Custom Tie-Rods That Fit Standard Suspension

Custom Tie-rods for Datsun 260Z

As many people in front of me, I have come across the limitations of the front steering tie-rod length on the Zed. With new TTT front control arms with a minimum 3.5Degrees negative camber I have 6 degrees toe-in… You should have heard the tyres protesting on the way home from Wheels World!!

So, the challenge was on. Plenty of people said that the only way to go is custom because nobody makes a tie-rod that fits and gives the range of movement and extension we required, about 40mm. So, 280zx tie-rods were no good but still, SOMETHING had to be done.

I couldn’t go with a rose joint setup because I still have relatively standard suspension and the huge suspension travel would bind even the highest movement rose-joints I could find. Despite being told it couldn’t be done by plenty of people on this forum, my Father decided that everyone just hadn’t tried hard enough… Sure…

We went to about 6 or 7 suspension mobs in town, who all couldn’t get us out of their shops fast enough, before My dad ran into the State Manager for the Pedder’s suspension mob who, after hearing about our poor reception at several of their stores, measured up the standard zed tie rod pitch, thread and thread height and got the national R&D department onto the case. It took them 3 days, but they came back with a solution!

A threaded tie-rod off of a Ford XY Falcon!

It has the same pitch, thread height and thread as the zed tie-rod. In short, it fits in the standard steering knuckle without any modification!

To complete the tie-rod I used:

- 2 RH thread Falcon Tie-rod ends, Pedder’s Part #PTE391R (Bursons auto parts. Road Safe brand part number: TE391R). These come off an XT-XW-XY Ford Falcon from 1968-1972. For those in the USA  a 70-74 Ford Maverik, 70-73 Mustang (all models) and 69 Boss Mustang all use the TE420R - but what is interesting is that one US website lists a moog part number for these US based Fords and get ES387R which has imperial threads (go figure) So that explains the weird thread you found it is .687-18R at that molly tube and .500-20 on the top of the ball end tapper thing.

- 2 Datsun RH thread rack-end ball joints

- Chrome-molly tube, cut to the extra length you require

- Steel nuts to fit on the tie-rod and the rack end to act as lock nuts and another set to weld onto the chrome-molly tube to fix to the nuts.

You then simply tap the Steel nuts and then weld them into the chrome-molly tube. I then had mine electro-plated so the steel nuts don’t rust.

Using all Right Hand threads means that expensive and difficult to find 14mmx1.5 LH die’s don’t have to be found to tap the nuts for the LH thread ball joint on the standard Z steering rack. Also, because the ball joint in the rack end can spin the tie-rods can still be adjusted on the car by spinning the ball joint end instead of turning the tie-rod itself, very much the same as the standard suspension.

However, the thread on the Tie-rod is a really weird size and nobody in town could supply nuts of the correct thread, they kept telling us it was like a Hydraulic fitting thread. Therefore, we had to have a machine shop make up the nuts and plugs for the tie-rod end of the middle tube.

And here are the pics everyone has been waiting for:

New rod next to old one demonstrating the extra length of the new tie-rod.

The middle section of the rod

A blown-up view of all the pieces

And finally, the new tie-rod on the car. The angle look great and I’m not expecting any bump-steer but I’m yet to drive the car so can’t comment just yet.

Versus the non-modified tie-rod:

Here is the in-board side of the new rob, showing how it all mates up. Nothing binds even at full droop.

And here is the clearance with the stock 14” rims and with TTT Roll centre adjusters fitted as well.

With any luck this mod will be useful to someone looking to avoid going full custom rose-joints on this part of the suspension, as well as fitting on COMPLETELY STANDARD SUSPENSION. Total cost for both sides came in at around AU$300 for all parts and machining, but could be replicated for less given a few hiccups with attempting to get everything to work together.

well done will look into making a set up myself excellent information

Very Very nice...! Gold star for you Kiddo!

Stickied!

Cheers guys!

Really, at the end of the day, its a simple fix, but without the turn of luck getting the pedders state manager on the case, this could easily have turned out different.

Wow, first stickie, my dad was stoked to hear it and so fast! I'm glad people can get something out of this, the zed community is great and I'm all for open information exchange.

