I decided to incorporate an appleton power steering rack and pinion unit into the sub.
Any idea on which inner tie rods to use??

I was thinking on possibly using rod ends, are rod ends streetable (daily use) in the steering system?

I think rod ends in general are less reliable than tie rod ends. If rod ends were better, they would be used on cars right from the factory.

I had a friend who put Tilton supplied rod ends on his street driven autocross 240Z outer steering links. They wore out in less than a year. I think once they loosen up enough to clunk a little they will hammer out quickly. Another thing to design for is to allways have a large top hat shaped washer on the "open" side of single shear mountted rod ends, in case the rod end falls apart. This is required by SCCA and most racing organizations.

I think a good quality rod end with teflon liner would be best. There are also greaseable rod ends but I haven't used those.
Use as large a rod end as you can, you can allways bush the bore of the rod end.
David

I think the biggest reason rod ends aren't used in production, is they have no way to keep dirt out. You see them on race cars because of the meticulous maintenance a race car sees. Debris is the only real cause of wear in the rod end. I would agree on using a standard tie rod end for this reason, and also because they are easier to find and replace. This is especially true if you want to take your car on long road trips.

Ken

David,
Thanks for the info, since this is going to be a street/strip application, and streetability and reliablity are the main concern, i'm going to stick with tie rod ends.
I'm dealing with Afco, i'll ask them which part numbers to use with the steering unit.
This is coming out quite nicely, i'm looking forward to having a nice responsive steering system.

I plan on using a Flaming river collapsable steering shaft, if you have any good/bad experiences to share about them i'm open to suggestions.
I'm looking at them mainly becuase they'll dampen any vibrations heading up the shaft, and they're collapsable so it'll be safe in a crash....But who knows sometimes these things sound better then they are.

Thanks!