Heim joint steering question.

[Thrown_hammer]

I ordered the 3 piece heims from Barnes which they said are the best they offer. But I did go ahead and order safety washers today. Seems like a good idea. Thanks for bringing them to my attention my Irate dudes.

 

[Sterlingfire]

Seems odd to me that your drag link is mounted to the knuckle below your tie rod
Show us pictures of the driver side... to me if you're full lock right and fully drooped they will contact. I've been wrong before though

 

[Bebop]

I think you got them backwards.

 

[Thrown_hammer]

First pic is my jeep. Not a great pic, but it's what I have with me. Second pic is grabbed off the web. I verified with Rock Krawler that is how the steering goes.

 

[Bebop]

Prob to keep panhard and tie-rod parallel ?

 

[2big bronco]

Prob to keep panhard and tie-rod parallel ?

Im thinking its to keep the drag link up higher away from the rocks. Looks ass backwards though

 

[NDCjeepsmith]

Seems odd to me that your drag link is mounted to the knuckle below your tie rod
Show us pictures of the driver side... to me if you're full lock right and fully drooped they will contact. I've been wrong before though

Usually you're right but this kits tie rod has bends on the ends which move it forward so the drag link squeezes in behind tie rod

 

[Sterlingfire]

Looks wonky to me as well.
I guess if it works

 

[Thrown_hammer]

Replaced all the hardware including bolts and nuts. Went Wheeling at Haspin Acres in Indiana all weekend and drove 3 hours both ways. All seems well.

 

[JohnnyJ]

bUt I thOuGhT thEy wErE cUstOm?

 

[Thrown_hammer]

bUt I thOuGhT thEy wErE cUstOm?

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Should have got actual drag link misalignment spacers. Those are for a link and are unnecessarily long, then have a stacked safey washer

Barnes even sells them

3/4 Heim DIY Drag Link Kit

This is our universal heavy duty 3/4" DIY Drag Link Kit. This kit uses 3/4" Chromoly Heims and sets you up to run 5/8" bolts at the knuckle and pitman arm. Kit Includes 1 x Heat Treated Chromoly 3/4 - 16 x 3/4 Right Hand Heim. 1 x Heat Treated Chromoly 3/4 - 16 x 3/4 Left Hand Heim. 1 x Right...

barnes4wd.com

 

[Thrown_hammer]

Should have got actual drag link misalignment spacers. Those are for a link and are unnecessarily long, then have a stacked safey washer

Barnes even sells them

3/4 Heim DIY Drag Link Kit

This is our universal heavy duty 3/4" DIY Drag Link Kit. This kit uses 3/4" Chromoly Heims and sets you up to run 5/8" bolts at the knuckle and pitman arm. Kit Includes 1 x Heat Treated Chromoly 3/4 - 16 x 3/4 Right Hand Heim. 1 x Heat Treated Chromoly 3/4 - 16 x 3/4 Left Hand Heim. 1 x Right...

barnes4wd.com

I'm new at this heim joint shit. I guess the guy at Barnes who I spoke with about heim joints specifically for steering should of mentioned this fact.

 

[animator]

X2 on shorter spacers. Once you get shorter spacers, you’re going to want to drill and pin those nuts to the bolts. I don’t care if they’re nylocks or whatever, run a cotter pin through them. You don’t want those coming loose.

 

[CarolinaCrawler]

I truly think that safety washers will give just about as much articulation as the hiem has available.

 

[BDK]

The bolt with the drag link is hanging down way too far. It's gonna catch a rock. Those misalignments are too wide/deep. The longer the bolt, the more leverage there will be against it and the knuckle. You don't need that much movement in the joints, and it will lead to sloppy steering. I have BC Bronco's hiem steering on my Ford and the safety washers are mounted right on top of the rod ends with the rod ends mounted on top of the knuckle. No misalignments. Find the thinnest misalignment spacers you can get for the drag link, shorter bolt, use a castle nut with a cotter pin, ditch the misalingments for the tie rod. Tie rod is basically fixed in place and turns, so the rod ends don't need to rotate much.


I never liked the bolt through the knuckle approach to rod end steering. I actually am not really thrilled with my rod end steering at all because it has a slight dead spot when they rotate. My steering has a saddle mount for the drag link on the tie rod. It lines it up with the track bar so they are almost the same length, but causes more of a dead spot because the tie rod and drag links all rotate to their max when you turn the wheel. I just rebuilt mine and its much tighter than it was after nine years of beating on it, but next time I upgrade the steering, I'm going with a one-ton TRE Y link from RuffStuff.

Y Link Steering Using GM 1 Ton TRE

Check out the deal on Y Link Steering Using GM 1 Ton TRE at RuffStuff Specialties

www.ruffstuffspecialties.com

I bought all my rod ends from RuffStuff when they had a sale. BC uses the same 3/4x3/4 right hand thread rod ends for everything, which makes it easy to carry spares. They also use a tapered bolt, which locks it into the knuckle so no issue with it wiggling loose and wallowing out the hole.
Here is what I mean by a tapered bolt. I know they won't work for your application, but the only reason I went with a rod end type steering was because of the tapered bolts.

47-00350 Heim Joint Stud for Early Bronco - Steering Linkage | BC Broncos

This chromoly tapered shank will fit the F-150 tie-rod end hole in your knuckles and pitman arm to provide a good solid mounting point for the heim joint/r

bcbroncos.com

Edit: I looked at your pictures a little longer. I would use the misalignment spacers on the top of the tie rod joints for the drag link and just use safety washers for the tie rod joints. If the rod ends are mounted directly to the top of the knuckle, those misalignments are not doing anything anyway. Would take about a inch off that bolt length. If you don't use castle nuts and cotter pins, at least use a cone or prevailing torque type all metal locking nut.

 

[Etyler2]

Ditch the high misalignment spacers and shorten the bolt that is weird.

Just did mine last night, baby Toyota parts though.

 

[Thrown_hammer]

There aren't any misalignment spacers on the tie rod. Just a safety washer on top.

On the draglink should I just use a 3/4-5/8 bushing (it's a 3/4 heim) and two safety washers?

 

[BDK]

The safety washers on my steering are just grade 8 washers. I would just use those safety washers on the drag link and see if everything cycles.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Yeah. When he said that my BS meter started lighting up. Kind of sour on the company now.

Oh, my short arm suspension on my TJ was RK. I've been sour on them for a long time. (I could practically drag the side view mirrors on the ground in corners with the body roll that thing had.)

Then I bought their long arm set up, my buddy looked at it, and said, "F that," and went and bought tube and made me a better long arm suspension. The RK links are still lying under that jeep.

 

[Thrown_hammer]

The safety washers on my steering are just grade 8 washers. I would just use those safety washers on the drag link and see if everything cycles.

Picked up some grade 8 washers. I'll put those on the tie rod and try just safety washers on the draglink, flex it out and check the travel if i get time this week.

 

[Thrown_hammer]

Well, it's not next week anymore but I finally got around to redoing the steering bolts.