I installed the drivers side tie rod on my 450sl 73, and ran into a few problems. The part was OEM in the Mercedes bag ,from Performance products.
1st. I noticed they did not have castle nuts with cotter key, they used a nylon lock nut and cross treaded ( both ends).
2nd. the adjusting center barrel was too long, I could not make the unit short enough.
I contacted Performance products and the gentlemen on the line went and pulled one from his shelf. They confirmed that the nuts were nylon lockers and his to were cross treaded. We measured the barrel length and it was the same as the one I got. He confirmed the part #, it too was correct.
So I used the old barrel over. I must say that the people at Performance Products were quite nice and very helpful. Just my story

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Stable:
1973 450sl
1978 red diamond ice vette
1975 steel blue convertable vette
2002 steel blue dakota quad.