Started the van tie rod project 08-16-14

Some of the parts for the new tie rod arrived yesterday but I was working on the battery box so I put off messing with the tie rod until today.

The length of DOM tubing and the threaded inserts for the tie rod ends came in a long thin box stuffed with Styrofoam packing pellets. 

I haven’t received the Jam nut’s yet but that’s my fault for forgetting to order them with the rest of the parts.

The inserts are machined to fit into the tubing where they will be welded.

I spent the next hour putting parts together, checking measurements re-checking measurements and measuring again until I figured I had all the bases covered. I had to adjust for the lack of the jam nuts and leave some threads available for adjusting the toe in/out on the front wheels.
Eventually I was ready to cut the tube so I clamped it in the saw and let’er rip.

 
After the cut, I assembled the tie rod and rechecked the measurements.

Here is how the ends go on the tube. Imagine a jam nut locking it down.

Well, I figured that I had it all ready to weld until I took a closer look at the insert.

I am not sure how the jam nut is going to work against that tapered end of the insert. I may have to put the inserts in the lathe and cut that taper back some. That will affect the measurements a little, not to much I hope.
I won’t do anything more on the tie rod until the jam nuts arrive.

Patti and I went shopping to get food for when I am at the cabin next week.

We went to dinner at a Salvadorian restaurant called Pupusa. The food is good but we are still trying to figure out what to order and then how to eat it.

We each had a pork and cheese Pupusa which is a corn pancake stuffed with coked pork and cheese. It is served with a spicy shredded cabbage salad and a green or red sauce on the side. They are very good.

We also had a dish of deep fried yucca root with a small cup of some spicy cooked pork. We weren’t sure how to eat this but we finally just dipped the yucca in the pork and ate it that way.

The food is good but the service is slow. We were thinking of having some desert but the waitress didn’t come back so we just paid our bill at the cash register and went to Adels for dessert.

Patti had an awesome chocolate cake with ice-cream and I had a piece of blackberry pie ala mode.