Has anyone moved their tie rod and drag link on top of the knuckles for more ground clearance? I think the holes could just be drilled out and new inserts welded in????

 

I´ve been doing some research on this. Most of the major suspension Mfgrs have draglink kits to move the draglink on top of the knuckle. I already have this with my RE suspension.

However, I have not yet seen anything for the tie rod.

The drive side tie rod is simple enough:



The issue is with the passenger side tie rod. There is little space to do it because of the upper knuckle:



I was going to give it try by using a new, specially-bent bulletproofsteering.com tie rod with rod ends and bolts. I was going to replace the rod end on the drag link for a bulletproofsteering one with the bolt upwards. I was hoping to gain some space between the two knuckles

I haven't got around to finalizing this yet.

Also, I was looking a hi steer kit for a TJ that uses specially-made brackets. I found this at rocky-road.com. If a custom made bracket could be fabricated, it might also work.

 

It would be next to impossible with a standard tie rod end due to clearance between tie rod and drag link at the passanger side knuckle. You can flip the drag link but not the tie rod.

 

It could work with a different shaped tie rod. If it was bent on the end to almost 90 degrees, and the tie rod ball joint were a tad smaller, it would work. Now somebody needs to get busy makin it.

 

I agree something could be done.... perhaps not at 90 degrees but something less like this Rock Krawler HD tie rod with angled ends.

 

And some high performance rod ends:

 

Another issue is cost. Is it worth doing it? Probably cheaper just to buy a new OEM tie rod when it fails.

 

Has anyone considered getting a hold of an Australian (right hand drive JK) drag link and flipping it so the tapper is correct and mounting it on top? This should give clearance to flip the tie rod to the top of the mounts. I live in Australia and have a JK. I want to look at having a US Left hand drive drag link sent to me to see if I can flip it and use it on the top of the knuckle. That should then give enough room to flip the tie rod on top of it's mounts increasing clearance and decreasing bump steer. Sound reasonable?

 

I'm trying to follow along here, but am having some difficulty. I don't think you will be able to just "flip" an opposite drive drag link due to the taper of the tie rod end itself. When doing a "flip" you usually go with a larger end and taper the hole from the top to fit the larger joint. The bend of the drag link isn't really the issue, as a straight bar works just fine and doesn't actually contact anything (I've done it on mine). You still don't have enough room to clear standard tie rod ends on top of the tie rod mounts due to the presence of the drag link mount. Maybe this isn't what you are talking about though and you could explain a little better for me...

 

I've been thinking about this for a while, did a search and found this thread. The issue at the passenger side - I think it could be done, with a flip of the draglink to mount above (like my RE draglink already is). This would generate more space between the two, and then a new draglink with heim-joints could be fitted as flip on top of the knuckle mounts... still quite tight, though. The ends on the tube would have to be bent quite sharp - just wondering if the tie rod would be tough enough with such sharp bends?


Backdoc94 - guess we could just exchange our tie rods...?


Any thoughts on this?

And as a previous writer said, of course it's probably cheaper to replace the OEM tie rod when damaged, but it's always fun to come up with new solutions!