Hey guys, my dad and I have been slowly working on a 1970 K5 for the last couple of years and have run into something a little strange. The blazer had a 4" superlift under it and we decided to bring it down to 2.5" so my dad could get in the truck without slipping a disc. We also wanted to attempt to tighten up the steering a little bit while we were at it and so we replaced the tie rod ends, draglink, balljoints and added a dual steering stabilizer setup. The new lift is an all-spring 2.5" Skyjacker kit with an ORD zero-rate in the rear to center the wheel in the wheel well and prevent butt-sag. Before we had all of this done, the steering was your classic steering in that it was unequal and had about 3 turns to lock in one direction and about 1.5 turns to lock in the other. Now when we went to go pick up the truck and drive it around to see if anything improved I noticed two weird things:
1. The front axle now appears to be off-center, causing the passenger side tire to stick out about 1.5" or so which simply cannot be right. It wasn't this way before and the only explanation I can think of is that springs were installed incorrectly or a spring pin broke after they installed it.
2. The second thing is that the steering is much tighter, but bumpsteer seems to have become worse and the turning radius has been reduced to a major extent. The steering wheel goes 1.5 turns to lock in both directions, after the guy at the shop said he worked on it forever to get it even in both directions. After the recent work, with the steering wheel turned all the way to either direction, the tires only turn about 3-4 inches at a maximum. The guy at the shop offered no suggestion as to why this was the case and seems to think it's entirely normal. I know the radius is reduced with a lift and bigger tires but I would think that going from 4" to 2.5" wouldn't change anything, much less make it worse somehow. Especially since we only run 33" tires with stock steel wheels (no off-set). The only thing I can think of is that the old steering arm was not replaced and might be a longer arm that was added with the old 4" lift. The draglink is no longer horizontal like it used to be and is slightly higher in the rear than the front which makes me think the steering arm is longer than stock and needs to be replaced with a shorter one. Anyhow, I left the truck at the shop so they could think about how they propose to fix it.
Anyone run into this or a similar problem? I'm starting to think about saying screw attempting to fix this stock steering setup one piece at a time and just asking ORD to put together a low-lift crossover conversion kit. Since my dad no longer has the physical capability to work on the truck with me and we have to pay for a shop to do the work anyways, it might be worth the difference in cost just to go that route and hope it solves the bumpsteer at the same time as it solves the turning radius issue. The last thing I want to do is start going through the stock setup one part at a time only to find that once one problem is fixed, another one arises. I've been down that wormhole-type repair cycle before and it's always waaaay more expensive...
1. The front axle now appears to be off-center, causing the passenger side tire to stick out about 1.5" or so which simply cannot be right. It wasn't this way before and the only explanation I can think of is that springs were installed incorrectly or a spring pin broke after they installed it.
2. The second thing is that the steering is much tighter, but bumpsteer seems to have become worse and the turning radius has been reduced to a major extent. The steering wheel goes 1.5 turns to lock in both directions, after the guy at the shop said he worked on it forever to get it even in both directions. After the recent work, with the steering wheel turned all the way to either direction, the tires only turn about 3-4 inches at a maximum. The guy at the shop offered no suggestion as to why this was the case and seems to think it's entirely normal. I know the radius is reduced with a lift and bigger tires but I would think that going from 4" to 2.5" wouldn't change anything, much less make it worse somehow. Especially since we only run 33" tires with stock steel wheels (no off-set). The only thing I can think of is that the old steering arm was not replaced and might be a longer arm that was added with the old 4" lift. The draglink is no longer horizontal like it used to be and is slightly higher in the rear than the front which makes me think the steering arm is longer than stock and needs to be replaced with a shorter one. Anyhow, I left the truck at the shop so they could think about how they propose to fix it.
Anyone run into this or a similar problem? I'm starting to think about saying screw attempting to fix this stock steering setup one piece at a time and just asking ORD to put together a low-lift crossover conversion kit. Since my dad no longer has the physical capability to work on the truck with me and we have to pay for a shop to do the work anyways, it might be worth the difference in cost just to go that route and hope it solves the bumpsteer at the same time as it solves the turning radius issue. The last thing I want to do is start going through the stock setup one part at a time only to find that once one problem is fixed, another one arises. I've been down that wormhole-type repair cycle before and it's always waaaay more expensive...
Last edited:
