gmc 4106 tie rods

[4106-123]

im rebuilding the front end on thr 4106 i have and needs new tie rod ends. does anyone know were to purchase remans or new?  what price should i exspect to pay? finding parts has been the biggest draw back to me buying this bus ive tried us coach, deans, bus fixx.  i call they say they will call back. i also need some airbags and brake parts

[Sam 4106]

Hi 4106-123,
Have you tried Mohawk, 800-323-7652? It speeds things up if you have part numbers, but they should be able to help without. I had great service from them and I thought their prices were very fair. For the air bags, unless you are replacing all of them, you will need to tell them if you currently have Good Year or Firestone bags, so they can ship the right ones.
Good luck, Sam Sperbeck

[pvcces]

We found factory 4106 tie rod ends to be unavailable. However, I believe that there are direct crosses from other coaches and US Coach reported that they could furnish a truck replacement that would not be rebuildable. This would require replacing everything from one end to the other; tie rod ends and drag link.

I never bought one of those, so I suppose they could have run into some problem using the truck replacement in the coach.

For what it's worth.

Tom Caffrey

[4106-123]

yes that is what the guy at deans coach said that you can not get the ends anymore. the ends screw on the outside of the pipe and most manufacturers use the ones that screw on to the inside like mci. he said that a mci 9 would work but that it needed more threads cut on the pipe so you could get the adjustment correct. maybe someone knows of a make and model with the correct lenght and uses the new style ends. surely with all these vintage coachs running around some one will know the answer or theres a whole lot of them running down the road with 7 inches of slop in the steering wheel!

[Barn Owl]

Would NIMCO bus have something that would work?

http://www.nimcobus.com/

[Sam 4106]

Hi 4106-123,
If you have 7" of slop in your steering wheel it can't all be in the tie rod ends. They would have fallen apart before you got that much slop. When we got our 4106 it wandered badly and had a lot of play in the steering wheel. I checked the steering linkage from the wheel to the sector and the most play was in the shaft between the sector and the bulkhead below the drivers seat. The splined silp joint was badly worn so I took that shaft assembly to a drive shaft shop and got the new slip joint and u-joints. That took most of the play out, but the bus still wandered. I had the alignment checked and the only thing wrong was that the toe-in was set at 1/8" and it should have been at zero. After that was corrected the bus has driven fine for more than 17 years. I would recommend that you check all of your steering components, if you haven't already.
Good luck, Sam 4106

[4106-123]

the 7 inches of slop was a joke im rebuilding the front end and going through the the steering and adding shepard power steering this is what ive found so far the upper bearing neer the first set of upper ujoints was tight sprayed with oil cured. the bevel gears need to be adjusted found the adjustment screw. the bore were the steering shaft goes through the bulkhead is wallered out allowing the bearing to move around. removed the snap ring placed a shim in cured. the drivers side tie rod worn out from failed weather boot allowing dirt in 1/2 inch of side play. the manual steering box i removed was worn out. by the way the guy i bought the bus from said it was just gone over for him by a reputable coach repair shop. one of the front brake chambers was so rusted the spring was hanging out of the side of it,