First off ill apologize for the ****py paint drawings but its the best I can do right now... The pics are looking at the axle from the front Do you have to have the drag link parrallel to the box (horizontially AND vertically) or can there be a slight angle up to the pitman arm as in pic 3 Part 2 IF the drag link needs to be level with the pitman arm, would it be safe to raise the drag link connection on the steering arm with a riser(probably flat steel to bolt to the steering arm, then either box or round tube up a few inches to where its level with the pitman arm and another welded flat steel piece to bolt the drag link to(as in pic 2) TIA guys just trying to get this worked out as replacing a column and steering box are going to be in the $550 range which will mean running front cross steering....
You should have the drag link level to keep from having bump steer. The drag like will pivot at the pitman arm. If you set this up at a severe angle as in your drawing, the up and down movement of your suspension will cause the drag link to make a drastic arc that effectively changes the distance between the pitman arm and the steering arm. This change will cause the wheels to move......and you'll have what is known as bump steer. The right answers are to relocate the box and/or heat then bend the pitman arm and/or heat then bend the steering arm. If you have no experience doing this, then you should get someone that understands how to properly heat and cools these peices so that they maintain their strength and not become brittle and break.
The only problem im having there is not being able to relocate either, the box/steering shaft is one piece, basically. I went on a hunt to see if I could find a 4wd drop pitman arm off a jeep or similar that might fit, but no luck. Would it work to run a second arm on the upper mount of the spindle, which would locate it up about 4-5"s? Maybe then if its close get the pitman arm heated and bent down to match... Would the 2nd pic not work? basically raising the mounting point on the arm with a solid piece... Just trying to weigh options, but safe ones, I appreciate the help.
Certainly you can use an upper steering arm mount. That would work just fine. I'm ***uming that you have no clearance issues with the frame rails, engine, etc when the suspension bottoms out. If you are good there, then this should work. You'll still want to make sure that your drag link is parallel at ride height.
Yeah, thats really the only issue since I dont think ill be able to bend the stock arm down enough to clear underneath the springs, Ill have to run the drag link between the frame rail and the spring... Dont have a motor in it yet, but with a buddy and I on the front end(about 320lbs) it didnt drop but 1/2"... Do you think building a piece to go up from the bottom arm would work alright as long as its a good solid piece(I was thinking 1/4" plate for the bottom, 3/16" thick tube up to another piece of plate) Only thinking this because I cant remeber if there was room with the caliper im running to use the arm on the upper mount on the spindle....
There really isn't any form of tubular riser that would be acceptable for steering components. I've seen it done but IMHO there is too much chance for deflection of components doin' that. Front end components take too much of a beating for that kind of monkey business to function long without working loose or worst case bending or breaking the bolt going through the spacer. Skip that and do it right,whatever it takes,T.OUT
I suppose this would work, but the fabrication would really need to be done by expert fabricators. Doing it this way you describe would put a large amount of stress tortional stress on the welds. I would personally avoid this, but I'll let some of the experts weigh in. Also, the way I'd check for bottoming out on the frame is by measuring the distance between your bump stops and what ever it bumps against (axle, A-frame, etc). That will be the travel of your suspension. You want to make sure that your drag ling doesn't bottom out prior to the bumpstops hitting.
Yo Baby, I see what you mean about adding stress to teh arm by having the weight/force pulling that point sideways, and either twist or break the bolt off potentially.... Ill doube check that when I get the motor in so I can get some weight on it, Most of it is pretty rigid though, not much give, but ill deffinantly check it.
Ill doube check that when I get the motor in so I can get some weight on it, Most of it is pretty rigid though, not much give, but ill deffinantly check it.[/QUOTE] The motor will make a helluva difference, I pulled some leaves mock up was with a bare block and trans case. Then the real parts put on it, I put all my leaves back in. Sometimes keeping the column in one piece isn't worth the h***le; http://www.directimagehost.com/is.php?i=105762&img=DSC02615.JPG Like a pipeline, do both ends up right and make it work in the middle?
As viewed from the top, the drag-link should be parallel with the tie-rod. If it's off a small amount - no more than 5 degrees or so - it will not create problems. The non-parallel bit due to the steering box sits further back than it would for a drag link tie rod parallel installation. Another way to look at it - so I don't steer you wrong - is the wider end of the angle is at the pitman arm end. If you're running cross-steer you definitely need a panhard bar. Most times the panhards end up fairly level, but if not, no big deal. An angled panhard bar - running uphill from p***enger side batwing area to drivers side frame bracket is common. The panhard bar ends up very similar in length to the draglink most times. Try to match the panhard angle with the drag link. That will keep bump steer to a minimum since there will be no angle changes between panhard and draglink or at the most the angle changes will be very minimal. Key point here is the panhard/drag link lengths should be very close. You can't get rid of all the bump steer, but you can minimize it. If the angle between panhard bar and draglink are a little off, things will still work fine and you won't really notice any particular problems when driving. All about practicality, but you should try to match things up as well as you can. Some pics. The rear view of the steering box shows an aftermarket flat pitman arm. Nice part about these is the drag link's tie rod end can go in from top or bottom due to the double taper. The pitman arm in the photo will get heat and bent up a touch so as to make a better match angle-wise between panhard and draglink. One of those jobs I keep walking by an forgetting. That's a Vega box in the pic and I'm guessing that you're buying a re-pro Vega box according to the $$ listed to get squared away. There are other GM steering boxes that work just fine and I have pics of those if you wish. Pic #2 shows one end of a heat bent aftermarket flat pitman arm. To give you an idea of how far you can bend one. The last pic shows the tie rod, draglink & panhard bar relationship. Note that the panhard bar is as far to the p***enger side as you can get it.
Thanks for the help. I should have mentioned this is all on a 62 Nova with the steering box mounted at the firewall on the framerail One thing im dealing with is the oil pan clearing the drag link, but I wont really know till I get the motor in If I cant get a way to do the steering arm on the top spindle mount, ill have to spring for the new column and box $550 range Possibly do a setup like a jeep with cross steering and the box mounted in front of the axle Heres a pic of what im working with, ill get a better shot tomorrow(swapped out the straight axle for a 4" drop)
While I agree with most of what is posted - I think you might want to consider the following: the beauty of cross steering is that you are minimizing the arc that the steering arm travels in due to the sheer length of it. This alone minimizes any "errors" from the theoretical perfect design. Add to this that fact that the parallel leaf setup will likely yield minimal suspension travel - this also reduces the effects of bump steer simply because it ain't moving a whole lot to begin with. So given this I would take some of the comments with a grain of salt. FWIW I have a similar setup in my old Rambler.....except I used a '86 Nissan truck steering box that was mounted forward of the axle. While the Nissan box does drop the pitman arm down pretty far it was not near enough. Bottom line I had a pretty good difference between it and the steering arm (which BTW I fabbed out of 1/2" plate - torched out and bent - actually looks better than it sounds) anyways - what I am trying to say is try to get it as close to "ideal" as possible - but if theoretial perfection isn't attainable - try it anyways - you might be surprised. Mine works pretty good.
Cool, thanks Ill get the motor in it and see where it sits and go from there. I appreciate the help ALL, just wanted to get some opinions so im not making a death trap
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