steering problems

[Broncobowsher]

if it darts to the right when braking and goes to the left during acceleration, its the geometry of the radius arms. the radius arms both point outward, this makes the axle only straight or perpendicular to the frame rails at on exact point. having steep angles makes it more noticeable due to more side to side movement. picture your suspension as if you were looking down on your rig looking through the hood, youll see that as the axle moves to one side or another the axle actually turns, because one radius arm becomes more straight and the other more angled.

ther is nothing you can do about this except build radius arms that are parallel with the frame rails.
this is similar to what people refer to as lean steer with a 4link.

I dont think it is so much the radius arms but the track bar. When they start getting steep like the one pictured earlier they start sweeping side to side turing the vertical movment.

Picture the minute hand on a clock, at :45 it is level. The tip has almost no side to side movment as it sweeps from :43 to :47.
But at :38 it is at an angle. Do the same sweep, :36 to :40 and you have noticable side to side movment of the tip while less vertical travel then at :45. So at steep track bar angles, the axle has laterial movment diring suspension cycling. Now hopefully the drag link has matching geometery or else they will be fighting each other making a coumpound problem, thus the reason you fix steering geometery and track bar geometery at the same time.

 

[spixican07]

So your answer -- drop the track bar bracket to make it less steep and replace stock tie rod setup with heim or DOM to decrease drag link angle?

 

[Broncobowsher]

I actually prefer the track bar riser bracet on the axle instead.

 

[spixican07]

I was looking at my trac bar and I was wondering if anyone had some closeup shots of how theirs is attached? People mentioned bad bushings...I'm not sure how to check other than the wiggle test.

Thanks for all the good info

 

[4x4man514]

that is a pretty good point. everytime i have been to have my rig aligned the mechanics always said i had wore out bushings because of the play.....most of the time the bushings were brand new and there was still motion. how do you fix that? would a heim on each end be too solid for a street driven rig?

 

[Pa PITT]

After a hunting "4 wheeling" trip to NewMexico my old 1980 bronco got so squirley I couldn't keep it on the road the u bolts over the rear axle were loose ....Quess what the next year it did the same thing just wasn't near as hard to find ...
We have a lot of trouble with the P/trac stuff at work ... we change the fluid and add p/trac additive It must be detergent ....takes about 2 weeks for it to clean one up....
I also broke the frame under the gear box once on a 74 chevy tr it would dart ....

 

[Mill KNOB]

I am having the same problem with my new 3.5 lift and i was told that a new drop pitmen arm 4 degrees would stop the pulling when excelerate? Also on my steering wheel the ford emblem was right side up before new lift then after installing new 3.5 lift the ford emblem is up side down??? funny help please

 

[68ford]

I am having the same problem with my new 3.5 lift and i was told that a new drop pitmen arm 4 degrees would stop the pulling when excelerate? Also on my steering wheel the ford emblem was right side up before new lift then after installing new 3.5 lift the ford emblem is up side down??? funny help please

if you have soft suspension that raises when you accelerate it will pull.
its inherant to our front suspension, having your panhard bar and steering as close to level is the best youll get. the only way to fix it is to make radius arms that dont angle out. longer panhard bar helps dramatically though by decreasing the side to side movement.

 

[broncnaz]

I am having the same problem with my new 3.5 lift and i was told that a new drop pitmen arm 4 degrees would stop the pulling when excelerate? Also on my steering wheel the ford emblem was right side up before new lift then after installing new 3.5 lift the ford emblem is up side down??? funny help please

You were told correctly if you installed a 3.5in lift with a trac bar drop bracket you have changed the trac bar lenght but not the drag link lenght installing a drop pitman arm will or should recenter you steering wheel and steering box. You probably have a lot of bumpsteer with your current setup.

 

[airman]

Here's mine.

They look decently parallel to me, but I don't know much about suspensions.

Is the frame centered over the axle? I had that happen once when I was playing with the trac bar length. Yours looks adjusted pretty far out. stand about 10 yards away and see if the frame is centered between the C caps.

 

[Broncobowsher]

if you have soft suspension that raises when you accelerate it will pull.

Mine doesn't.

At least not anymore.
Track bar riser and heim joint steering. The heim joint steering has to be tuned to get rid of the bumpsteer. Just bolting it on and hoping it is right is a gamble. Took me 4 tries to tune it right.

 

[68ford]

mine might be drastic since it raises about 5 inches when accelerating, but is has nothing to do with bumpster, i have zero bumpster, my front end was drawn on solid works and the trackbar/panhard bar fallows sterring exactly.
what im talking about still occures though, its when the axle moves side to side, the axle turns left and right because of the radius arms angles, you will have zero bumpsteer from it and wont feel a thing at the steering wheel, but the truck will turn right left when accelerating and turn right if you go from accelerating to decellerating by letting off real fast. it would also be noticed more with stock length radius arms.