there are also people who have no fab ability or means to do it that are starting to SAS their trucks.......

i guess i have never seen a company that makes custom stuff for SAS'd Rangers.....

 

Well, it's an interesting argument but it all boils down to me not getting involved in something I'll eventually end up getting tired or disgusted with and putting off -- thereby alienating my customers which could be people who would otherwise be friends, lol.

There's some folks out there who'd buy them probably, and I could make a few dollars -- but I just don't have the time, inclination, or attitude to take it on.

 

Thats what I was refering to. Its not like this is a set of rocksliders where one design fits every truck. Every draglink is different depending on lift, axle, type of steering, size of TRE's, ect.

 

Looks good... Bet the wifey is not happy about the new use of her kitchen counter.. LOL

 

ballistic fab sells a kit for steering with tie rod and drag link. they'll weld it mig or tig to your specs. hiems of tie rod ends.

 

They want too much for some of the stuff they sell.

Well, anyway, it looks like I'm not going to do the tie rod over knuckle (sometimes called the "knuckle under") mod.

Basically, I went and flexed the truck real well today when I was testing the rear axle then got out to look at it. I really won't have room for the rod over because of the track bar drop bracket.

The solution would be to extend the trackbar mounting upwards on the axle, but I'm not going there right now. That's a future project. If I decide to change it all later I'll get new knuckles and go high steer.

I really wanted to do knuckle under, but I'm not going back to the extreme angles on the draglink and trackbar. I like the way it drives too much for that, lol. Looks like for now the drop pitman arm and trackbar drop bracket stay.

So, in the next week sometime I'll fab up the tie rod but it won't be so impressive under the knuckles -- but if you're going to have something hanging out down low like that it might as well be stronger.

 

Finally got around to doing the track bar. What a difference in steering! Because of the track bar angle I was destroying the rubber bushings in the axle end quite quickly and the steering gets much looser over time.

I used 3/4" shaft, 5/8" hole heim rated at 42,000 pounds load for the frame end, and 3/4" shaft, 3/4" hole 28,000 pounds load one for the axle end. Both are chromemoly with a 52100 steel ball and teflon/kevlar liner.

The tubing is the same I used for the draglink: 1/5" OD, 1/4" wall DOM. One insert is from Ballistic Fab, the other from QS Components. I like the QS ones (tapered end) better and QS is WAY, WAY faster on shipping. Takes me like two weeks to get anything from Ballistic, and two days from QS.

It's interesting that the 3/4" ones with the smaller ball are rated more -- but they have a much bigger housing around the ball so that's the deal I guess.

Here's pics:

 

Nice john, How big of mis alignment spacers did you use on the axle end?

And yeah my only grip about ballistic is it takes forever to get stuff.

 

Thanks, Zach.

Those are 30 degree cone washers and not the spacers that are usually called "misalignment spacers". Most of them I've seen actually reduce the hole size and I wanted it to stay 3/4" on that end. The cone spacers are generally beefier also and I don't need much misalignment.

Being a straight bar, it does tap the diff cover on full stuff, but not critically. I'm going to redo the frame end and take my homemade spacers (made from 5/8" ID tubing) and cut them so the heim is closer to the front of the mount, pulling it a little bit more away from the diff and that should be fine.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but a while back I bored out the drop bracket to 5/8" from 9/16" stock so I could slide the 5/8" heim on directly. Then I made straight spacers out of some 5/8 ID 1/16" wall tubing.

 

Interesting. Looks good anyhow. On this other swap we are doing I was planning on using a heim on that axle end and its 78 bronco axle so same bracket.

 

Look Great John! Very, very nice work!
FABtastic!!!

Your Misssus must be a saint If I ever used the kitchen counter like that I'd be Drawn and Quartered.

p.s. does she have a sister? My last g/f said I tinker too way too much, lol

 

Sorry, Mark, she just has brothers.

Well, she does tolerate a lot from me -- I think she loves me or something...or she's just given up on me, one...

Thanks also.

 

Oh well, lol!

Nice kitchen btw!

Keep up the great work!

 

Ha ha! Our house isn't fancy, Mark, but it's comfortable. It's nice because it's an older house in a 60 year old blue-collar neighborhood where you can have your truck up on jackstands in your driveway for 6 months while you SAS it, lol.

Lot of places you can't do that stuff nowadays.

 

looks beefy as hell dude, nice work it looks like it came from the factory!

98$ isn't too bad either, i jsut got a cusotm drag link from Rustys off road for 115 shipped to my door.

 

Thanks! My skills are slowly improving on this stuff. My early stuff is holding up okay, but the later stuff is actually looking better, lol.

I'm sure getting my money's worth out of this surplus DOM, that's for sure.

 

Yeah.. John.. I can say I do enjoy reading your updates.. I have the jury rigger style fabricating skills.. but I appreciate the hard work that goes into some things.. and damn, through your SAS and somethign as "simple" as this, I wouldnt know where to start on any of it -laughs- Kickin job there!

 

Yeah, I appreciate a neighborhood like that John! They are the best! You can work a lot on your vehicles without the neighbors fussing about something as trivial as an arc welder sparking or an engine hoist banging around.

 

Yeah, but you do have to endure the, "Damn, John -- ain't you done with that truck YET?"

I'm the local "eccectric", lol.

And thanks as well, Michael. Once you've made up your mind to do it, going out and cutting all the brackets off the frame for the stock suspension is a wonderful "focusing" tool. You now have very little choice but to forge ahead, lol.

I can't remember, but I think it was Sir Thomas Moore who said something like, "There is nothing that focuses the mind so wonderfully as the knowledge that one is to be hanged in the morning."

That's what it feels like kind of when you take that "point of no return" step. You learn or you no longer hava a truck!

Really didn't have the background for much of this, but I think if you do your homework and find some folks to bounce things off of just about anyone with some degree of mechanical aptitude can do something like this.

But I'd never have had the patience when I was younger. Patience was definitely NOT my strong suit!

 

ok guys what is tre?

 

tie rod end

 

Chevy 1 ton tie rod ends are beefy, inexpensive, and commonly used for this stuff. Much heavier than the stock F-150 pieces I was using.

 

we ever gonna get to see that drop pitman arm?

 

"John, you finished with that truck yet?" J/K

I know what you mean, I've heard it all my life, especially with my '67 Mustang.


Yeah, and we want more pics!