Is anyone running spherical tie rod ends or are most people running OEM tie rod ends? I have seen a few break over the years during a race and was wondering if anyone ran the spherical joints to eliminate failure.

 

Ive been on oem style tie rod ends, but I'm only pulling a 11.63 at 420whp. No issues though, interested to see what the high hp guys are running.

 

I've only used oem tie rod ends on my 11.7 car only making 293whp with no issues. Im also curious what the high hp guys have to say.

 

they always make me nervous as well

 

spherical all the things.

You want your bushings to do as little deflection as possible, the job of the coils and shocks is to manage travel. That's wasted energy that could have sent you forward but instead is being absorbed as the bushing is moving around.

You won't find any OEM rubber bushings in any form of professional motorsports unless the rules of that particular class dictate it.

 

That is all fun and games but we aren't talking about bushings here. Were talking about oem tie rods which are already rigid by design.

 

I'd like to see someone come up with a design that uses sphericals in double shear... any application of them in single shear (beyond something non-critical like a sway bar end link) makes me nervous. Add some bump steer adjustment in via misalignment spacers or shim stacks and you've got something highly useful for drag guys and track guys, even potentially something sturdy enough for guys with highly modded street cars. A quick Google images search indicates the Jeep/offroad guys have it figured out.




Examples for the less engineery folks...

Single shear:



Double shear:



Here's an example of a modification that could be applied to a typical Honda knuckle to achieve double-shear:

 

pillow ***** + grease < ptfe-lined ground sphericals with removable studs. for anything.

You've yet to point out which form of racing uses OEM tie rod ends when the rules allow you to run anything.

 

I guess it depends on your loads and what the engineer thinks who is laying them out.

I only see double shear tie rod ends on trophy truck type chassis. The rally car parts I make go on cars with basic single shear mounts. I would think a rally car would be quite a bit strained than a drag car or even a normal road race car

 

That's some really good info, I had never thought of converting the hub to a double shear. I might actually give it a try. However, I still believe the single shear setup with Aurora ends is still probably stronger than OEM, given you use quality joints and hardware.

 

I have heims setup single shear on my mustang rack for the rwd civic. They are plenty strong.

 

I have a Serious Road Race buddy that has EK sohc D boosted runs pretty crazy suspension setup and like 9 or 10" wide rims. We make Traction Bars and simply game him 2 heims to use for tie rods. Hasn't had one issue with them. He simply drilled it out to a hole rather than a tapered ball joint stud... 1/2" used 1/2" bolt and simply spaced down the heim with a spacer or few washers. Keep it simple sometimes best option.