Day 63 - 28 Chev Ute Restoration (3rd November 2015)

Today we have steering, well ................. we have 2 wheels connected and waiting for the drag link and steering column, but man what a struggle it was to get this far.

I decided to do the steering with the original open tie rod ends, and once on the road will convert to the modern type tie rod ends as per the Red Chev.

As a slight diversion thought I would fit tie rod ends that looked the same but had a factory fitted grease nipple and multiple split pin mounting holes.

Seemed like a good idea.

MISTAKE...... opening for the tie rod ball was about 20mm further out, which resulted in no possible chance of aligning the wheels, as there was not enough adjustment because the tie rod was too long with the different tie rod ends.

After about 3 hours of mucking around trying to get the tie rod thread further into the tie rod end, chucked them both in the corner and very quickly fitted standard tie rod ends.

Alignment done, job finished, wheels aligned, lesson learned.

If I wanted to fit the "non standard" tie rod ends, I would need to cut the tie rod back about 25mm on each end.

All is well, job done, peace has returned to the restoration shed.