Is it possible to replace just the outer drag link end?

[dpike]

you can probably find a takeoff if you put an ad up in the fleamarket and save yourself a few hundred dollars if you didn't intend to upgrade it anyway.

Sponsored

 

[roaniecowpony]

So more like this…. ($130 more than oem end ) is the install pretty straight forward? Something I can do in the garage?

Just a note about SteerSmarts draglinks and tierods; they have a tapered bushing on the end joints, instead of the traditional tapered solid shank of the joint stud. The SteerSmarts joint studs are unique in that they have a straight shank. The purpose of these separate tapered bushings is to allow them to be used on either a flipped draglink and tierod setup or standard setup, just by moving the tapered bushing orientation. The issue I had while running these was that the tapered bushings can lose their ability to seat tightly in the tapered hole in the knuckle and clamp on the straight shank of the joint stud, and therefore, allow rotation when the steering is moved. This happened to my tierod and no amount of tightening and loctite would keep it from loosening after a handful of miles. The tapered bushings should be replaced after torquing them down once or twice. These tapered bushings are not a great design, IMO.

I know of one person that had this same issue in a 392 JL and he over-torqued it in an effort to keep it tight and the stud failed right after it had been driven over 100 mph. After hearing of this, I replaced my Steersmarts tierod and draglink with Metalcloak. YMMV

 

[Roky]

you can probably find a takeoff if you put an ad up in the fleamarket and save yourself a few hundred dollars if you didn't intend to upgrade it anyway.

Good idea but only if it’s free, there’s no way in hell I would spend money on an oem drag link….. lol..

 

[kapk22]

Just a note about SteerSmarts draglinks and tierods; they have a tapered bushing on the end joints, instead of the traditional tapered solid shank of the joint stud. The SteerSmarts joint studs are unique in that they have a straight shank. The purpose of these separate tapered bushings is to allow them to be used on either a flipped draglink and tierod setup or standard setup, just by moving the tapered bushing orientation. The issue I had while running these was that the tapered bushings can lose their ability to seat tightly in the tapered hole in the knuckle and clamp on the straight shank of the joint stud, and therefore, allow rotation when the steering is moved. This happened to my tierod and no amount of tightening and loctite would keep it from loosening after a handful of miles. The tapered bushings should be replaced after torquing them down once or twice. These tapered bushings are not a great design, IMO.

I know of one person that had this same issue in a 392 JL and he over-torqued it in an effort to keep it tight and the stud failed right after it had been driven over 100 mph. After hearing of this, I replaced my Steersmarts tierod and draglink with Metalcloak. YMMV

Ruh oh!! That’s good to know. Thank you

 

[kapk22]

you can probably find a takeoff if you put an ad up in the fleamarket and save yourself a few hundred dollars if you didn't intend to upgrade it anyway.

I would do this if I wasn’t running the 37” mud grapplers. The added tire and wheel weight, along with the crappy roads here are taking a toll on the Jeep. I keep reading Metalcloak makes good stuff.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I would do this if I wasn’t running the 37” mud grapplers. The added tire and wheel weight, along with the crappy roads here are taking a toll on the Jeep. I keep reading Metalcloak makes good stuff.

Metalcloak tierods and draglinks are made from .375" wall 4130 chromoly steel. Whereas some other makers use aluminum tubing.

 

[3TV]

I just replaced the tie rod and drag link on my 392 with Metalcloak parts. The increase in stoutness is impressive. With the stock parts I could see movement in the tie rod ends on the drag link if I watched while someone else turned the steering wheel back and forth. Drivability is much better with the new parts, and the loose floaty feel it had developed from worn stock parts is gone. It drives better than brand new.

I also replaced the ball joints with Dynatrac ball joints. Sadly, I wasn't surprised to find that the stock ball joints were already worn and loose. The right upper ball joint was sloppy loose. And all of this wear with just 13,000 miles on the Jeep, but a fair amount of those miles being off road miles with 37s.

