Custom Made Drag Link

[JuJu1289]

So im on the last leg of my SAS on my 87 ranger. This D44 is off a 79 f100 I found in the junkyard and im in a bind on what to do with the drag link. The TRE off the d44 is too big for the ranger pitman arm and ive read its pretty common to ream it out to fit. I was wondering wouldnt it just be easier for me to custom make a drag link from DOM tubing using a ranger TRE at the pitman arm and a f100 TRE at the other. Also what are the thread sizes on ford tre's?

 

[RockRanger]

I am pretty sure the ranger TRE is a metric tread pitch. When I was doing my swap I tried to do the same thing you are trying to do. I ended up buying a reamer and using all chevy TRE.

 

[JuJu1289]

Yea that was my first option until I saw the 1.5" per foot reamer was around $95. Was thinking of taking the pitman arm to a machine shop but 1: It probably wouldnt be worth the hassle of pulling the sucker off there and 2: Its something I would rather do myself since it has to fit the TRE perfectly

 

[JuJu1289]

Ended up just going the Chevy TRE route and bought the snap on reamer. I was gonna atempt to use f150 TRE's but theres just a lot more info out there on the chevy route. Ill be selling the 1.5"/foot reamer after im done with it if anyone is interested.

 

[JohnnyU]

What's going on with your track bar/exhaust clamp? NOT going to work.

 

[dangerranger83]

I hope you do fix that, the trackbar take a hell of alot of force and with what you have will give on you in no time.

 

[Explorin94]

I went to balistic fab and bought all my steering components for my sas on my 88. I drilled out the knuckles and the pitman arm to 5/8 and put grade 8 bolts through it with nyloc nuts. You can also buy the stuff for your track bar too.

 

[JuJu1289]

Haha thats definatley not permanent, thats sort of my home made adjustable track bar. I just used those exhaust clamps to hold the body alignment so I could weld around the sleeve

 

[dangerranger83]

One thing that I just noticed is your brake lines dont look like they are far from being fully stretched but there may be more to it then what the picture shows.

 

[railman]

Haha thats definatley not permanent, thats sort of my home made adjustable track bar. I just used those exhaust clamps to hold the body alignment so I could weld around the sleeve

that sleeve is not very thick at all....

you need to make up a new track bar....not one cut and spliced with very thin metal.....

as was stated before, alot of stress/pressure on that bar and that sleeve won't take it.....

l8r, John

 

[1freaky1]

After reading this so far it has left me wondering why so many folks use the GM 1 ton TRE's rather than the Ford 1 ton TRE's any ideas?

 

[dangerranger83]

One is probably metric threads and the other is probably standard?

 

[legoms013]

After reading this so far it has left me wondering why so many folks use the GM 1 ton TRE's rather than the Ford 1 ton TRE's any ideas?

Every offroad shop has the GM 1 ton TRE's always in stock, and they can be had at any parts store as well. My guess is because most of the stock stuff people use is already tapered for the GM stuff, whereas the Ford taper is possibly different. For whatever reason the GM stuff has just become the defacto standard for building steering setups due to its availability and has created its own niche market. I'm not sure why the ford stuff never took off.

One is probably metric threads and the other is probably standard?

Not sure, but I know the GM TRE's/DRE's are all 7/8-18 thread. I can't speak for Ford's.

Time to refab a new track bar, that one won't hold. Good luck with the Snap on reamer, go slow and use lots of cutting oil, I've heard it chunks, bends and wears out real quick with any kind of abuse. Its more or less a disposable one. It should be fine for the one or two times you use it, then sell it afterwards to somebody who will be in your position.

I would just ream the tie-rod hole out (though it might already be very close to the right taper required for GM TRE's,) and the pitman arm and get some a new GM DRE for the pitman arm, and a regular TRE for the hole in the tie-rod. Then have the new DOM threaded for the new rod ends (use 1.25 OD, 0.219 wall DOM tubing) or buy the weld in inserts and go with 1.5" OD DOM and do it yourself.

 

[brinker88]

Yea that was my first option until I saw the 1.5" per foot reamer was around $95. Was thinking of taking the pitman arm to a machine shop but 1: It probably wouldnt be worth the hassle of pulling the sucker off there and 2: Its something I would rather do myself since it has to fit the TRE perfectly

Where you located dude? I'll sell you mine for $30. I only used it once to do my TREs on my F150's SAS.

 

[JuJu1289]

Im in KY but ive already ordered the one from snap on, wish i woulda known. As far as the track bar goes yes it is temporary, but as far as the sleeve goes I high doubt there is enough stress to break that.