JKS Adjustable Tracbar and Heavy Duty Tie Rod

Mar. 01, 2003 By Bob Mock

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JKS has a definite reputation among the XJ community for building great sway bar disconnects that allow great articulation off-road, but many do not know they they also make an adjustable tracbar and a VERY heavy duty tie rod replacement for the XJ's too. We got a hold of these to products and we are VERY happy with the quality, fit and massive strength of these parts. The install is very straight forward and easy. It took about 1.5hrs. total to install both. Check out below for our install. (click on any of the pictures below for a larger image)
	The JKS tie rod is designed to take '92 or newer tie rod ends. So those of us with XJ's older than '92 you'll have to pick up a new pair to go with your new tie rod. Now's probably a good time to replace them anyway, they tend to wear out pretty often with the abuse our rigs take.
	Here you can see the difference in the size of the neck of the rod ends. The blue arrow points to the older style and the yellow to the '92 or newer rod end. They look stronger, let's hope they are.
	The JKS tie rod also comes unpainted, so I shot it with some gray primer and then with some metallic aluminum colored paint I had laying around. This photo is after the paint job. Don't feel you need to be too neat because most likely the paint is going to get dinged up first time out on the trail.
	Here's an end shot of the tie rod. This is some serious metal. I better not bend this thing, or I have done something seriously wrong.
	Thread the corresponding jam nut onto the rod end. The rod ends are threaded opposite and so are the jam nuts included with the tie rod.
	Thread the rod end into the tie rod. It will only thread into one end properly.
	Here's the tie rod with both rod ends in it. Now out to the truck.
	If you have been the unfortunate one to bend your tie rod into the shape of a taco on the trail like I had then you may also have a handy (ugly) trail fix that includes some reinforcement welding to keep it from happening again. While this one on my truck was and is still functional I didn't want to press my luck again on the trail.
	In order to replace the tracbar you'll need to remove the tie rod anyway so doing both of these at one time saves time. Yellow- tracbar frame mount Blue- tracbar axle mount Green- tie rod mount @ draglink It'll be easiest to do this work if you remove the driver's side tire. Always set the emergency brake and use a wheel chock when jacking the vehicle.
	The JKS tracbar is just massive. The size is deceptive in this photo but it is constructed of 1.25" x .156 DOM tubing which is HUGE. With a "Johnny Joint" on the frame end it will allow more unrestricted movement of the tracbar when articulating. Not to mention that the joint is rebuildable if it were to ever wear out.
	Remove the cotter pins and nuts holding the tie rod ends in place.
	If you're not reusing the rod ends, loosen the nut so that the top of the rod end is no longer sticking above it and then use a hammer to pound it out. It shouldn't take too much effort. If you're reusing the rod ends you currently have in the tie rod then you should either use a pickle fork/tie rod separator or you can often get them loose by hammering on the side of the knuckle (green arrow) JKS tie rod and Tracbar install continued on page 2....
Check out JKS: JKS Manufacturing, Inc. P.O. Box 98 Alliance, NE? 69301-0098 308-762-6949 Hours 8:00 A.M.? to? 6:00 P.M. Mountain Time / Monday - Friday