Improved Tie Rod ends

[JOEZ33]

I've gone through 3 sets of tie rod ends on my 98 2 wheel drive explorer in the last 3 years. It's only gone offroad twice and both times we were crawling slowly, nothing severe at all. I mentioned this to the parts guy who's a friend of mine, and he immediately claims he knows the solution...

According to him, he went to a corporate meeting where all the major parts suppliers advertise their stuff and show the parts stores what they have available for the customers. He said that Moog and Ford got together and did a study to find out why the tie rods and ball joints wear out so frequently on the Explorer. As a result they came out with a new designed part called the "Moog Problem Solver". He sold it to me for $19, list price is almost $50 so I had to try it.

Side by side with the tie rod end that I took out, which was a TRW, it's much bigger. It weighs about a pound more. The threaded end is about 1/2" thicker mass around the threads, so there's no chance at all that it will ever flex. The area around the ball joint is also much thicker. This thing is just enormous. It also has a grease fitting and a lifetime warranty. I'm happy with it. At least I'll never have to pay for another tie rod end.

I don't know if his story is true about Moog doing a study and coming up with this "New designed part" but it looks promising.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Do you have a link for this part? I assume that it was $19 each.

 

[JOEZ33]

I can't find a link online to the part, or a good picture of it. I looked on Federal Mogul-Moog's website and they only had a generic picture, not one of the explorer's tie rod end. The "Problem Solver" is a line of parts they sell. Maybe they do research and beef up parts of cars that are known for wearing out. BTW the list price is only $29 not the $50 that I had originally thought.

 

[IZwack]

I've only changed outb the ball joints one time throughout the 6 years that I had the stock suspension on my 98. Are you getting an alignment every time you replace the ball joints? Because little things like camber that is out of spec will stress the ball joints laterally more than normal and therefore increase the wear rate.

 

[JOEZ33]

Each time I replace them I have the alignment done. Also the guy who does my alignments I've known for about 12 years. He is locally famous as "the guy to go to for aligments" since he has "It" I guess. Anyways, he has worked side by side with my cousin at the same dealership and really knows his stuff. He solved the alignment issue on my 350Z that even Nissan still can't figure out with TSB's on brand new 350 Z's.

There was a problem the last time he did my alignment, and I'm about 99% sure that he was the culprit. I changed my upper control arms (ball joint change) and I clearly remember fighting ALL 8 upper control arm camber adjustment plates. I brought it to him for alignment, and when I got it back it was clunking..... I went nuts for the last 6 months looking for the source, until today! He left out 2 camber adjustment plates on the driver side. On top of that the bolt was slightly loose and it clunked like hell constantly. At 60 mph it sounded like you were on a dirt road. For now I just tightened the hell out of it, but I need to replace the two missing camber plates. BTW the noise is completely gone for now.

 

[gavin]

htf do you forgot the alignment plates?!
those are how you adjust the alignment on the upper CA's.
that is terrible...

how'd he adjust the upper CA, smack it in and out with a hammer?

that's also very dangerous.


FYI, I'm still on the original inner and outer tierods, and TRE's.

although I've been through multiple sets of hub/bearing assy's and balljoints due to out-of-round rims my 33s are on.

 

[JOEZ33]

well he forgot one plate under the nut of the forward bushing, and one plate under the nut of the aft bushing. So each alignment/mounting bolt still had one adjustment plate, but the end with the nut was able to slide back and forth about 1/4 inch. I'm shocked that this guy of all people would forget them.

 

[IZwack]

As I remember it, those plates are not adjustable or rotated -- meaning the camber on the 2nd gen is fixed and can not be changed. This is why people who do the twist the Torsion Bars (for some lift) are forced to purchase aftermarket camber plates (which are round) to offset the new angle of the front suspension.

 

[Rick]

One of the things which makes Moog one of the best replacement front end component manufacturers is their upgrades of stock designs. They've been upgrading inferior stock components for decades.

 

[Lazzman]

Joe do you have a part number for these??

Summit racing sells Moog problem solvers but not the ones made for the Explorer.

Incidentaly I just installed some moog problem solver Sway bar end links on my X to replace the crappy energy suspention units. Boy what a difference, the components were so much more beefy and the center shaft was 25% thicker as were the lock nuts. Really could see the difference with them. More expensive than the Energy kit at $22 a piece from Rock auto but they are awesome.

I love stuff that is over built.

 

[JOEZ33]

I have the receipt at work with the part number so tomorrow I'll post the part number when I get to work. Just so you know, it's for the two wheel drive model. I talked to another mechanic today who's been with Chevy for about 12 years, and he also swears by the Moog Problem Solver product line. He said they have a few front end problems on the chevy's that are almost impossible to fix, but all you have to do is install the Moog part and the problem is fixed. Sounds promising. I'll be convinced in about a year from now if it isn't worn out again. Maybe this time it was worn out because of the missing camber plates.............

The first time I replaced the factory tie rod ends with 140,000 miles on them... with eBay cheap parts. Those lasted about 12K miles. Then I said that's it, I'm buying "TRW" since they're supposed to be top notch.... those lasted 20K miles...This time the Moog monster sized tie rods are in, we'll see what happens.

They (moog) have a patented ball joint tensioner built in, that's nothing like any other rod end. The part that holds the grease fitting is a seperate piece of metal that is pressed in and preloads the tension on the ball joint, which allows zero axial play. Apparantly a lot of the standard rod ends have plastic or weak soft metal inside to take up the clearance, but that doesn't last long at all. A lot of them have "built in" axial play- LOL, "built in" sounds like a salesman's excuse for why it's poorly built.

 

[Lazzman]

That would be great thanks.

I also noticed on the Summit site that the Problem solver tie rods were selling for about $55 a piece.

 

[carlover]

Hmmm i wonder if theyve done some upgrading to the inner tie rods as well. Im blowing through those every few months it seems.

 

[JOEZ33]

OK, the part number from my receipt says ES3461 Tie Rod Ends / Ends Moog Hope this helps.... One thing I noticed after searching online, that part number is the regular tie rod end, not the "Problem solver" line that he gave me...... Now I know why it only cost 19$, he manually entered the part number in his computer as the regular OEM replacement, even though the box says Moog Problem SOlver.... LOL, it's good to have a friend on the other side of the counter sometimes.

 

[Lazzman]

So the part number is not ES3461 for the new problem solver tie rod end?

 

[kythri]

Moog's slogan is "The Problem Solver". Just about all of their boxes of parts say "Problem Solver" on it.

Moog and TRW use the same part number, ES3461, and they're the same company (Federal-Mogul) - likely, the same part, in the aftermarket.