So, i think i want to get away from the normal tie rod ends and go to heim joints on my stock car project. Its got roughly chevelle based steering linkage.
Is it really as simple as drilling the taper seat straight and bolting down a heim joint with some locking hardware? Im sure it cant be.
What do i need to know? Is there better ways to execute this than others? I figure since i need to buy parts anyway, nows the time to go to full on.
Lots of 4x4's go that route for the tie rod ends at the steering arms on the front knuckles. It's not really a good idea for the street, but make sense for a trail rig. Use QUALITY hardware, capture washers to prevent the heim joint from separating, locknuts, AND thread locker.
Capture washers?
Large washers so that if/when the part eggs out and slips sideways off of the ball, it doesn't come completely apart, leaving you with no steering.
Unless you're trying to solve some bump steer issue, or need to be able to disassemble/reassemble the steering quickly, I'd avoid them in steering linkage. Functionally, they tend to be less strong than a tie rod end, and wear out a lot faster.
Capture washers are large diameter washers on the outside of the rod end so the body can't fall off if it wedges the ball out of socket.
Also, rather than drilling the steering arm taper make an insert with a thru hole the right size for the rod end thru bolt. This means you can go back if you need to. All you need is someone with a lathe and some bar stock. It should be 7 degree taper on those tie rods. I am doing the same for the spitfire, so maybe I get off my ass and make parts for both of us.
So, heims are more failure prone and wear quicker than the tie rod ends? Hadn't thought about that.
Back to the drawing board. Was trying simplify and add robustness.
Clean up those suspension parts! The chassis looks so good! 
In reply to z31maniac :
Old picture. Just what I had handy last night.
More current, but still not current
Dusterbd13-michael said:So, heims are more failure prone and wear quicker than the tie rod ends? Hadn't thought about that.
Back to the drawing board. Was trying simplify and add robustness.
Noisy, as well.
I've run helm joints as tie rod ends on an autox 81 Camaro, wasn't too bad. If you want to try helm joints without modifying the spindles, try these out: Dirt Track Steering Tie Rod Hardware for Circle/Oval Racing | Speedway Motors
Just came here to say speedway has tapered adapters.
on the Wartburg, which weighs as much as a kitten, will probably see less than 200 miles any given year, and sees very little force exerted on steering components, I drilled the knuckles to 3/4" and bolted it all together with heim joints and steel swedged tubes and it works great.
Yep, they are louder and wear a bit faster, but I wouldn't call them failure prone unless they're run when worn out or weren't sized correctly. The wear aspect is because ball joints have a spring loaded cup that maintains zero tolerance over their useful life. Heim joints don't have any kind of wear compensation, so they go from "good" to "bad" as soon as they have play in them.
You can get heims with a rubber boot around them that dramatically improves the longevity. I have a set on the 944, but they're just for bump steer correction or I would still be running normal ball joint tie rods.
Simply drilling out the spindle for rod ends will alter your steering (namely bump steer) geometry. That's why the tapered adapter pins are used, and designed the way that they are. The intent is to put the center of rotation for the rod end in the same desired location.
The Datsun has Heim joints for the steering; they've been on the car for 30 years and they aren't the least bit worn. Note they are way oversize for the application; the set up was meant for a car on 9" slicks and not the 7" treaded tires on my car.
Every Formula car out there has Heim joints for steering. The only failures I know of involved contact, big off road excursions or crashes.
Like any other component you simply need to size them correctly.
I'd nope those all thre way to heimtown.
So let's continue with the idea that I'm going to go ahead with this and convert to heim joints. The inner tie rod ends are incredibly close to the crossmember. What's the solution there? I would have to think that the tapered adapter, i'm, lock nut Stack Up would be a whole lot thicker than the tie rod end. Wouldn't it?
Bend a joint in a hydraulic press, I think. They usually do not articulate as much as that inner tie rod end is articulated.
Michael,
For the inners in your picture, the rod end outer ring would be thinner than the ball joint and still provide the little bit of front/rear angle change during steering input while allowing all the rotation vertically in bump/droop. With a nut on the back side the stack up will be the same or less than the ball joint. Also the centerlink is probably not a taper bore, but if it is that is still a simple tapered sleeve away from a fix. The geometry of the centerlink/pitman arm/idler arm moves the centerlink away from the cross member everywhere except straight ahead steering.
There are billet centerlink parts available from the normal resellers that have double shear (two ears) mounts for rod ends in the centerlink. This is the direction all of the NASCAR touring series cars (Cup/Xfinitity/Truck) went in the past ten plus years.
On the subject of rod end wear: the safety and wear can be increased by using larger components, getting rod ends with grease fittings, and/or spending money on know good products instead of the cheapest part on Amazon/EBay.
I have several versions of rod ends and spherical bearings (rod end without the threaed extension) on the shelf if you want to get a feel for what the right brand new stiffness should be.
As a funny recollection: we received a new set of a-arms (sphericals staked in at the factory) for the Champ car in 2000 and immediately started to wear them in using a bolt tightened thru them and chucked in a drill. All because the initial resistance was too much and affected the suspension articulation on a 1750lb car that would run 170mph. The thru bolts were not larger than 3/8"...
Heims aren't failure prone - they just don't have the same weather and dust exclusion capabilities as a tie rod end, although you can buy rubber excluders that go some way toward being that.
Beware of using the smaller pin size to avoid drilling the tapered hole in the steering arm parallel - it means a smaller and less rugged and therefor safe size of stud holding it all together.
I installed Heims in one of my race cars decades ago and aside from wiping them down after every race weekend to keep them clean, they have been problem free.
In 5 years of street and track use I've replaced heims once. That's 60+ road course and autocross events and at least 8000+ street miles. They had just enough play to see in the joint (never felt it in the steering). Metal to metal joint , nothing fancy, but not the cheap stuff either.
Factory link bar and tie rods on the other hand needed replacement each winter until I got rid of them completely. They'd wallow out the link bar holes and develop slop in the joint.
For the spindle...just drill/ream to 5/8" and run a grade 8 fine thread bolt. Get a set of spacers (taper and straight) too so you can dial in the bump steer.
You'll need to log in to post.
