Crossover Heim Joint Steering?

First things first, all my TRE's are bad except the on at the pitman arm. So i would have 80 bucks into a draglink and 40 to 50 into tie rod tre's. So i wanna do something stronger, reduce the angles and be cost effective. (since i am only 20 in college and broke lol)


OK so i found this link:

http://www.adv4x4online.com/forum/index.php?topic=1135.0

And it looks fairly easy. Now i have 1.25 and 1.5" steel bar stock that i can have for free at work. Also the 11/16 drill and a 3/4-16 right hand tap (would have to get a left hand but can do that cheap through work). So i would only have to buy all the heims etc.

Here's my shopping list (yes i know those are the cheap heims, but that goes back to the broke part lol, i plan on buying one extra right and left hand, and eventually get the QA1's sometime when ive got the extra cha ching)

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/view_cart.asp

also do i need 2 step down spacers for each heim or just one?

I did some searching on here and saw what some people had done. But they were all older, so i know some others have done something recently. Just looking for some ideas, opinions, trac bar ideas, and just general tech.

thanks

Its very easy! I run a 1.5 inch draglink 1/4 inch wall, with ballestic 7/8s heims. For the tie-rod i run a 1 3/4 inch tube with 1/4 inch wall and 7/8 heims. I am going to flip the tie-rod over the nuckle and join the drag link on top of the tie-rod pretty soon also, for more clearance.\

kool what did you use for trac bar? And i am not to worried about clearance i am putting the tie rod underneath the knuckle

I run WJ knuckles bored/ drilled straight through with heims and 1.25 dom tube... a semi high steer set up - i also run a skyjacker TJ track bar - adjustable with heim, JKS OTA mount and RE track bar bracket and brace with hydro assist - it rocks! clunks some but is the best set up i have ever run with 7 inches lift and 37's

anyone else? and what is the advantage to the WJ knuckles?

kmanxj5050 said:

anyone else? and what is the advantage to the WJ knuckles?

Click to expand...

Give you two mounting points so you have true crossover steering (if you were using TRE's), you also get larger brakes.

-Alex

gotcha thanks

Not sure Heims are the best for a DD

xjjeepthing said:

Not sure Heims are the best for a DD

Click to expand...

Heims are great for a daily driver... you just have to maintenance them like any other aftermarket part.

yea that is what i heard but like others have said all kinds of racers etc run them. Now how do u maintain them? what type of grease etc?

I have Heim style joints (Aurora QA1s, actually) on my 94 XJ. I ran them for at least 3 years as a daily driver outside of Chicago. No maintenance, and they're still tight.

ya no real maintenance - just some white lithium aerosol to prevent rust and they are fine - keep jam nuts tight as well are bolts - bout it

Can't see the OP's shopping list, but check out the vendor forums on this site. Ruff Stuff is selling heims, spacers, tube adapters and jam nuts as a package deal now that would probably be perfect for steering kits. Since you already have the tube, you'll be golden with their parts.

Also check out blue torch fab and their passenger knuckle mod for high steer.

alright kool thanks guys

now what about steering stabalizer? just dont run one or is there some type of a kit out there to hook it to the drag link ?

http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/product.aspx?id=1223

Something like that, then attach it to the stock axle side bracket. Or just don't run one. As long as you have good steering angles and stuff, you shouldn't really need one. I haven't had mine on since a bolt fell out on my last wheeling trip.

wouldnt be to hard to build one of those on the mill and lathe at work

anybody else?

im almost done with mine.

well the steering is actually all built, im just waiting to attach the hydro assist.

what i did.
DOM from ballistic fab

rod ends from ruffstuffspecialties. hes a vendor on pirate4x4 and is selling them by the hundreds for dirt cheap (compared to other places) and nobody has had any problems with them.

im running 3/4 inch heims, with high misalignment for the drag link, and step down spacers to 5/8 for the drag link. im undecided on whether im going to run the tie rod over or under the knuckle.

im running 38s so clearance isn't really an issue. but id highly reccomend the heims from ruffstuff. everything ive ordered through them has been beefy, and priced great

I just finished an over the knuckle heim steering set up. I looked at BTF's bracket and Off Road Only’s U – Turn steering and others. I actually purchased the BTF bracket and it hit on the spring and the original track bar bracket. It would have been way too much modification to make it work, so I chose to return the bracket to BTF with no problem.

Then decided to fab my own set up. I found using 1 1/2 x 1/4 wall chromoly tubing over the knuckle that there were a lot of interference issues. It seemed the easy way was to get the tie rod and drag link mounting points forward and in slightly.

Driver side bracket-
http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/spatag/Steering Mods/DSCF0028.jpg

Passenger side bracket-
http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/spatag/Steering Mods/DSCF0002.jpg

The brackets are attached at the original tie rod end hole (drilled out to 5/8”), at the two forward wheel bearing bolts and an additional attach point on the out side of the bracket directly to the forward arm of the knuckle.
http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/spatag/Steering Mods/DSCF0012.jpg

Here you can see the original tie rod location and the new location, driver side (forward and in).
http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/spatag/Steering Mods/SP1.jpg

Here you can see the original tie rod location and the new location, passenger side (forward and in).
http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/spatag/Steering Mods/DSCF0011.jpg

The result of this was the tie rod is forward 1 ½” and 3+/- above its original location.

I used ¾” heims from Dan @ Ruff Stuff and 1 ½” x ¼” wall chromoly tubing and ¼” steel plate purchased at Competitive Metals locally.

My total cost including tubing, heims w/ bungs & spacer, steel plate, f911 and grade 8 bolt and nuts, including a complete second set of fasteners…$175.00

I took it out and it drives great. In fact the steering has never felt this good since before any lift. I'm not running a sterring stablizer or sway bar. I do think I will fab some sway bar mounts in the near future.

xjjeepthing said:

Not sure Heims are the best for a DD

Click to expand...

I'd put more faith in a quality Heim than the stock TRE's.