WH Trac bar riser and drop pitman.

[Bronco Beau]

For Christmas I received the Trac bar riser and drop pitman. I was assuming I would need these before I finished my 3.5 lift. I just hooked the steering up and the drag link and trac bar are at the exact same angle. The riser and drop arm is supposed to correct this right? Well if it already looks parallel is there any advantage to installing either of these parts. Obviously to stay parallel i would have to install them both. Since it was such a small lift the axle still looks good left to right.

Will it increase my down travel or help me limit my up travel?
Will not installing them put more strain on my suspension?

Any help would be appreciated. I wanting this thing to have tons of droop and little up travel. Large tires and little lift = lots of ground clearance and low center of gravity.

Thanks alot,

 

[DirtDonk]

If they were parallel to begin with, they're still going to be that way after the lift.
As you surmised, the parts you got are not only to help correct parallel if you make other changes that might effect that, but also to keep the overall angle more manageable (closer to stock).
The steeper the angle of your steering components, the more issues you have. Including, as you brought up, the axle shifting to one side. And also increased bump-steer in many cases.
Correcting one aspect only, such as the side-to-side position of the axle, might take the two bars out of parallel, necessitating the use of the other part (pitman arm in this case) to bring things back in line.

Basically though, you should measure things rather than go by visual clues. Maybe the body is off-center. Maybe it's more than you think. Or just maybe, it was off from the factory and what you did put it right in the center!
Hey, it's not out of the realm of possibility with these things. Just take a look at your caster angle sometime to see what I mean.

Paul

 

[broncnaz]

X2
While angles have basically stayed the same you have now effectively shortened both the trac bar and drag link so steering will be reduced one way and the axle is no longer centered under the frame. the drop bracket and pitman arm are used to return the steering to or near its stock position. Basically the less angle the drag link has the easier it is to steer and reduces strees on the steering box and other components. along the same lines with the trac bar the flatter it is the less stress it will encounter.
As Dirtdonk said you have to use both if you use either if you only use one then you will run into a bad bump steer situation.
Have you even driven your bronco with the new lift yet? That will really telly you if theres issues. while you may not have any bumpsteer issues the upper trac bar bracket will have a lot more stress on it and I would guess the that steering box itself will be more stressed due to the increased angles.
Not using the parts will limit your suspension at least on the pass side. Kinda hard to limit uptravel while asking for a lot of droop as they kinda go hand in hand bump stops will limit the uptravel but can also limit down travel as when the axle flexes one side goes down the other goes up once its limited travel basically stops.

 

[Broncobowsher]

When I first did the 3½" lift I had all stock linkage. No bumpsteer. but this wierd thing happened when going across dips in the road. The direction of travel would remain straight, but the front would shift to the side in dips. So instead of the suspension cycling vertiacally it was cycling diaganally. The vertiacl portion was the springs compressing and the lateral component was a factor of the steepness of the angle of the track bar.

Raising the track bar mount leveled off the bar. This took the lateral movment out of the suspension travel and the body and frame would now travel vertically in as the springs worked in dips. But my steering angle was fubar and took almost a half turn of the wheel depending on if I was in a dip or cresting the dip. So I fixed the steering. Now it drives like I never lifted it.

 

[Bronco Beau]

Thanks alot for the great advice. So it seems that I will install both components and everthing steering related will be back to stock. Less stress on all parts involved.

No I haven't driven it in about 2 years. I have been working on it pretty regularly just got real geared up. So the plan is to install the riser and drop pitman. Add anifrezze and take it for a spin before someone comes to pick up my tires next week. No new ones yet.

Thanks again. Keep up the great advice your helping alot of shade tree mechanics like myself.