So How About Heim Ends?

[spicergear]

After reading through a bunch of posts lately and knowing that loading up the trucks and going off road (to get somewhere not just wheeling) can overstress the rubber end links and pop them. So I ask, why not large Heim ends on a custom thickwall tube? I can surmise that the rubber helps stiffen/absorb small movements in the rear suspension and takes some little wiggles out of it like a shock absorber but they break so there should be something better. It also wouldn't take much doing whatsoever to slap on a panhard bar from the inside of the left/driver's side frame rail over to a mount on the top cover of the differential. That would take care of the small movements and still allow the suspension to move like normal. It just bugs me these things break and the new ones could be NOS and years and years old. I've not had the best experience with NOS seals so putting my faith in a crucial part of the rear suspension that may be older than the truck yet new just doesn't really give me a feel good feeling about the repair. $40 a piece doesn't help when there's 12 of them.

 

[hot rod deuce]

Good call, I have had been looking around. I have a dealership wth QA1. I have bought hundereds of smaller ones from them for street rods. Last time I check with them they only had 1" and it looked a little light. Some one else may make bigger ones. They are just an hour drive from me.

I have been considering ball bushings out of cylinder ends but the steel on steel is just a little sloppy.

 

[hot rod deuce]

DT

 

[BFR]

what about Currie's Johnny Joint?

 

[Big Mike's Motor Pool]

monster trucks use 1"x1.25" joints. regular strenght in that size is good for 43,555 lbs they prolly would hold up nicely. you can look on the poly performance website at different typs of heims and they give strenght numbers also
http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/home.php?cat=27

 

[tsmall07]

Check out Jonnie Joints. They're stronger than heims.

http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/johnnyjoints.aspx

 

[tsmall07]

Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

what about Currie's Johnny Joint?

You beat me to it (I got caught up in my show with the response half finished), but I provided a link!

I win

 

[hot rod deuce]

RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

Here is a link to the industrial end of the page. http://qa1.thomasnet.com/category/inch-rod-ends?

Edit:

Here is a link to large male: http://qa1.thomasnet.com/viewitems/industrial-products-rod-ends-3-piece-precision/km-large-bore-rod-ends-2?&bc=1002|3001275|1051|3001272&forward=1

here is a link to large female: http://qa1.thomasnet.com/viewitems/industrial-products-rod-ends-3-piece-precision/kf-large-bore-rod-ends-2?&bc=1002|3001275|1051|3001273&forward=1


Sounds like all we need are some tapered sleeves to put in the exisiting hole, slap a bolt through, add the heim joint and a nut.

Would be a cake walk to thread a hunk of DOM for the link.

This would be perfect, I have found that all the factory suspension is never squared now we finaly have adjustment.

 

[goldneagle]

RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

I have been reading this link but i do not understand what you are trying to do. Can anyone explain it in plain ENGLISH? I am not familiar with these technical terms... Pictures would be best.

 

[FreightTrain]

RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

well,Heims would wear out fast.They are not sealed and dirt,water,crud would get in there and woller them out pretty quick.They work great on a race car/monster truck since they are only used for a few moments a week.

 

[M-1028]

Re: RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

well,Heims would wear out fast.They are not sealed and dirt,water,crud would get in there and woller them out pretty quick.They work great on a race car/monster truck since they are only used for a few moments a week.

Actually most of the better hiems are sealed, there injected with nylon to keep out dirt and water. The do really well on our off road only trucks and they get the tar beat out of em. From my experience with them they last ALOT longer than TRE (tie rod ends). The most important thing to remeber is you get what you pay for.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

Dumb question but what does the stock bushing setup look like?

 

[m-35tom]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

why not just buy new, not nos??

