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SS Radius Rods & Plain Steel Threaded Ends

Indycars

Well-Known Member
I want to use SS radius rods, but I can only find plain steel threaded ends. It's also hard to find the threaded ends with a hex section making it easy to hold the radius rod during tightening. Does anyone have a favorite manufacture with the hex? Or what do you do to hold the rod during the tightening ?

Will there be a problem welding SS and steel ?
What will it look like when polished ?

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Thread the stainless rods themselves then screw in your heim's or clevises. You can get both of those in stainless. There is usually no problem with welding stainless to steel but I doubt that you can polish the steel to match the stainless. Use a lock nut to tighten the connections, they can be hex.
 
Thread the stainless rods themselves then screw in your heim's or clevises. You can get both of those in stainless.
But how do you hold everything so that the heims or clevises on both ends are parallel if there is nothing to hold the rod with ? Is it what I have done in the past, with several tries starting tightening with the lock nut, heim an tube in just the right position ?

There is usually no problem with welding stainless to steel but I doubt that you can polish the steel to match the stainless.
The car was originally built in 1979 and LH threads was not on my radar back then, but this time I want to do it right. Maybe the small weld ring around the "Threaded Tube End" is NOT worth worrying about. What have others done ? I'm trying to stay away from chrome when I can use SS.

Your comments and wisdom are greatly appreciated !
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Do what 409 said, you can look and find a S/S nut that will fit over the tube or can be drilled to fit and have it welded on. DON'T forget to use anti-seize!!
 
Here are examples of what I was trying to say.

130008_re.jpg 130122_re.jpg
 
Using stainless steel sounds like a great idea, but it’s more complicated because of the available sizes of stainless to choose from. On T-buckets, the most common radius rods are made using steel tubing 7/8” x .156” wall with an ID of .563” or 7/8” x .188” wall with an ID of .499”. A 5/8” x 18 thread is normally used for the heims joint or clevis. A 5/8”x18 thread calls for a 37/64” (.578”) drill. Both of the above-mentioned sizes work great for this.
7/8” stainless tubing typically is only available in only .065” or .120” wall thickness. The .120” wall is .635 ID which is too big to tap a 5/8 x 18 thread. The .065 wall could be used with a threaded tube end, but it most likely wouldn’t be strong enough. A solid 7/8” stainless bar could be threaded and used if you are not worried about the weight.
If you increased the radius rod size to 1”, stainless tubing is available in 1” x .250” wall thickness. It has an ID of ½” which you could drill and tap for a 5/8”x18 thread like 409 suggested. Both the .120” and .188” wall have too large of an ID to tap and don’t have the room for a threaded rod end.
Most of the threaded rod ends are just tapered, but there are a few companies like Chassis Shop and Meziere that make a 4130 left hand thread with a hex on the threaded rod end. I’m not aware of anyone selling them in stainless steel.
As was mentioned, a stainless nut could be welded to tubing, but I would be very worried about trusting the strength of a butt weld on a radius rod. Typically, in addition to welding top of the tubing to the threaded tube end, a hole is drilled through the tube on both side and then rosette welded for additional strength.
tube end.JPG
 
Using stainless steel sounds like a great idea, but it’s more complicated because of the available sizes of stainless to choose from.
Thanks so much Bill, that gives me alot to think about. You explained my options and that helps !
 

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