Replacement Tie Rod Suggestions

[DSJW]

I have a '77, and the Dana 44 front axle is finally going to be rebuilt. I have the original Inverted Y tie rod linkage, everything is tight and none of the tie rod ends needs replacing. I know that that design has always been considered a bit weak, and I'm thinking I might replace the current tie rod with something better while I'm doing the axle... but what.

My Bronco has power steering and original front discs, a 2-1/2" lift, and 30's. It is a daily driver that also goes out for some fun in the hills. It will never be a rock crawling boulder jumper. Maybe the original equipment will work fine, but it seems like the perfect time to do an upgrade. Happy to hear your suggestions, comments, and thoughts. TIA!

 

[Rustytruck]

leave it alone and fix it if you destroy it. which I doubt will ever happen with your anticipated use. Tell me your planning to run the rubicon then I would change it but with small tires and easy trail use not.

 

[DirtDonk]

Agree with Rustytruck. But a couple of extra questions to narrow things down.
First, how does it drive right now? Everything good? Did you own and drive it before the lift?
What size wheels, and what offset? Wider wheels might put more stress on the linkage in four-wheel drive.

With 2.5" of lift, if it does not feel perfect anymore, I would start with a dropped pitman arm and trackbar bracket to bring the overall angles back down to near stock. The shallower the angle the better it steers AND the less prone to bending at the middle of the long rod it is.

Usually it's in 4-wheel drive where things get bent up, but it's on the street that we notice the most difference if anything is not quite right.

Paul

 

[trekgurl]

Clydesdale.... some of the best money I've spent on EB.

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[DSJW]

Paul, I've owned this Bronco for about 30 years. It had the lift kit put in before I bought the car. I did put in a set of 4.5 degree C bushings several years ago, to get back some of the neutral steer that had been lost to the lift. The neutral steer is "OK", I wish I had put in the 7 degree C bushings, but that might have been too much.

The steering and handling is pretty nice and always has been (for a 40+ year old 4WD), except for one bout of death wobble that was taken care of many years ago. The tires are 30 x 9.5 BFG KO2's. I'm pretty sure the wheels have no offset. Thanks, Dave

 

[DirtDonk]

Well I think at this point you can continue to use your original style steering. Either the ones you have now, if they check out good, or new ones of the same style.
Three things you can do right now though, before you pull things apart, are to check your pinion angle to see if an additional few degrees is going to put you in a bind ('77's actually have pretty good caster most of the time already), get an alignment printout so you know exactly what you have, and do the test to see if things are worn out.

You know the one, where with the vehicle fully on the ground a helper racks the steering wheel back and forth a half-turn in each direction while you roll around under the front end of the truck and see if anything is loose or worn.

I do still recommend adding the linkage drops to even a 2.5" lift, especially with the '76 and '77 linkage.

Paul

 

[DSJW]

Everything looks tight, no wobble, looseness, or slop in any of the parts. Here is a pic of the last alignment that I had done (after the new 4.5* C bushings were installed)-

 

[DirtDonk]

Too bad their printout did not give the specified range too.
And if I'm not mistaken, their machine was reading Toe as an inch range, rather than a degree value. Is that what your take on it is too?
If so, then that looks like a low setting to me. Just 5/100" of toe-in seems like it would be a bit wandery, or have strange turn-in qualities.

My sweet spot on the '71 is 3/16" and the current happy setting on the '68 (with a '77 front end) is 3/32" for now. I'm working my way around, but it really did not like 1/4" toe-in and seems to really like this lower-than-normal setting.
However, 1/20" is light and I'd like to see what you think about it when you dial in a bit more toe-in.

Have you ever played with the toe adjustment since this readout was made?
As I think I mentioned in another discussion, I recently tried as much as 7/32" TOE-OUT rather than toe-in. Drove really well but was weird in parking lots. Should have been the other way 'round i would have thought, but that was not the case. Maybe the '77 knuckles would have been different, but currently running early knuckles with GM discs. Looking for '76/'77 knuckles and brakes to try though.

Anyway, just rambling to try to convince everyone to play with their toes now and then to see if they can find a happy medium with their Broncos.

Paul