Ok, the ground clearance has changed from adjustment, it's more like 12.5" now. I don't remember what it was before. I spent a lot of time in the junkyard looking at steering components and I chose the VW tie rod ends because they have the same thread as the inner tie rod (male, right hand M14 1.5). These have also been proven tough by many years of abuse by myself and by many Baja racers. The taper where it fits into the knuckle is a close fit, but the diameter is a hair smaller. When tightned down it goes in too far and you loose the full range of motion so I made a stainless steel cone shaped shim that solves that problem, for now. Still very solid. Now were working with 2 male right hand threaded ends that need to be joined. After close inspection, I found that Mercedes seems to have the strongest tierod shaft with proper thread and compression fitting/clamps. The shaft has to be cut down almost in half to 4.5 inches, cutting off the inner, left hand threaded end. Now just tap that cut end to match, fit the clamp, done.