Making a New Steering Arm

Hi all,

I had a front wheel to fly off of my LT2000 today at a pretty decent speed. When this happened the spindle went straight to the ground and the tractor kept going. By the time I came to a stop, my steering arm was jabbed into the ground about 10ft behind me. It completely popped out of the ball joint ends, and I don’t want to put it back. I want to design something new and stronger that does away with those tiny ball joints. I have a welded front axle so it doesn’t pivot, if that helps at all.

Any ideas on how to fab up a new one?

Thanks

Also, I want to make a stronger tie rod, if anyone could help me with that as well.

For drag link and tie rod ends, a good easy option would be heim joints, but they can be a bit pricey depending where you  get them from. Myself I've had real good luck with using steel pipe and automotive sway bar links (especially the greaseable ones) to make my own tie rod ends:





Usually I just weld a 3/8" nut to each end of the pipe after I measure it out and cut it to length, then cut the ends off the sway bar links leaving at least an inch left. Then weld a corresponding 3/8" bolt to both sway bar link ends and thread them into the nuts welded to the pipe. With a jam nut as well of course. The bolts are NC thread which obviously doesn't give you as fine of an adjustment, but I haven't had a problem with that.

Anyway that's my usual method, but there are a few good ways to do it. Maybe check out what heim joints are worh at your nearest hardware store, those are always a big upgrade from standard lawn tractor ball joints.

Well I actually just drilled through the socket for the ball joint setup on the steering arm, bolted it to steering and spindle with 3/8 bolts and lock nuts. Seems to be more solid than original setup, but the metal is a little thin around the bolt. We’ll see. as for tie rod, I hammered the original one straight and reinstalled. Tired of looking at the thing torn apart in the shop. I have a piece of tube for a new tie rod. But heim joints are EXPENSIVE.