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Cheers both of you, explains why the ones the garage were trying to fit today were too short.
Fred - remember I bought my clio down 27th Sept with the suspension and steering knock and you replaced my bump stops cause they had been cut in half? Fixed the suspension knock, but still got the steering knock.
I have some 500 mile old SMI inner tie rods and track rods ends for sale if you're interested? Taken off a car that I broke for spares, have the receipt for them somewhere also.
Euro car parts and lemforder don't supply a non cup 182 inner track rod, have contacted them and they still list one. There may be another supplier somewhere.
Will measure my old ones, but think they were 335 long.
The lemforder ones i got were around 15mm shorter than the originals, lemforder said not to fit them and rule of thumb says 2 x the diameter of the thread is a safe amount to use, i ended up with less than 15mm of thread holding my track tod end on. If i didn't use it on the track or it had narrow steel wheels and a 1.2 engine i wouldn't have worried too much!
There's plenty of thread, it's certainly a lot more than 9mm. More like 20mm. In general enigineering, the rule of thumb for thread engagement is 1.2 times the thread diameter. Now look at the lock nut, that's a lot thinner so a lot less thread engagement. What do you think will be the weaker point?
Fred said 6 turns is enough, it's a 1.5mm thread, so that's 9mm. I was an automotive engineer and was taught 2 x thread diameter which is what the 182 uses. Lock nut does that, it's the track rod end thread taking the load.
Before i offend or upset anyone, the above is my opinion and my knowledge! I'm not perfect!!
Been thinking about this, sure my track rod ends were 14 turns on, so about 21mm which goes with what Dan says, the lemf ones went on about 5 turns hence why i fitted genuine.