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3 link and the drag link....

hidesintrees

NAXJA Forum User
Location
clackamas county
alright. im completely redoing my front end.
it is: hp44 with ford radius arms, chevy knuckles with high steer and my drag link just doesnt like the angle. and my suspension absolutley blows.

solution: building a 3 linked front and redoing steering to be stronger and get rid of binding.

heres the question... with 3 link im bound to get an enormous amount of droop and thats where i can see my drag link, even if it was parallel to tie rod, binding up and stopping the droop and potentially breaking the tre. so with bolt on high steer arms how with keeping mechanical steering do i avoid this? are there super flex TRE's out there? ill most likely get the Rustys big drop Pitman arm for starts.

thanks
 
I use a Chevy ES2027L / ES2026R combo on the drag link without problems, stock pitman arm. Droops out pretty far with no binding:

n24800499_31139704_554.jpg


This one's a little tougher to see...

n24800499_31169976_8595.jpg
 
hidesintrees said:
alright. im completely redoing my front end.
it is: hp44 with ford radius arms, chevy knuckles with high steer and my drag link just doesnt like the angle. and my suspension absolutley blows.

solution: building a 3 linked front and redoing steering to be stronger and get rid of binding.

heres the question... with 3 link im bound to get an enormous amount of droop and thats where i can see my drag link, even if it was parallel to tie rod, binding up and stopping the droop and potentially breaking the tre. so with bolt on high steer arms how with keeping mechanical steering do i avoid this? are there super flex TRE's out there? ill most likely get the Rustys big drop Pitman arm for starts.

thanks

First you need to run limiting straps so your axle doesn't droop much past the point where your coil springs become unseated at the top. If you run highsteer you do not need to use a drop pitman arm. If you raise the tie rod to flat top knuckles for highsteer, and then drop the pitman arm down, you will have to raise your track bar way to high to keep the trackbar and draglink parallel. I run highsteer with chevy 1 ton tres, I use a 60 degree tre at the pitman. I"m using a Waggy pitman arm that is almost flat, the oposite of a drop pitman arm, and a JKS over the axle trackbar mounting bracket. My trackbar and draglink are parallel and I have no problems and no bumpsteer.

Also, my highsteer arms are about 7 1/4" long, so that the tierod will clear the coil springs at full lock. The stock pitman arm has a throw of only 5.5". With the stock pitman arm I lost turning radius because the pitman arm wasn't long enough to turn my knuckles all the way to the stops. That's why I went with a Wagoneer pitman arm which is 7" long from ball joint to tie rod hole. With this longer pitman arm I don't lose any turning radius.


trackbar2-2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Sierra Drifter said:
First you need to run limiting straps so your axle doesn't droop much past the point where your coil springs become unseated at the top.
'
I disagree with this, but the rest of your post is spot-on.

I have a Poison Spyder hi-steer arm on the passenger knuckle, with the multiple holes drilled in it. I experimented with the different placement until I found one that matched the stock pitman arm...I dunno what the measurement is.
 
hidesintrees said:
alright. im completely redoing my front end.
it is: hp44 with ford radius arms, chevy knuckles with high steer and my drag link just doesnt like the angle. and my suspension absolutley blows.

solution: building a 3 linked front and redoing steering to be stronger and get rid of binding.

heres the question... with 3 link im bound to get an enormous amount of droop and thats where i can see my drag link, even if it was parallel to tie rod, binding up and stopping the droop and potentially breaking the tre. so with bolt on high steer arms how with keeping mechanical steering do i avoid this? are there super flex TRE's out there? ill most likely get the Rustys big drop Pitman arm for starts.

thanks

If you don't use rediculously long shocks, you won't have a binding problem with the steering. Most setups that you might use will have enough movement in the joints. Tons of us run high steer arms on D44's and D60's with no binding issues. You can't really use shocks longer than 12", and the proper 1 ton drag link end at the pitman arm, or using rod ends with high misalignment spacers, will give you plenty of movment.
 
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