Jack of Hearts

I'm fascinated w this thread too. But pinning seems a fairly crude solution. How much are the RS tie rod ends? Are they a simple bolt-in? Unless they are upwards of $300 for the pair it doesn't seem worth it to start drilling around on such a critical suspension part. Dissassembly, removal of the rubber pieces and heli-arcing sounds better.

Essexmetal

If pinning is chosen as your preferred method I would like to suggest using tapered pins.

This is the method used in performance and aircraft applications for pinning tube sections together. It will require a tapered reamer but the end result will remain tighter than a straight-sided hole.

Nice thing about Aircraft AN hardware is that it is available in small incremental size increases to allow for a perfect fitment selection. Link below for sizes and engineering data.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...86taperpin.php

AOW162435

Garth,
Excellent information. If you cut that tie rod in half with a sawzall, you must have special powers! I would venture that a band saw did the deed...

Andreas

Garth S

guards red,
'Opening the can' by cutting the top roll would allow the inner parts to be pulled out, as you suggest: then, with the center threaded element recovered from the rubber, etc., one would have to machine an interference fit cylinder, preferably of the same mild steel - and weld the whole thing together (basically idem. towhat Jack of Hearts noted). One trick would be to quench welding heat to avoid destruction of the captive teflon monoball socket on the rack end. Bottom line - a workable solution, but one that may make the factory EVO parts look quite cheap.

Essexmetal,
Thanks for the link: I've used tapered pins in trigger mechanisms previously, as they withstand recoil induced vibration better - so will follow the link to learn more

Amfab and Andreas,
Watch the coffee intake, and hold off on the Scotch until the cut is made .... and a leaping, quivering sawzall can be made to behave ..... The truth of the matter is likely due to the use of a good quality Lenox bimetallic blade in my 18V reciprocating saw - not the operator.

Akerlie

Like someone pointed out the RS tie-rods can only be mounted along with the uprights.

I will be drilling a hole at the top of the "T" and welding mine
Making sure that the tie-rod stays as cold as possible while i at it

Jack of Hearts

Now I got it. So what are we talking--tie rod ends plus uprights? I can see that suddenly we are talking thousands.

Essexmetal

Here is my version of the GT3 inner tierod end. I took the stock one and parted it off halfway. The rubber cartridge slides out quite easily. Turned the tierod receiver
with a sleeve that went into the barrel so that I could run a couple of plug welds as well as the perimeter weld to hold it together. Took some time and kept it cool to assure the spherical plastic bearing did not melt.
Rick

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Thats correct. (includes new wheel bearings, too)

Garth S

Rick,
Nice work!
I do not have your skill on a lathe, so if the roll pinned mods are not robust enough, the next step will be to chuck up in a lathe to part the outer groove off and replace the current sleeve & rubber with a solid sleeve - then weld .... as Guards red highlighted in the post above.

Bill Verburg

As Steve said yes, the shape of the outer tie rod ends is different on the RS & Evo versions to go w/ the differing upright configs

RS/GT2 upright on left w/ short arm, stock 993 on right w/ long arm


Stock on top, RS/GT2 on bottom, the inners are interchangeable


Be prepared to buy new ABS sensors if you do this

1pcarnut

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious but based on the photo above, why not just used your old outer half and mate with the RS inner half, assuming its in good condition.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

A hearty thanks to Bill for posting those great pictures.

Those GT-2 inners (sans rubber couplers) are not sold separately, you have to buy the whole tie-rod assembly.

Coleman

I think this could be one of the best threads ever!! Garth, the Cut-Away's are phenomenal! (must be a long cold winter up there in NS!) I'll keep posted and see what the final outcome of the drill/Pin versus weld comes to be.. maybe we can bribe Rick to make us all some of the very trick Tie-rod units.. but it would have to be on an exchange basis for the ball assembly-

Coleman.

1pcarnut

Steve, I figured that was probably the case, what do those puppies go for?

Essexmetal

Coleman,

As long as we live where you can be sued for scalding yourself on coffee that is too hot I don't think I will be entering the steering link business any time soon. Being close to Detroit and working in the prototype industry I see first hand the amount of validation testing that goes into every production component with twice the effort on critical ones (steering and suspension). I have no worries over my parts performing but without validating their integrity and durability selling to someone else opens up issues that could come back to bite you.

The pin method will work just fine and has a perfect failsafe. I was planning this modification before this thread but I must say that Garth's cut-a-way made life much easier. For those who might consider the weld method there is plenty of meat on that inner and it makes working with it very easy. Perhaps I could supply the tierod receiver portion, except of course I did not make any drawings of what I did. With someone else welding it on it is not a problem.

Rick