My setup is just like Monty's.

Only cleaner.



My final drop will be about 2" (17" hub center-to-fender lip).

 

Looks similar to mine, the geometry effin sux.

As for the strength of the Tie Rod ends when flipped, I can't see where it will make the slightest difference, except for the reversed gravitational forces. Additionally, don't forget that these pieces are rated for carrying a full load in the bed plus a 7700lb trailer. I am thinking they certainly have an adequate safety factor for our situation and actually, the revised angular position will be beneficial to durability.

BTW what brand are you A-arms, the manufacturer did a reasonable job on the sway bar link alignment, as opposed to Chassis Tech (bad choice but I didn't know then) where the end link is about 2" out of line.

I made a set of studs similar to what you are making (one piece, no split sleeve) for installation in a set of stock A-arms to do the 3" drop deal by flipping the ball joints but decided to stay with what I already have since I spent a ton dialing in the spring rate to give me a passenger car quality ride.

Clean ain't the word for it! Obviously never driven in the rain!

 

Tim- Yours is only clean because you take it apart every weekend.

My truck has never seen rain yet it's dirty?

Also, what endlinks are you using?

-Monty

 

I just realized your lower A-arm is different than mine. Your lower A-arm has a little piece welded atop to attach the endlinks; mine doesn't. I could have been given the wrong lower a-arms.

-Monty

 

SpeedJunky,

What brand are yours? What is your total drop? They look more like mine than Tims do and I see that your sway bar link alignment is almost as bad as mine.

If yours are the same mfg. as Tims, it may just be a development issue that they learned that they had an alignment problem and the only way to fix it was to add the raised bracket since the hole would need to be almost touching the front arm tube to be correctly aligned.

 

I have the same DJM arms that Tim has. My drop is also 4 inches (2" lower arm and 2" coil).

I think Tim does have a revised unit. I went to DJM's website and the pics of the F150 arms they show, don't have the bracket. I may have the shop doing my bumpsteer kit fab some up for my arms. What's interesting, is that I was told by a few roadracing specialists here in SoCal that the endlink problem is not really a big problem and doesn't really affect the overall steering performance of the truck. They said "it would only improve overall performance 3-4% (Don't know exactly what that means, but that's exactly what they told me).

-Monty

 

I have the raised sway bar mount on my Western Chassis arms as well, and I got them over a year ago. If you guys are chewing thru bushings, you may want to convert over to Heim joints, but without seeing the deflection up close I don’t know if it would work.

 

Boy was I wrong. I thought Tim had his done. It's not enough of a problem on my truck to mess with.

Jerry

 

Stan?

 

I picked them up from DJM directly maybe two months ago. Fresh from the factory.



Nice sleeve-in-sleeve pivots and urethane bushings in addition to the drop geometry. The price is a little more reasonable when you factor that it. Replacement sleeves and bushings are less that $100 and simple push out/slide in job.

Despite the photo, the new anti-sway mounts do not line up well. At rest (remember, the installed shot above is at full extension), the mount is probably 1"-2" off. But it looks miles better than what you guys are dealing with.

BTW, Junky, you are right. Since I'm always tearing something up under there, I swear that I have cleaned the chassis more times than I have waxed the body.

 

You guys are scareing me with your experimentation.

I have seen the phrase don't understand how this works several times.

I have had some night mares with bumb steer on offroad toys in the past. Maybe it was more severe because of the longer travel.

I have used the hardened Heim Joints and had them snap wear the threads stop. I went back to the stock tie rod end. Better to have it bend than break.

Ever heard of the Akermann Effect? All that steering geometry is pure satanic black magic including shock abosorber dampening.

Here is a good link to help shed some light on where you are headed. Lot's more on the web. and some good fixes I might add.

http://voronoi.sbp.ri.cmu.edu/~chose.../ackerman.html
Going fast at the track and having tires live on the street are two different things. I hope someone here figures out a simple mod for this.
http://www.stockcarproducts.com/susp18b.htm

 

Tim- I thought the bracket on the revised arms allowed for perfect (stock) alignment of the endlinks. I was actually going to go down to DJM this morning to pick up a new set of lowers arms just for that bracket. Thanks for the heads up. I guess, I'll proceed with my original plan and have XMP fab something up so they mount correctly.

Thanks.

-Monty

 

Well, maybe I should check again before you commit. I'll take a look tonight and make for sure (and snap a photo if'n I can git the camera in there).

 

Great mang! Thanks.

-Monty