Cut down and rethread TRE?

[urbex]

Truck is a '97 K1500 with 6" Procomp lift. Friend picked it up on her own a week ago, and found it to have wicked death wobble. We went through the front end and found prior accident damage along with one ball joint, one inner TRE, idler arm bracket, and steering gear box to be sloppy. Replaced it all, but also found the the TRE she got from Autozone was about 1/2" longer in the threaded portion of the shank. Upon reassembly, that TRE pair bottomed out against each other (passenger side), leaving the steering wheel cocked to the left a bit less than 90 degrees.

Obviously, I'm not going to be able to pull the alignment back in on the passenger side to straighten out the wheel, but it does look like I should have enough shank available to run a die down it another 3/4" or so, so I'm thinking along with cutting down the shank length, I might be able to get enough room in there to straighten the wheel out?

Just not sure if these things are hardened or something that would make rethreading it like this a really bad idea?

 

[Abusfullofnuns]

I just recently cut one down with no problems. I moved my front axle forward and had not converted to crossover yet. Due the new axle placement, the drag link was too long. I ran a nut down on the threads and cut it with a sawzall. No problem at all.

 

[urbex]

It was the adding additional threading farther up the shank that I was most concerned about. Seems simple enough, but then I also thought it was simple enough to weld a few plates to my Ram's frame until I learned of the engineered crumple zones I was potentially affecting, lol. This is the first time I've ever run into something like this, the first time I've played with a lifted IFS system, and most importantly, a truck she's driving...so I don't want to send her out in something I made unsafe. It's also a 30 mile trip to the nearest parts store, so I don't really want to play the return trip shuffle and "well, the computer says this should fit..." game if I can avoid it, lol.

 

[kennyw]

If the material was hardened after the threads were cut, you would likely damage the die trying to cut more threads. However, it is highly unlikely. Just be careful to clean up the thread lead in for the mating parts.

 

[sweetk30]

lots of gm type ifs lift kit suppliers have you cut some off the inner AND outer tie rod end to solve this problem .

i just did a BDS lift kit on a 2015 and it come with new outers just for this so you didnt have to cut them .

not 100% sure this is here kit but here ya go . https://www.procompusa.com/aux_incl/pdf.ashx?pdf=51088B_K1047B_K1048B_INST.pdf&line=EXP

 

[urbex]

lots of gm type ifs lift kit suppliers have you cut some off the inner AND outer tie rod end to solve this problem .

i just did a BDS lift kit on a 2015 and it come with new outers just for this so you didnt have to cut them .

not 100% sure this is here kit but here ya go . https://www.procompusa.com/aux_incl/pdf.ashx?pdf=51088B_K1047B_K1048B_INST.pdf&line=EXP

I pulled that up earlier when I was first going through that front end. Near as I can tell, it's an older revision of that lift kit, as this one doesn't reuse the factory center link and instead has a fabricated tube center link that replaces it all. I had a feeling that it came with either completely different, or modified OEM TREs. I also suspect that we'd find the frame has been tweaked if it was to be put on a frame rack. All I really know is that I REALLY wish she had bought another SFA truck, but this is what she fell in love with, and I prefer to see her smile rather than unhappy..so I continue trudging forward on it, lol.