Steering tie rod ends

[Grundo Farb]

Anyone know where I can source new tie rod ends for a coupe VX? Are they any different from other betas?

[rossocorsa]

as far as i recall power steered cars have different ones to those with manual rack someone on ebay.co.uk was selling pairs of ones for PS cars recently worth checking

[Pope1]

The PS ones are definitely different from the manual ones but I believe that the VX and the IE use the same type. Which country are you located in? I might have a spare set in my shed if only I can find the right box.

[Grundo Farb]

New Zealand. Nice and handy...

[Pope1]

:D I thought it might be somewhere local like that.

[SubGothius]

If you wind up getting aftermarket replacement ends that won't take your original, tall nylock nuts and instead come with their own, shorter nuts, be advised that you should NOT follow the std torque spec for those, as you would wind up stripping the threads! I got some FRAP-brand ends from IAP a few years ago, tried to follow the spec and stripped the threads on their provided nuts, and wound up having to hacksaw them off and throw them all away. Bringing this issue up with IAP afterwards, they just said that an experienced mechanic would have realized the replacement ends wouldn't hold up to the spec and known what torque to use instead, so they felt they were off the hook for a replacement/refund. :mad:

The factory spec is apparently based on the coarser and larger-diameter threads and taller nuts of the OEM ends, so there's more surface area to distribute the torque before the threads would fail there. I'm not sure exactly what torque you should use instead, but I reckon the torque listed for manual-rack ends should suffice.

Speaking of those extra-tall nylock nuts for the OEM tierod ends, does anyone have a spare used one knocking around somewhere? I'd eventually found OEM (Lemförder brand) ends from DiFatta Bros, but they didn't come with new nylock nuts, and I'd managed to mangle the nylon ring on one of my old ones, so I made do with some blue threadlock on that one, but I'd feel safer with a proper, intact nylock, and I have not for the life of me been able to find new ones in that thread size and height. Doesn't have to be new, just as long as the nylon ring has only been threaded on previously and isn't otherwise terribly mangled/broken. There's some "common wisdom" that nylock nuts should always be replaced with new, and while that's sound enough advice to follow as a precaution whenever possible, it doesn't mean that used nylocks are worthless or ruined; as long as you still can't thread them on by hand past the nylon, they'll still do the job of preventing a vibration-loosened nut from spinning itself all the way off.

[Charley]

Just went through dealing with the size difference for tie rods for PS and manual tie rod ends.The ends for my '75 Coupe have a 10mm x1.25 pitch stud at the steering arm.The stud at the steering arm for PS ends have a 12 x 1.5 mm pitch . The bolt size that screws into the tie rod itself are 14 x 1.0mm pitch on both PS and manual racks. McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/) has the both size nylon locking nuts available,search for part # 90576A144 (PS size) or # 90576A132 (manual size).The height of the nuts is 10mm,in my opinion the nut's height is not that critical. I would say these would work just fine.