Tie rod end drag link gasket

F

flatford39

Senior Member
OK I am in the process of rebuilding my tie rod & drag link. My memory tells me that they came from the factory with a felt gasket and sheetmetal cap. What is being sod by Bratton's & Snyders is a thick rubber gasket that for the life of me I have know idea how to make work without distorting the gasket and cap.


Anybody have a source for the felt gasket or do I have to make my own.
 
Rubber seal is correct. It goes on the outside and covers the hole were the ball fits into. Not sure how you are trying to fit, but I suggest maybe getting one of the service manuals or look in the Snyder's catalog there might be an illustration there. The drag link seals mount the same way. Someone at some time in the far past may not have had the correct seals and replaced them with felt.

The metal cap goes on first followed by the rubber seal and then tie rod end. Some of the repo metal caps made had the hole too small to fit over the ball, I open them up just enough for the ball to pass thru.
 
Unfortunately, the currently available parts are well designed but poorly sized. I just went through this and found that the metal cap needs some grinding to enlarge the hole to clear the 1 inch ball and the rubber seals are even worse. I spent a good half hour with an abrasive grinding stone to enlarge the holes in the caps and 2-3 hours in grinding down the rubber seals so they would fit over the balls and inside the caps and be able to seat down on the drag link exterior sufficiently to allow the balls to be centered in the bores.

Welcome to the world of repop parts! I wish I had saved and recycled the old felt seals, but apparently nobody makes them anymore. Persevere and you will get through this.
 
ursus said:
I wish I had saved and recycled the old felt seals, but apparently nobody makes them anymore. Persevere and you will get through this.
Click to expand...

You could have cut new felt for seals but they were not what Ford used on the Model A.
 
While I have had to as I said open the hole in the metal part on some of the older repos, I have yet needed to open the hole in the rubber seal or grind to fit. How old and dried out were the rubber parts?
 
I was able to put grease on the new rubber seals to help push them on. Then I was able to stretch them over the balls with the help of a pair of wide-mouth channel locks.
 
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