i need some scholing on heim joint steering

[Destroyer000]

ive got an eb 44 under my truck now. steering is under knuckle with 1 ton tre set up. i just went with a new steering kit from ruffstuff with heims.. with the kit i got 4 heims , 4 safety washers, and 4 misalignment my question is on the placement of them all. i would assume the safety washers go top and bottom of both knuckle side heims and the misalignments go on the drag link pitman arm steering bar.

this is what i have


now the 2 top heims would be for knuckles and the bottom right would be pitman arm side? iam just trying to get all my facts correct before i plug away at it.. whats the pros/cons of running the drag link bar right to the knuckle or welding tabs off the steering bar so its about 6 inches away from the knuckle?

 

[brinker88]

Keep your drag link the same length AND the same angle as your track bar/panhard. Your best bet would be to make a double sheer mount on the crossbar (the bar connecting the knuckles) and leaving the heims on the knuckles single shear for now.

 

[Destroyer000]

thanks brinker! i figured you would chime in lol. now as for the orientation of where each heim goes did i get that correct?

 

[brinker88]

More or less, yes. Take a look at how PlumCrazy has his steering set up. I think you will understand it. He also made a double sheared pitman arm.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Here is a shot of mine

 

[Destroyer000]

ive checked his out a bit and got some info from him on it.. sasquach, what is the benefite to stacking the rod ends on the pass side vs welding a tab a few inches in? just a different angle on the drag link and trac bar set up?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Longer and flatter drag link and panhard bar = better.

 

[Destroyer000]

well guys started messing with it.. got the cross bar built.. knuckles are drilled to 3/4. pitman arm drilled and built double sheer. i built some brackets to weld to the cross bar for the bottom of the drag link and came to a stop for a few.. the heims i have have the misalignments in them for the drag link .. the width of that is 2"1/16 and my DOM is 1.5.. so i either have a 1/4 gap to fill on both sides or run the drag link to the pass knuckle and build a double sheer mount like sasquatch did..

Sasquatch, did you have any special bushings you had to put between the heims? i see they sell a bushing at graveyard
http://broncograveyard.com/images/catalog/STLTIERODOVER.GIF

iam wondering why cant i use the misalignments i have and the safety washers?

my other question is i understand the trac bar and the steering drag link has to be at the same angle. an as far as length thats kinda got me in a pickle. i ordered a new adj trac bar from james duff its 28-33 inches. so therefor that drag bar has to be 28-33 inches?. if i go to the pass knuckle its going to be much longer than the trac bar?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I've got no special bushing between the two, just the high misalignment spacers of the drag link.

You want your tracbar and drag link to be roughly on the same angle and length....the closer they are the less bump steer you will have. How close can you get the two?

 

[PlumCrazy]

If you are welding tabs on the tierod for the drah link, then you dont need the misalignments. Just bolt the tabs to the rod end and tack them where you want.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Destroyer000]

plum, i looked at the heim with no misalignments for the tab idea, 2 heims are 7/8x 7/8 with the inserts for 3/4 bolts and 2 are 7/8x 3/4 for the crossbar so thats not gonna be an option unless i go with a different heim for the drag link.. i messed around with it last night a bit and this is what i came up with. i have to continue to run a 5/16 spacer on the front for clearence with the wheels. i still gotta make a new trac bar mount to bring it up 3.5 inches so its at 10 degrees which is what the drag link is at. as far as length the dragbar is 35.5 inches and the trac bar is 31 inches.. i think that should be alright.





let me know what you guys think.

 

[PlumCrazy]

That long bolt in single shear will work loose over time.

Look at my build. You can use tabs with no misalignments regardless of the size.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Destroyer000]

I plan to make another tab on top of knuckle so its double sheer. That was just a mock up to see how it was going to work out an get your guys thoughts.

 

[Destroyer000]

I plan to run a tab on top for double sheer. That's was just to mock it up an get every Ines thoughts on it. I'd like to stay with all 3/4 hardware. 2 heims are 7/8x3/4 an drag links are 7/8x7/8 with inserts for 3/4.

 

[Destroyer000]

well guys ive busted ass on this project and finally have an outcome.. its been a few weeks but i think we got something here.. cost me a little more than i anticipated but hey i have fun and its what i like to do.. on top of the steering issue i was having i upgraded to james duff sas coil buckets to help with the coil bowing.. i also installed there lower hd coil retainers which those 2 help a bit but i have an issue now.. coil is bowing towards front of vehicle.. so i ended up taking a piece of 1/8 and make a shim under the first bolt hole on the lower retainer thus changing the angle it sat it by about 6 degrees which helped out tremendous! coil is about perfect.. new adjustable trac bar and new mount. trac bar is at about 12 degrees and before it was 19. i wanted to run the pass knuckle in double sheer doing so would require a bracket to be made for the knuckle. so i had some spare knuckles off a f100 and made a template to transfer to the 76 bronco knuckles.. well knuckles are totally different!!!! i was going to have clearence issues with the bronco knuckles so i ended up using the f100 knuckles an gained about 1-1.5 inches on both sides. so now i have plenty of clearance with wheels and dont have to run the spacer like i did before.. this is what i came up with.. what do you guys think? all hardware is grade8 and have nylocks.