Selecting A Single Tie Rod Method

Great point Glenn. 15” rims. 235. 75r15... nothing crazy. I think I will start with balance. Then chase down the long tie rod solution. Then.... if that feels lousy could just switch back or try the two hole knuckle switch. Appreciate all the input around here. I know this has been covered in various forms over the years. Cheers

 

I would go with two hole knuckle . and change out ross box .
you get rid of a lot of moving linkage
my buddy just finished his steering change over . manual box . 2 1/2 turns from center . left or right
but jeeps far from being road tested yet

 

Twin2 looks cool... Glenn will do. I think I am going to take tires to shop tomorrow. Thank So!

 

Exactly right. I ran the 1 piece tie rod with the drag link attached the tie rod for years then switched to a two hole knuckle. Reduced steering effort and less bump steer.

 

Back in the '70s, I installed a JCWhitney 1 piece tie rod as Termin8ed described in post #17; short original rod from bellcrank to passenger side, one piece rod between knuckles, using the double joint end at passenger knuckle to accept the short rod.
Previous to that, I had a bump in the road that if I hit between 35-40mph, it would death wobble every single time. I followed a friend riding ahead of me in the back of a pickup while he watched me hit the bump. He said when it death wobbled, the front tires would alternate from tow out, then tow in, again and again in rapid succession.
When I installed the 1 piece rod, even with the original worn tie rod ends, I never had the death wobble again.
I kept that same setup when I installed a Saginaw box a year or so later.
-Donny

 

Hey Doug - great feedback! Donny, thank you as well!
Very reassuring to hear the 'single hole knuckle - one tie rod' is a good start and that the 'double hole knuckle - one tie rod' can be done a little later down the road. I noticed that the long tie rod is typically cut at 34 5/8" length due to the use of jamb nuts that make up roughly an additional 7/8".
Does anybody out there have exact measurements for the drag link and TR lengths using jamb nuts and the 'single hole - one tie rod' mod?
Thanks all!
PS hoping to get the balancing done today as well...

 

Here's a couple of pictures for reference, you can see the new drag link and the two whole knuckle, but I still have the old tie rod with the tie rod end with the extra hole in it in place. You can also see where the nut from the old drag link attachment used to hit against the shock absorber body, it's pretty tight in there with that setup.
One of these days I'm going to change out to a solid tie rod end and longer tie rod...

 

Stock height & tire size? I think that's an important distinction...

 

With stock-ish size tires, fresh tie rod ends, and tight bellcrank bearing/bushing, the original two short rod setup works fine. Its the combination of all the wear points added together that can lead to death wobble.
-Donny

 

thanks for the pics 'cjg'. Interesting for sure... I have had a full breakdown from the connecting rod to the hubs and I am pretty sure everything is tight as per the manual. I have the old Ross set up (not bad but certainly some slop) and I do have a 2.5 lift with new springs. I just dropped off the tires for balancing and should have those back on later today...

 

Same for me. And the Ross box steering.

 

Update: hey guys. I brought the front tires to be balanced. They don’t do a before and after reading. The just take weights off and balance from scratch. I noticed when I dropped tires off there was a small one inch weight on the inside of both rims. When I picked them up there was about 3 inches of weight on inside and even more on outside. Hahah guess they were off! Drove jeep and did well. Thanks for the help guys.

 

One thing I've found over the years... it is vital with these jeeps to find a shop with a dynamic balancer, as opposed to a static balancer. Dynamic balancers will not only find straight-line imbalance (like a static balancer), but also side-to-side imbalance. This inside/outside imbalance is IMO the biggest contributor to death wobble.

If the wheel or tire has a heavy spot on the outside of the top and the inside of the bottom, a static balancer will show it is balanced, but the tire will want to wobble when put in motion, setting the stage for death wobble. A dynamic balancer will detect the side-to-side imbalance, and weights will be put on opposing corners to cancel out the imbalance.

 

Donny, I am doing the single tie rod conversion soon. Do you have by any chance the measurements of the tubes? Without the tie rod ends, just from end to end of both tubes. I plan to use dom with 5/8 id threaded. Thanks!

 

FYI, almost all tie rod ends use 18 tpi and require special taps. But those are readily available. The one piece tir rod I made for my 3B was just an off the shelf unit for an intermediate (72 to 75) CJ and has the same 11/16-18 tread as the earlier Jeeps. I bought an 11/16-18 tap RH from MSC and ran that tap in the RH side until it bottomed and then cut that end to length and ran the tap in again. The 2 hole knuckle allows a few inches more on the drag link length and helps reduce bump steer. With my C3 Vette box mounted OVER the frame rail, the drag link was sufficiently long that bump steer wasn't noticeable.