Poor mans rack and pinion/drag link for beam type rail

[Gary Massin-Ball]

Just thought I'd share what I did to make the damage stop on the front of my sand car on the cheap!

I was looking to get rid of the bump steer from the drivers side or my rail when landing airtime.

Thought of converting to rack and pinion but did not want to shell out the $$.

After many months of thinking about various way to do it I came up with this.

Taking the short left side tie rod off and adding a second right side tie rod from the left spindle to where it intersects with the right side tie rod drilling a hole and attaching the left to the right.

I broke the first set up (i knew it would) as I did not re-inforce the right side tie rod but it worked great!

These pics are of the second attempt with a re-inforced tie rod. I have 10 hours on this set up with lots of hard abuse and it works as hoped. I get zero bump steer and no bent or broken parts.

My avatar is part of the last test session. I hit that hill bout 5 time just like that with a passenger with no damage whatsoever.

Before the mods If the front end just came off the ground and back down hard The tie rod and or the steering arm on the left would bend. I even peeled the left tire off the rim once.

A jump like this would have destryed my front end before the mods!

Gary.

[BugMan114]

wait, i'm lost. forgive the newbish question, but how does that prevent the damage from occuring? it just seems like now all the force from both wheels is now on passener side tie rod, no? couldn't you have simply added bracing to both tie rods, and achieved the same effect? please explain . thanks
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Aircooled Airheads

Why the hell do they call it a gland nut. its obviously a big fat bolt!!!

[takotruckin]

Interesting idea.

The problem with vw's is that the left tie rod is so short it will tend to bind when the suspension cycles, causing bumpsteer and in the OP's case, broken parts
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[earthquake]

Gary
Looks very similar to a ford truck with "twin I beam" front suspension. I have been thinking about a system that leaves the stock box where its at and mounting a idler arm in the middle with a short drag link between the box and idler arm and use two equal length tie rods to the steering arms on the spindles.

Earthquake
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[olmer2]

Two thumbs up Gary!! Looks great I've been fighting bump steer with my cut/turn frond as well. Nice work! I know what I'll be doing later this week!

[Gary Massin-Ball]

Thanks olmer! It was a year of running it through in my head before i got around to actually doin it.......Very glad I did.

Yes earthquake your idea would look like a super beetle steering. A little more work but should work as well or better.
Gary.

[Vanapplebomb]

Does the tie rod end go all they way through the tie rod? I didn't think the stubs were any longer than the rod is thick.

I can't tell exactly how the two are attached from the picture. Did you have to drill and tap the tie rod for the stub coming out of the rod end or does it actually make it all the way through so you can tread a nut on to hold it together?
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[77charger]

I am using the china heavy duty rack and pinion(180 bucks) along with some custom made tie chromo tie rods i think it was about (100 bucks) for the rods and ends(international).

May sound pricey but i can tell you the hits i have taken in glamis would have ripped the stock tie rods apart along with a spindle.Couple witch eyes and last trip did a drop off about 6 ft down trail just dropped and i was going too fast to slow it down front end plowed good.Never felt better about having combo spindles here.Pretty much felt the belts get real tight when we hit.
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[bdkw1]

That will have a lot of bumpsteer on articulation. You would have been better off center mounting the box and running equal length tie rods.

[Vanapplebomb]