WHS Tie Rod Assy

I've been wanting to do these for a long time and with Carson's C-121 sitting on the bench it seemed like the perfect time.   Most of what peeps are selling is this so called Made in USA tie rod that looks awful, and just barely covers the ball end on the long side.  Everyone from Stens and other name brands to peeps selling them on ebay are selling these same tie rods.  I ordered a few of them years ago to check out and found between the looks, terrible looking crimp, and what I think is sub standard work I would never use them.  On top of that you can buy an original from Toro for a few dollars more that is much more professional looking and yellow zinc coated.  

This project started out by copying a Wheel Horse tie rod but beefing it up a little.  The tie rod end female sides were 7/16-20 instead of 3/8-24 allowing me to use a grade 9 7/16-20 bolt welded to the rod long end.  It's the same bolts I use for the Wheel Horse wheel stud kits we do here.  Some pics of the 1st design are below.  

 

More pics of the 1st design and finishing one up.

I may keep making this one as a lower cost item in the future if there is a demand for it from customers but the 2nd design is really something nice that may never wear out...