Loose steering component
 

Tie rod broke, new one is too short, no biggie I'll buy the correct one. BUT, there is another part that is now loose and floppy, and i do not know what its called. Its the piece that connects the steering gearbox to the steering arm, its just a really skinny rod with a joint on either end. I would love high steer set-up, but thats not in the finances right now. I just need to get her back on the road. I will take a pic in a few of the piece that im talking about. But for now, some pics of the main damage.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...SANY0012-1.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...SANY0013-1.jpg

Tht would be the drag link, connects the pitman arm on the steering box to the steering arm on the axle. There are rebuild kits for the rod ends or just try cranking the end caps in tighter or have head of folks slipping a penny into each end behind the pre-load springs to tighten them up a little bit.

cool, thanks 4crawler. Would anyone know if there is any other vehicle thats interchangeable for the tie rod?

Should be the same tie rod on any solid axle pickup ('79-'85) or 4Runner ('84-'85).
Or pick up a Marlink from Marlin Crawler:
- http://www.marlincrawler.com/steering/marlink/marlink

I used to run one on my '85:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/Santiago/Images/roger2.jpg

The one on it, i think, is off of an 83. Its adjusted out almost to the max, but the wheel are still majorly toed in. Let me run out and get a pic, hang on a sec.

Its pretty bad. Napa told me the 83 tie rod ends were 17mm long on the threads, and the 84 were 21mm long on the threads.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...SANY0014-1.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...SANY0015-1.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...SANY0016-1.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...SANY0017-1.jpg

Anyone have an idea on which toyota's the tir rod would be interchangeable? i have checked LC's, 83 and older pickups, no one around here has an 84-85 pickup, not the salvage yards, not a private owner thats willing to part out.

Try:
http://www.car-part.com/

Or for $125, grab a Marlink and never worry about the tie rod again.

I'd get that mar link deally, but I can tell you that there was a change in 84. I think the rod ends are bigger, and obviously longer.

According to the description, it should work:

how could it work though? i measured the rod itself. The 79-83 comes to 34 1/2 inches, the one that was on my truck is 39 1/4 inches. almost 5 inches different.

AFAIK, all the solid axles are the same width. May be differences in the way the tie rod is set up. Perhaps Marlin makes them different lengths.

Thats what i figured, but how come the lengths ar so different. The tie rods are are ALMOST identical.

Perhaps the marlink uses an extremely long rod end that can be adjusted to work with either length.