Mr. T TRE's vs GM (1 Viewer)

[Tapage]

This is more a rhetorical purist debate than a performance stand point .. but yes performance / efficiency it's on my sight too ..

Doing or about to do the ford shock tower mod in Tencha just notice my sightly bend tie rod end and sure the tie rod itself ..

while I enter this debate I gotta tell this it's the first time I see this " failure " and I'm almost incline to keep Mr. T stuff just coz it's simple and just coz I like keep it as much Toyota as I could ..

so I see this 2 options ..

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/YLINK.html

or

http://man-a-fre.com/pa6/60SeriesHDTieRodKit.htm

my drag link and tie rod are not factory length so I would probably need to cut that DOM to my custom length and then go to the machine shop to re thread it .. or maybe just cut and weld in the middle ( less likely my solution ).

and yes as you can see I didn't have that much uptravel room before my rod hit my pitman .. bump stops on my way too ..

thanks for all your comments and opinions ..

 

[lcwizard]

The biggest advantage to The GM is the degree of articulation. It's only an issue at the pitman since the lower could never achieve maximum deflection applied the way it is. The Toyota will bind long before the GM ( assuming this is the one ton es2027L or R you're referring to )

 

[lcwizard]

If it were me and I were concerned about the flex issue ( I see you are SOA ) the thread on the GM is 7/8" ( 22.2mm )which is very close to the stock 21mm. You can source a GM taper tool and the 7/8" tap off ebay reuse your stock relay rod. You'l be quite OK with only reworking the end at the pitman arm.....
So David, how's the local optimism over the widening of the canal? Always curious of the other side of the story. Our media isn't always straightforward

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I'm kind of stoked about the GM bits, since every NAPA everywhere has them. Replaced on the fly in Madera California on a Sunday. Try that with Toyota stuff.

 

[Tapage]

If it were me and I were concerned about the flex issue ( I see you are SOA ) the thread on the GM is 7/8" ( 22.2mm )which is very close to the stock 21mm. You can source a GM taper tool and the 7/8" tap off ebay reuse your stock relay rod. You'l be quite OK with only reworking the end at the pitman arm.....

My main idea it's upgrade the relay rod ( tie rod ) and since I'm doing tie rod, drag link make sense too .. just not sure if jump into GM or keep Mr. T tie rod ends that serve me so well so far ..

So David, how's the local optimism over the widening of the canal? Always curious of the other side of the story. Our media isn't always straightforward

So far so good ..

Since the very begging ( of our administration so 2000 an on ) we've been so proud of it .. that this project for Post Panamax just make sense, and then you have it as a huge employment source not only for us ( Panama ) but for many others close and no so close to Panama ..

Have been a great boost for our economy ..

We are looking carefully other investments not only in the region but globally to .. Suez canal it's doing it's part too .. and Nicaragua making an alliance with China to make another canal which IMHO will take so long and so much money to make it real, that ain't gonna be able to compete with us in the next 20 years or more .. well even if they get that done ..

Meanwhile not only the Canal it's getting it's share of investment and upgrades .. our ports, train, airports and all infrastructure it's getting ready to support more logistics, containers and corporations moving here.

I'm kind of stoked about the GM bits, since every NAPA everywhere has them. Replaced on the fly in Madera California on a Sunday. Try that with Toyota stuff.

Sourcing them it's not a concern for me .. there are plenty available and I usually have a spare set of everything I replace on my Cruisers ..

 

[Tapage]

simple questtion GM tre's are really stronger than Mr. T ones..?

 

[lcwizard]

I would say yes, the GM are a little stronger but that's just a guess based on dimensions. Assuming the materials are the same the GM would have an advantage because of the slightly larger proportions. However, neither have a breakage problem when used reasonably.
You could build a truck that would eat up either one. Deuce axles , hydraulic steer, 44" swampers , 2" heavy wall cro-moly tie rods on a
6500 lb crawler would shorten the lifespan of either rod end .

I use the GM at the pitman on every FJ40 with saginaw that I build simply because with the short relay rod and flexy suspension, that end binds at full droop using cruiser stuff. If you can get your truck up on a lift, let the axle droop and check it for bind. If you've got room to spare you don't have to worry about it unless you've been having past breakage issues.

About the canal.....I'm looking forward to it. This last dock strike on the west coast screwed a lot of businesses and caused a lot of layoffs.
Even though it's over we'll see repercussions for a few more months. I think the union screwed it's workers on this one. Three of the largest retailers, Walmart , Target and Home Depot already set up offloading in Mexico to avoid the Long beach harbors. That means less freight
will come back their way. When the canal is done another portion of west coast loads will sail on to gulf and eastern ports.

 

[OGBeno]

I'm kind of stoked about the GM bits, since every NAPA everywhere has them. Replaced on the fly in Madera California on a Sunday. Try that with Toyota stuff.

That was awesome......

Remember the taco truck?

 

[cwwfj60]

"my drag link and tie rod are not factory length so I would probably need to cut that DOM to my custom length and then go to the machine shop to re thread it .. or maybe just cut and weld in the middle ( less likely my solution )."

