I have a question for all of you guys. This may sound dumb but, I've never had a rig with the type of draglink, tie rod set up as my XJ has, before.....

1.) Is the OEM Tie Rod on the XJ perfectly straight, normally?

2.) Is the OEM XJ Tie Rod made out of hollow tubing?

I wheeled it pretty hard yesterday ( bouncing it of the rev limiter while sawing the wheel in the snow) and this was the first trip out with the front locker. I noticed when I got home that the drag link has a slight bend to it. I'm thinking I made need to fix it, replace it or do an upgrade. Thanks for your help in advance.

 

do you have any pics of this bend? how extreme is it? like enough to make the jeep not drive right? you could to a tierod dranglink conversion kit, i think rusty's makes one. for 6" of lift and 32" tires you could probly get away with just upgrading it all together, like some 1-ton steering. JCR has a decent kit and the ORO u-turn seems to be a really good quality kit from what i've heard. same with the T&T customs 1-ton.

 

Well, I am still getting used to the difference in feel on the road since installing the front locker but, I wasn't noticing that I was having to fight it to keep it straight on the road. It is a very slight bend. I'll get a pic up of it a little later on.

 

I've seen the steering upgrade kits out there. I'm thinking now may be the time with the front locker and plans to go up to 33" tires soon. Are there any kits that come with a steering box brace, HD draglink and HD tie rod all in one kit?

 

look around at the ones i posted like the jcr one. look on jeepinoutfitters to see what comes with the other 2 kits, i've never really looked into them in great detail but i would imagine most of them would be HD. not sure about the steering box brace, that might be seperate.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, Bro!!

 

ironrockoffroad.com makes a 1.25 replacement for the hollow tube found on xj\tj.

 

I was hoping the tube was hollow because I figured out a very Kewel way to strengthen a hollow tie rod back in my Toyletta days.

You just figure out the inner diameter of your tie rod and then go down to the local Ace Hardware store and buy a piece of the biggest solid steel round stock that will fit inside the tie rod. Grease er up, shove or tap er in and Bingo instant solid and MUCH STRONGER tie rod without giving in to the expensive after market.

This worked great when I had 5.29s, a locker and 35s on my Toyletta front axle.

 

I believe you can replace that tie rod with a YJ solid one? Ring in guys if im wrong. J/Y fix.

 

Can anyone confirm this? Any other oem upgrades?

 

Big daddy tie rod is the chit!!!!!! but i seen you already did the 1/2" rod inside.......genius chumley genius!!!!!!
here is a link to bigdaddy www.Bigdaddyoffroad.com

 

still with the inverted Y stock steering, i had a solid DOM tierod made up, hit the drivers tire against a fallen tree and since the tie rod was so strong, it bent up my brand new MOOG drag link.

i say just get rid of it and upgrade to either chev 1 ton or rusty's etc.

i don't think the yj one will work tho. i looked into that when i parted out my old yj and remember something wouldn't work.

you could upgrade to a WJ knuckle setup and have hi-steer....


tie rod should be straight, but draglink has bends in it.