uprated rx7 fd track rods and ends

[sammysideways]

Ive been looking and I cant seem to find any uprated tie(track rods) rods and ends to offer me more steering lock for my Mazda Rx7 FD? does any exist? if so wheres best place to buy them?

[rx7boy]

I can help you on this one,

tie rods the only good ones are from Uras, best best is RHD japan they are landed for £140 via DHL

link

tie rod ends you have a selection, im going with some that are from a uk supplier

link uk supplier

or Super now tie rod ends

link super now

Sorted

[steve garbutt]

Iv got the super now tie rod ends, quality stuff.

[clive]

Unfortunately whilst the links above are very useful these will not give you more steering lock, your only going to achieve this by altering the rack itself.

Having raced for many years and renewed many track rods after either hitting other cars, barriers etc I really cant see any benefit to buying stronger trackrods,

Why, because I changed many trackrods that were not only a little bent but absolutely bent like bananas at times, thing is though, they never actually broke, they just bent.

These are designed to bend and because of this absorbed energy I never ever had to change the steering rack and more importantly impacts also never bent the mounts and chassis etc, always just the trackrods which were cheap and easy to replace.

Next up is track rod ends,

"If" this is a race car that only does a few miles per year and is constantly checked and rechecked and also saving weight is a consideration then fine, fit them but be warned that if these are for the road the rose joints will wear very very quickly and could become dangerous after only a couple of thousand miles.

Rose joints like the ones pictured are simply not able to cope with the dirt, salt etc that road cars have to cope with, indeed any racer here will tell you that wear becomes detectable on race car rose joints after just a few races,

At the end of the day a good condition stock track rod end will not be any less precise than rose jointed track rod end, in other words the links are "sales" talk.

Lastly "If" you do fit these rose joints, check and recheck that the track rods are sitting at the same angles as before with the stock ends, because if not you may induce bump steer and that will make the car a pig to drive and it will litteraly dart uncontrollably all over the road as you hit bumps .

Sorry to be a wet blanket but the above is using (non internet)  experience gained from racing and many accidents over many years .

I hope this all helps you make a better informed choices for you car.

[rx7boy]

What you say aboive clive is true to an extent, whilst I understand you have vast experience from racing, I have spent a large amount of time researching the ways to get more lock due to the car being only drift orientated and the FD is not renowned for its lock, the standard tie rods do not allow you to run spacers as the thread is quite minimal, the uras rods allow you to have that option,, it may only give you 4% to 8% more turning , every little helps. lol, :cheers

Sammy if you are looking for some serious lock for drifting then your best bet is having the wheels hubs modified and or getting one of the drift racks that atomic rex is developing.

The only place I know in the UK doing hub modification is mphcustoms (MPH_saab) it is only recommended if the car is only used for drifting as they cannot be gaurenteed against the pot hole problem the uk is now facing.

[steve garbutt]

Have to say the Super now have almost exactly the same movement as the stockers, so no real gains gotten from them.
sept they look nice :Thumbsup!

[rx7boy]

Have to say the Super now have almost exactly the same movement as the stockers, so no real gains gotten from them.
sept they look nice :Thumbsup!

nothing better than a bit of shine even if you never get to see it. !! :wiggle

The purpose of the  rods is not to give extra lock on their own, in conjunction with spacers they will increase but not much. Its such a shame the FD lacks good lock as its quite a hassle getting it good :Typing

[clive]

Had a think about this and the easiest and most effective way of achieving more lock without rack mods is to alter your steering lock is to alter the steering arm ratio, providing we are talking race cars and not road

All you will need to do is move the track rod end hole 10 to 15mm toward to stub axle, see orange line on image below

This would only work using a rose joint in conjunction with either a machined up offset spacer through the track rod end hole, or a bracket bolted and welded into the trackrod end hole,  

Any good machinist will make this up for you,

p.s. I would only recomend this for drift cars

Hope this helps

[AtomicRex]

Clive is very correct with this, there is no point in just blindly sticking on every ounce of Japanese products that come on to the market and expect it to work.
 
When I was bike racing, a simple mod is to put a nick in the brake and clutch levers, right near the bobble.  This would put a weak point in the lever, so if you were to come off....the lever will snap at the end.  This means you can still get the bike up and racing again.
 
The same goes with the steering racks.  We produce a dedicated drift rack that allows you to have an extra 38mm of travel, thus giving you the extra angle.  The track rods are strong, but are the weakest point of the scheme, as if you crash...clip a cone etc you want these to bend...they are about £50 to replace as opposed to the time/effort and money to replace the rack itself.

[sammysideways]

That all makes sense. will deffo stick to standard track rods. Jon as you already know im going to be using one of your kits but I still would like that extra bit more lock to run with the dirty Nissans which is why I was hoping to use a spacer similar to the nissan guys to give me more lock.
I know the standard nissan track rod can be machined back a touch to allow the use of a spacer safely whilst keeping the same number of threads, i havent seen a mazda item yet but could the same be achieved?

[leefitz]

Any more answers to this problem?? I\'m building a drift rx7 fd too so steering lock is needed big time. And as sammy says there, the dirty Nissans have it all to them selves out there. Really needs to change