Tie rod over steering

[John Griswold]

I'm looking to flip my tie rod over to the top to help with drag link angle. I've ordered the sleeves and reamer from BC Broncos to redrilll the holes from the top. First I was wondering if the holes can be reamed with a 1/2" hand drill with the knuckles still on the rear. Second, can it work with just trimming the lower track bar bolt where apparently there is a clearance issue when going tie rod over or has anyone used the Duff bracket that raises the lower track bar location? Raising the lower location would probably be beneficial in getting the track bar and drag link parallel. Anyone have any input on Duff' s bracket?
Thanks, John

 

[Quick & Dirty]

I reamed mine by hand with the knuckles on the axle. Took some time, but wasn't a big deal. Checked with a tie rod end frequently to make sure it was going straight, and stopped at just the right height.

 

[JSBX]

I used a 3/8 drive air ratchet to ream mine. Use plenty of cutting oil and check often. I had good control with the air ratchet and it does not take long. Just be careful and I cannot stress enough to check the depth often. I almost went to much. I used the track bar riser, with a 3 1/2" lift and BC's adjustable track bar. It worked out great on mine. I did it with the knuckles on.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Did mine with hand drill..... Go slow .... Real slow...... Don't go to far stop and measure often

But can be done and done well by hand

 

[broncnaz]

X3 can be done on the truck. My track bar bolt cleared my setup but every truck is different so you'll have to check when installed and see if you have clearance at full lock or if you can get by trimming the bolt a little.

 

[John Griswold]

Great. Thanks for the information.

 

[Whoaa]

I stuck a new rod end in the bottom of the hole and marked it w/ a sharpie. Then chucked the reamer in a 1/2" Dewalt drill, reamed a little then checked the fit, rinse & repeat. This was much, MUCH easier than I thought it was going to be, took me about 10 minutes.

I used a WH trac bar riser that I welded to the front housing. I had bought a drop pitman arm, but ended up not using it after the tie rod was on top. Seems to bring it up about 3".

Sorry the draglink isn't installed in this pic's, but you can get a good idea of how parrallel the trac bar & drag link will be.

Also you can see the doubler-plate that I welded to the frame mount side of trac bar mount. It seems fairly common for this hole to wallow out over time, mine included. I used 1/4" plate steel and made a simple doubler w/ a nicely drilled square-shouldered hole and increased the bolt diameter size from 9/16" to 5/8"

 

[boomeroid]

What size and back-spacing are your wheels? They seem to have great clearance.

 

[dao1980]

How's this for axle side track bar location. ;D

My buddy and I worked on it for a while to get the drag link and track bar lengths and angles as close to matching as possible.

This was made a little easier by locating the steering linkages on the top of the knuckles.

 

[Whoaa]

Mine is not running & driving yet,....but very close!

Here is a pic of the old wheels that were on it for years. They are really old chrome-spoke style, 15" diameter and 8" wide, in this pic 31" tires. I don't know the back spacing of these wheels -never measured them.

I temporaily installed these old wheels just to double-ck my calulations for the new 17" wheels that are going on it.

Look close at the pic where the outside edge of the tie-rod clears the wheel weight, there is only about 1/8", or less clearence. This is a 76/77' style knuckle on Dana 44.

The new wheels that are going on it are 17" x 8 1/2" with 3 1/2" back spacing. I wanted plently of clearence, running 37" tires and Duffy long Radius arms w/ the bend for tire clearence, plus I like the slighty wider overall stance that the 3 1/2" BS provides because it's also lifted 5", fender flares and slightly trimmned inside fender well factory seams so it doesn't slice my 37" rubber

 

[boomeroid]

Very cool! Thanks for the detail

 

[John Griswold]

Nice pics. Thanks for the help.