90Q rear tie rod question

[Huw Powell]

> If anyone knows offhand, or has a new rear tie rod in hand and is willing to
> do a quick measurement for me, I would like to know how long the threaded
> part of the tie rod is.  I'm talking about the threads that are used for
> adjusting purposes, not the ones at the ball end.

the threads that are on the end of the "inboard" chunk of the rod (the
part wihtout the ball joint thing) are just a little bit more than 2"
long.

1.25" showing sounds like a lot - on my car ('89) only about 1/2" or so
shows.  Of course, remember that tie rods can vary from unit to unit.

> Right now the car is running very close to 0 toe-in and I'm finding that the
> car has a lot of oversteer on the snow.  I know, count my blessings, but it
> oversteers so much that it is actually a bit of a handful.  Tires are good
> (Hakka 10s in excellent shape and front alignment "looks" good -- no
> significant pulls to either side, sighting down the side of the car seems to
> have the front wheels pointing in the right ways, etc).  I have about 1.25"
> of the threaded section exposed on the rear tie rods and am wondering if I
> can extend the rear rods more so that I get a little more toe-in/neutral
> handling.  I looked at the rear tie rods on a friends 90 Q who keeps his
> professionally aligned, and he has significantly less exposed thread.  I
> don't want to run out of thread....

--
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/

http://www.humanthoughts.org/