Build Looking for Steering for a YJ with Wagoneer Axles

Looking for some suggestions on steering for my 89 Wrongler.

It's got 78 (narrow track) wagneer axles under it. Right now it has the factory YJ drag link attached to the factory FSJ tierod. I believe. It's an over the knucle steering setup.

Wrong side drop front with a dana 300. The shifter for the 300 self clearanced itself on the passenger seat. Perfect.

Looking for some sort of out of the box? steering setup for this thing. I'd prefer factory style just for parts availability, but if anyone has any suggesions I'm open to it!

Going to be running 35s on it. Nothing too crazy.

This thing is a giant pile. I thought I was a hackjob on stuff, but I've been out hacked on this one.

Post some pictures of your setup. How much lift?

Id start first with the wagoneer tie rod. You should be able to find a proper width tie rod in aftermarket.

Are you SOA or SUA? SOA > tie rod in factory location, drag link to high side. SUA, high tie rod, high drag link.

How's your steering angle lock to lock? Able to get full bump? Sometimes that's an issue without a slightly linger pitman arm to increase your ratio.

Lots of things to consider.

D_JEEPER said:

Post some pictures of your setup. How much lift?

Id start first with the wagoneer tie rod. You should be able to find a proper width tie rod in aftermarket.

Are you SOA or SUA? SOA > tie rod in factory location, drag link to high side. SUA, high tie rod, high drag link.

How's your steering angle lock to lock? Able to get full bump? Sometimes that's an issue without a slightly linger pitman arm to increase your ratio.

Lots of things to consider.

Click to expand...

I'll grab some pics of it later.

It actually steers pretty good. I just don't know the age of the components. I can turn sharp enough to put the tires into the springs either direction. That might be more of a function of the super narrow axle ...

It's spring over on stock springs as far as I can tell. Probably about 6 inches taking into account the larger tubes on the 44. There's some shackle lift in the back. I'd like to go spring under in the front if I can find some good springs. The big issue is the front differential is pretty far in and upon suspension compression the driveshaft hits the bellhousing.

This is the only pic I have of it right now . The drag link angle is pretty flat and it connects into the tierod directly under the leaf spring.

Oh wow, it looks like the drag link connects to the tie rod and the PO just bent the drag link around the leaf? The problem with this is tie rod roll due to the downward force from the pitman to tie rod. This can cause adverse steering performance.


Is your passenger knuckle a flat top by chance? I'd source one and get a steer arm up there. It would be very similar to how my CJ is set up and that is really nice and flat.

Personally I'd keep it SOA.

This was common knowledge 20 years ago, but man there are so few YJ questions these days. It's nice to see them back.

Put this on your YJ box:


YJ Pitman arms are too short for a Dana 44. That pitman will fix the problem.

It also may be time to look for a flat top knuckle and high-steer: Dana 44, 30, And 10 Bolt Knuckles | WFOConcepts.com

D_JEEPER said:

Oh wow, it looks like the drag link connects to the tie rod and the PO just bent the drag link around the leaf? The problem with this is tie rod roll due to the downward force from the pitman to tie rod. This can cause adverse steering performance.


Is your passenger knuckle a flat top by chance? I'd source one and get a steer arm up there. It would be very similar to how my CJ is set up and that is really nice and flat.

Personally I'd keep it SOA.

Click to expand...

Passenger knuckle is not the flat top as far as I can tell. I'm up here in the rust belt so everything rusted away years ago, but I believe an old Dodge (not 2nd gen) 44 is the one I'm looking for?

I will probably stick to SOA in the front. Rear is going to be tricky. I don't have the fabrication ability to make traction bars (i can weld something in no problem) and thinking of using a newer ford radius arm to make an anti wrap bar and hang it off the crossmember or something.

That level of sister ****ery is all over this thing. Someone converted it to a 4.0L via 93 XJ. They unplugged the coolant temp sensor and ran their own aftermarket one. I drained 2.5 gallons of the gassiest oil I've ever seen out of this thing. I think they took out the cam bearings. It doesn't knock but it doesn't have oil pressure.

The wiring is all wire nutted together. Made troubleshooting the computer with bad caps a lot of fun.

It had some sort of AX15 in it. It has the clocking drilled for Wronglers factory, but doesn't have the mount tapped for the t-case shifter. It had the small input shaft so it's an older variant. I did convert it to external slave ... happened to be walking through the junkyard and saw a TJ missing an engine. And then had to buy another AX15 for it because they ran it with the wrong size pilot bearing and it popped out of gear.

There was 1/2'' of bondo on the driver's side. I was expecting rust ... but it was actually wrecked hard. I just got done (poorly) welding in a new quarter panel and straightening the body out the best I can. It's going to be a trail beater not show car.

I want the wagoneer axles to work out. Wide track probably would have been better. I think it's cool that it has the same differential front and back. I can just keep a single ring/pinion and master rebuild kit in the garage now.

FordFascist said:

This was common knowledge 20 years ago, but man there are so few YJ questions these days. It's nice to see them back.

Put this on your YJ box:

Wagoneer Pitman Arm, Jeep

Check out the deal on Wagoneer Pitman Arm, Jeep at wfoconcepts.com

www.wfoconcepts.com

YJ Pitman arms are too short for a Dana 44. That pitman will fix the problem.

It also may be time to look for a flat top knuckle and high-steer: Dana 44, 30, And 10 Bolt Knuckles | WFOConcepts.com

Click to expand...

