Otk steering question

Hey there fellow jeepers, I have a question not sure if it's a simple one or not. I have the serious offroad Utk 1 ton steering upgrade on my xj for prolly 2yrs now. Well over this past weekend I upgraded my track bar with the ds track bar from iron rock and was thinking before I hook my tierod back up, could I just order the tapperd inserts from teraflex and just flip everything on top of the knuckles? Not sure if anyone has tried this with the same steering setup, or if it's even possible? Would it possibly interfere with anything else?

I tried searching thru a few threads, but was unsuccessful. Maybe someone could point me in the right direction. It's a 2000 if that helps any. Maybe I'm just thinking outside the box :dunno:

There will be interference between the tie rod and the front of the coil buckets- you'll have to grind/cut quite a bit, and it should probably be reinforced after. You'll also have to relocate your swaybar mounts, so there's welding involved if you want to keep your swaybar. You may also find that the tie rod contacts the diff cover, especially if you have a thick aftermarket one. I'd check clearnace at the diff cover first, cuz that's probably a deal-breaker for you. You could get Ruff Stuff's offset TREs, but they're kinda spendy and will require at least 16" wheels w/spacers.

You also need to move your track bar if you are going to move your steering over the knuckle.
Tie rod and track bar need to be as close as possible to equal length + parallel to avoid bump steer, a phenomena where as the suspension cycles it induces steering to the front wheels (hit a speed bump too quickly, change lanes)

You would need to get an OTK PS tre as the UTK PS tre can not just be "flipped" as the taper for the drag link would be facing towards the axle instead of facing forward. You could possible drill it for an insert or ream it, but then the inward bend could possibly cause clearance issues with the coil buckets.

Gonna need new passenger tre that's reamed the opposite way for otk and the drag link will need to cut down.

The drag link would not need to be cut down. The minor change in length from UTK to OTK can be adjusted for between the pitman arm and PS drag link tre. I have the Serious Offroad OTK system and was mistakenly sent the UTK PS tre when shipped. The only thing needed to correct the kit to OTK was the OTK PS tre.

Okay cool, thanks guys. Yea I didn't know all that was involved lol. Checked a few kits out last night and started thinking maybe I'll wait alittle till I plan on upgrading and swapping 44's in. Now I know what I'm getting into. Thanks for all the input.

WAZZUXJ said:

The drag link would not need to be cut down. The minor change in length from UTK to OTK can be adjusted for between the pitman arm and PS drag link tre. I have the Serious Offroad OTK system and was mistakenly sent the UTK PS tre when shipped. The only thing needed to correct the kit to OTK was the OTK PS tre.

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I'm speaking from experience. I went from utk that I kept bending tie rod to otk with a jcr one ton kit. When I bought the otk tre from them I explain what I was doing and they told me exactly how much I had to cut it down. It was more then I could adjust out without losing turns on my streering column.

yossarian19 said:

You also need to move your track bar if you are going to move your steering over the knuckle.
Tie rod and track bar need to be as close as possible to equal length + parallel to avoid bump steer, a phenomena where as the suspension cycles it induces steering to the front wheels (hit a speed bump too quickly, change lanes)

Click to expand...

I just reread this... it's AFUed. Have a newborn in the house... not sleeping / thinking much.
You can move the tie rod OTK if you damn well please. No track bar mods needed.
The drag link, coming from the pitman arm, you move either A.) at your own peril or B.) with the track bar

RoyalXJ said:

I'm speaking from experience. I went from utk that I kept bending tie rod to otk with a jcr one ton kit. When I bought the otk tre from them I explain what I was doing and they told me exactly how much I had to cut it down. It was more then I could adjust out without losing turns on my streering column.

Click to expand...

Ok, but the OP asked about a Serious Offroad 1 ton kit not a JCR 1 ton kit, so maybe your "experience" is not as applicable to this situation as someone that does have the same kit. I was not saying your were wrong, just stating that with the Serious Kit it was not necessary to cut in my situation.

They are the same kit. With your experience they included the right rods but wrong tre.

Go to my site and read the discription for the OTK kit. That should answer your questions. If not...go to the source.