Anyone have issues in your home town getting DOM tube tapped with these specific extra fine tie rod taps. I called about 10 machine shops in town and nobody carries these and alot of tool shops can't even get em! O and the mention of left hand and it's an immediate NO.
They are a 1 ton chev tre tap. I'm thinking I should buy both of them online and pimp them out for $20 a hole for side jobs advertised on a local 4x4 site!

 

Ive used $8 inserts when ive needed to build a tierod so imo $20 is too much- I'm thinking $10 at most. Otherwise id say its a decent idea. Not sure how much volume youd do. There cant be that many people building tie rods in your area and shipping/gas prices would kill any out of town business.

 

I FINALLY found a guy who has these. He said he'll tap them for free just gotta go to his shop. He said he paid big money for the taps years ago and doesnt mind helping me out. I'll bring beer of coarse.

My issue is the weld in inserts always go down in tube size and I'm going bigger. Heres what I got going on..

I'm going full high steer and I had a 20' piece of 2'',3/8 wall DOM laying around I was itching to use. I took a perfectly good 1 1/4 drag link in my existing setup and cut the ends that were threaded into 8' lengths.



I now had 8'' sleeves tha slid with a fairly snug fit into the 2". To make it ultra beef not only am i welding it on the end but did slot cuts in the 2'' to do plug/cancellation welds into the 1 1/4 dom. Will be 4 slots per tube(top and bottom)




still need to weld it.
With the still left over 1 1/4 dom i took it to a shop where they drilled it to the proper 53/64 size in order to tap and use for the new upper high steer tie rod! Old stock one will be removed after when done and hydro assist ram relocated up on diff as well.




This shows the tie rod and sleeve before tapped and slots cut in but you can see it was a fairly good fit.
This will be a really beef setup after I get it tapped tonite but didnt realize how uncommon the tap was!

O heres the old drag link

 

obscene overkill but it looks good.

 

If you have access to a lathe (which I would speculate any machine shop would), you can turn internal threads without a tap, what ever size and pitch you want (well nearly any size and pitch). That's how i threaded my trac bar amoung other things.

 

Yeah one shop did say that, I don't think I mentioned that. It was hella pricey to do it though.
Just picked up the final tubes that are tapped for all the ends I need!
Did end up finding another guy with taps closer than the first guy. He totally sketched me out though. I dropped off tubes at his work(a pet store) and I asked if I should swing by his place later. He said he doesn't like people coming to his house and he'll meet me somewhere in public. Met him about an hour ago in front of a grocery store parking lot and he mumbled some machinist thread pitch gauge stuff with depth gauge tool thingy and I basically said "ok as long as it works bud" . All he did was tap them. They were pre drilled to the exact 53/64 hole. Checked it when I got home and it was mint.
Anyways I'm gonna burn in some welds tomorrow and drive my truck again.

 

Time on a lathe is not that bad if you have the right hook up. I have those taps and have used them a couple of times. Now that I have access to a lathe, I'll use that instead because using the tap can be a pain in the rear where cutting the threads with a lathe is a breeze.

 

No trouble around here but then again I live very near Americas tool and die capital. Or whats left of it here in Meadville, N.W. Pa. Home of Channellock.

 

Funny thing the way I found the taps after calling every shop was I last resort,googled 7/8 tap 18 tpi Victoria B.C. A jeep forum came up with some dude who said he had them and could do the job. I registered for the site and PM'd him. Same site I found that GF that was asking about what her bfs truck was worth with that classic response! Lol

Going outside now to finish these as I've been laid off for the past week and got nothing better to do with lots of time on my hands. Hence the past nonsense threads lol
Been working full time for 5 years straight. Got a big vacation payout check with no worries AND I'm off to Vegas next week so it's like an extended holiday.

 

Back from holidays,back to work,back to real life.
I thought Id just update this with the ram relocated and all new rod ends...







I cant imagine these rods bending lol!
You can see the ram has taken a few scratches offroad so this was a needed upgrade. The ram is totally hidden now being totally protected.
The best part though...It drives Awesome!!!! I took it for a rip down the highway and it has never driven so well. No real shakes or vibrations.
I also did some minor tweaking with suspension. I removed 3 leafs from the pack front and rear. The front also had a pinion shim which wasnt needed. It took about 1 1/2- 2's of lift out in total. I cant get over how well it drives. The smooth ride, big power and handling I felt like I was driving a sports car passing on the road. Im loving it right now! <!-- / message -->
<!-- sig -->

 

I have but one thing to add...

a shim gained you 1 1/2-2"of lift? Is that metric inches?

 

Oooops read it wrong. Guess i cant read Canadian.

 

Was going to drive my truck to work tonite but the gas can I filled to put in it someone stole out of the back of my other truck! Is this what it's come to with these gas prices? Sad.
Someone got some good premium 94 that will probably be put in a lawnmower to mow some overgrown hillbilly lawn. Maybe they might find an el camino!
I ran out idling in the yard. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow..

 

how bout a pic of how it sets now?

 

Could do. It's pretty suttle. When I look at the front corner of fender I'm debating if trim is needed to clear. I'll have to ramp test it to know for sure.