Steering wander after only a 2.5" lift? WTH???

[71_K5]

Seriously, this sux. I specifically chose to only lift my 72 Blazer 2.5" to prevent any adverse steering issues. It didn't work. I put Skyjacker 2.5" kit on and also installed ORD's heavy duty greasable shackles which lifted it .5" more if i recall correctly.

It feels like the castor has gone to crap. I have to explain the steering as being "nervous". I don't have death wobble. It's just twitchy and does not seem to track well.

The tires put on are 285/75/16 Goodyear MT/Rs. It does look like the frame was booger welded by the PO at the steering box. I'll address that this week.

Is it common for a Blazer to lose so much tracking/castor with such a small lift? This is one of the primary reasons I got rid of my coil sprung early bronco. Anything more than 3" of lift on those and you REALLY should rotate the knuckles to put some castor back in the front end.

HELP....

Need some advice here from the "learn-ed" CK5 community!

Jim

(BTW, all the tie rod ends and ball joints appear to be in good shape)

 

[badmix]

Id seriously check EVERY nut and bolt under there. I put a 2" lift on my truck and had zero issues. Ive also got ORDs HD front shackles. Im guessing something is loose or put on wronge.

 

[bp71k5]

You didn't say whether the truck wandered before you put the lift on. If you search for similar problems on this site, you'll see it's a common issue with these old trucks. I've got a 71 and it had the same problem before and after the 4 inch lift.

One thing to help locate the problem is to rotate the steering wheel back and forth a little while someone looks at the pitman arm on the steering box to see when it starts moving. My wheel will turn three inches to each side before the box starts to move the pitman arm. If everything else is in good shape, this is a good thing to at least tell you if the problem is in the box or somewhere else.

 

[dremu]

As Badmix says, check torque on the fasteners, as there are a bunch and sometimes we do forget. Check the nuts on the u-bolts for sure, 'cuz you're supposed to anyway.

The steering geometry is decided by the arch of the springs, which in your case I have no clue as to, and the relative mounting points of each end. If you put a longer shackle on the one end, then yeah, the axle gets rotated. Looking at the driver's side tire, your axle prolly rotated clockwise, which would give you an increased castor angle.

Anyway, it's easy enough to check. I'm thinking you have a disc D44 with flat-tops on both sides, so you should be able to find a nice flat surface on which to put one of these

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34214

And presuming your garage/driveway/whatever isn't perfectly level, measure it too.

If yours measures out as excessive -- and I'd have to go dig up some my old posts to see what a decent range is -- then you could install shims between the springs and the axle to angle the axle back. These bolt into the spring pack and come in a variety of angles (i.e. 1*, 2*, 4*, etc.)

You could also, as a test, switch back to the original shackles, assuming they're intact, but that's a fair bunch of work.

-- A