I like YJs ... my favorite Wrongler. I'm going to pick up a nice one for going to walmart and getting coffee eventually but this one was bound for the scrap yard. I picked it up for less than what a Dana 300 sells for.

With that pitman arm I'd run the wagoneer drag link and be able to do full Wagoneer oem style steering?

If I found or bought a flat top knuckle, I'd have the drag link going to top of the knuckle and then just the tierod between knuckles? I've been playing around offroad for a while now and have managed to avoid steering stuff. ZJ V8 tie rod on the XJ has managed to serve me well without issues ... but the unibody is the weak point there.

The biggest hurdle is going to be whether I can keep the driveshaft out of the bellhousing. I may end up having to do a motor mount lift. just to give me a bit more space there.

D_JEEPER said:

Oh wow, it looks like the drag link connects to the tie rod and the PO just bent the drag link around the leaf? The problem with this is tie rod roll due to the downward force from the pitman to tie rod. This can cause adverse steering performance.


Is your passenger knuckle a flat top by chance? I'd source one and get a steer arm up there. It would be very similar to how my CJ is set up and that is really nice and flat.

Personally I'd keep it SOA.

Click to expand...

Here's the passenger knuckle. I think it's just standard FSJ ?

blutrdYJ said:

I like YJs ... my favorite Wrongler. I'm going to pick up a nice one for going to walmart and getting coffee eventually but this one was bound for the scrap yard. I picked it up for less than what a Dana 300 sells for.

With that pitman arm I'd run the wagoneer drag link and be able to do full Wagoneer oem style steering?

If I found or bought a flat top knuckle, I'd have the drag link going to top of the knuckle and then just the tierod between knuckles? I've been playing around offroad for a while now and have managed to avoid steering stuff. ZJ V8 tie rod on the XJ has managed to serve me well without issues ... but the unibody is the weak point there.

The biggest hurdle is going to be whether I can keep the driveshaft out of the bellhousing. I may end up having to do a motor mount lift. just to give me a bit more space there.

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Your thoughts are all over the place.

You need high steer with spring over.

Not sure what the rest has to do with the thread. Unibody? What the **** are you talking about?

blutrdYJ said:

Here's the passenger knuckle. I think it's just standard FSJ ?

Click to expand...

Yeah that's non high steer. However I see those knuckles on marketplace quite often and you can even buy them used.

FordFascist said:

Your thoughts are all over the place.

You need high steer with spring over.

Not sure what the rest has to do with the thread. Unibody? What the **** are you talking about?

Click to expand...

Was just making the point that I want to stick with OEM style components as much as possible for parts availability.
On the XJ, I'm running an OEM drag link with V8 ZJ tierod. Both of those have held up to mild wheeling and rock crawling on 35s Maybe every few years I have to replace a tierod end but it's strong enough that the unibody breaks before the OEM style steering components do

I just don't see the need to upgrade to "1 ton steering" kits on anything just to run 35s for what I do. I had a previous YJ that had some sort of heavier steering and it was all proprietary BS. One of the tierod ends went bad and I was working with a commercial parts manager I know and we couldn't find anything available. Had to wait a week on a part to come in. That soured me to aftermarket steering parts.

D_JEEPER said:

Yeah that's non high steer. However I see those knuckles on marketplace quite often and you can even buy them used.

Click to expand...

Friend of mine actually has a late 70s Chevy 44 (or 10 bolt ... not sure ) in his back yard. Seems like it would be a good set of spare hubs and outers for this either way. Then I can do high steer for the drag link and should be good!

blutrdYJ said:

Friend of mine actually has a late 70s Chevy 44 (or 10 bolt ... not sure ) in his back yard. Seems like it would be a good set of spare hubs and outers for this either way. Then I can do high steer for the drag link and should be good!

Click to expand...

Your current drag link setup is definitely a no-go either way. I'd be sketched to run that.

blutrdYJ said:

Was just making the point that I want to stick with OEM style components as much as possible for parts availability.
On the XJ, I'm running an OEM drag link with V8 ZJ tierod. Both of those have held up to mild wheeling and rock crawling on 35s Maybe every few years I have to replace a tierod end but it's strong enough that the unibody breaks before the OEM style steering components do

I just don't see the need to upgrade to "1 ton steering" kits on anything just to run 35s for what I do. I had a previous YJ that had some sort of heavier steering and it was all proprietary BS. One of the tierod ends went bad and I was working with a commercial parts manager I know and we couldn't find anything available. Had to wait a week on a part to come in. That soured me to aftermarket steering parts.

Click to expand...

You are more than welcome to mix and match OEM steering components to achieve a drag link to the high steer arm. Most opt for DOM and weld-in bungs to run simpler TREs or heim joints.

D_JEEPER said:

Your current drag link setup is definitely a no-go either way. I'd be sketched to run that.

Click to expand...

Yup. It goes along with a lot of other sketchy work on it.
Its not going on the road like that.

Or could go back to spring under until I figure the steering out but I do want to stay spring over. This thing needs a lot of lift so the driveshaft can clear the bellhousing. 6'' lift springs are worth more than this whole pile.

blutrdYJ said:

Here's the passenger knuckle. I think it's just standard FSJ ?

Click to expand...

Check out WFO Concepts. They were masters on these spring over suspension Jeeps and have all the parts to put good steering on them.