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My d44 knuckles = worse turning radius. Anyone else?

C

CameronB

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Tacoma, WA
It's a ford 9" with chevy flat top d44 kuckles, stock steering setup (draglink was lengthened some.) I bought the rig this way, and the problem is a terrible steering radius. Nothing is hitting when I turn end to end, so the limitation seems to be the steering box.

So, I measured from axle tube cl to the tre cl, and it's apx 7 1/2". The stock d30 measures apx 6". I'm using the stock pitman arm that is apx 5 3/8" long, and am guessing that I'll need a longer pitman arm (~1 1/2"~) to make up for the longer knuckles.

So where can I get this longer pitman arm that will bolt up the the stock steering box? I know some of you have had to deal with this issue...:dunno:

Thanks
 
The steering stops do not make contact, on either side. I think I need to find a pitman arm off of a truck that came with a d44 stock, with the correct amount of 'drop' as well.
 
If I understand it correctly, You want more throw in your steering setup so it can turn the knuckles further, hopefully stop to stop. Instead of increasing throw on the pitman arm you could try decreasing throw on the knuckle mount. You said you are already running flat top knuckles, so could just mount the steering linkage closer to the pivot on the knuckles which will give you the same effect as lengthening the pitman arm. A lot of high steer/flat top knuckle arrangements really extend quite a bit further out than the stock location so that could be your issue.
 
YOU NEED A WAGGY DROP PITMAN!!!!!!!!!

The waggy drop pitman has the same drop as your stock pitman arm but is longer to allow more throw.
I have one and it works fine, if you keep the stock steering setup get an upper TRE for a Waggy while you're at it, the bore is bigger.
 
Call Mike's Parts, Mike.
He may know of a pitman arm to correct your steering. Worse case you may need to replace/add high steer arms in the correct length.
I had this problem also with my D-44 front. original high steer arms were 1 inch longer than my pitman arm, turning the steering geometry into a rombus. Fixed it with correct length high steer arms from parts mike.
 
Thanks for the info. Currently, I am not running high steer arms off of the flat top knuckles, but plan to. So for now, I simply need the longer piman arm, with the same amount of drop. Just wanted to run the scenario by you guys.
 
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