Thread: Track rod protection

I have a Roving Tracks offset rod in my Isuzu 110. Keith stopped making gear about a month ago for Rovers but if you email him he may have some stock left.

Originally Posted by inside

I have a Roving Tracks offset rod in my Isuzu 110. Keith stopped making gear about a month ago for Rovers but if you email him he may have some stock left.

That was my original plan. I emailed Keith on Friday but he doesn't have any left. He did suggest getting one from Rock Ware.
Do you have any issues with it hitting the sump? I measured mine earlier and have about 140mm clearance from the top of a straight rod to the underside of the sump, and about 90mm bump stop clearance. With a bit of bump stop compression I reckon a cranked one would hit if the crank part was pointing straight up.

Steve

Originally Posted by steveG

Do you have any issues with it hitting the sump? I measured mine earlier and have about 140mm clearance from the top of a straight rod to the underside of the sump, and about 90mm bump stop clearance. With a bit of bump stop compression I reckon a cranked one would hit if the crank part was pointing straight up.

Not that I've experienced just by looking at the sump, I had mine under a lot of compression on that side today too but didn't think to have a look as I was working on the rear. I'll have a better look next weekend.

Did you actually impact the rod, or did the wheel get enough impact to bend the rod? I ask because if its the latter and the track rod didn't "give" there's a good chance to bend or break something more expensive than a track rod...?

Land Rover philosophy remains that track rods are cheaper and easier to fix than steering boxes, hence they've never made them stronger.

The cranked one looks a good option, but I've personally steered clear of heavy duty rods and pipe surrounds.

Cheers,

Lou

Originally Posted by Loubrey

Did you actually impact the rod, or did the wheel get enough impact to bend the rod? I ask because if its the latter and the track rod didn't "give" there's a good chance to bend or break something more expensive than a track rod...?

Land Rover philosophy remains that track rods are cheaper and easier to fix than steering boxes, hence they've never made them stronger.

The cranked one looks a good option, but I've personally steered clear of heavy duty rods and pipe surrounds.

Cheers,

Lou

Sorry in advance Steve

Stock track rods are rubbish, you will bend them in ruts from wheel impact, let alone damage underneath, seriously, I have dropped a rod end, brought it out from under the car, still connected one end and straightened them myself, that's weak

Replace both drag and track rod, I never had problems after, so you most definitely won't. No broken swivel hubs....no torn off spindles.....no broken steering boxes......no front end armagheddon replaced a bit *designed* to give

They are just rubbish

Mal Leslie and sons is where I got mine

Oh, be sure not to use roadsafe rod ends, lemfurder are the go

And further to Matt's post, there's a reason why the Early JRA build Perenties used reinforced track rod and drag links, if it was a risk to anything else they wouldn't have done it that way.
All JRA did was cut the ends off stock ones and weld them into heavy wall tube, the ones like the Maxi ones I have are a little more elegant in design.

As a mate of mine who was an engineer on the Perentie said, he just couldn't understand the Poms thinking and they never, ever listened to what was requested out here.
As he said, the channel under the diff is just a joke.
When I first bought the 130 way back at the end of '01 Mark told me that the first things I should do was replace the tie rod, drag link and trailing arms, none of them were up to it.

BTW, early GU Patrol tie rods and drag links are stouter than 90/110/130 ones and yet Nissan upgraded them to big diameter tube and female thread from male thread tie rod ends around I think '03 as the standard ones were being bent.
They are beefy and we don't see GU's breaking steering boxes or snapping the arms off uprights left, right and centre either.

The sacrificial line gets a bit OTT at times to explain away inadequate engineering.
Landies have some good points, but the glaringly obvious engineering faux pas never seem to be fixed.
I 'spose it gives us lot something else to do

And to further the point about drag links and steering boxes, I badly broke a steering box with a std drag link! and bent the panhard rod back 2"

The full width track rod guards are not great imo. I have driven with a car with one fitted. It got hung up all over the place on it. Personally I would just upgrade the rods.

Edited to add, on another recent trip we had another box broken, this time with upgraded rods. Both that and my one were dumb though and could have been avoided.

Originally Posted by Psimpson7

And to further the point about drag links and steering boxes, I badly broke a steering box with a std drag link! and bent the panhard rod back 2"

The full width track rod guards are not great imo. I have driven with a car with one fitted. It got hung up all over the place on it. Personally I would just upgrade the rods.

Edited to add, on another recent trip we had another box broken, this time with upgraded rods. Both that and my one were dumb though and could have been avoided.

Good to hear from someone who has actually busted a steering box as it doesn't seem common. Were the failures from reasonably direct hits on rocks or similar?

As Matt correctly implied earlier - mine is driven more like a school bus than a comp truck, so if the upgraded rods aren't causing issues in hard-driven vehicles then there won't be any issues with mine.

Steve