need more travel at full compression

[cag119]

I'll change the pitman arm back to stock and see where that gets me.

Yes 68, it was at Steve's place in esco. I brought it back to my place in Oceanside so I can work on her more often. Hey thanks for picking up the hydraulic connectors and line. Where'd you get the connectors? I broke one....

Thanks all for the input, I'll shoot out the results after I change the arm.

 

[68ford]

We sell them at my work, we are a gates dealer. Which one broke?

 

[broncosbybart]

I would also agree on what was said before about ditching the drop track bar bracket- or heavily modifying it. I wouldn't trust it for a minute as-is.

The only minus about raising the track bar at the axle end is that it could limit up travel due to contacting the frame rail. I've got about 6" up and down travel. (12" total). It's about all I can get out of mine.

How much tuning has been done to the shocks? You should have several good tuners out there. Not so much here on the right coast.

 

[68ford]

One thing of concern about not using a drop pitman arm and drop track bar bracket is that the angles will be pretty steep and the axle side to side movent at high speeds will be pretty wild. As tall as he sits and as much down travel from ride height if he looses the drop brackets I would anticipate over 3 in side to side axle movment throughout the suspension cycle. It would be a lot of work, but I would build new radius arms and not use c bushings to free up the front of the axle. Build me track bar mount at both ends making it as long as possible. Clearance the frame for more up travel because with high steer arms the tie rod will hit the frame rails.

 

[broncoman1972]

Subscribed...

On my crawler I am running 3.5" lift with a 60 and high steer arms. I have the trac bar drop bracket at the frame, stock pitman arm, hiemed drag link to the top of the RH arm, tierod on the bottom of both sides. I've recently clearance the engine cross member for the drag link and will have to do the same for the frame on the RH side. My tierod hits the trac bar drop bolt when turning to the locks and I have yet to figure out what to do with it. With the bumps where they are and strapped shocks I have about 3" up and 7" or 8" down. I plan to flex it on the rack at work without shocks to see what is happening. I guess I try without springs as well.

 

[bigjhoov]

One thing of concern about not using a drop pitman arm and drop track bar bracket is that the angles will be pretty steep and the axle side to side movent at high speeds will be pretty wild. As tall as he sits and as much down travel from ride height if he looses the drop brackets I would anticipate over 3 in side to side axle movment throughout the suspension cycle. It would be a lot of work, but I would build new radius arms and not use c bushings to free up the front of the axle. Build me track bar mount at both ends making it as long as possible. Clearance the frame for more up travel because with high steer arms the tie rod will hit the frame rails.

Yes, very true on the axle swing. It's best to have the trac bar as flat an long as possible to counter this. It becomes an exercise in compromise, with a lot of mock up and cycling to get everything to play well together without crashing into each other.

 

[needabronco]

Another option is to use a stock pitman arm and ditch the track bar drop bracket and move the axle side all the way out to the outer C. That should give just about perfect geometry. I did mine that way and it handles awesome at any speed. It takes a bit of fab work and head scratching but it's been done on several Bronco's that I know of.

 

[garberz]

Another option is to use a stock pitman arm and ditch the track bar drop bracket and move the axle side all the way out to the outer C. That should give just about perfect geometry. I did mine that way and it handles awesome at any speed. It takes a bit of fab work and head scratching but it's been done on several Bronco's that I know of.

^^^This is how mine is also.

Mark

 

[cag119]

Ok, Stock pitman arm installed. Problem of the drag and tie hitting each other is fixed. However, now the drag link hits the crossmember. Well, it doesn't hit if the wheels are straight but as soon as I turn, it will hit. If it's not one thing it's another... I did get 1 1/2" back though. After FFF, I'll cut out the crossmember and weld in something else.
I really appreciate all the help you guys offered. Great first cb posting! Now i need to do a build thread for KOH 2015 and KOH 2016.... Yup, and 2017, but we may run in a different class.