 

[kapk22]

I just replaced the tie rod and drag link on my 392 with Metalcloak parts. The increase in stoutness is impressive. With the stock parts I could see movement in the tie rod ends on the drag link if I watched while someone else turned the steering wheel back and forth. Drivability is much better with the new parts, and the loose floaty feel it had developed from worn stock parts is gone. It drives better than brand new.

I also replaced the ball joints with Dynatrac ball joints. Sadly, I wasn't surprised to find that the stock ball joints were already worn and loose. The right upper ball joint was sloppy loose. And all of this wear with just 13,000 miles on the Jeep, but a fair amount of those miles being off road miles with 37s.

Thank you. I’m thinking about just going that route then. Considering what has been said about the yeti

 

[kapk22]

Has anyone had experience with Cavfab products? I keep seeing them pop up and this looks impressive…. A little hesitant though, considering they just came out with it for the JL.

 

[3TV]

CavFab makes good equipment. I am running their front and rear bumpers and their tire carrier, and they are as good or better than anything on the market. I'm sure their steering parts would be equally as good. The MetalCloak has been around longer and the needed hardware to attach steering stabilizers is readily available. I almost got the CavFab set up, except when they first came out they didn't have a 2" diameter tierod clamp to mount my Fox ATS stabilizer. They may have that issue resolved now though.

I have no idea if 2" diameter aluminum is stronger than 1 5/8" diameter chromoly steel with a 0.375" wall thickness.

 

[FiveBoro]

Just a note about SteerSmarts draglinks and tierods; they have a tapered bushing on the end joints, instead of the traditional tapered solid shank of the joint stud. The SteerSmarts joint studs are unique in that they have a straight shank. The purpose of these separate tapered bushings is to allow them to be used on either a flipped draglink and tierod setup or standard setup, just by moving the tapered bushing orientation. The issue I had while running these was that the tapered bushings can lose their ability to seat tightly in the tapered hole in the knuckle and clamp on the straight shank of the joint stud, and therefore, allow rotation when the steering is moved. This happened to my tierod and no amount of tightening and loctite would keep it from loosening after a handful of miles. The tapered bushings should be replaced after torquing them down once or twice. These tapered bushings are not a great design, IMO.

I know of one person that had this same issue in a 392 JL and he over-torqued it in an effort to keep it tight and the stud failed right after it had been driven over 100 mph. After hearing of this, I replaced my Steersmarts tierod and draglink with Metalcloak. YMMV

They now use a standard taper on the bottom mount. Installed one last week and it's pure beef!

 

[roaniecowpony]

They now use a standard taper on the bottom mount. Installed one last week and it's pure beef!

I see they are still using the tapered bushings on the tierod. They work when new. After they've been torqued a few times, or overtorqued even once, they lose their ability to clamp and prevent the rotation and loosening. You just have to be willing to buy new ones at $30 a crack.

 

[Mjr.Crash]

Good idea but only if it’s free, there’s no way in hell I would spend money on an oem drag link….. lol..

Well.. thats why im replacing mine .. tho not sure now if with a better option ? Already bought the oem end then realized duh , the other end is probably wore also - 105k ..

** Then again i got 105k on oem so why am i looking to get anything other then oem replacement ? the bar itself is ok i believe ( no visible signs of damage ) **

so then after long night of on line searching and not looking to spend $400 or better on a drag link fer Fk sake , and at that point a couple shots of kentucky burbon i now have a mammoth drag link sitting in my front room..

