Looking for alignment solutions Skyjacker 6" w/8" coils

[squealingtires]

'93 Ranger 4.0L Supercab 4x4 Running the Skyjacker lift with the extended radius arms. I had trouble fitting the 33x12.50 BFG Mudders mounted on 15x10 wheels w/4" backspacing so I convinced Skyjacker to trade out my 6" coils for their 8" pieces. Well, the tires fit turn-to-turn but the alignment has never been correct so I'm looking for some alternative solutions at this point.

I was a bit delighted to find that there are others running this setup. Does anybody have a near symetric alignment (my passenger side caster & camber are signifcantly more positive than the drivers side (with the same max adjusted alignment bushings) The alignment shop can get the drivers side to almost OEM specs but the passenger side is way out of wack causing a nasty steering pull.

What I'm interested in is any solutions/remedies that you all have found.

*edit*
I just found that there are some +/- 4 degree alignment bushings available on RockAuto
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=926039
When I look at this design, it appears to have 2 means of adjustment. Is it this way so that caster and camber are not 'locked' together (change one without changing the other)?
*/edit*

Thanks!

 

[4x4junkie]

I've found there is a slight difference in the amount of drop between the driverside and passengerside drop brackets on Skyjacker kits (why I don't know), so it would be normal to have a slightly different setting of the bushings to have the caster/camber correct on each side.

On the bushings, the caster and camber are not independent of each other, rather, the bushing can be set to a varying degree in addition to inserting it into the beam in varying positions.

See this article, should help explain it more.
http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2008/steering_tech.htm

 

[squealingtires]

I've found there is a slight difference in the amount of drop between the driverside and passengerside drop brackets on Skyjacker kits (why I don't know), so it would be normal to have a slightly different setting of the bushings to have the caster/camber correct on each side.

On the bushings, the caster and camber are not independent of each other, rather, the bushing can be set to a varying degree in addition to inserting it into the beam in varying positions.

See this article, should help explain it more.
http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2008/steering_tech.htm

Thanks for the help. I must have missed that article in the tech forums when I was looking around. Thats a very good write-up and after reading it I'm trying to figure out the best route to take. I think the reason Skyjacker was forced to make a shorter drop bracket on one side is do this due to the front carrier housing interferring during suspension travel (if it were longer). They should have done a left and right specific coil spring to counteract this but oh well.

------------Major Alignment Issue---------------
Right now now I've got the fixed 2.75 degree bushings and it looks like I need to get the fully adjustable ones (4 degree) to have any hope with getting the alignment better. Here is what my most recent alignment specs were.


--LEFT---------------RIGHT--
-0.07 ___ CAMBER ___ +2.37
-0.78 ___ CASTER ___ +0.92


This baby pulls hard to the right.

---------------Massive bumpsteer and tire wear--------------------------
Currently the distance between my pitman arm ball joint and tie-rod joints is 4". What's the better bet, going with the superrunner steering setup or getting the 4" extreme drop pitman arm?

Any advice is much appreciated. Here's the truck about 9 years ago when I installed the lift.

 

[legoms013]

I'm running SJ 8" coils and 6" brackets as well as a FA600 extreme drop pitman arm and bumpsteer isn't bad, but its isn't gone altogether either. Absolute best bet would be an FA600 with a StoneCrusher steering setup (search forums).

An FA600 is about half as much as the SuperRunner setup ($200 vs. $400) but neither one will completely fix the bump steer and both cannot be run in conjunction with each other (unless you can figure out how to seriously beef up the SuperRunner components).

As far as alignment I didn't have any issues on the passenger side I'm using a stock bushing (not sure on the degree) and on the drivers side I'm using an after market one (not sure on degree either) Both are fixed types. But I had the alignment shop give the drivers side 1 degree of positive for weight of fuel and driver (was empty at the time of alignment). Otherwise it drives great. Not quite enough caster but 6 months down the road I'll have it aligned again a final time to dial it all in solid (waiting for springs to get all worked in).

I know for fact my passenger side camber/caster was much different than my drivers side.

The pull you refer to is most likely because of the different caster specs. When they are equal side to side and toe is properly set the pull will go away.

Look for the fully adjustable 3.5 degree or I've heard of even 4 degree bushings. Thats what you need, but most alignment shops won't know how to use them so be very picky on where you take your truck. Or if your handy with a few tools you can do it yourself in your driveway but if your like most people the time it takes to do this is more valuable than what it costs to have a shop do it. Good luck

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

The pull is caused by the camber actually...big time (camber pulls to the most positive).