Andrew

 

[Lmfp]

What I did for mine was run a double sheer axle end bracket for like $30 for ruffstuff and made a new sleeve for the lower track bar bolt to go into the track bar. You're still going to run into uptravel issues though with the bracket smacking the frame though.

 

[bludorbronc]

Can you make a high steer arm with the drag link and tie rod bolted flat on the steer arm,one in front of the other. That way they would pass by each other.

 

[welndmn]

I don't the rules for stock class, by EMC is allowed air bumps, if you don't have them get them.
My jeep only has 10" of travel and the air bumps make it more tolerable.

 

[u10072]

I have always used high misalignment rod ends-- not rod ends with a spacer- at all 4 points-- the from the factory high misalignment ends are much shorter than all the spacers and if you ever whack the tie-rod the no HM rod ends quickly run out of room (personal experience here) and it wipes out the liner and the end is done-- vs. straightening up the tie rod to get home then just replace the ends-- Midwest controls makes the HM versions as well as FK -- they are a little more money but not much.

 

[68ford]

He can not run air/hyd bup stops I'm almost positive. Bumpstops he has look ike air bumps but I think are foam of some sort.

 

[garberz]

He's running Daystar poly bumps.

Mark

 

[welndmn]

Bummer, I was avoiding work today and I read though some of the stock class rules, what a cluster, building a rig to fit with in those narrow guidelines is a pain.

So "secondary suspension" and they called out Air bumps in that rule.
I'm sure you're aware, but I'd toss tennis balls in the coil springs. Yes, they are ghetto but fact is they work. Someone might try and call that a secondary suspension, but Dave has raced Baja enough time that the rule can be argued. When I raced the 1000 with Dave in 2012 I had to argue with the officials on Dave's car, it's just part of the game.

It also looks like you're running a Fox shock on the factory Cage radius arm, I'd step up to a 2.5" x 14" shock (max size in your class) and put closer to the coil spring. Idealy a shock should be straight up and down at full compression, so you'd want to lean it backwards a tad to follow the arch of the radius arm.
With it on the factory location you do lose shock valving do to the motion ratio of the radius arm.

Nice bronco though, I'd love to build an EB for KOH, we sold our car in 2013 and have not raced in KOH since, I mainly do Stadium races now and in "Jeeps" as well, they are just cheaper.

 

[garberz]

...So "secondary suspension" and they called out Air bumps in that rule.
I'm sure you're aware, but I'd toss tennis balls in the coil springs. Yes, they are ghetto but fact is they work. Someone might try and call that a secondary suspension, but Dave has raced Baja enough time that the rule can be argued. When I raced the 1000 with Dave in 2012 I had to argue with the officials on Dave's car, it's just part of the game.

Or something like this.

Mark

 

[cag119]

Hey all, just got caught up on this thread, thanks for all the input. Yes, the EMC rules are very restrictive. We spend a lot of time "reducing" the bronco's capabilities for the first KOH. At tech, it was really disheartening to see a lot of the work we did others did not and were still allowed to race. The head tech guy did stand up and say our bronco was what the class was about so that was nice.
Those are 2.5 14". However, I've taking out the 14" and put 12" in. After cycling the suspension over and over as it stands now, we get 12" with the 12 and 10" with the 14 due to the shock body taking up travel space.
I'm building a new full width D44. The extra axle space and high pinion (along with a few other things) will get me back to using the 14. Honestly, I'm getting sick of trying to jam the round piece of steel into a square hole. We may just say screw it and run the legends class next year. We'd be able to build a better truck and cheeper. Who knows...
I have to give a shout out to Reid Racing. They hooked us up with knuckles and hardware for the new D44. A big thank you to them! Great crew to work with.

Andrew
Next post - hydroboost

 

[cag119]

one other thing, the new axle i plan on running the artec high steer arms with the 2 holes so the drag link and tie rod will mount side by side. no binding issues.