase the strength, so it's very similar to mild steel like the Nissan rods.

I have beat the shit out of the cro-mo ones, they held up to Golden Crack, which bent, then broke my idler arm.

I agree, in most applications chromoly will be stronger than stainless.

I am getting a Moog arm Monday, and some new bushings from Mike at AC for the stock one. I have the idler arm brace, and can't use it with the Moog. I will let you all know if the bushings fit. I $10 fix for trashed bushings is much better than buying a new idler all the time. Of course if you bend and break them off like Ian, this won't matter.

[/QUOTE]I agree, in most applications chromoly will be stronger than stainless.[/qb][/QUOTE]

Just an FYI: The stainless we are now using is heat treated so in fact they are even stronger than any of the previous versions.

As of when? Did the set I got last week come from that batch?

Brent

I agree, in most applications chromoly will be stronger than stainless.[/QUOTE]

Just an FYI: The stainless we are now using is heat treated so in fact they are even stronger than any of the previous versions.[/QB][/QUOTE]

Cool

One question though, are the parts heat treated after machining or is the raw material heat treated?

They material is heat treated before machining. Brent I honestly am not sure which ones were sent to you, right about the time of your order we were making the new batch but either way you should not have any problems with them.