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Turning radius post D-44 swap

CharlieC

CharlieC

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Finished up an axle swap on the front with a D44. Steering radius is great to the right, sucks to the left. I’ve got 4” lift plus an Easy Inch pushing it forward. New drag link, lifted steering arm, so drag link is close to flat. Steering box is original. I’ve checked my steering stabilizer and it’s not bottoming out And in the right place.

Don’t remember where I got my parts list, but the drag link end in the front is longer than the rear (threaded portion). I had the overall length about where it was on the original axle. fooling with it tonight, I started with the drag link ends 1.5” apart or so and left it with the ends pulled in, almost touching.

Is the right process to figure out where center is on the steering and turn the drag link collar until it’s centered? I kind of did that once already and didn’t seem to do anything to affect it any. Here’s a pic from the front of each side.

Thanks
Charlie

25BBE1CD-FD37-4B41-8EDB-2550E8F61EE4.jpeg

4AFC077E-3D1E-4E99-91BE-2C543DCC2B36.jpeg
 
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So food for thought. Between lifting it the inch and pushing it forward, you’ve not only changed the geometry, but also brought the knuckle closer to the steering box

You will likely need to shorten it an inch from the length it started. Make sure to keep the steering wheel centered so it’s normal when you’re done
 
That’s why I commented on my different sized drag link ends. I think the pictures show the turning radius when the drag link was adjusted to where they were touching, so no more shortening with the ends that I have. I’ve owned it since ‘87 so I‘m familiar what’s been changed.

I guess I’ll try disconnecting the drag link, check the side to side movement just to see if that’s the same, center the steering wheel and go from there.

How many revolutions should the steering wheel do from one full turn to the other, is it 4?

Bent’s comment is making me think I need a shorter end vs the longer one currently on there.

Thanks
Charlie
 
The drag link ideally should follow the leaf spring arch, not necessarily be flat although a lot of people seems to say that. I’ve seen people combine a dropped Pittman arm with a raised steering arm trying to get it flat and the truck ends up driving bad. I agree what was said about the DL being too long now
 
Here’s the steering wheel centered and the tires centered. That longer end appears to be my problem. Yes, that’s my sway bar held up with rope. I have to cut and extend the drop brackets as well.

Charlie

25E0B2E1-FF5C-4392-85B3-CD24C0F46E7A.jpeg
 
I guess there’s never any free lunch… The Easy Inch got my tires off the back of my fender (already cut and needed some more), but I didn’t think of all the impacts of moving the axle forward, nor did I ever see this issue mentioned anywhere.

I assume by shortening the drag link, while getting my turning radius equal, I’ll assume I’m also going to lose some radius overall?

Yes, my drag link does match the leaf spring angle as the Easy Inch has it a bit higher.

Thanks,
Charlie
 
No you won't lose any turning radius at all.
Once you have it centered the steering box will turn with the same amount of travel.
 
Thanks for the guidance so far, I've ordered the short end from Amazon. I always thought with the huge mass of production of 73-87 Chevy C/K model stuff, parts would be around for a long time. It's getting to be a real bitch to get what I call general maintenance stuff from O'Reilly's, Auto Zone and NAPA. Couldn't get a radiator hose either, had to get both from Amazon.

Here's a hard luck story for you... 2 weekends ago I did a carb swap as mine had been sitting too long, runs much better now. Took it around the neighborhood for a test drive, about 4 houses away and hear some god-awful noise under the hood. Get home, open her up... evidently I left a long blade screwdriver on my radiator support when I closed the hood. That mf'er fell off, went into the fan, broke my shroud and then embedded itself in my perfectly good 4 core radiator. I found a cheap 3 core on FB I picked up, I don't think my 4 core is repairable, but I'll bring it somewhere to see. I stopped screaming about crap like that, just smile and say "thank you sir, I'll take another...".

Charlie
 
We mean to actually cut that inch off the long drag link end.
You cant just get two short sides because they are left and right hand thread.
You scooted the axle forward an inch so you need to shorten the drag link an inch.
 
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Has anyone else on here done the Easy Inch up front and ran into this problem?

After looking at this a bit, it’s not as simple as cutting an inch off as I would also be out of thread on the longer end.

EA21E130-640C-481B-A81D-5A98177296EB.jpeg
 
I've done it three times but it has always been 1" forward with nos gm or ac delco rod ends and sleeve. It is chopped and nearly fully threaded when I'm done.

Also you can cut an inch and a half off and half inch off the sleeve ends and still be fine. The thread engagement and clamping force is pretty stout on there.
 
Is the pitman arm keyed to the steering box output shaft? Could you lock the steering wheel straight and find the new center on the pitman arm to take up the difference?
 
Lolz_cats said:
Is the pitman arm keyed to the steering box output shaft? Could you lock the steering wheel straight and find the new center on the pitman arm to take up the difference?
Click to expand...
I think the idea is that the steering box only has X amount of motion from side to side and moving the pitman to a new center ultimately ends up limiting turning ability still, I think…

My next step is to call a bud that owns a machine shop and see if he can cut and thread the longer link end further up than it is.

I posted my issue on the DYI4X FB page and it seems it’s rather expected you’ve already done a cross-over conversion and this would not be a problem. That’s an awful lot of work and money (knuckle, 2WD box, hoses & crossover kit). Sure hope the machining method works.

Charlie
 
Yes most have done cross over steering. Cross over helps lessen bump steer, and allows more suspension travel,
 
Moving the axle helps a lot but also comes with some baggage. Once you sort out the draglink issue, it should run down the road just fine for ya. The shorter draglink will rear its ugly head during off-roading and suspension movement. The shorter draglink has a higher effect on steering during suspension movement. My axle is 2” forward but that’s easy to do with cross over.

I would do a combination of thread cutting and small amount of clamp/sleeve shortening.

Is it possible to run double short ends? I know R/L hand threads, but if you don’t care about pulling it off to adjust it, the short ends might work. (Just not sure if the sleeve will allow that)
 
CharlieC said:
After looking at this a bit, it’s not as simple as cutting an inch off as I would also be out of thread on the longer end.
Click to expand...
If you can't thread further up on the DLE, you could just get it turned down to the minor diameter of the thread, for an inch past where the thread stops. Of course it's easier to cut the sleeve. Get the rear DLE bottomed out in the sleeve first so you know the minimum you'll have to cut.
K85 Octane said:
Is it possible to run double short ends? I know R/L hand threads, but if you don’t care about pulling it off to adjust it, the short ends might work. (Just not sure if the sleeve will allow that)
Click to expand...
No, you can't mate a RH and LH thread together. Now if you could identify some other application that's using a slightly shorter DLE, that would be the hot ticket.
 
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