They have zerks that can be filled with grease, are easily available, and the 1 ton joints you'd use in an Jeep XJ are super strong. They're secured with a jam nut on the shank and a castle nut and cotter pin on the tapered side. Tie rod ends are a ball joint mounted in single shear with a tapered joint. TREs for the street, TREs or heims for fourwheeling. GM tie rod ends and drag link ends have the same taper (taper is the change in diameter along the length), but the end diameters are different - make sure that you're constantly test-fitting so you don't over-ream!Īh, the great debate, TREs vs. With the taper reamer, you want to focus on keeping the drill square to the knuckle or pitman and test fit the tie rod or drag link end frequently while reaming. Put the taper reamer in the hole and apply pressure while drilling. You need a taper reamer and, again, a 1/2" drill. Tapering? It's a tiny bit trickier, but not much. Go slowly, use oil to lube the bit as you drill - there isn't much to it. If you're going to drill to 5/8" or 3/4" you need a 1/2" drill. Neither option is particularly difficult. We'll talk more below about tie rod ends vs heims, but let's talk about the drilling and tapering first. Use a taper reamer to resize to a 1.5" per foot taper: This allows you to use the 1 ton GM tie rod ends/drag link ends.Drill them straight out to 5/8" or 3/4": This allows you to use a 5/8" or 3/4" heim joint.You have generally have two options here: If you're breaking tie rod ends, or think you might, the best thing to do is make them bigger! If you need to drop your angle, many lift kits come with drop pitman arms, or you can pick one up separately.įrom the factory, your Cherokee will have a 5/8" taper at the pitman arm and knuckles. You may be able to go bigger, but realize that there'll be compromises in your steering. Most crossunder XJ steering upgrades are rated for around 4-6" of lift. However, if you move up the tie rod, you can flatten the angle between the tie rod and drag link and improve your steering. That ain't happenin' and the drag link is angled even in the stock configuration. The ideal setup for your XJ would be that your tie rod and drag link would be parallel. The higher you lift your suspension, the more extreme the drag link angle becomes. The second thing to think about is "How high is your lift?". It's not too hard to gently winch or drag out a bent tie rod on the trail anyway. While there's been a pretty big trend to go with crossover steering for all types of 4x4s, there are plenty of people doing low-lift, big-tire builds that stick with the low steering. This is a good thing if you're doing a lot of trail time, but we don't see it as hugely essential. If you upgrade your steering to "crossover" style, the tie rod is moved to the top of the knuckles.įirst, when the tie rod is moved on top of the knuckle, it's out of the way of rocks and obstacles that might bend it when you're out on the trail. On a stock Jeep Cherokee XJ, the tie rod is mounted under the knuckles. If you're lifting your XJ over 4-6" you should look into crossover steering.
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