79 knuckle high steer

[Barefoot Bob]

I have a 79 knuckle that has the 3 inch spacer by rough country, 3 studs and a home made steering arm. That's not too bad in most cases, but previous owner cut the steering arm in half for some reason and welded it. So, I bought a new steering arm. They told me that the 3 inch spacer was too high.and sketchy and to buy their 1 inch spacer and new studs. Overall I would lower the bar 2 inches. So, I took off the steering arm. Piece of cake with acetylene torch. Only 1 nut needed heat. Then I got the 3 conical spacers off with ease thanks to a tip I learned here by unscrewing them to get them started. But the 3 inch spacer was not budging nor would the studs. Any suggestions on how to remove the studs and spacer? Or should I just leave the spacer on and put new steering arm on top? It's my daily driver work truck. Thanks

 

[DirtDonk]

Hey Bob, welcome!
Is this on a bronco, or still on the pick up truck? And is it an F150 super cab, or an F250?

I’m guessing a few of us have worked on those types of knuckles, but most of the members here probably have never even seen one.
The Broncos and standard F150s used a completely different steering arrangement then did the three bolt knuckle trucks.

But to help everyone, can you post up some pictures? Without being a contributor, you can’t post an image directly to this discussion. But rather than throw money at us right away, if we can’t help, maybe post them up to your “garage“ or “gallery” functions.
If that doesn’t work, you can email them to one of us with the contributor status. Or create an account on an image hosting site and then link to the pictures here.

Maybe even private message with them since I think now pictures can be messaged.
If not, I’ll post them up for you if you email them to me. Can’t do it from my phone though, so we’d have to wait till I get back to the computer.
Let me know if that ends up being your only option, you can send them to paulb@wildhorses4x4.com and I’ll post them here.

 

[Barefoot Bob]

Thanks for the reply. It's a long story. 98k1500 raised at least 4 inches with a Ford Bronco Dana 44 front end. Has leaf springs now. Previous owner was 18 year old with a 18 year old budget. He loved the junk yard apparently. I have a 94 Ford Dana rear end too. Anyway. It has 79 F250 flat head knuckle used for lifted vehicles to achieve high steer. They are rare knuckles for sure because of this feature and they were only offered 78 and 79. Anyhow. I have a mechanic guru friend and I was trying not to ask him. But since time was of the essence, I called him and he stopped by yesterday. I never thought he would offer but he did. He took it with him and told me without any doubt that he would get the spacer off and then the studs. So I should be good to go for my new studs and steering arm to be installed.

But my question still stands. Is the 3 inch spacer from rough country a dangerous situation due to the 6.5 inch studs doing all the work? Was the guy telling me the truth or just trying to run up a sale by adding stuff to the bill?

 

[DirtDonk]

Well, I wouldn’t call it dangerous if it’s been on all these years. But yes, in general, the taller the spacer, the more problems associated.
But how high you need and use, depends on how much lift is installed.
Lots of people running around with them over the years, but back in the day, the bigger, the tires and the heavier the use, the more likely they were to come loose.
Also, if they were installed incorrectly, they were likely to come loose.
Sounds like yours was not going to come loose and wobble, if you are having a hard time getting it off on purpose!

But the bottom line is how much do you need?
How much suspension lift is on the truck and what kind of steering system is being used?
Is it crossover steering, or the short side drag link that would’ve come with the 250?

 

[DirtDonk]

We installed lots of 2 and 3 inch spacers over the years and never had one come loose. But we serviced a lot of trucks that had loose and wobbly ones, including just steering arms with no spacer, especially on the Chevys, due to incorrect torquing or overly hard use.

 

[Barefoot Bob]

My mechanic friend was able to get it off. Now the new studs, cone washers, 1.inch spacer and new steering arm can go on.

I have a custom made bar drag link from pitman arm to the passenger side knuckle. Then a tie rod arm bar custom that goes to the driver's side. Really simple.

Last question. I will lose 2 inches of height in not installing the 3 inch spacer. Any max angle for the drag link?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[DirtDonk]

I’m sure there is, but I don’t know what the angles would be. On a short drag length those angles arrive pretty quickly with suspension movement. But on a long crossover drag link, you’d have to get some pretty wicked suspension articulation to limit it out. Unless you’ve got so much left that it’s at an acute angle even at standard ride height.
The shallow or the angle, the better in general. Since you have leaf springs, you probably don’t have any kind of a pan hard bar or track bar arrangement. So you don’t have to worry about those being parallel with the drag link.

And I know it’s a Ford site, but would love to see pictures of pretty much anybody’s project. If you get some pictures, post them up into your garage or gallery functions in your user command post.
Or if you’ve got some posted online elsewhere, add a link to this discussion so we can see what you’re working on.

Have fun!

 

[Apogee]

The range of motion of the SRE's on the drag link is what will determine how far you can cycle and articulate the axle, noting that most SRE kits will use high-misalignment bushings for added range of motion, since SRE's don't typically offer that much swing before the body hits the mounts if you mount directly against the ball. For the same reason, the tie rod does not typically require the high-misalignment bushings since they only have to accommodate the swing of the steering arms from lock to lock.