It's OK. I'm pretty sure I've seen that thing in real life. Although it's hard to recognize when it's sporting BFG KO's.
The relevant detail for me is the axle end pivot. I can see that you made your own. I've been using the Wild H. Trac Bar Riser, and setting it so that the axle end pivot is horizontal when the pinion angle is set, and the caster is cut and turned to 7 degrees. By the time I do all that...I can use the factory fixed length trac bar.
So THANKS!
Well...
I had a track bar riser on my D44 at one time as well. I first installed a lift in around 2000, including a track bar drop bracket. Decided I hated it before I ever drove it, and torched the lower part of it back off. The riser wasn't my idea (most of the mods on my Bronco are flattering by imitation) but I had to have one, so I made one myself. This was years before WH offered their design. The wandering, bump steer and other maladies were terrible though. Eventually I figured out that 2 degrees of caster was woefully inadequate. Someone, here I think, posted about cut and turn, so I did. And wound up with 6-ish degrees. Wow, what a difference. It stayed centered like a modern truck, just as Ford would've done it with my lift and power steering (as we've discussed and agreed upon many times). Except, now my track bar riser was in the wrong place.
Around that time I became aware of an axle end track bar mount design that put the mount way out on the end, kinda sorta mimicking late model trucks. Makes the track bar and drag link roughly equal in length. WH's riser design was still a few years in the future, and I decided to give it a try. The idea was that, if they are parallel and more or less equal in length, no bump steer or roll steer. So I fabbed and welded in the mount I still have. That meant a new track bar, so I bought some DOM and thread inserts, then fabbed the bar that's in the photo. Didn't completely get rid of the bump steer, because my track bar was still steeper than my drag link. I lived with it anyway, for a bunch of years.
The nice thing though about the adjustability of the track bar (and drag link) length was that I started with a 4-1/2" suspension lift. Eventually hated that. Dropped it an inch several years ago. Kept getting older and the Bronco kept feeling higher, not to mention tippier with a 120 pound roof top tent, so recently I took out another inch. The adjustable links let me keep everything centered, in an easy, lazy (key point) way.
On a tangent, I actually ran someone's adjustable drag link with spherical rod ends for many offroad miles with my original homebrew riser. Despite dire warnings, I had no failures and I immediately noticed a steering "feel", what ever that is, improvement due to slop removal. When I went to the current setup, I obviously kept using SREs. I bought what I presume to be good ones. They are still in great shape (yes, I check them). Maybe someday I'll need to replace them.
On another tangent, my rear upper shock mounts are also single shear. Big deal. If single shear connections fail, it's because they were under-designed for the application. The math isn't that complicated.
Finally, I should note that when I first bought and installed my Dana 44 on my 1970 Bronco 26 years ago, I wanted disc brakes and bought a Duff kit, which included knuckles that I needed anyway. I didn't realize at the time, in fact didn't realize it until quite recently, that the steering arms are very high, probably higher than any other D44 application. When I lifted it a year or three later I went to a TRO setup, and eventually wound up with what I had until just recently. I reserve the right to continue learning things. In a discussion with a certain Todd Z, I learned that those knuckles were apparently a clone of a late 70's Ford F150 crew cab D44 knuckle, a truck that had front leaf springs instead of coils. Whatever. I also learned that regular F150 knuckles had arms that were almost 2" lower, which would put my drag link and track bar nearly parallel. So, I bought some, and the pic I shared above is that setup. It finally handles and steers really, really nicely. Losing 2" of suspension lift helped as well.
Lotta ways to skin the centering/bump steer/roll steer cat. There's the history of mine. Since I've only ever applied my ideas to one Bronco, mine, my database is pretty small.
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