# heim vs ball joints



## robisra (Dec 13, 2009)

Broke a stock tie rod end doing doughnuts in a muddy field. Now looking to upgrade. I read another thread about building your own with heim joints. But a google search suggests that heim joints will get grit in them a wear more quickly (since I drive my brute in mud/water 50% of time). There are also threads saying that allballs, quadboss, and asr are junk. And some saying that theirs are lasting just fine. Those of you with 29.5 or larger tires, what kind of tie rods are you running?


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## hooliganhodgie (Mar 15, 2010)

I snapped two stock ones and folded a tie rod. One was low speed, one was pretty painful lol. Since i got my 30" backs i put allballs ends on and haven't had any problems. I also did the pipe mod where you fit a piece of pipe over your tie rod so they don't fold (theres a thread on here somewhere), and i double nut the inboard side of my tie rod because i find they always come loose. So far so good.


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## crom a zone (Feb 25, 2010)

i run asr hiem joints on mine and live in 99% water and mud and still tight after 10 rides of hard wheelies


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## brutus750i (Nov 17, 2009)

i 2nd that but i double nut the inner an red loctite too.30 backs


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

Most any aftermarket ends and rods are far better then the OEs. Moose,Quadboss,EPI and Diamond G...and allballs.. are popular conventional style ends. ASRs Heim ends are the most popular of that style. They are good, but some say they will start squeeking after a while...but a shot of PB or WD seems to take care of it.

Do yourself a favor and get a set of rods and ends who ever you use. I picked Diamond G, but I believe their ends are made by Moose. Got 2500 miles on them and still tight. As fore the oversized stainless steel rods, lots of people make them. Its said ASRs tube-type are the strongest. With either type, they are both strong enough to break the knuckles or stems before bending so it doesn't realy matter.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

i got 1/2" heims


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

phreebsd said:


> i got 1/2" heims


 Where did you get those?


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## Bad idea boys (Apr 6, 2009)

*man i run 30In backs and went throught 4 Brutes and i highly recomend heims u can buy a pretty decent set off of ebay (pro X) for a round 130. my first few biks i had i went through tie rods, end and been thrown over the handle bars until i finally jus went with the heims.*


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## robisra (Dec 13, 2009)

I ordered the ASR Pro X with the heim joints. I was going to assemble my own, but the parts came out to $90 +shipping. At least I get some kind of warranty with the ASRs. They sell a heim joint boot on ebay. Not sure if that would keep the grit out or just trap it in the joint. Seems they need to add zerk fittings to these. The bigger joints for jeeps can be had with grease fittings, but I couldn't find a 1/2 inch heim with zerks. Wonder if they can be drilled and tapped?


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## FABMAN (Dec 18, 2008)

One thing with hime joints you can add a washer on the bolt to keep the rodend from poping off if its worn bad unlike a balljoint.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

nmkawierider said:


> Where did you get those?












requires drilling out the knuckles and the plate on the steering stem


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## blue beast (Feb 16, 2010)

phreebsd said:


> requires drilling out the knuckles and the plate on the steering stem


phree..what size are those bolts in there....the head size and the shaft size...because usually the head size is what a bolt is measured by .but at lowes they have the shaft size listed...shaft size x thread x length i think is what is on the package...i guess you could tell me what size the wrench is that fits it and i can go from there


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