 

[m35a2cowner]

What I know

[I have been reading this link but i do not understand what you are trying to do. Can anyone explain it in plain ENGLISH? I am not familiar with these technical terms... Pictures would be best.quote] ---- Ditto, I think I know but I don't know if what I know is the what those in the know are talking about.[/quote]

 

[Big Mike's Motor Pool]

Re: RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

well,Heims would wear out fast.They are not sealed and dirt,water,crud would get in there and woller them out pretty quick.They work great on a race car/monster truck since they are only used for a few moments a week.

Actually most of the better hiems are sealed, there injected with nylon to keep out dirt and water. The do really well on our off road only trucks and they get the tar beat out of em. From my experience with them they last ALOT longer than TRE (tie rod ends). The most important thing to remeber is you get what you pay for.

i agree, my friends jeep was fitted with a 4 link and 2.5 ton axles, the suspension was a four link set up. the truck was beat to death by multiple driver every weekend until it was too cold to wheel. that went on for 3 years like that. the truck ended up getting crushed in an accident on the way home from okeechobee mudfest last febuary. the heims got sold and are in another truck right now still good as new

 

[Recovry4x4]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

Greasable heims exist also, just don't know about size.

 

[Trango]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: So How About Heim Ends?

Hi Tom,

I'd have concerns about longevity from mud and grit. I also like to, when making suspension links for vehicles that see the road, use a heim (Spherical Rod End/SRE) on one side, and then something that will absorb some impact loads on the other side. So, maybe a heim and a really hard durometer urethane bushing, or a heim and a johnny joint, or even a heim and a Rubicon Express flex joint. I've found that using heims on both ends tends to wear things out quickly, unless you oversize the heck out of the heims... meaning, $80 heims on both sides, on a vehicle that weighs 4000lbs. On the deuce, you'd be looking at some seriously big hoss heims, if that was still your route.

By the way, on a vehicle of this size and weight, I would not go with the Currie Johnnie Joints or the RE Flex joints - they utilize 9/16" bolts, and that's an undesirable size for me for heavy vehicles. When I redid the front suspension on the buggy a while ago, I made a humungo wishbone lower that used urethane on the two axle attachment points, and V'ed up to a 1" bore SRE that bolted up to a massive crossmember. This SRE is a desert racing piece, has a 100,000 lb test, and is then pressed into a weld-in cup. To be sure, it is not shaped like the standard "heim" that threads into your threaded control arm - this is just the SRE, which, again, is pressed into a smoothbore mount.

I've also been thinking about making a panhard bar to take out some of the rear tandem wiggle, much like heavy duties run on tandems (which are mostly airbag suspensions, but you get the idea. I've already tightened up the leaf pockets on the tandems by welding 1x2x.25 "shims" vertically into the slots, so the panhard would be the next step.

Oh yeah, I was going to make sure the bogie bearings were tight, and then I totally forgot! So, well, that may be a good thing to ensure as well.

Time and money have beeb limiting factors these days. Well, mostly time.

 

[hot rod deuce]

How about if you just went to the local truck shop, dug around in their parts room until you came out with a panhard bar the lengh you need for boggie arms. I was just looking at the suspension in our W900. It is Newway 52000 pound on road and 80,000 pound under 30 MPH. the pan hard bar is bigger than the boggies in my deuce. If you dont like the pins that go through throw them away and make up a bolt with a tapper sleeve to fit the tappered hole. The bars are about 100 bucks each and you get two ends. WORST case is you need to buy them long and cut them down and put a pipe over the out side.

Trango, good call on the shims, I did this as well. what do you think about tri-angulated upper boggie arms, that way you dont get the side to side deviation of the axle.

 

[Trango]

You know, I think it would be easier to just throw a brace and panhard on, say, the rear axle there and call it good, rather than rework the stock arms.

Good call on the truck parts bin. This project looks like it's sliding ever more to the right, so I need ease over anything else.

 

[hot_rod_deuce_2]

Just another thought but you can go to tractor supply and get a strut bar with heims and the link for 20 bucks and the heims are about 1x3/4 I think. I have cut them in half and sliped them it to a 1 1/4 schd 40 pipe and made them in a bunch of sizes.