88 2WD Front Steering Bind

[Diggerauditor]

I thot mb my PS was out after I did the V-8 swap but no. It looks like I have some sort of Steering bind that the PS will not overcome. You have to really grunt to turn the wheels. I did a 4" front lift while I was doing the V-8 swap and put the 4" drop Pitman arm that needed to go with it.

I tried looking in the suspension tech but really didn't find anything out that I was looking for. I have some pics of my drag link as it sits on the ground. Can someone tell me if this is too much of an angle that it is binding the tie rods and wont move. I'm going to pop the tie rods off and see if I have a frozen ball joint. Or mb I need a longer drop pitman arm. It's 4" right now. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[4x4junkie]

Bringing your linkage down further (larger drop arm) definitely would make improvements to handling & tire longevity on that setup (your driverside tie rod should be inline with (or point at) the driverside beam pivot when at static ride height). I'm not sure the angle would be enough to cause an actual bind though...

Does the steering turn freely if the tires are up off the ground?

 

[Diggerauditor]

No they do not. You need to really grunt to turn the tires. I'm going to check for frozen ball joints this weekend, tho I don't think that is the problem either. If I jack the front end off the ground, the wheels turn freely. Only when there is weight on the suspension is there bind. I'm running out of ideas rapidly. I put the Pro Comp 52289 kit, which is a 5" lift I'm told. The guy said that my wheels may be the problem. Even though im using Exploder wheels he says the backspacing may be the problem... I just can't see it but I'll take a look at it.

 

[4x4junkie]

Your reply isn't real clear...
If the steering does turn fine when the wheels are jacked up, something else you might check is that the PS pump is producing adequate pressure (this would make it real hard to steer).
If the steering does NOT turn easily when the wheels jacked up, then a frozen ball joint is certainly a likely culprit, as is something hitting up against the column shaft, or a binding within the column itself.

Wheel offset can affect the steering too, but the system should be able to handle anything that is reasonable (8" - 10" wide wheels with a 3.75" backspace, for example). Stock Explorer wheels are well-within the definition of reasonable.