Tightening the Steering

Ford 2000; 3 cyl. gas; 4/1 trans....From YT I ordered front and rear tie rod ends to replace the worn units on my tractor and was looking over the steering links and have a couple questions. The tie rod replacement is pretty straightforward but I notice that the left drag link is 33" long and the right is 30 7/8" long. Is this typical of other 2000/3000 tractors? If so, why the difference? Tractor has manual steering and there are no PS mounting holes in the drag links.

I know the tie rod ends are worn and they provide a lot of play in the steering. However whenever I need to make a fairly sharp turn, it feels like the leading front tire goes way beyond the angle of turn and becomes almost 90 degrees to the body of the tractor almost to the point of me thinking it's gonna roll off the rim. Might this be an indicator of wear in the spindles or other connections or bearings?

Other than measuring the current tie rod end imbedments in the drag links, is there a better way to set the tie rod ends so the tractor front end tracks straight?

Thanks in advance for any sage advice you can provide.

Hip shot: Look at the steering box from both sides. If you have one steering shaft and bidirectional steering arms, you have to come off both
sides. So one is farther forward than the other.

Back to the title of the post: To tighten the steering, go to the opposite side of the arm to be tightened, back off the lock nut and screw in the shaft till it's soft snug. Lock the nut. If too tight, back off till it suits you.

To add to what Texasmark said. Back off both screws then snug the one just in front of the steering shaft first. Then the other one. Set them to zero backlash but not snug. You also need to adjust your toe-in. Set the steering wheel to the center between lock to lock (count the turns and go back to half-way) then adjust each side to get the proper toe-in. 1/8 to 1/2 inch is good, I think.

Ah, yes, I see that the steering arms are offset which is the reason for the drag lings being different lengths. Didn't think to look there before. Thanks for the good information on that and on tightening up the steering. Have done something similar on an old GMC pickup I had and it snugged up the loose steering a good bit. I'm curious now about the existing toe-in. Am gonna park it on the driveway and see how much or how little toe-in I have now just out of curiosity. Thanks.

If your tractor turns corners to your satisfaction and doesn't shimmy going down the road in road gear and PTO rpm. the front end alignment
should be ok.

Light Snug is my definition of zero lash. Again, if it's too tight it will be hard to steer.

I've only run it on the road in my neighborhood just to see how fast it would go in high gear. Front end was reasonably solid but felt like if I turned the wheel too much, steering would head wherever it wanted to go. I figure new tie rod ends and tightening the steering might help this. Will make the same fourth gear trip again and see how it feels. Thanks for the input.

No doubt tightening things will have a huge impact on stability.

I've had an interesting experience buying from tie rod ends from YT this week. Ordered front and rear tie rod ends and they came in with red boots. I sent them an email asking if they came in black and was told that they stock whatever color their vendor sends them: red, black, blue, yellow. Call me crazy but I've got a blue Ford and didn't want to put red-booted tie rod ends on it. Asked if I could swap them out for black booted units. Sales guy said he's never heard of anyone caring what color boots the tie rods come with. He said return the red booted units and he'd send black ones. Did so and got two black booted ones from one warehouse and another warehouse sent one black and one red. Didn't think it could be so hard. Now, I do realize red boots probably work as well as any other color so am wondering if anyone out there besides me gives a hoot what color boots they get on their tie rod ends. Just curious.

I bought a pristeen '79 JD 100 horse 4230C diesel with 3900 something hours in 2005 with a new paint job, 134 AC, cab interior and rubber for
$17k. On top of the hood cowling were 4 things: A red cap, an air inlet with a dust bowl, a black cap, and an exhaust pipe........RED CAP ON MY
GREEN TRACTOR......NO WAY!

So I go to the JD dealer and when the salesman pulls up the illustrated parts diagram I point to the cap I want replaced. He goes to the stock
room and comes out with a box and proceeds to write up the order. While he's doing that I open the box...........another RED cap. I strongly
object, interrupting his ordering processing and we get into it.

He "prisses" over to the I&T repair manual rack, picks up a manual covering my tractor and prisses back to the front of me and sticks it in my
face......seeeeee he says, it's the correct cap.....(birdbrain under his breath probably). He shows me the courtesy of an explanation that since
the fuel tank is up forward, where radiators usually are located, to prevent somebody accidentally putting water in the fuel tank they installed a
RED cap.

So, I ate crow and after awhile got used to the idea. On the same tractor I added a tool box mounted to the frame alongside the engine. It only
came in red......I did paint that sucker green before I mounted it.

Aha! maybe I'm not so crazy after all.