Tie rod rebuild
 

I’m rebuilding the tie rod and drag link on my 31 truck. I’m in the process of reassembling. I can’t seem to get the steering arm ball into the tie rod. The inner spring and cup interfere with the ball and there is no way to compress the spring. I’ve cleaned out all the old grease and the spring appears to be seated all the way in the tie rod. Anyone encounter this? Any ideas?

Re: Tie rod rebuild
 

Use a "C" clamp to pull the tie rod end down over the ball.

Re: Tie rod rebuild
 

Are you using the steel cups or the Teflon cups?

Pluck

Re: Tie rod rebuild
 

OK, there was another thread on this issue. If using reproduction parts, the new springs are longer than OEM and the cup is thicker. All this adds up to not being able to drop the ball pin into the opening.

For the spring: Put it in a vice and clamp it down until full coil bind. It will shorten it enough. I would suggest calling from like Fred & Southside Obsolete to get NOS cups, springs and pins.

Not sure what to say about the too thick cup.

Re: Tie rod rebuild
 

HI Tom
Try loosing the screw until it's almost out than put the rod on the ball and tighen the screw to proper tension.

Re: Tie rod rebuild
 

I'll try to post a pict or two of the difference between new reproduction and OEM. The difference in overall length is quite a bit.

Re: Tie rod rebuild
 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I finally got it. I had to remove the tie rod ends and steering arms. Made up a jig by notching a piece of copper tubing and inserting that into a large C clamp and compressed the spring to a point I could push ball into the tie rod end.