I am a believer in welded steel rod ends also. I take one further step, that is on the side of the tubing where you would normally drill holes to bolt through the tubing and rod end if you were bolting instead of welding, I drill a small hole, like 1/8 or 3/16 and do what I call a pin weld. That is just weld down into the rod end filling side wall back out to the tube side wall even with the surface. These pin welds are in addition to welding the circumference of the rod end where it meets onto the end of the tubing. These are just safety welds to move some of the load away from the very end of the tube. Maybe not necessary, but they make me feel better. : ) Larry H.
Chris Johnston wrote: >>riveting would be better I think, then use a male threaded rod end bearing in each end with a left hand thread and a right hand thread respectively.<< Mark L. wrote: I would not count on a rivet (or even 4 rivets) to do that job. I welded mine, and have no problem sleeping at night. Maybe somebody makes aluminum rod ends, but Wicks only sells steel. My pushrods are 4130, welded to the rod end fittings. I'll bet if you walked into a welding shop and told them you'd like those welded, you'd be done in ten minutes with a charge of "we'll catch up next time". It's hard to imagine sometimes how you'd need much strength in tension or compression for these pushrods, until you find yourself pointed straight at the ground full throttle and have to pull out of a 180 mph dive. A rivet just wouldn't hack it, and even if it would, it would loosen over time and introduce slop, which is not something you'd want in your control system either. Weld it...
