IFS and tie rod ends

[Joe Camper]

Here is an example of how to correctly have new tie rod assemblies installed by showing u what I all too frequently see when I crawl under a front end of a bus for the first time.

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The pics r dark but in the first one the clamp has been twisted. This occurs when it's positioned with the bolt pointed down. When u turn it will catch on the frame. Depending on where the alignment puts these decided if it will clear. The clamp is indexed to the rod so u cant simply reposition it. My solution has been to cut the bolt on the clamp flush with the nut after tightening it. This issue only occurs on the inner clamps, the 2 outer clamps r good wherever they end up and the middle tie rod is not adjustable, it's solid without clamps.

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Now it's happy and will clear. I see this ALL the time. These were installed by a shop that absolutely should have known what they were doing.

Do u notice a small notchy feeling in your IFS? This is the culprit.

Thats todays tech tip. Happy camping, hope to see u down the road.

[Joe Camper]

Look what I exposed today.

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This is a front shock off an ifs front end. Never saw this before but evidently those pesky tie rod end clamp bolts that drag the frame when pointed down can also wack the shock when pointed back. Ain't that somthin.

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I'm going to start just cutting all the inner tie rod end clamp bolts flush with the nut regardless where they end up.

Good grief

[Joe Camper]

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Here is a uncommon failure.

I did not remove the e clip. It came undone and the clip was lying on the post when I first looked in.

Now the bushing was captured when in place and couldn't come out but boy did that corner must of been walking around. When I pulled the arm and stood it up the bushing dropped right out. Dont recall ever seeing this before.