Tie Rods, Center Link, 2wd vs 4wd

[massacre]

Hello,

I need to replace all of my steering linkage, 1994 4dr XLT 4wd

ordered parts before realizing that the 2wd and 4wd steering linkages are different.

the 2wd center link and inner drivers tie rod are bigger in diameter, seems like 1”
the 4wd center link and inner drivers tie rod are smaller, seems like 7/8”
I have the 7/8” sleeves.

I now have the correct parts ordered, but I will end up having both sets here and returning one of them lol

Are the balljoints different between these two?
is there a reason the 2wd is thicker And the 4wd is thinner (clearance?)
can I just swap the thicker 2wd parts over to the 4wd front end? I know I can get new sleeves and outer tie rods, but do the 2wd tie rods fit into the spindles?

Thanks in advance for any help on this

 

[massacre]

Well it looks li,e 25 views and no responses.
once I have all the parts in front of me, I’ll take some pics and post up the results in case someone runs into this in the future

 

[massacre]

2wd stuff won’t fit, has different bends.
does the tie rod mount under the mount on the steering knuckle on the 2wd?
that’s what it seems like.

I’ll post the part #s here so maybe someone else can learn from my stupidity and not and waste their time and money.

2wd center link = F1TZ3304-A
4wd center link = FOTZ3304-A

2wd inner tierod left = F1TZ-3A130-A
4wd inner tierod left =FOTZ3A130-A

 

[RangerX]

Maybe you’re breaking new ground here, maybe the people who have tried this just haven’t seen the thread yet. Either way, good info to share.

 

[Roadrunner777]

With the understanding that this is just a guess...

The front diff is from DANA. I would expect that they would have designed, built, and delivered complete assemblies to Ford factories, including the steering components that mount to it, for ease of assembly into the vehicle on an assembly line. Whereas, the 2WD design is completely from Ford engineers and they... you have to know engineers, they are not happy copying something from another company.

It could be that the thinner 4WD parts are made from a stronger steel, so could be made thinner. It could be that the vendor for the 2WD parts could make them more economically with a thicker diameter to more closely match existing forge tooling.

I doubt you will find an authoritative answer unless you reach the handful of Ford engineers that worked on it. I'm just sitting here brainstorming, but this is my best and almost uninformed guess.

 

[410Fortune]

Ive never had the 2wd stuff in my hands sorry cannot help
But we are reading this and watching! Learning. caps on

 

[massacre]

Still waiting for the 4wd parts to arrive. Once they do, I will lay them on the floor next to each other and get some pics.
from the bends on the CL and left ITR, it seems like the 2wd has different steering knuckles.
either The tierod mounts are lower on the 2wd than the 4wd, or the tierod mounts from below on 2wd and above on the 4wd.
i tried to search for pics of a 2wd first gen front end, but can’t find any.
can anyone find a pic?
thanks

 

[massacre]

Well I have 2 center links here and 2 driver’s inner tie rods.
one of the inner tie rods seems correct, but neither of the center links are correct. Threaded portion is too big to fit into the sleeves
i think my problem is buying OEM stuff from ebay, maybe wrong part #s.
i might just say eff it and just get aftermarket stuff from Napa.

 

[massacre]

So Tasca ford is killing me here
ordered outer tierods and sleeves from them over a week ago. I got emails saying shipped but nothing showed up.
called them on the phone and now they are saying they do not even have the parts in the warehouse.
parts are 3 days out and I’ll go pick them up since I am pretty close to them.
so for anyone looking for parts, Tasca is having some serious problems getting it done.
they are usually really good too.
looking for the tie rods and sleeves to see what fits what as far as all these tie rods I have here

 

[massacre]

So my parts from Tasca came today, they made it right by shipping them fast.
Not sure what happened, but once the parts were in my hand, I was able to figure this out.

First off, the center link and drivers inner tie rod are two different diameters, and take 2 different diameter sleeves. And 2 different diameter tie rods (threaded portion).
This for both the 2wd and the 4wd.
The center link is bigger in diameter than the inner drivers side. Both 2wd and 4wd

The 2wd center link and inner drivers side have different bends in them that will not line up with the spindles on the 4wd.
The 4wd center link and inner drivers side are more straight and they line up with the 4wd spindles perfectly.
I don’t have a 2wd truck here to see how these would fit a 2wd.

So that brings me to the part #s. I checked these part #s at the Tasca Ford website, so they may be correct, maybe not.
4wd passenger side tie rod: fotz-3a131-a
4wd drivers side tie rod: fotz-3a131-b

There are 2 adjusting sleeves
Passenger side: e7tz-3281-c (larger diameter)
Drivers side: e7tz-3281-b (smaller diameter)
i don’t have part #s for the 2wd sleeves, but what I can tell you is that the larger of the two 4wd sleeves, will only fit on the smaller of the two 2wd ends. So the bigger 2wd center link takes a sleeve that is even bigger than that.

I gave the #s for both 2wd and 4wd center links and drivers inner tie rods in my first post.

Just finished installing all the new parts on my 4wd and everything fits great and it steers so much better now!
There was a little bit of slop everywhere, 100k miles on original parts.