hi I have a 65 mustang that needs outer tie rod ends. The car was orginally a 6 but now is a 289, manual steering, my question is do i have to keep using the six cylinder tie rod ends or are they identical but different strength materials to the ones that came on the 8 cylinder cars

 

Welcome. You need to give me some more info: do you have four or five lug nuts on your front wheels?
Jim

 

What is the diameter of the threaded end of the ti-rod? that will tell us weither you have 6 cyl tie rods or V8

 

It has 5 lugs and the diameter looks to be half an inch

 

When you say 1/2" are you talking about the 5 lug nuts or the tie-rod end? 5 lug tells me that it does not have the original 6 cyl spindles which is good, but if the thread end of the tie-rods are 1/2" than the steering is still 6 cyl and you will need a 6 cyl tie-rod ends

 

I don't know the diameter of the tie rod tapered fitting, but it is my understanding that a six cylinder tie rod will not work on a V-8 spindle - and a six cylinder spindle will not accomodate a five lug drum, something about wobbly bearings. On that basis, I would assume that the front suspension has been upgraded to that of a V-8.
To 65stang142: just for the record, are the rear wheels four or five lug?
Jim

 

Jim just as an FYI and not as a "your wrong here is the facts" the only difference between the tapered shank on the 64.5-66 6 cyl tie rod and the V8 tie rod is the 6 cyl one has a smaller threaded end and corresponding nut. I have several 6 cyl friends who have upgraded to V8 spindles to match the 8" rear they put under their car, and I used the 6 cyl steering linkage in my car with both V8 and Granada spindles (used a MustangSteve conical adaptor for the Granada set up) up until I upgraded to R&P. In all cases the V8 and I6 parts worked well together other than some bump-steer that was addressed by making other changes to the suspension to eliminate the effect of said bump-steer. The biggest difference between 64.5-66 V8 and 6 cyl steering linkage is the steering geometry. The geometry differences are illistrated by the different steering arm locations in this picture I mocked up and took last spring and posted the other day on another post that compares I6 V8 and Granada spindles and sense the geometry is the same for Granada and 67 and up Mustangs than it really compares the first generation spindles with the rest of the Mustang spindles through 73 not taking in to account tie-rod hole size and taper.


Left 1965 I6 Middle 1965 V8 Right 1978 Granada

 

I like your show and tell set-up, but the Ford Car Parts manual shows different part numbers forbearings and cups for six cylinder and V-8 applications for 1965 and 66 (64 1/2 implied) and different (incomplete though) dimesions. Out of the ten Mustangs I've owned, I've never owned a six cylinder and when I helped out on friends front end upgrades, we threw away the six cylinder stuff (it was beyond use anyway) and put in V-8 spindles and the rest. That's about it.
Jim

 

the rear are 5 lug also so what should I use 6 cylinderor 8 cylinder tie rod ends

 

Take one more peak at your spindles and compare them to DazeCars' pictures. Ifyour spindles have the 'drop' like theonein the middle, you need V-8 type tie rod ends.
Jim