Technical Why does my tie rod end stud spin?

The roadster is in final assembly now and when installing the front suspension I tighten all my tie rod ends with an impact before inserting cotter keys. No issue with any of them, except for one. It's my drag link to pitman arm tie rod end. Just tightening it with a wrench and the stud spins in it's socket so I can't tighten it. Bad piece? It's a Speedway item so I shouldn't be surprised. Ideas, please.

 

Slot the threaded end, hold with a screw driver and use a wrench. They do spin, but the taper is supposed to lock them down.

 

See if the taper angle is correct..or... see if the tapered part is too long, which would have the nut trying to seat against the shoulder at the top of the taper, instead of pulling the taper in tighter. Meaning if the pitman arm is too thin, then the taper might be too long.

If those are both OK from what you can tell, find a way to put pressure on the joint as you tighten the nut.

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^^^^^x2

 

What F&J said, I use a bottle jack to put pressure on them so they tighten up


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A "bottle jack" or a "bottle of Jack (Daniels)" ???

 

Spray both the hole and the taper that goes into it with brake klean and blow dry with compressed air. It should grab then.

 

Depends on how long I have spent spinning it around....


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May need a washer between nut and arm..

 

I should’ve asked first if it’s bottoming out the threads or is it going just a couple of threads and stopping.

 

I had to do that with some offshore tie rods on my Ford. Hecho en India FFS.... Came with 4 new nuts, 3 of them were totally oddball.. used my OG ones.

With the OP's stuff, clean and mark the new part with a Sharpie, set it into the spindle hole and give it a few spins, see what makes contact on the spindle, this will tell you if the taper is ok. If that is ok, try to run the nut down with an air ratchet, that should overcome the spin.

 

Use a pry bar to force the stud into the taper and then hit it with an impact wrench.


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Great advice, can't think of anything to add except, and this shouldn't apply to your situation, when I was mixing and matching components on my heap I found out they do make tapered sleeves to adapt various hole sizes and tapers.

 

Don't want to hijack the thread but, blowby, where can one get the tapered sleeves?

Dave

 

Thanks for the replies! You guys were right. I put a floor jack under it, gave it a little pressure and it held fast while I tightened the nut down. One more issue off the list! Thanks guys!