So why am i writting this .? As i was placing the drag link back into the packing box to take to local shop to instal and allignment .. the end tab of the box suddenly was spottlighted like in a movie --
"MADE IN CHINA"
I felt sudden blood drain and then came anger..
Of course "made in china" .. what isn't that's priced under $400 ,,
Hmm return it ,, tho then I'm back to almost where it all started .. with one new OE end .. feeling stupid , frustrated , and beins i need new conspiracy theory's as all my ones prior came true , do i forge ahead with fake confidence and have the shop install the mammoth drag link ( and grease it - currently i have no place to pull in and do all this myself ).. or bring just the oe end to shop and tell em to replace that and get allingment ( if they not question i just have one end new to replace ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ lol ) ..
Or
Return for hopefull full refund and wait a few more weeks for $$ to sink about $400 in just a fkn drag link ..
daily driver - 105k willys unlimited sport 3.0 diesel..
80% highway miles and rest moderate off road - mostly forest service / logger roads throughout oregon - mostly central oregon and mt.hood ..
Am planning on 2.5" lift not soon tho - with that id be running 35" and looking to use 20"rim vs current 17" rim on 32" snow tires. which i swap out in spring back to my oe tires 265's i think .. anyway sorry i digress alittle , and tend to start chassing different rabbits in all directions which is why i pulled trigger on the mammoth drag link in first place ,, damn rabbits and good whiskey ..

Now i look at reviews and all are either about the LCA's or track bar and not the drag link - but whatever ( back to my conspiracy theroys again ) .. uh .. oh anyway here's the link

https://www.extremeterrain.com/mammoth-jeep-wrangler-hd-drag-link-j190511.html

Thanks for letting me rant this out .. seems i gain better clarity when i write my thoughts out ,, and i welcome any comments and advice ..

 

[Mjr.Crash]

Mammoth vs OEM ..
Not real confident in whats used to seal the boots on the mammoth .. just a steel ring ? I already moved it up and down with rather ease with two fingers ,, so when filled with grease hmmm
And one end of the bar uses an insert tapperd the other end does not ..

 

[Roky]

Well.. thats why im replacing mine .. tho not sure now if with a better option ? Already bought the oem end then realized duh , the other end is probably wore also - 105k ..

** Then again i got 105k on oem so why am i looking to get anything other then oem replacement ? the bar itself is ok i believe ( no visible signs of damage ) **

so then after long night of on line searching and not looking to spend $400 or better on a drag link fer Fk sake , and at that point a couple shots of kentucky burbon i now have a mammoth drag link sitting in my front room..

So why am i writting this .? As i was placing the drag link back into the packing box to take to local shop to instal and allignment .. the end tab of the box suddenly was spottlighted like in a movie --
"MADE IN CHINA"
I felt sudden blood drain and then came anger..
Of course "made in china" .. what isn't that's priced under $400 ,,
Hmm return it ,, tho then I'm back to almost where it all started .. with one new OE end .. feeling stupid , frustrated , and beins i need new conspiracy theory's as all my ones prior came true , do i forge ahead with fake confidence and have the shop install the mammoth drag link ( and grease it - currently i have no place to pull in and do all this myself ).. or bring just the oe end to shop and tell em to replace that and get allingment ( if they not question i just have one end new to replace ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ lol ) ..
Or
Return for hopefull full refund and wait a few more weeks for $$ to sink about $400 in just a fkn drag link ..
daily driver - 105k willys unlimited sport 3.0 diesel..
80% highway miles and rest moderate off road - mostly forest service / logger roads throughout oregon - mostly central oregon and mt.hood ..
Am planning on 2.5" lift not soon tho - with that id be running 35" and looking to use 20"rim vs current 17" rim on 32" snow tires. which i swap out in spring back to my oe tires 265's i think .. anyway sorry i digress alittle , and tend to start chassing different rabbits in all directions which is why i pulled trigger on the mammoth drag link in first place ,, damn rabbits and good whiskey ..

Now i look at reviews and all are either about the LCA's or track bar and not the drag link - but whatever ( back to my conspiracy theroys again ) .. uh .. oh anyway here's the link

https://www.extremeterrain.com/mammoth-jeep-wrangler-hd-drag-link-j190511.html

Thanks for letting me rant this out .. seems i gain better clarity when i write my thoughts out ,, and i welcome any comments and advice ..

I don’t have any hands on experience with the Mammoth drag link. If the only two choices are oem and mammoth, I’d give the mammoth a shot…. I totally understand seeing made in china, definitely not a fan….. It does say it has a 3 year warranty……sorry I can’t be more helpful…..

Sponsored