You do realize the ruff stuff has weld in bungs right? no need to tap anything after you cut it. Just wanted to clarify in case you missed that. And that's what I'd do since it's custom length.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

You do realize the ruff stuff has weld in bungs right? no need to tap anything after you cut it. Just wanted to clarify in case you missed that. And that's what I'd do since it's custom length.

That's exactly what I did with my drag link (relay rod) and tie rod. Works great.

 

[boots4]

After seeing a GM 1 ton TRE next to the FJ80 TRE's I'm a believer in the GM offering. I've run both so far (although with different axles) and the GM TRE is an upgrade in strength and at least in the US, availability.

GM TRE is on the left side in the following pics.

 

[Tapage]

Well looks like I'm landing in GM territory again .. feel bad cheating on Mr. T again .!!! well ..

Where I can source the re amer for GM TRE's ..? guess will be the same for knuckle arms and pitman right .?

Can that be done at home with home tools ..?

And yes I knew about the weld on's on the RuffStuff kit .. that comment was more for the MAF option ..

And in a Off Topic ..

The Canal Expansion .. that was suppose to be done by know .. but for some reason past government choose an Spanish company ( along with others in the deal ) to do the job .. leaving aside well know US Company .. and since we are right now year behind schedule, there are plenty voices calling it bribe result and bad choice not having the US company to get this big ( for us ) project ..

I'm pretty confidence that will be done at some point .. but each day we are behind the projected schedule it's business opportunities going out the window .. and we are still close to 86% done in overall .. but that's not done yet, so I can see more problems with the syndicate in the future since I'm well aware .. we all are latinos .. and not easy to deal with lazy give me all for free mentality ..

 

[Tapage]

not thread related question / poll ..

For you who have upgraded your shock tower for front with Ford option .. welded and bolts, just weld, or just bolts ..

If you did bolts ..

was hard to drill the frame .. tips advice doing it ..?

if you weld any tips advice .. first time I'm going to weld over my frame ..

 

[frankenyoter]

I welded my Ford towers. They worked great, but I'm a glutton for punishment and completely revised the suspension 6 months later. I ended up using hoops that I bent.

 

[lcwizard]

After seeing a GM 1 ton TRE next to the FJ80 TRE's I'm a believer in the GM offering. I've run both so far (although with different axles) and the GM TRE is an upgrade in strength and at least in the US, availability.

GM TRE is on the left side in the following pics.

It was always a mystery to me why everyone said the 80 ends were better than 60. The opposite was always true. The dished out
area between the head and threads was the failure point on the 80 ends. the 60 ends were stronger at that point.

 

[Tapage]

Any hint on the tool to make those GM work on my pitman and knucle arms ..?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I'm not sure if you have enough meat in your stock 60 pitman arm or knuckle arms, but here is the reamer:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/AAF-ALL11170

I reamed out a FZJ80 pitman arm and put it on my J6X steering box so that I'd have a bit more material around the rod end hole.

You can do it at home, I did. Take your time and make sure that you drill it straight. A drill press will be best.

EDIT:
- If you don't want to buy the reamer, and shipping wouldn't be crazy expensive, I can ship you mine for you to use, then you can ship it back

EDIT2:
- You can source the TREs through summit or rockauto.com or any US parts store. Not sure what parts stores exist in Panama.
- Drilling through the frame is difficult without a magnetic mount drill IMO. Welding to it is much easier. Make sure to disconnect your battery before you weld to the frame and you'll be fine.

 

[Tapage]

Damn .. thanks for your offer Johnny .. I was under the idea the reamer could be cheaper .. I like to have my own tools, I would take a look on eBay see if I can a decent used one, and also friend here have one I can borrow easily ..

For the TREs I'll nail the Ruff Stuff deal and be done .. and probably will order another spare set down the road .. I do have a spare 80 series box with stock pitman .. but it have less drop .. you didn't take that in mind when you did your swap .?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Damn .. thanks for your offer Johnny .. I was under the idea the reamer could be cheaper .. I like to have my own tools, I would take a look on eBay see if I can a decent used one, and also friend here have one I can borrow easily ..

For the TREs I'll nail the Ruff Stuff deal and be done .. and probably will order another spare set down the road .. I do have a spare 80 series box with stock pitman .. but it have less drop .. you didn't take that in mind when you did your swap .?

I did, and that's one of the reasons why I moved to the J8X pitman arm. There's just enough drop that the castle nut clears the frame without modification. My SOA up front is real flat, so the angle between the tie rod and the relay rod is very shallow.

You can see the J8X pitman arm on the J8X steering box and how shallow of an angle there is between the relay and tie rods:

Looking at that pic, damn, I wish my springs still had that much arch.

 

[Tapage]

Your setup looks very clean Johnny .. I'll take a look tomorrow with the 80 series pitman .. and see how it clears the frame .. if so.

BTW I want to replace ( well kinda need it ) the bracket attaching the ram assist to the rod ... if I can avoid the welding option, I've seen the ones that are adjusted by bolts .. are those up to the task ?

like this one ..

if Ruff Stuff have one still I didn't find it ..