Broken tie-rod

[scappoose]

Yesterday as I was driving my Mahindra 2816 in my driveway a peice of 1/2" plywood stood up on edge and broke my tie-rod in half. I have discovered that the tie rod its self is only a rather thin metal sleeve with nuts on either end. I suspect that the sleeve could be threaded (like a turnbuckle). Does anyone know if it would be possible to repair and strengthen this tie-rod turnbuckle?
The tie-rod its self appears to totaly straight. does anyone know how long this tie-bar/turnbuckle should be?
My thought is to cut off the broken parts of the sleeve and weld a piece of steel rod inside and then reinforce the whole tie bar with angle iron.
What do you folks think of this solution?
Even if I buy a new tie-bar,I would still like to strengthen it in some way. does anyone have any suggestions
Thanks

 

[Soundguy]

i routinely make draglinks for my fords. just metal tube / pipe ) with some sort of coupler ont he end, depending on the style and type of tie rod end.

I'd go pipe befroe i scabbed angle iron on.. if only for cosmetic savings..

 

[kencunningham]

Better to break the tie rod than what its connected to. You may want to keep that in mind before you build the worlds strongest tie rod. Good luck.

 

[jonyyuma]

Better to break the tie rod than what its connected to. You may want to keep that in mind before you build the worlds strongest tie rod. Good luck.

Hey, Ken, thats experience speaking isn;'t it? A very good point, sometimes it's engineering, not just saving weight or being cheaper? But I tend to Gorilla weld it back??