In the middle of doing some work on a 100 and noticed something you guys may want to know.
I replaced a rack and pinion with a reman unit, remans come with inner tie rod ends already installed. I screwed the outer on and noticed it was lacking the range of motion the original had, as in wouldn't even go back into the knuckle. This vehicle will be getting a lift and I didn't want the steering to be the droop limiting factor so I did some comparisons.
This is a comparison between the new tie rod end and the factory unit. Note the difference in travel.
I used a magnetic angle finder to see what the difference is, sitting on the lift, the rack is at about 1 or 2 degrees.
The unknown brand tie rod end that came with the reman rack has about 25 degrees of droop.
Removed the unknown and reinstalled the 200k mile factory unit, it has about 38 degrees of droop. this is a huge difference when the knuckle will be sitting lower after the lift is installed.
Removed the factory unit and installed a new Mevotech unit, this has about 34 degrees of droop. Probably what the factory unit has without all wear this 200k unit I measure does.
The tie rod ends that come with the reman rack would probably be ok for a stock suspension vehicle that see grocery and soccer duty but this is something to keep in mind for you guys with the reman racks and lifts. Hopefully this helps somebody out in the future. Sorry for the crappy phone pictures but I think they get the message across.
I replaced a rack and pinion with a reman unit, remans come with inner tie rod ends already installed. I screwed the outer on and noticed it was lacking the range of motion the original had, as in wouldn't even go back into the knuckle. This vehicle will be getting a lift and I didn't want the steering to be the droop limiting factor so I did some comparisons.
This is a comparison between the new tie rod end and the factory unit. Note the difference in travel.
I used a magnetic angle finder to see what the difference is, sitting on the lift, the rack is at about 1 or 2 degrees.
The unknown brand tie rod end that came with the reman rack has about 25 degrees of droop.
Removed the unknown and reinstalled the 200k mile factory unit, it has about 38 degrees of droop. this is a huge difference when the knuckle will be sitting lower after the lift is installed.
Removed the factory unit and installed a new Mevotech unit, this has about 34 degrees of droop. Probably what the factory unit has without all wear this 200k unit I measure does.
The tie rod ends that come with the reman rack would probably be ok for a stock suspension vehicle that see grocery and soccer duty but this is something to keep in mind for you guys with the reman racks and lifts. Hopefully this helps somebody out in the future. Sorry for the crappy phone pictures but I think they get the message across.
