anyone know what material the speedway drag link and tie rod are made of? the cost for the "custom" cut parts are 94.00 for steel, 154.00 for SS and 209.00 for chromed. I'd like to know what the "steel" tie rods are made of (the rep I talked to at Speedway didnt know). I was looking at making my own out of 4130 chromoly but the cost after buying the taps and materials is about 100.00 more than the SS set from Speeway. thanks! Charlie
Ask for a "hot rod tech" at Speedway, they should b able to give u an accurate answer. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
We custom make tie rods and drag links. We use a 1" DOM with a .219" wall. We can tap it left and right for 5/8, 11/16 and 3/4.
I use 7/8" x .156" DOM tuding. I use 5/8" drill when taping 11/16". Speedway has the cheapest 11/16" taps. Hard to justify the cost of the taps if you are making one drag link and one tie rod. Short lengths of DOM tubing will be expensive. Hard to beat the Speedway price doing a set or two at home.
Your local steel shop is not going to want to order anything but full lenghts and unless you need enough to justify a full length plus the expense of a right and left tap the Speedway deal is a "deal". Frank
On the race car side, they advertise Chrome-moly links. For the street rod stuff, if it was 4130, I'd assume they would say so
Ditto on the 7/8" x .156 DOM. To do this the DOM must be opened to 5/8", ( I use a .6250 self piloting ream), before tapping. The Speedway tierods are made of a substantually thinner material and are tapped without boring. I worry about this as they seem brutally soft as well. Tierods from many other vendors, TCI etc. are still 7/8" DOM. I use Speedway tierods on some cars as the owners just don't want to pay for the added security of well done tierods. I've had no problems with them. If it was my car I'd tap some 7/8" DOM and sleep better with the overkill. My Speedway taps are pretty old but unless they have changed their supplier mine are US made Fastcut Tool Corporation, made right near here in Millersburg, PA. I've cut at least 50 tierods and they are still sharp, although a bit brittle as I've shipped a few teeth. They still work fine. Like any tool, how you treat them has a lot to do with their life span. As a side note a 20' +- lenght of 7/8" DOM cost $128.00 at Fazio Metal in Minersville Pa. if that helps with you decision. You can make enough rods for 2+ cars from one lenght. Add the cost of rod ends and jamb nuts and the Speedway rods are a bargain. It's just what you want.
I personally don't like using 7/8" OD tube as it can flex, Much better to use !" OD tube and weld in bungs. I've had a few people with 7/8" tube tierods that have encountered death wobble, all were solved by changing to 1" OD tube, HTH
Increasing tie rod diameter treated the symptom, it didn't cure the disease. There's thousands of cars running around with 7/8" OD tie rods and no problems. Bob
Charlie, if you're looking at SS to dress up the frontend, then consider thinwall aluminum tubing. I bought a 10' length at my local hardware store, and cut it to slip over the drag link and tierod on my Speedway axle. It cost less than $20, and took me less than an hour. Every few months I wipe it down with Mother's polish, and it looks great. Way cheaper than replacing with chrome or SS rods.
The last tie rod[spindle to spindle] for early Ford,I ordered from speedway was chromemoly....I didnt specify that, on ordering but it was....
Bob there are threads on here about the 7/8" tierods flexing, yes I agree not all cars suffer with it but those that did are now fine. As I said I don't fit 7/8" tierods and all my cars are fine & dandy.
Good luck on the speedway teck department, I called and talked to "Dave" and asked him the bearing size on early ford and chevy spindals to see if I could make my spindals match up to my set up. He told me to do my homework and find out the bearing size myself and when I found out,call him and he would send me what I ordered. Also said he didnt want to build my car for me. Last time they will get a order from me poeorid. Hate to post negitive things about anyone but this is the truth......
Did he really say that? I find it hard to believe, speedway has great customer service if nothing else. What do you really expect with all the stuff they sell? He was kinda right.
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