Excellent work I need to do just that - I have now got (finally) a second rack to get the other RH threaded inner from so I will have 2 RHT rack ends. I was going to run with the 280zx end as they are 10mm longer than the stock 240/260z items - I then started to look for a shorter tie rod that would work much like you have done I do have somewhere a list of tie rods that might work (found specs on the web and got the partnumbers) so I was then going to source a pair and do just as you have done (when I get that far with my car - last time it was on the road running 2.5 camber the tie rods were only just on the rack ends, found that our when I took the car to bits )

I have somewhere a list of partnumbers - I should check to see if the one you used is on my list - if not - it will be

has anyone tried using the two ( cant recall which) either lhs or rhs tie rod ends off a 280zx, Apparently either both from one side only of the zx will go onto a z

Someone in the rally/dirt game mentioned this "quick fix" a while back, they are longer than z units.

dat2kman, that was what I wanted to do straight up. Unfortunately the 280zx tie-rods are only 10mm longer each. The issue with the 280zx rods, I believe is that only the tie-rods from a series 1, non power steering, 280zx will work. When they updated the car and added power steering the steering system changed and isn't compatible. I'm not sure about only one side tie-rod working, I never got that far into looking in to it after I worked out it wasn't long enough.

Either way, I needed 40mm extra length and so 280zx tie-rods were still not an option. If you don't need such a large amount of extra length tho, then the 280zx mod is a great fix.

NZeder, keep us updated with how you go with the parts number list. This works great, but surely there is more than one car in the world that the tie-rod will fit from.

Zedman, I'll measure them when I get home and let you know. I pretty much took the standard tie-rod and the new one to the engineer and said "I need an extra 40mm" and he cut it up and welded it together. The lenght you go will depend on your application. 40mm for instance, almost is too long for my car with 3.5 Neg camber. However, I cannot adjust less than this due to the length of the lower control arms so I wanted the longest tie-rod I could make in case I ever wanted to increase the camber/track in the future.

Can you make kits up?..i'm lazy, have cash and i think there might be a demand

Hi Chartoo,

I also think there would be demand. I would MUCH rather have bought a kit.

Unfortunatly I do not have the resources or equipment to make Kits. I have, However, been in contact with a company that I feel SHOULD be making these kits and I'll let you know of any results.

On a side note, you still in asia? If you're in town, you want to come look at my car before I pull it to bits in about 4 weeks?

Yeah im gonna be here for a while more i think. Will check back in when i back in perth

I've just picked up a pair of these tie-rod ends from my local Bursons auto parts.

Road Safe brand part number: TE###R. <--- Incorrect. Should be TE391R

RRP: $25ea, but if you have an account they are much cheaper

I've just picked up a pair of these tie-rod ends from my local Bursons auto parts.

Road Safe brand part number: TE420R.

RRP: $25ea, but if you have an account they are much cheaper

Cheers Lurch,

First post updated.

To complete the tie-rod I used:

- 2 RH thread Falcon Tie-rod ends, Pedder’s Part #PTE391R (Bursons auto parts. Road Safe brand part number: TE420R). These come off an XT-XW-XY Ford Falcon from 1968-1972. I don’t know what you could use in the states, but probably something off of a mustang or similar.

The XY only uses TE420R however the XW uses TE420R and another version TE391R (notice how that partnumber is almost the same as the one Whitte got PTE391R) so I think the XY is the incorrect information which has lead me on a little bit of incorrect direction + the TE420R partnumber sorry Lurch

So I installed the TE420R in my steering arm and notice it does work but the nylock nut supplied is only just starting to lock when it's all good and tight. This is not like the pic Whittie has shown above with his install - this show at least 2-3 threads. So I started checking catalogues online. I attach a pic from the NZ suppliers online catalogue it shows the TE420R as the 0.510 tapper and the TE391R as the 0.538 top of the tapper. So this also lead me believe the TE420R to be correct as the 240z/260z is 0.520 at the top of the tapper.

The second pic is form the RoadSafe catalogue I found online. It shows the reverse aka TE391R with the smaller top dia/tapper and the TE420R with the larger. So tomorrow I will see if I can return the TE420R and swap for TE391R and confirm the top tappers.

I also put at set of calipers over TE420R and the stock tie rod I get

TE420R = 13.7mm at the top of the tapper = 0.539

Stock = 13.2mm at the top of tapper = 0.519

I will update this post once I have the TE391R and can confirm the correct tapper/install I will then post the US info ie Moog partnumbers and more info

Thread tidied up and more info added to the first post.

Those of you doing this mod, feel free to add more pictures when you are done!

Update time.

I will let the pics tell most of the story. But there are 2 type of tie rods for the XT-XW-XY range of falcon. Those known as early Ford and then the later type. Tapers are different but all other dimensions are the same.

and more

Thread bump.

For those that require longer tie-rods when running increased camber, these tie-rod extenders are now available from SWM at a very reasonable price:



They are a direct bolt in with no modifications.
They have a HEAP of adjustment and they simply take the (RoadSafe brand) TE437L & TE437R ball joint.