Posted by Tim Holloway on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 22:42:27 :
WellI took the numbers that Vaughn had come up with as a possibility for the tie rod ends in to my local parts store. The owner had been digging and had come up with the same numbers. He searched all over and found a pair in New Hampshire. They were ordered and promised for today. I got rained out on the jobsite at noon so I went to get the tie rod end. He takes it out of the box, at first glance it looked perfect! then on second glance the new one looked a tad kinneyer. Out come the calipers and sure enough, they were wrong. Big bummer! There happened to be the Rep from one of the suppliers there and he started looking through the Moog book. Every now and then he would head back to the rear and come back empty handed. About the 6th time he came back with a box. We open it up and sure enough, right on his shelf was the correct end! What luck. Doug checked the computer and said, wow, I have both the left and the right! I only needed the right so I took that. I drove to my shop, about 8 miles and went to install the end. I could not get ti to thread into the tie rod. I compared the threads and realised I had a left. Damn, back to the parts store to swap out the ends. Back to the shop, STILL cant thread it on. Found a burr on the starting thread, filed it off and it still wouldnt go. I compared it to the old one and the threads didnt look the same to me, one left one right. Feeling like I must have STUPID written in bold letters on my forehead I headed back to the parts store. Doug compared the 2 and agreed that the 2 new ones were both leftys even though the box on one said right hand. Great! He got on the phone and found one in Burlington, about 20 minutes away. He even had them take it out of the box and verify that it was a right hand thread. It was, and he sent one of his employees in to pick it up for me. Finally got back to the shop and it spun right in like it was supposed to! Whew.
So, the correct Moog part numbers for 57 W-100 tie rod ends are:
ES2847RT
ES2847LT
The truck is loaded onto the trailer, ready to head to West Virginia right after work tomorrow. Anyone still sitting on the fence, lets gitterdone! Have you ever regretted going to a Power Wagon Rally?
Tim
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