anyone ever use hiem joints for the outer tie rod ends instead of the factory tie rod ends, i have that is bent and was looking at posibly upgrading, i know that hiem joints are superior for racing, i have them on my off road car, but they can be noisy, anyone ever use them on there chevelle in place of the original?

Never tried this, but I think tie rod ends and ball joints have a spring in them so there is no slack, whereas Heim joints do not. They might wear faster.

I have seen it done on race cars and such.

What works well for racing doesn't always work well on the street. The stock tie rod ends have rubber boots to hold grease around the joint. Rod end bearings have no such boot so you would either be maintaining them all the time or they would wear out quickly.

There are also mechanical issues that you would need to overcome, such as the tapered hole in the spindle arm and the length of the stock tie rod which is much longer than a rod end bearing.

Tom

If its just a street car. I would just stick with regular tie rod ends.