cross over steering arm for dana 60

[BadDog]

Re: cross over steering arm for dana 60 - taper solved?

Nope, I don't have anything that is accurate enough to say anything more than "it's about 7 degrees" using calipers and trig. Nothing even close to the accuracy your getting. Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t think of anything new or useful to add. Everything I could tell you is already on this thread... If anything occurs to me that might be useful, I’ll post it.

 

[m j]

Re: cross over steering arm for dana 60 - taper solved?

I think to verify you could try 'ANT' on SRC forum whom I bought my arm from.
he is occasionally on P4x4 and a search of highsteer arms should find him.

 

[Mudzer]

M_J You are correct about Frisbie's ride having a twisted arm. Mine is done exactly the same on my Dana 44. When we built my Dana 44 arm, we did trial and error. Our shade tree calculations came up with a solid 9 degrees twist. We twisted mine by heating the arm and just eyeballing it. Seriously, this worked just fine. I have not had any problems and my steering arm is 1" thickness minus the .125" I shaved off the bottom to get the nut on the joint. I forgot what reamer we bought for the tierod hole, but it was a standard tool. I will try to find out more. As I said, Frisbie's is twisted using the same trial and error method, however he tends to get more scientific about things than I do! /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

If I were someone who could fabricate my own parts and had the means to do so, I would without hesitation. One thing to consider - My arm is a copy of some of the arms sold for the Dana 44 on the market. The precision comes into play how you mount your arm to the knuckle. You want a snug fit on the bolts that bolt the part to the knuckle and you want a true surface where the two parts mate. The position of the hole for the tierod could be a dimension that is not "Exact" as Rene stated. You should experiment with distances from the Kingpin CL to get the "Most" out of your Crossover Steering system. I believe the arms on the market do not allow sufficient leverage on the knuckle to turn bigger tires, therefore making your first impression of Crossover Steering as "less power assist than factory". Watson has said it before in a round about way - in order for a custom part to work properly, you have to experiment to find the right combination. I like the simplicity and Tried and True idea of the ORD arm myself, but I want the ability to go High Steer later. Think about this too when you design your steering arm.

 

[m j]

increasing the lever arm on the steering arm you run the risk of reducing the amount of steering available.

 

[BadDog]

Very true. There is always a trade off with leverage vs. travel. But, I did exactly that, moving my drag link out one hole on the AV arms. With my wheel backspacing and tire combo, the tires hit on the inside anyway at full stuff/lock. This resulting in me running out the steering stops a little bit to limit the tire contact. I don’t miss the small amount of steering I lost, it keeps the tires just barely brushing the steering box and shocks at full lock/stuff, it provides a bit more safety to the joints, and it provided a bit more leverage to turn. That leverage (ANY leverage) was much appreciated before I got my hydro assist hooked up. With that setup, I hit the stops just barely before reaching steering sector limit. On thing to remember, it you change the travel/leverage of the steering linkage, you MUST adjust the stops to hit before the steering box reaches it’s limit. Otherwise, you’ll damage the box and/or blow the cap… If you hit the stops too far before reaching the sector limit, you’ll put more stress on the frame (as if GMs need more stress on that part of the frame!) as the sector pushes the axle side ways.

One point to note, on the AV arms, there is no ideal hole (based on my measurements). To keep the exact same radius (mechanical advantage) one would need to locate the drag link in between 2 holes. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif It's considerably closer to the inside (shorter radius) hole, and I may have made a mistake in my calculations, so I figured that the closer would be correct hole to maintain steering geometry/leverage as close to stock as possible.