tie rods

[kelnic]

hi all,                                                                                                                                                                                                   i own an fc with a standard front kingpin suspension and are looking to replace the inner tierods.on ebay i have found a set of tie rod ends which i an looking at buying, but they all appear to have tapered shanks on the knuckle end. i know the outer tie rods are the same(tapered shanks) so they lock into the steering arm on the wheel hub. but what i am not sure about are the inner tie rods. i thought the inner rods have a ball on the knuckle that lock into the cups inside tube type drag link? or does the ball lock onto the tapered shank of the tie rod?                                                                                                                                                                                       cheers scott

[Rusty_T]

Scott,

    I'm by no means an expert on this subject ,but the steering mechanism under the FE FC is all adjustable. That includes the set up in side the Drag Link. If you look at the ends of the drag link you should see a large screw (Normally locked into place with a split pin) That is the adjustment screw to take out any slack in the Drag Link.You are correct in that they( the inner) are held in place with a couple of cups, a spring , that big screw and split pin.You should only need to replace the Tie Rod end (outer). Remember that the whole set up is adjustable and you will probably need a wheel alignment when all is adjusted / cleaned / replaced. When I did mine I pulled the whole thing apart cleaned and regreased it and replaced the ends only. Works well.

Hope this helps.
 Any further comments appreciated

Cheers Rusty

[kelnic]

so in your opinion  are the tie rods on ebay  to suit fc front ends or are they to fit something else? because they appear to all have tapered shanks on the knuckle end.                                                                                                                                                 cheers scott

[Rusty_T]

Scott,

 If they are the ones in Sydney, ($35)The seller says they will fit FE to EH. I've just checked mine and they are short straight ones (no curve). I have an FE Wagon with HR cross member but have retained the  original FE steering set up.I still have the HR steering set up (from the cross member) and the short one looks the same type of tie rod end as the HR. In my opinion the short ones would fit FE to HR ,but thats up to you. As I said , I'm no expert in this field.

Cheers Rusty