Thread: Little mishap with the D90 on the weekend

Originally Posted by weeds

yes i can never remember which is which name wise.......

i was talking about the one behind the diff.........

i have bent the front one once as well

I know what you mean...........................the drag link is the 'rod' that goes from the steering box to the LHS wheel and 'drags' the wheel across. The 'tie rod' ties both wheels together so that they point in the same direction, unless of course when it's bent. Also known as a 'track rod' as its length adjustment alters the 'track' of the vehicle (distance between the wheels) to set the toe in/toe out for correct steering geometry.

My tie rod used to look like this.



The red rod is a straight edge.

My new tie rod looks like this



My new drag link looks like this



They came as a kit from Roverlord on this site. Good value and heaps stronger than the original.

Deano

My God- (If there is a god) look at that sway bar , why dont you get rid of that horrible thing - how the hell can you go four wheel driving with the links hanging down that low. Surely thats not how they are meant to be.

have I been asleep the last 20 years ??

That would be going straight on the nature strip if it was on my car.

btw, I can understand bending a drag link ( the front shiny one) in a river crossing, but otherwise you'd have to be blind to bend one.

Originally Posted by manic

The protector mounted on the diff housing, as shown in the pic above is the best start! It effectively doubles the strength of your standard rod . I'm not sure that an aftermarket track rod with bends in it would pass a roadworthy?

a lot more roadworthy than the original. the only issue is its a pain to adjust the toe out as you have to press out a TRE and adjust a full turn at a time.

remembering which rod is which..

the steering box Drags one tyre in the direction you want to go by the Drag rod, the other wheel is Tied to the first by the tie rod.

you can safely strenghten the Tie rod, I do not reccomend uprating the Drag rod as this is essentially the fusible link between the wheels and the steering box.

I also don't recommend getting the bendy tie rods.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

<snip>

I also don't recommend getting the bendy tie rods.

Why ?? , apart from it being a pain to adjust toe out.

Originally Posted by goingbush

My God- (If there is a god) look at that sway bar , why dont you get rid of that horrible thing - how the hell can you go four wheel driving with the links hanging down that low. Surely thats not how they are meant to be.

have I been asleep the last 20 years ??

That would be going straight on the nature strip if it was on my car.

btw, I can understand bending a drag link ( the front shiny one) in a river crossing, but otherwise you'd have to be blind to bend one.

You are absolutely correct.

And yes. It does look like this. Unless the previous owner has removed it and mounted it upside down.

Last week after 6 months of very hard labour I have finally got my roadworthy and have transfered the rego. Now I can safely remove the horrible above mentioned suspension nobbling anti sway bar. There's a real good chance the rear bar will go the same way.

The only bit that didn't fit with the new tie rod was the original 'bend limiting' bracket that goes under the diff. the new tie rod is too thick for it, but it shouldn't be too hard to make a 'wider' one.

Deano

Originally Posted by goingbush

Why ?? , apart from it being a pain to adjust toe out.

When I was looking at replacing my tie rod I thought the cranked tie rod was a brilliant solution, certainly more robust than the original factory one. Does it have the same sex TRE's and if so why ?, or is it that one complete turn is too much adjustment to set the toe out correctly ?

In the end I bought the pretty gold ones as the kit (drag link, tie rod & TRE's) was readily available and delivered in Oz cheaper than the US cranked tie rod & TRE kit (not including delivery). But I do think the cranked tie rod is a better solution.

Deano

Originally Posted by goingbush

My God- (If there is a god) look at that sway bar , why dont you get rid of that horrible thing - how the hell can you go four wheel driving with the links hanging down that low. Surely thats not how they are meant to be.

have I been asleep the last 20 years ??

That would be going straight on the nature strip if it was on my car.

btw, I can understand bending a drag link ( the front shiny one) in a river crossing, but otherwise you'd have to be blind to bend one.

the links have been inverted , this is what they should look like .