Right on. The LSD does alright anyways... much better than open Besides, you have a winch

Yes.. and a front locker.

Yer gonna be impressed with just a front locker. I was down in a wash south of town between hiway 260 and the Verde River yesterday, and climbed out a badly eroded bank. I mean about 4ft straight up of sand and loose stuff. I eased into it and threw the front locker on by itself. Just walked right up and out.

Got the histeer arm & knuckle today!! *pics*

Here are some pics of the new hi-steer arm and machined knuckle:

Parts mike arm and Parts Mike machined knuckle:


Closeup of the machining.. very nice work!! For $60, you cant beat it.


Comparison of the Sky Manufacturing Hi-Steer arm (bottom) with the Parts Mike arm (top):



Here is the arm on the truck after installing balljoints and spindle:



Heres where the draglink is going.. its gonna be tight!!!


Front view.. you can see the offset of the arm and why the 10 degree correction is so important.


I'll try out this arm and see how it works.. it looks like its going to make for pretty quick steering. Once the truck is on the road and I can give the steering a good test, I'll know whether it needs a slightly longer arm or not.

Looks like when you turn the tierod will get into the track bar....am I seeing that right? With the tierod in the stock location, it'd be below it. The tierod gets closer to the axle when it turns....

Very nice machine work!

The tierod to trac bar clearance will be fine.. the photo makes it look closer than it really is. Also, the steering wont be turning as far as it did on the stock bronco because my tires hit the radius arms, so I'll be adjusting the steering stops out a little bit.

I'm more concerned with the draglink to crossmember clearance under compression when turning left... looks like it'll have about 1/8" of clearance.

Well, look at it this way, if you have clearance issues, they'll sort themselves out the first time you really flex out the truck

But seriously, that picture must really look misleading.

I agree. I just don't see how if you are running a true histeer, than you won't hit the track bar. Everything just looks WAY too close. Good luck though. Roger is coming over this weekend to help me with mine. Since going to the wider front axle, I now have LOTS of room for a 4 link, or room to drop the engine down about 4" more. I think I'm gonna solid mount the drivetrain next time I do it too. That way there is absolutely no way for there to be any flex anywhere.

So John, when are you gonna have steering linkages? I'm intersted to see if it hits or not.

I'm not running a true hi-steer.. only crossover on the draglink. I actually cant run true histeer on the truck due to the pitman arm location.

I'll be ordering steering stuff on the 22nd. HOPEFULLY, *cross fingers*, I'll have it all by thanksgiving weekend. Then its just a matter of getting brake lines and it will be driveable.

Andy, you can see in this pic that the tierod location is actually quite a bit forward of the trac bar.. for reference, the trac bar nut extends forward only about 1" further than the radius arm cap and sits about the same distance forward as the diff cover.. so if it hits, I have bigger problems.



If the draglink hits the crossmember, the easy solution is another hi-steer arm that places the draglink about 1" further forward.

Okay, so the tie rod is not a concern. But the drag link still looks like it will hit. How come you have two hi steer arms?

The Sky arm is for jove's K5.

Jove and I were out measureing last night and used a steel rod across from the pitman to the hi-steer arm under straight, and full left and right lock. It looks like its going to clear, but not by much.

Also, keep in mind, with the geometry of the frontend, under compression, the axle moves forward another 1/8-1/4"

OK, that makes a ton more sense....I was thinking the tierod was riding on the histeer arm too. Gotcha.

quote:

---

Originally posted by datz510:
The Sky arm is for jove's K5.

Jove and I were out measureing last night and used a steel rod across from the pitman to the hi-steer arm under straight, and full left and right lock. It looks like its going to clear, but not by much.

Also, keep in mind, with the geometry of the frontend, under compression, the axle moves forward another 1/8-1/4"

---

Just because the axle moves forward 1/8" to 1/4" doesn't mean the tracbar won't move forward that much. I mean, it is connected to the axle right?

This steering setup is going to be a little unconventional in that the draglink will attach to the TOP side of the pitman arm, but it should work well and should have little to no bumpsteer.

Havign said that, the trac bar isnt going to interfere with anything since it sits below where the draglink is going to sit. The draglink runs in a nearly parallel plane above the trac bar and will never cross it at any point of the suspension travel or articulation.

The axle shifting foward 1/8-1/4" under compression gives more room between the draglink and crossmember.

If you look at this pic and imagine the draglink connected to the top of both the pitman and histeer arm, you can see what I mean:

I have the parts mike arm, definatly well made. Great service from mike too. I forgot he was on the west coast and called him at 10:30EST, I think I woke him up . Also I had him ship it 3 day, but he shipped 2day air.