jsmith89
Members
Hi everyone.
I've been going through the process of changing my front suspension including the top arms, lower ball joints, track rod ends etc. As I've been changing the parts the car has much sharper to drive and slowly eliminating the strange wander I had from the steering.
Now all that's left is the inner tie rods on the steering rack. I had started to notice a knock develop when I was parked and dry steering. So naturally I ordered some new tie rods as they seem readily available.....(we'll come back to this)
I jacked it all up, took it all apart and removed the original tie rods (with a lot of swearing and blow torch action). I got the new Quinton Hazel tie rods out the box offered them up and.............they were totally different to the originals!
So I rang my supplier and he cross referenced the part numbers to reveal that everything match up. I decided to ring round all my local suppliers and see if I could locate the correct parts. After phoning 25 suppliers, north and south up to 100 miles nothing matched up. In the end I resorted to phoning my local Honda dealer. They said that the tie rods were only available as part of the steering rack, only £1300+VAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went into panic mode! had the car in bits and I was back to work the following day! Then as I panicked some more I had an idea! What if a fabricators could retro fit the ones I had been supplied. I was in luck! After ringing a few local companies and being declined, I came across a little local fabrication firm who were more than happy to re-manufacture the parts to fit my car. After 1h45m the lovely old gent came up to me with the newly made tie rods and asked me how much I wanted to pay him! I was like 'erm........tell me honestly what you would charge'. He said, 'how does £40 sound?' I nearly offered to take him out for dinner!
I got home with a smile on my face but still a little hesitant to relax fully until these damn things were fitted! They fit perfectly. I had it tracked up and she drives spot on.
I've been going through the process of changing my front suspension including the top arms, lower ball joints, track rod ends etc. As I've been changing the parts the car has much sharper to drive and slowly eliminating the strange wander I had from the steering.
Now all that's left is the inner tie rods on the steering rack. I had started to notice a knock develop when I was parked and dry steering. So naturally I ordered some new tie rods as they seem readily available.....(we'll come back to this)
I jacked it all up, took it all apart and removed the original tie rods (with a lot of swearing and blow torch action). I got the new Quinton Hazel tie rods out the box offered them up and.............they were totally different to the originals!
So I rang my supplier and he cross referenced the part numbers to reveal that everything match up. I decided to ring round all my local suppliers and see if I could locate the correct parts. After phoning 25 suppliers, north and south up to 100 miles nothing matched up. In the end I resorted to phoning my local Honda dealer. They said that the tie rods were only available as part of the steering rack, only £1300+VAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went into panic mode! had the car in bits and I was back to work the following day! Then as I panicked some more I had an idea! What if a fabricators could retro fit the ones I had been supplied. I was in luck! After ringing a few local companies and being declined, I came across a little local fabrication firm who were more than happy to re-manufacture the parts to fit my car. After 1h45m the lovely old gent came up to me with the newly made tie rods and asked me how much I wanted to pay him! I was like 'erm........tell me honestly what you would charge'. He said, 'how does £40 sound?' I nearly offered to take him out for dinner!
I got home with a smile on my face but still a little hesitant to relax fully until these damn things were fitted! They fit perfectly. I had it tracked up and she drives spot on.
