96 D214WD tie rod ends

[ajcmbrown]

Hi all, can anyone tell me if the inner and outer tie rod ends are a different size taper?
I suspect that my car has an outer tie rod end fitted to the inner lhs steering drag link.
It just does not seem to be anywhere near a satisfactory fit to me, the taper seems too large to fit into the drag link properly.
This was found because my car had a fair bit of play in the steering, and when I was checking where the excess play was coming from, I discovered that this tie rod end was loose in the taper. so I tightened it and it seemed to eliminate the play in that side, however when I was fitting a new drag link (crook ball joint in drag link on drivers side), I noticed that the tie rod was not a very good fit at all.
After removing the old drag link, the taper in the drag link seemed a bit flogged out, not sure if this is due to the wrong tie rod end or the fact that it was loose.
The drivers side inner tie rod seems to be a smaller taper than the pass side tie rod end.
Looking for clues from someone who has already been down this path.

All help and suggestions appreciated.

 

[ajcmbrown]

Ok, since no one can help with my question, has anyone got a tie rod end that they can measure for reference?
If someone could measure the narrow part of the taper, then maybe another measurement about 10-15mm further down on the "fatter" part of the taper, would be a real help.

 

[Dion]

I don't have one to measure for you but last time I put one in, I'm fairly sure the ends were identical?

The D22 taper is different to the D21 taper. Bigger I think. But it would be pretty hard to use a D22 rod end on a D21 since the rod is female thread and the D21 is male.

Photos??

 

[ajcmbrown]

Hi Dion, thanks for your reply.
I don't know if this has been modified in the past but the inner tie rods appear to go too far into the steering knuckle when pushed in, which would limit their movement and squash the rubber boot, I don't know if I would feel safe with that setup, my inner tie rod ends have a start thickness of around 13.5 mm, whereas the steering knuckle or outer tie rod end has a start thickness of around 14.5 mm and fits nicely.
Is it possible that Terrano (since it has a Terrano motor) steering knuckles have been fitted to this car or maybe from a D22? That is the only thing I can think of as I am told by a couple of suppliers that they are all the same taper, ie inner left and outer right are identical and vice versa , but this is not the case on my car. I am left scratching my head.

 

[ajcmbrown]

Oh and Dion you are correct, my tie rod ends are male thread.