You don't want your caster set even. Ideally you want your camber set even on both sides, then you use caster to compensate for road crown by adding .5 caster split to it (caster pulls to the least amount). You then set your toe.

 

[squealingtires]

The reason I went with the 8" coils was because because the 33x12.50 tires on 15x10 wheels didn't fit up front (caught the fenders on turns). Skyjacker told me the 6" lift was good for 35's when I was buying everything but what they didn't caution me on was picking out the wheel, 15x8 max. The vendor I bought the wheels and tires from didn't catch my error either :-(

With regards to the drop pitman arm vs the Superrunner linkage. Does anyone have an opinion of which has an advantage over the other regarding road handling? Also, the Superrunner setup was designed to bolt onto the Superlift system but will it bolt to the Skyjacker setup with similar ease?

 

[4x4junkie]

The Superrunner setup bolts on with the Skyjacker kit no problem, however you may have to omit the little plate bracket on the frontside of your crossmember (if present) for the Superrunner idler arm bracket to fit.

The Superrunner kit, once modified for good geometry, would be better than the large drop arm, mainly because it'll create less leverage on your steering box. The drop arm certainly will be an improvement over having a shorter arm on it though.

The best setup overall will be the Stonecrusher linkage (or similar) however.

 

[Yellowsplash]

I have 8" skyjacker coils underneath my truck and was able to align it with the adjustable camber/caster bushings. I did it myself at a buddies garage.

Like Junkie said, the skyjacker brackets drop the beams down slightly different heights, not to mention the uneven beam lengths, which lead to different camber values at each side. Its not uncommon to have the passenger side sit slightly higher also. Nothing a few washers cant fix.

Bumpsteer with the extreme pitman arm and factory steering was interesting on bumpy roads. Left more to be desired for...

I now have the extreme drop pitman arm and have modified my steering to something similar to the stonecrusher setup. Having the drivers side tie rod the same length as the axle beam helps out with handling, especially on the road.

 

[legoms013]

I have 8" skyjacker coils underneath my truck and was able to align it with the adjustable camber/caster bushings. I did it myself at a buddies garage.

Like Junkie said, the skyjacker brackets drop the beams down slightly different heights, not to mention the uneven beam lengths, which lead to different camber values at each side. Its not uncommon to have the passenger side sit slightly higher also. Nothing a few washers cant fix.

Bumpsteer with the extreme pitman arm and factory steering was interesting on bumpy roads. Left more to be desired for...

I now have the extreme drop pitman arm and have modified my steering to something similar to the stonecrusher setup. Having the drivers side tie rod the same length as the axle beam helps out with handling, especially on the road.

Ooo could I get a picture of your steering setup?

 

[bigfltruck]

^+1 on the pic

 

[Yellowsplash]

Here ya go...

 

[4x4junkie]

What application are those links from?

 

[Yellowsplash]

They're actually two off-the-shelf Moog passenger side links. I cut the passenger side inner rod at specific spots and spun it the inner remains 180 degrees to where the flattened tie rod end mount hole was positioned near the axlebeam pivot bolt instead of near the pitman arm and welded it up. The good thing about this is it also moved the tie rod link forward some to help with clearance of the drop axlebeam bracket.

The drivers side factory link I threw across the yard as hard as I could and proceeded to work....

I took another passenger side link and mounted it on the drivers side and mounted it up. To do this requires you to also buy a new adjuster sleeve and tierod end for the passenger side as well in addition to the tie rod link because the link diameter is slightly larger ( M20 vs. M22 iirc). The only issue with this is the bend in the tie rod link can come in contact with the passenger link if the drivers link isnt orientated correctly. Under normal circumstances, this shouldnt happen. If I wanted to I could simply cut out the bend and weld a straight piece of link rod in its place to alleviate the issue, but I will worry about that at another time.

Keep in mind, my tie rod link angles arnt completely horizontal as I'm running 8" coils up front. With 6" of lift the angles should be dead set near 0 degrees.

This is also great too because it uses factory tie rod ends which should prevent inspection issues that arise when you use heims or other means of rod ends. You cant tell I cut or welded the rod at all. The tech shouldnt know the difference unless he knows alot about rbvs, which most dont.

Disclaimer....I dont recommend people to cut and/or weld steering parts on a vehicle driven on public roads, especially if you are incompetent in fabrication skills.

 

[4x4junkie]

Gotcha (was hoping they were a factory app from somewhere). That's cool, though it appears you did not sleeve over it where you welded?

 

[Yellowsplash]

No, I didnt. I was trying to go for a completely factory appearance for inspection purposes.