for what it is worth.
I took a trip to my parts trailer and quickly measure my rusty rod at ~0.71" which would possibly be an 18mm. I have worked with rod end bearings in industrial applications and was surprised that 18mm was hard to find. I was looking for economy types and only got a hit at Roush Yates
http://www.roushyatesparts.com...-end-p/fkb-cm18m.htm
now for an 18mm to work the rod diamater needs to be less tha 0.708" preferably 0.705"
I could see short sleeving the rod to go to a standard 3/4", but thinking steel and steel sliding would not be the best
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