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Tuesday steering question..

SHARPMACHINE

Web Wheeler
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
646
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Mitten
Dum dum question.

How much travel have people gotten with out going hydro on a stra8 axle? My junk is around 13 and it is getting hard to have everything play nice together. Just curious what others have found.
 
Well, at least I must have been correct in thinking it was a dumb question.:idea: I have looked around a fair amount and do not see where anyone discusses the travel limit of normal steering. Obviously that does not mean the answer is not out there, just I have not seen it. My original goal was to achieve 16 inches of travel, but I am now thinking 14 and limit it a small amount either with limit straps or bump stops. I am currently using heim joints.
Thanks.
 
Most I've done is 14" up front in a TJ. Full width dana 60. Drag link went to passenger high steer arm. Track bar was straight and flat at full stuff.

Class limited to 14" shock, so that's what we did.
 
Oh, I think I understand your question, you're running out of travel on your drag link?
 
I have 13 on my scout with tie rod ends. With the high steer it will be bumped up to about 16, where my limiting factor is the driveshaft binding. I am moving the transfer case back rn, so with a longer shaft I should get more travel. Honestly anything past 12 gets difficult to package. If I had to do it again I would have used 12's or 14's and stuck to that.

I am running a hp 60 with a CV driveline with a little ground off the CV for extra angle btw.
 
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My TJ is running a 3 link w/ 2.5x14 Fox CO's. Front axle is a Teraflex 44 w/ ~ 64" WMS and it is stretched forward ~ 6" with a relocated steering box. The CO's are leaned forward/in a bit and so I have never actually measured true vertical travel of the axle, but I can use the whole 14" of shock travel. I am using EMF high angle TRE's on the drag link w/ a Teraflex high steer knuckle. At full stuff everything gets really tight. I am using a pitman arm from a Chevy van that is actually raised ~1.5" (as opposed to a drop arm) to allow clearance of the drag link and tie rod at full stuff. In retrospect, if I would have decreased the forward stretch about 1.5" the drag link could have nestled behind the tie rod as opposed to landing on top of it.
 
14-16" is about the normal "max" most people achieve with a traditional drag link and track bar. Track bars are usually no problem because they pivot on the other axis (horizontal bolts), but drag links can get a bit finicky depending on how much misalignment your heims/TREs can handle. You have to get very deliberate about how much misalignment you're using in droop versus in compression, and at times have to Z-bend the drag link a bit to use more misalignment in bump, to give some extra leeway in droop.

The other thing that becomes a factor in many rigs (at least those where the crank pulley isn't behind the front axle), is front driveshaft length and max angle. If your front driveshaft is in the mid 30" range, and it can only travel ~32 degrees, you may be surprised how quickly you hit that limit in droop (especially depending on low vs high pinion, and pinion angle, and how high the tcase is clocked in the chassis). There are 40 degree+ shafts made in the aftermarket so it's not the end of the world, but might be an unpleasant surprise if you're trying to repurpose OEM components like many of us do.
 
oh, one other thing that helped was we had a fabricated pitman arm, and we built it with a twist so the rod end had enough swing.
 
Thanks everyone!!!! Appreciate the information.

I am running a HP D44.

Johnny J, Thanks for that idea!! Oddly enough, I was thinking about heating my arm up and giving it a twist. If I did that with the highsteer and pitman arms, I could possibly achieve 16 inches?

Has anyone ever twisted a highsteer arm?
 
I wouldn’t heat and twist any arms. A twisted pitman is a coined term for fabricated pitmans.

I drilled this Ford arm out of plane just yesterday. First I chucked a 5/8” twist drill to align the bore. Tipped the pitman against the drill axis and clamped/ghetto fixtured it in place. The hole was started using a step drill to eliminate chatter or side load when I sank the hole with a 1” bit. Both operations cut like butter. Slugged with a length of dom to establish my desired heim location. Burn it in.

As mentioned and in my experience, 14” is pushing the limits of most heim/pitman configurations. Tipping the arc of the pitman can help yield more misalignment from the heim.

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Good Idea Wisco, thank you. Maybe I will just press/weld a plug in my arms and then machine the holes in with an angle. How much did you use? I am thinking around 15 would give me some benefit?

I have finagled enough clearance for now to get by this season (just shy of 13"), but want to get to 14" coilovers for next year. I will probably try to trade my 16" coilovers for some 14's..
 
Both of these guys gave great answers - custom pitman arms and slugged pitman arms are sweet options that absolutely solve the problem. I know I said it but if you have a bender that can bend 1.5 .250 wall, I'd definitely keep it in mind as a 3rd option. Shaping the track bar and drag link to meet your requirements can really open some packaging doors for you depending on how tight your setup gets through the full range of ravel.

This is my personal WJ that's only running 14" (strapped to around 13.25"), but I ended up bumping like 3 or 4 bends into each the track bar and drag link to make sure I didn't hit max misalignment anywhere (the z bend in the drag link), and to noodle around everything at full bump while still allowing lock to lock.

Full droop, note how much freedom the heims still have:

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Full bump, packaging gets tight between the track bar, drag link, oil pan, crank pulley, and ram/fittings:

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Turned out to be around 10*. Purely an educated guess when I clamped it for drilling. I could’ve easily gone to 15* but figured it wasn’t necessary for what I was trying to achieve.

Panhard and drag link sit around 8.5* on this 78 F-funhundred ™️ with a 78 F-250 Ultra44 ™️ axle swap

This truck much like the ultra Fordty500 are full of silly time wasting projects that make me feel like a professional ross car builder.

And one more note on silly time wasting projects, a single swing set is the ultimate no-limit drag link config.

And my remark about tipping the pitman arc, what I was trying to explain and I’m curious about incorporating in the KOH rig, is the angle off-vertical that the sector shaft is oriented. Might help to a degree. Maybe not.

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^^^^ Nice looking work, thanks for sharing.

Also looks like you live in my favorite area. My favorite destination is the UP. Obviously, there's a lot of shoreline on the superior though. :dustin:
 
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