Thread: Tie Rod Ends

Originally Posted by BigJon

I was looking under the RRC today and I noticed all my tie rod ends need replacing, including the drop arm balljoint.

I replaced them all when I bought the car about 6 years ago and I used genuine LR parts.

Who has some recommendations for replacements? I would prefer something with grease nipples, I can't understand why the genuine ones don't have them. I suspect that with my greasing routine (about once every 4 -6 weeks) greased ones will last forever.

Hi Big Jon, I think I remember a thread on here not so long ago that mentioned the fact that most people over grease the ends/ball joints thus breaking the rubber boot and letting in dust/water etc. The greased for life ones are different inside the boot and if the boots are kept in good cond they will last as long or usually longer. Your preference I suppose. Bob

Originally Posted by scruffy

Hi Big Jon, I think I remember a thread on here not so long ago that mentioned the fact that most people over grease the ends/ball joints thus breaking the rubber boot and letting in dust/water etc. The greased for life ones are different inside the boot and if the boots are kept in good cond they will last as long or usually longer. Your preference I suppose. Bob

If I grease them so that fresh grease comes out of the boots each time, then I know there is no water / dirt / mud in there. That is the way I grease my uni joints and I haven't replaced one in the 6 years I have owned the RR.

Genuine should be Lemfoerder. They should last a long time.

I have found that the greasable items tend to be lower quality, and don't last as long as lemfoerder.


(And before anyone does a "Ron" on my spelling - if you spell it without an umlaut (2 dots), an "e" should be placed after the letter with the umlaut (the "o" in this case).

You can drill and tap any tie rod ends for grease nipples, but the longevity depends on how and where the swarf ends up.
You can also buy new rubber boots as usually these go before the rod end itself wears out.

We drilled and tapped my P38A tie rod ends on my drag link earlier this week. When we greased them, one of the ends pumped out quite a bit of water - and it had a good boot.

I've ordered a new track rod. On the P38A, only one end can be replaced, the other end is crimped in so, effectively, the whole assembly has to be replaced.

We might drill and tap the new track rod before fitting it.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Genuine should be Lemfoerder. They should last a long time.

.

As noted, they were genuine replaced about 6 years ago.

Cut open one of each genuine and non genuine brands of TREs some years ago for comparison. Genuine were far superior with proper hardened floating seats top and bottom for the ballpin to ride in,and a steel conical spring to preload the joint and compensate for wear.
Non genuine had a crap plastic or pressed tin seat on only one end, poorly finished ball pin and a rubber preload pad.
The genuine one also won the snap test, performed by gripping the TRE in a vice and slipping a 3ft length of pipe over both the threaded shank and ballpin and levering until something broke.Some of the non genuine ones threaded shanks were quite brittle.
As the workshop manual states you can lubricate genuine TREs in situ by peeling back the rubber boot, compressing the ballpin against the spring with a G clamp and dribbling a bit of oil or warmed up grease into the joint.
Wagoo.

Originally Posted by p38arover

We drilled and tapped my P38A tie rod ends on my drag link earlier this week. When we greased them, one of the ends pumped out quite a bit of water - and it had a good boot.

I've ordered a new track rod. On the P38A, only one end can be replaced, the other end is crimped in so, effectively, the whole assembly has to be replaced.

We might drill and tap the new track rod before fitting it.

Where on the balljoint did you drill and tap? Through the bottom of the joint or through the side?