Welp good ol pop up thunder storms have kept me from being able to check my caster angle... right now anyways... Today I thought I was going to have to sell my new house because It didn't appear the truck was going to fit in the garage, but as you can tell in the pictures... it does... BARELY!!







See TIGHT fit!!!

Onto the steering and trac bar set up... The truck uses stock ford radius arms.... Who can guess the drag link??!?!?







Tight fit already under the engine crossmember!


/

 

yea Beard, I have heard that from a local offroad shop, they wanted 1500 to hack the engine crossmember and rebuild it and redo the trac bar set up.... I've though about using the stock axle side mount but i believe that will give me clearance issues... So I could move the existing mount further out by a few inches and I guess rebuild the frame mount.... but changing the angle is where I will get into problems I believe as I will either get too close to the diff, or to the engine crossmember...

 

ibeam suspension ftw

 

my thought is to do the panhard in front of the axle and in front of the engine crossmember. that way you can make it nice and long.

how much room do you have in that location?

 

I'll snag some pictures... just backed it into the garage... I have found another potentially big problem... You measure the caster where that flat is by the upper ball joint right? Or would the flat under the lower balljoint work too?

 

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Well, I didn't measure the lengths of the trac bar or drag link I know ones shorter than the other... The angles are .5-1.5 degrees off from each other, the trac bar being the steeper of the two...

I REALLY need to get a digital angle finder, anyone know of cheap ones that are accurate??

Onto the pictures, and some puzzling stuff... I measured the caster at the flat beside the upper balljoint and the flat on the lower ball joint on each side....


Drivers upper...


Drivers lower



Passenger upper


Passenger lower


Quite odd huh?? I'm 99% sure i was holding it in the exact same location, but holdin it on the upper was a PITA!!


And now for the steering stuff.... There is room between the drag-link and the engine crossmember to get the trac bar in there, although it would mount onto the axle at an angle(is that an issue)? But, where the mount would need to go, is extremely close to the steering box... hope the pictures make sense...

 

Trim the front of the crossmember and mount it forward more.

 

Should I go all the way infront of the cross member, or just cut the front lip smooth and mount it near there?

 

can i see a pic of the side of your axle with the wheel off? it looks like you have negative caster! does the upper ball joint lean back compared to the lower? or opposite?

if you have negative it would drive horrible no matter what.

now id do what redranger4.0 said. you could trim that front crossmember up and give you some more room. then move the mounts forward. make a new track bar that is much longer.

as for the axle mount, to bad the factory one isnt still there. let me see if i can find a good mount

 

Factory mount is still on the axle for the trac bar, might be able to use it IF i move the frame mount forward!

Top balljoint does appear to lean slightly backward from the lower, ever so slightly... I think it has 7* wedges in it... Now I'm baffled, how can I correct that?? Would new C-wedges fix it, and do they have like a positive 7* and a negative 7*?

I can get a pic with the wheel off, but I'm bout to leave right now for the firestation and won't get off till tomorrow, then tomorrow I'm rebuilding a retaining wall, so it will probably be Sunday sometime before I can get a picture.... I will try to search my photobucket account later today and see if I can find a pic of it!

 

id like to see the angle finder on it too when you take the pic to make sure its in the right spot.

you measure it from the upper balljoint, well the flat edge around it.

you can change the bushings out. lets see what it is. the way your pinion angle looks i want to say it maybe 0 or negative which isnt what you want.

 

Yaaaaa, more pictures.. last two days have SUCKED!!

Drivers side 'caster' angle


And here is where I held it






And for ****s and gigs, here it is on the flat on the other side of the balljoint...




Or was it this one... crap lol



Front driveshaft


and the pinion angle, roughly




And here is the space i will have to run the new panhard/trac bar if/when i rebuild it... THe mount will be right beside the steering box, will actually have to make the mount around the two bolts or using them in the mount design!

 

i think you should move it forward. looks like plenty of room. also the castor looks fine to me. you have 7* of positive caster.

 

So is 7* right? Thought it was supposed to be 4 or 5? I'm hoping it will just be trac bar issues.. now to find the junk to build the new mount etc! Thank you sir!

 

something i would check is too see if those bushings are all good? id hate it to just be the bushings with play where the caster changes as you drive.

somewhere between 4-7 should be good. all depends on the setup, tires, etc. I know Evans that i build has 8, that is just what it had when we got done, it drives really nice.

 

The bushings did appear to be good when I rebuilt the axle last yr (seals etc.). But, I do know the stud on passenger side one is bent so when I go to replace it I might just buy new bushings if I have the money, but I think all i could find were poly, don't think anyone sells the rubber ones anymore.

 

poly should be fine.

 

I believe I'm still gonna run a bushing on the frame mount side when I re-build the set up, but do you think a 3/4" QA1 heim will be strong enough on the axle side?

 

yes, that is what i am running.

btw over on pirate in the ford section there is a thread called doubled daily or something, its pretty recent. look how he did his panhard.

 

Yea, Brad D or something. I pm'd him and he sent me all the pix he had of his set up.... Thinkin bout leavin it in it's current location just redoing the mount maybe and the axle mount. Even asked bout his doubler, doesn't appear the adapater kit is made anymore