Thread: 66 Chevy Tie rod ends

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Okay,
I hope someone can help me out...I have a 66 Chevy II that the left front wheel needs to be toed-in. This is the problem, all the front end components were replaced when I bought the car, but the inner & outer tie rod ends are together and cannot be adjusted any further. The passenger side is fine even though there is not alot of adjustment left on it either. I'll admit I don't know sh*t about these older cars. Seemed to me that the tie rod ends were wrong. I looked in a couple of online retailer mailorder magazines and 1 says that 63-67 uses the same inner/outer tie rods. The other magazine shows a different part # for a 67 and no part # for a 66 (inner tie rod end). Went to a couple auto parts stores and looked at their tie rod ends that they stocked and they all resembled what I have installed already. There is one parts store that said that 66 and 67's had a different part number for inner tie rod ends and showed me the 67 tie rod end.
It's what I have on there now....they didn't have one of the 66 tie rod ends and couldn't tell me the difference between the two.
Hopefully someone knows more about this subject, that can clear up the confusion.....I did a little researching and found that 62 Novas had 2 different inner tie rod ends....a long and a short.
I notied the short ones are threaded all the way up the the ball connector, and wondering if those would work?? The ones I have now are probably the same length however theres probably a couple inches from the ball connector before the threads start....

I'll try to take a picture of my tie rods, like the saying a picture is worth a 1,000 words! The other option I have is cutting off about an inch and a half off the tie rod end and trying to thread the tie rod end a little higher towards the ball connector. Not sure if this can be done or not...but it's worth a shot if I cannot find the proper tie rod end. Wish that I had an original tie rod end off a 66 Nova to compare to.

Steve

Originally posted by SgtSteve
I'll try to take a picture of my tie rods, like the saying a picture is worth a 1,000 words! The other option I have is cutting off about an inch and a half off the tie rod end and trying to thread the tie rod end a little higher towards the ball connector. Not sure if this can be done or not...but it's worth a shot if I cannot find the proper tie rod end. Wish that I had an original tie rod end off a 66 Nova to compare to.

Steve

as long as you get your toe end set steve is really dont matter how you get there, it should drive ok. if you wont to center the steering wheel both sides will have to be moved the same. to give yourself a better idea as to what you need to do to center your steering wheel is by turning the wheel all the way to the left and then all the way to the right and then the center will be 1/2 of of the turns it took to get from lift to right, then look at the wheels and see where ea. one is pointing and that will tell you what you will have to do to keep your steering wheel stright if you wont to. if you dont care if the steering is centered then you dont need to worry about this.

Well,

With the steering box centered, the front passenger side is almost right on, but the left side is toed out about 2 inches.
I guess I'll figure something out....guess it will have to be McGyver'd to work right. It's just strange that nothing appears to be bent or out of line but still seems too short on the tie rod ends.
Anyways, I'm attaching a couple of pics...maybe someone could tell somethng from one of them.

Heres another picture with both inner/outer tie rod ends....

Originally posted by SgtSteve
Well,

With the steering box centered, the front passenger side is almost right on, but the left side is toed out about 2 inches.
I guess I'll figure something out....guess it will have to be McGyver'd to work right. It's just strange that nothing appears to be bent or out of line but still seems too short on the tie rod ends.
Anyways, I'm attaching a couple of pics...maybe someone could tell somethng from one of them.

if thats the drivers side and the tie rod ends is on the back side of the a-frame and the tire needs to be towed in then you need to screw the tie rods out and it looks like to you can do that with what you have.

My dad came over today, and I think we figured it out. The camber needed to be adjusted and once we adjusted the camber on both wheels, there was enough room to adjust the toe-in with the toe rod ends that I have now. Maybe this weekend I can take it to get a proper alignment and not rely on eyeballing the front wheels.

Also today, I went to autozone and exchanged the remanufactured rochester carb that I bought there a couple months ago. The first one seemed like the accelerator pump was not working properly. The new one seems to work better, but needs to be adjusted for proper idle.