D
Deleted member 32467
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I have heavy duty tie rods on my 2006 LBZ, about 98K miles and am tearing tie rod end boots. The truck is leveled, I am currently researching if my front end is cranked up too much and excessive angle on the tie rod is causing this issue. The truck has been at this height for 10 years with no issues, original owner, my first real mod was the steering upgrades: Tie rods, billet pitman, billet idler, super swinger bearing thing, welded in a brace, set the factory center link up in the mill for the larger bolt holes.
These heavy duty tie rod boots tore quickly on both sides, not sure how many miles they went, but I noticed it a few months after installing. I don't drive my truck much.
Here is the torn boot when I was tearing it down to get access to my exhaust manifolds and realizing I had a problem:
Torn boot vs new boot sourced from the original company I bought the tie rods from:
Notice how far the old boot has been compressed.
Here is my truck on a jack simulating ride height, front suspension is torqued down, have not installed the tie rod end yet:
Here is the tie rod just being started into the knuckle, notice the boot:
Wheels straight with joint torqued down, see the bulge all the way around but heavier towards the inside edge?:
Steering knuckle turned in towards engine:
Steering knuckle turned out away from engine:
During this mockup and while swinging the steering back and forth, the new boot tore.
My last setup was with all stock everything except the tie rod end, the boots tore.
This new setup includes the Kryptonite UCA's, I was mocking everything up when I noticed I was going to tear the new boots again.
My front end had 2 new timken bearings installed when the tie rods went in as maintenance and my ball joints were tight. I decided to get new UCA's to help with the ball joint angle for peace of mind after some reading up on the subject, in hindsight I actually have always thought my truck drove great.
I did notice the clearance between the Kryptonite bump pad, and the frame bump stop, is tight, maybe 1/2". I think I read 5/8" was ideal? I only have one side of the truck off the jack stand though, clearances could change, but only slightly. My kryptonite sway bar link ends fit just fine, if the truck was cranked way too high I don't see how they would have fit as well as they did.
It doesn't seem to be that the front of the truck being 1/8", or even 1/4", too high up would put that much inclination on the steering joints to bulge out and tear the boot like that. The old boots tore where the inner bulge was, but really, even if the joint was perpendicular to the steering knuckle, the boots are still so tall they bulge out and will tear.
Any advice?
These heavy duty tie rod boots tore quickly on both sides, not sure how many miles they went, but I noticed it a few months after installing. I don't drive my truck much.
Here is the torn boot when I was tearing it down to get access to my exhaust manifolds and realizing I had a problem:
Torn boot vs new boot sourced from the original company I bought the tie rods from:
Notice how far the old boot has been compressed.
Here is my truck on a jack simulating ride height, front suspension is torqued down, have not installed the tie rod end yet:
Here is the tie rod just being started into the knuckle, notice the boot:
Wheels straight with joint torqued down, see the bulge all the way around but heavier towards the inside edge?:
Steering knuckle turned in towards engine:
Steering knuckle turned out away from engine:
During this mockup and while swinging the steering back and forth, the new boot tore.
My last setup was with all stock everything except the tie rod end, the boots tore.
This new setup includes the Kryptonite UCA's, I was mocking everything up when I noticed I was going to tear the new boots again.
My front end had 2 new timken bearings installed when the tie rods went in as maintenance and my ball joints were tight. I decided to get new UCA's to help with the ball joint angle for peace of mind after some reading up on the subject, in hindsight I actually have always thought my truck drove great.
I did notice the clearance between the Kryptonite bump pad, and the frame bump stop, is tight, maybe 1/2". I think I read 5/8" was ideal? I only have one side of the truck off the jack stand though, clearances could change, but only slightly. My kryptonite sway bar link ends fit just fine, if the truck was cranked way too high I don't see how they would have fit as well as they did.
It doesn't seem to be that the front of the truck being 1/8", or even 1/4", too high up would put that much inclination on the steering joints to bulge out and tear the boot like that. The old boots tore where the inner bulge was, but really, even if the joint was perpendicular to the steering knuckle, the boots are still so tall they bulge out and will tear.
Any advice?
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