Title says it all.

Thanks,
Edward

 

In the works...in the works.

-Monty

 

Edward,

Tim Skelton has done it.


Jerry

 

He did? Last time I checked he was still trying to figure things out? *Goes to Tim's website*

-Monty

 

I'm still waiting on someone else to figgur it out.

SpeedJunky and Ayrton are each working on it, but I'm up to my neck in other truck/motorcycle projects, so I'm content to leech on this one.

 

Ya I am waiting too

 

My guy has a shop working on new tie-rod ends that will be installed from the bottom up. The shop brought in a prototype yesterday. I'm going in tomorrow to have it test fitted. If everything fits correctly, they will make a set early next week.

We're also working on an endlink kit for use with the upper & lower DJM control arms and Hotckis sway bar.

-Monty

 

If you are taking a stock dim tie rod and flipping it upside down don't plan on it workingunless you are on the ground and the steering knuckle is a cab height.I trieds that with the kit I made and very bad bump steer it was to the point of being dangerous.Stan

 

Stan, you have been very mysterious with the whole bump steer kit thing. I still don't understand why -- there is no liability in explaining what you did (as opposed to selling something).

It seems to me that if you are concerned that people are headed off a cliff, it is in fact the responsible thing to do.

Spill the beans, man. People have been waiting for a solution for years now.

 

Thanks again for your pioneering work, Monty.

Have you touched base with Ayton? He is dealing with the same issues right now. Seems silly not to share the negative knowhow (what doesn't work) accumulated between the two of you.

 

OK I will explain it on how I did my truck.First I turned the threades off the inner tie rod and rethreaded using a standard thread pitch but left handed.Then made an aluimn adjuster sleeve that was left and rite thread.bought the correct rod end[heim] and NOT the cheap ones plan on atleast 50 bucks each there. Made a tapered sleeve that corrosponed with the correct taper in the spindle mount.split it after i drilled it out to 1/2 inch made the bushings for spacers[out of stainless,as is the sleeve]bought a grade 9 bolt and LOCK nut[not a lock washer] put jam nuts on each end of the sleeveor should say on the heim and tie rod.Made a safty washer on the heim end [incase the brg part of it failed atleast it would not fall off]and put it all together on the truck and started playing with the spacers untill I had the least amount of toe change then I tightend the 1/2 bolt down [after i LIGHTLY lube it very slowly,so that it would slide down onto the taper sleeve and the sleeve would wedge itself into the spindle tightly.Keep in mind all of the tolerances are critical and you can not have any sharp edges on the sleeve other wise it could pinch the the bolt off or NOT get tight enough.And also keep in mind that you want the above items to bend and not brake so use materials that are hard but maliable.Stan
PS the 1/2 hole needs to be BORED and not drilled the drill drills oversize about 5 to 7 thousandths or more if it is not cut on center.

 

OK between the three of us we can settle this tonight…

I have been sidetracked with several things, but here is what I have set up so far.

I dropped off a center link with the machine shop to copy the OEM taper so no one would have to drill out the spindle. I asked for both a spindle knuckle bolt and a shorter bolt for the inner tie rod end. I felt it would be easier to convert both the inner and outer tie rods to Heim joints.

Stan the biggest thing that would help me is what side of the knuckle do you have the outer Heim, and is it above or below?

How much drop are you currently running and at what point is too much drop?

If I can eliminate the “testing” and I can have the bolts cut while I wait and then I can send one out to Stan for a little road testing.

 

You guys have a much better understanding of it all than I do. What I can add at this point, is that my boy fabricated a set of tie-rod ends out of higher grade steel/aluminum based on the stock tie-rod end. He plans on installing the tie-rod end from the bottom up using some custom made bushing being supplied by Energy Suspension. He says that in the end it will resemble a mustang bumpsteer kit in construction, but it will be much stronger, etc.

Other than this, there is not much more I can add. I will take pics of the pieces next Saturday when I return to the shop. If everything goes well, the install should be completed next Saturday.

I will be sure to take details pics of the install and all parts.

-Monty

 

One of the things we need to know here is who is lowered- how much.

From the sound of it a kit for a truck lowered 2" will be incorrect for a truck that is lowered 4".

In reading some articles on bump steer, correct me if I am wrong, it is absolutely taboo to have toe-in occur with suspension compression, toe-out is preferrable.. Looking at the OE geometry, it looks to me as if considerable toe-out can occur in a deep compression. Mine definitely goes toe out with compression.

This being the case, since my truck is down 4"+, I would think that lowering the outer rod ends centerline 2 1/2" would be a good start. This is easily accomplished by flipping the rod end. Then if more is needed I can look at the heim joint with spacers setup.

 

Exactly. It sounds good in theory, but we need to find out if it works in reality. Some of the questions raised when considering that were whether or not the stock tie-rod ends were strong enough and would perform the same flipped? We weren't sure so rather than take a risk on just flipping the stock units, we're building higher quality pieces that I believe won't require us to drill the spindle.

-Monty

BTW, here's a copy of my current suspension geometry: