All 5-tons: Heavy Duty Torque Rod Ends

Done. 12 new ends, with retainer plates bolted to all. Very happy with the way it turned out. I’m not the first that has done it, but I am another that did it. Who’s next?

74M35A2 said:

...This job will make a man out of you...

Click to expand...

Now that you’ve sprouted a few hairs, sounds like it’s time to mount those 16’s...

Jbulach said:

Now that you’ve sprouted a few hairs, sounds like it’s time to mount those 16’s...

Click to expand...

Hes gotta come get em first. I am not driving across 3 states of crap roads to bring em to him. I would need a new set by the time i made the round trip drive.

Relax you two, I just finished the rod link ends like 6hrs ago...

74M35A2 said:

Relax you two, I just finished the rod link ends like 6hrs ago...

Click to expand...

Honestly I would have drilled grease zerks into those cover pieces so you can pump em full of grease to keep the salt and road junk from getting up behind em and eating everything. If you haven't done it this year go park it in the driveway and put the sprinkler under it and let it wash it off.

You can drop his tires off here net time your up.

Retainer washers look nice. Guess you could always just weld nuts to the back (time and talent wise) like shown previously? Or with the hole in the middle of the retainer washer, tack weld it and assume you are not replacing them again in your lifetime??

CARMAN said:

You can drop his tires off here net time your up.

Retainer washers look nice. Guess you could always just weld nuts to the back (time and talent wise) like shown previously? Or with the hole in the middle of the retainer washer, tack weld it and assume you are not replacing them again in your lifetime??

Click to expand...

If the truck is driven and operated on a fairly regular schedule the tie rod ends don't tend to have any issues. Even the rubber ones. Just most of these trucks sat for years and years even after rebuilds and the rubber deteriorates and breaks easy from the lack of movement. I have 2 torque rods still on my truck with the original inserts that came on it from rebuild and they are still fine.

simp5782 said:

Hes gotta come get em first. I am not driving across 3 states of crap roads to bring em to him. I would need a new set by the time i made the round trip drive.

Click to expand...

Drop em here if you get up this way. I’ll think up something good for a storage fee. We can mount them up when he comes down to Haspin one of these years.

I’m thinking about offering these torque rod ends drilled and tapped, with or without plates. Any interest? Would be about same as vendor price for a stock one.

Eriks sells the korean upgrade ones like that I think

https://www.eriksmilitarysurplus.com/torodendfor52.html
Also has a press tool.
I've been keeping a close eye on my torque rods. The rubbers are starting to look bad. I may just weld bars across mine and wait for one to fail. Not ideal but I'm not looking foreward to this job.

Just saw that. Out of the 12 I pressed out, only 2 were still solid. The rest crumbled at the sight of the press. I was so thankful I did them all. 12 hour job or so.

I’d be happy to loan my offset wrench for the upper-center ones, along with a split empty shell to press the old ones out. $100 refundable deposit required. Both make this job a lot easier.

I did not waste time trying to undo the cotter pins, most stories here say they are seized. I just rotated the nut and sheared them off. Threads were fine.

I'm next - just bought 12 of the OEM style ends (rubber not the hi end ball joint type) but did pony-up for the pre-welded bar on the ends. have started soaking the ends with oil and got the same offset wrench you did, so hoping to jump on it sometime in the next week or three. two of my ends are failing, but are shifting in, rather than off the rod end.

74M35A2 said:

Done. 12 new ends, with retainer plates bolted to all. Very happy with the way it turned out. I’m not the first that has done it, but I am another that did it. Who’s next?

View attachment 728087View attachment 728088

Click to expand...

Yep, you're due, like the rest of them.

I did have to cut the width of the offset striking wrench head itself in half in order to get it to fit. Though tool, so I had to do it on a large fulcrum & vice type cut off saw. Test fit and adjust that first so it does not hold you up when you are actually ready to commit to the 12 hour job.

Feels great to to drive the truck with full confidence again (same as before I knew these were an issue). I'm back to hard accel, braking, and articulation, without studying the side view mirrors to see if one axle is shifting sideways anymore like I used to be. The stories of the upper arms releasing and allowing the axle housing to rotate and break U-joints, driveshafts, and air brake lines prompted me to finally take the plunge. I considered myself lucky that the three of mine which failed were all lowers that could be pulled back in place and held with large ratchet straps to get me home. Tow bill alone would have exceeded cost of 12 new ends.

I need to do this myself, just too many other trucks having issues for me to feel comfortable about mine. I just need to deal with my engine first.

Here is the problem. When we articulate and go to extreme, the housing (of the bone) twists sideways. The rubber is supposed to take that compression (one one side of the shaft) and tension (on the other side) and return to it's straight position. As the rubber gets old, it doesn't take much to tear it and let in water, etc. Articulation being a twist action has a lot of side force.

There would seem to be a problem with having a full side-plate when you have the rear in a twist. Guessing, that twist from axle to frame might be 35 degree and the edge of the bone's joint would push out on the plate and break off or pull out the bolt. Twisting the bone is a lot of leverage to push against the plate.

after reading all the threads and watching you do yours, i came to the same conclusion - cheaper to fix than drive to suspension failure (dog bone separation). i had been inspecting mine regularly and two lowers just failed last week (as in picture in previous post). so your posts have been perfect timing. and on a different note the alternator is working like a champ - thanks for that.

tobyS - i think the suspension twist would not hit the safety ends, the ones i just bought are not full round like pictured above, but about 1-1/2 wide plate across. your concern makes me wonder which way i should install them (if it can matter) - vertical or horizontal (i don't do hard off road, so have never put my suspension in a hard twist). but if you are concerned - the hi-end ball joint or hyme-joint style replacement would be the way to go. they were about 130 each. everything i read indicates they are better in all aspects - but at 2x the cost. so for my wrecker i didn't see the value. the OEM lasted 30 yrs...LOL

tobyS said:

Here is the problem. When we articulate and go to extreme, the housing (of the bone) twists sideways. The rubber is supposed to take that compression (one one side of the shaft) and tension (on the other side) and return to it's straight position. As the rubber gets old, it doesn't take much to tear it and let in water, etc. Articulation being a twist action has a lot of side force.

There would seem to be a problem with having a full side-plate when you have the rear in a twist. Guessing, that twist from axle to frame might be 35 degree and the edge of the bone's joint would push out on the plate and break off or pull out the bolt. Twisting the bone is a lot of leverage to push against the plate.

Click to expand...

I thought the same, but once installed, the plate is equa-distant from the torque rod side, as the other side of the torque rod side is to the axle/frame bracket. So, that completely alleviated most all of my concern, because that would mean they are hitting there also, but they don't. I could cut them down into rectangles, but, probably not necessary at all. Very happy with the result. Easy to drill/tap with lathe and mill. Washers I custom ordered off a steel plate cutter on eBay.

gs, let me know if you need a photo or dimensions of the offset striking wrench I used. It is an Armstrong model 33-072, there were several on eBay when I bought it. I'll update this thread with how much I cut off the "top" side of the wrench head, since that piece is still here. Worked awesome, I didn't even have to pull a tire off, or the spring pack U-bolts, which would not have been the end of the world if I did have to do so.

I took a half inch off the top surface of the head of the wrench. You can do this easily with a 4" angle grinder and metal cutting disk. A pneumatic one will simply not be up to the task.

You'll have to work the wrench on each side of the U-bolt, but it is do-able, even to shear the cotter pin off.

I don't have any that are giving up that I know of so thankfully don't have to make that decision (knock on wood).