Broke Tie-Rod today

[Mondo]

My truck is pretty low... dropped spindles and 3in dropped springs. I have a tube upper A-arm for lowered trucks to give more castor and less camber. I've had this setup for over a year now.
Thought everything was good but my driver's side tie-rod was rubbing against the pitman arm at full lock. I guess there was pressure on it too so it finally snapped. Looks like my inside tires have been rubbing the lower A arms as well.
I figure I can do a little grinding on the A-arms (vs $500 for tubulars) along with a couple wheel spacers if necessary. But I don't know to do about the tie-rod.
Anybody dealt with this?

[vegaschevy]

I have not dealt with a tie rod touching as I am just about to lower my truck. Any pics on where it rubs? or at least where it might rub?

[71tahoe]

You could weld a shim to the stop for the spindle so the pitman arm and tie rod end don't bind.

[cdowns]

a good habit to have is when doing suspension mods climb under it on a regular basis and inspect for problems that can lead to serious failures//set it and ferget it aint a good practice in this hobby

[69GMCLonghorn]

I know this'll go over like a turd in a punchbowl, but here's a novel idea: don't lower it quite so much! You can still have the good look and not risk your life in the process. What if that tie rod went south on you as you were negotiating a turn at 3 g's?

[Mondo]

Yeah, it's kind of a vain thing... but it sits perfect to me. Good idea on the stop/spindle. I may go from 255/60 to 245/60 to relieve some pressure on the tie-rods as well. It only has this issue at full-lock so I don't do drive-thrus and U-turns etc...

[67cheby]

sweet looking truck , i think the only thing you can do to fix this problem is put a Dropmember in it !! LOL

[Mondo]

Well, we took the inner Tie-Rod and a torch and put a bend in it to pass the pittman arm.
I've ordered some spacers and hopefully their not too big (smallest I could find with studs was 25mm as I wanted 20mm). That should help with the rubbing of the A-arm and maybe I'll get lucky with no rubbing or some minor grinding on the A-arm.
I'll still have one wheel turning sharper than the other at full-lock but that's how Chevy engineered it. I may go with 245/60s to reduce the stress of "pushing" a tire.
These are my solutions, I'll report back here as it progresses.
Enquiring minds will want to know

[71swb4x4]

Does heating the tie rod weaken it? I would hate to have it fail at speed and have you get hurt, or hurt someone else.

[71tahoe]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

Does heating the tie rod weaken it? I would hate to have it fail at speed and have you get hurt, or hurt someone else.

I know it causes a stress point at the bend and it's still the weakest link in your steering. Adjusting the steering stop location would still be the better solution. It would also partially or completely solve the tire rub on the control arm.

[Mondo]

Those tie-rods are pretty thick. It was actually pushing against the pitman arm... that bind is what caused the break. I'll take a picture to show soon.
I'm confident the pressure of turning is not enough to snap one with a bend in it. In fact, my daughter took a trip through a cornfield (over-corrected) last year and bounced thru quite a few furrows. It bent the tie-rods but didn't break them.
I like the idea of a stop, but I'm not sure where exactly on the spindle a stop could be made. I thought it was the steering box that limited turning.
Thanks for the input guys.

[westofb]

Bump stops are in the lower control arm, has a rubber piece attached to it to keep the suspension from making metal to metal contact if bottomed out. I guess I really mean it is the bump stop/ steering stop combined. When you turn to full lock, the rear portion of the spindle will contact it to prevent the steering from turning any farther. You just weld a piece of steel to it to keep the steering from turning so far.

[LowBow]

If you look on your lower control arm, there should be a bolt with a rubber piece on the end. That is your steering 'bumpers', aka stops. You should be able to adjust them by turning said bolt, and it will reduce how far your wheels are able to turn.
Your p/s pump/gear box does not control how far the steering goes, it would go forever in any direction.

[Mondo]

Thanks guys, I'll do that

[BluTrukker]

Heating the tie rod is a bad Idea. When you heat it the metal hardens and will snap instead of bend. I have seen this happen, and I can tell you a 90 degree turn into a concrete wall at 55 mph is a mess.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by LowBow

If you look on your lower control arm, there should be a bolt with a rubber piece on the end. That is your steering 'bumpers', aka stops. You should be able to adjust them by turning said bolt, and it will reduce how far your wheels are able to turn.
Your p/s pump/gear box does not control how far the steering goes, it would go forever in any direction.

I've never seen this configuration on a 6x-87 1/2-ton GM truck. Do you have any pics?

Trucks I've worked on have the 'factory' steering stop & bump-stop combined into one unit spot welded to the lower a-arm. The rubber bumper is press/slip fit into the stop to limit compression travel & is non-adjustable; the steering stop contacts a portion of the spindle to limit steering & is non-adjustable.

The steering can be limited further by adding material (as suggested) to the steering stop as this would cause the portion of the spindle designed for the task to hit 'sooner' limiting turning radius.

[70 Suburban]

I used the van spindle from a 2000 gm fullsise. The tie rods come in from the bottom they dont seem to be in a bind like that.

[72step]

I know you don't want to hear this but I have 2.5" drop spindles in my truck and I used to have 1" drop springs along with the spindles or so they were supposed to be but with that drop spring my whole front end symetry looked funky with my lower a arms and cross member hanging way too low; I couldn't even stick a floor jack under it. It would hit on everything, then one day I hit a manhole with the a-arm which in-turn screwed it over and that was it. I ordered stock height springs and left the spindles and called it good. If that had been my cross member I'd a had a totalled frame and a busted up head. I say if you must have it that low go with the proper replacement front member and air bags. It's just not realistic for real world driving like that. You can't even load it on a trailer and if you ever hit something solid on the road you'll be sorry. In my opinion drop springs are fine for the rear but the front just wasn't meant for it. At least think about it; I don't want you to get hurt or mess up that nice truck!

[SCOTI]

I don't like the idea of the heating the tie-rod to bend for clearance (a part that should not need it). It's a band-aid for something else that's wrong....

Try & get us a pic of where the contact between the two is occurring.

[Ackattack]

With all of the lowered trucks on here, why is this the first time anyone has mentioned the tie rod to pitman arm contact?

Is everything installed correctly?

I guess I'll have to check my truck out to see if this is a problem. If I remember right, even at full dump nothing was hitting, but then again that was with the wheels pretty much straight.

[Mondo]

Here's some pics... I can see where that piece comes out from the spindle and is supposed to hit the A arm. I think it would be easier to tack spacers on the A arm where they meet.

[lolife99]

Mondo,... those are bolted to the wrong side of the center link. They need to be on the back side.

[lolife99]

Here's a picture of my '69 front disc brake swap.
I think your center link needs to be swapped "end-for-end" also.

[screamin_c10]

DUDE, either your draglink is backwards or you are using inners with way too small a taper and putting them in the wrong way. The castle nut should be facing the front of the truck as the inners are located behind the draglink.

For everybodies safety park that thing until you have the correct components setup correctly. I'd hate to see you or anybody else get hurt when something inevitably lets loose under there....again.

[Mondo]

Wow!
That explains a lot... That's the way it was when I got it and never knew any better (obviously there's a few mechanics in town that don't either). I've driven the truck like this for 2 years!


Can't wait to change it.

Thanks again everyone!