Discontinued Inner Tie Rods - A Solution

[Ludworks]

Mips,

I appreciate you trying the parts and clarifying that the inner tie rods need to be CW thread. The thread direction is where all the confusion stems from.


As far as potential replacements I've got good news and bad. First the bad. Mercedes tie rods do NOT fit. The taper is wrong. They are something like 1/10 instead of 1/8. The one I initially got from NAPA was opened and on close inspection turns out there was what looks like small rocks or metal debris stuck to the wide part of the tapered stud. Gave the illusion of a tight (if somewhat odd-feeling) hand fit. Imagine my surprise when I ordered a different brand only to find they didn't seem to fit at all. PSA: Don't trust "new" parts to be in good condition, always clean and inspect.

The good news is Suzuki Sidekick tie rods are perfect, almost. The taper is a perfect match, the only confirmed non-AMC part I've found that fits. The issue lies in the length. I'm still working through this. I need to order more parts, but it looks like Suzuki Jimny "FJ" tie rods might also fit and length wouldn't be an issue. Only problem is they weren't sold in the US or Canada (as far as I'm aware), so they're a bit harder to get.

[CaliEagle97]

Just going to put my two cents in on the topic.

A buddy has an '05 LJ Wrangler, and we are looking at using the stock TJ FR inner tie rod end (at the connecting rod) as a replacement for the Eagle inner. The taper is the same, the length is very close (only about a 1/2" shorter than the Eagles) and they are plentiful. I will be checking this weekend on the length & exact fitment, and then sourcing a new adjusting sleeve to fit.

TJ FR Inner Tie Rod End

[Ludworks]

I'm fairly certain the taper diameter is larger for Jeeps. AMC/Eagle stud minor diameter is ~0.495, all the Jeep parts I've looked at have been larger, ~0.560 or so. But if it works that'd be excellent.

[Ludworks]

Right, an update on this. I've sourced Suzuki tie rods that do fit and paired them with an inner sleeve of the correct length. This should be a simple solution but there are two holdups.

The first is my suspension is still all blown apart because I'm working on reproducing several of the components, so I can't test fit the new tie rods in situ until that's all completed. They have a slightly reduced max pivot angle compared to the Moog parts, but I can't tell if that will be an issue or not out of the car. I don't think it will but you never know. There's also the possibility that the sleeve contacts the subframe, which I'm really hoping is not the case because I can bulk order the sleeves I found and custom ones, though certainly possible, will only add additional delay time.

The second holdup is the rapidly changing tariffs. The tie rods would need to be imported and the tariff rate has gone from less than 3% to 100% back down to 15% and back up to 30% etc etc all in the last year, which is obviously very difficult to deal with and plan around. Hopefully it will stabilize in the near future.

So all that to say, does anyone want to be a guinea pig and test fit some tie rods for me? I'll ship one side (inner, outer, and sleeve) to you (with a return label) you fit them on one side, turn the wheel from lock to lock, take some pictures, repeat on the other side, and send them back.