Posted by Greg Coffin [67.176.56.96] on Monday, January 19, 2015 at 11:31:30 :
In Reply to: question about tie rod end hole reaming posted by Galen [214.28.226.229] on Monday, January 19, 2015 at 09:10:25 :
The Ford and GM taper is *slightly* shallower than the Dodge taper. My recollection is that the Dodge taper is about 7.25 deg, so if you ream the knuckles with the GM taper, the tie rod end will be a little loose at the threaded end. Not much, but a little.
Having said that, the tie rod tapers on my 6x6 were all wallowed out when I bought it. I looked for a while and was unable to find the right ream for the Dodge taper, so I welded in some GM inserts. Before I did the work I took the parts over to a neighbor who builds custom race car frames. He said that even though they weren't a perfect fit, they would work just fine - might even have a little swaging action to keep the parts tight. I'll probably retighten the nuts after a few 100 miles to be sure everything is good.