A question for OTK WJ swappers

So was just talking with the fab shop, and he was expressing concern about the short length the Trac bar will need to be. We decided to go with the shorter bar as it appears most have done in the past (rather that start chopping things apart more and move the springs back).
Question is, how much bumpsteer should I expect?
I had some bump steer with my previous stock set up, and was OK with that amount (the bars were nowhere near parallel), I'll try and find a picture of it.
The new setup has the tracbar and drag link flat and parallel but unequal length.
I have an HP30 I plan to start getting ready to replace my LP30 ... So I can correct everything on that. But in the meantime this will be my DD and weekend wheeler.
So again what should I expect.

How much difference?

i barely notice it, if at all. that's on the street and high speed desert stuff.
here's my setup.

Breezio69 said:

How much difference?

Click to expand...

About 9"

Vanimal said:

i barely notice it, if at all. that's on the street and high speed desert stuff.
here's my setup.

Click to expand...

I can't really see where the tac bar ends there. Is it on the inside of the springs?
Mine will be snuffed up to the inside edge of the spring to gain the most available length.

yes, it's right below the starter. you can see the bracket. the track bar is directly behind the drag link. i think mine is about 8" shorter than the drag link.

OK, so with all things considered I shouldn't be too much worse than when I rolled into the shop. The drag and Track bars will be parallel and almost flat.

here it was before (best I could do but the angles were far from parallel).




it just shows the mounting points really, it looks parallel in the second pic but as the top is even with the Pitman DRE the bends decieve.
I was fine with the bumpsteer I had there as it was barely noticeable to me.

Edit - I edited your Pic Vanimal to show what my angles were like before (roughly)



and at this I had hardly any bumpsteer .... or should I say nothing I found problematic at least.

Here's my old setup. Always worked great and steered nicely, much better then any other stuff I had on there.

Well got her back a couple hours ago, no worries here, she actually drives better than when I dropped her off.
Better than my wife's JK that's for sure.
Had some rubbing issues with the swaybar link mounts so we 'adjusted' them for now .... but all my fears are quashed, really happy with how it turned out.

foxwar71 said:

Here's my old setup. Always worked great and steered nicely, much better then any other stuff I had on there.

Click to expand...

I take it this is the wj linkage not one ton?

looks like it, I had the WJ stuff as well but decided last minute to go with the 1tons instead.





disregard the sway links/mounts ... they got 'adjusted' to clear my JK wheel/tire setup ... had I been running standard steel wheels and 33's it would likely not have been an issue, but my links are too long anyway ... it's on the books to rework it. And for those that ask ... there is a double adjuster on the driver side of the tie rod.

So I'm gonna toss this out here as well (from my build thread) figure it'll be a good help if anyone else has issues down the road.

Well, got me some Death Wobble ... Sorta ... I mean it was deffinitely death wobble. Happened on a shit road heading back from the dump. Had to almost stop to stop it.
But, then I drove out to Victoria and back (~125km return) without even so much as an issue. And the road to Victoria is windy, lumpy and covers some steep grades so it wasn't just a flat line roll.
Gonna have to investigate further, after I realign everything.
Beginning to think it may have been more a body oscillation than suspension ... Likely due to the swaybar links angles. I'll talk to the guys on monday about it though.
might go out to the same road later and try and replicate it again and this time pay more attention instead of "OH SHIT!!! WOBBLE!!!!" It was actually easily controlled. Iwas heading back down a road I had already travelled up once on the way to the dump without issue. Then heading back hit a few rough spots and away she went.
I'm thinking the combination of softer springs, old used front shocks and being out of alignment may be my culprit. Help I was up to 120 on the way to Vic and smooth as butter ... Ok so maybe some.slightly lumpy butter (it is a Jeep after all, not a corolla).
Anyway ran down to Victoria ...
Loaded up my new hood, rear springs and an HP30 $100 for it all, and a buddies np242 transfercase and headed back home ... Again without even so much as a hiccup.

Also noticed a knocking in turns on the passengerside under my foot (it felt like) so the trac bar may have rattled loose is another possible as well. This is recent as of today.
Not worried the guys will set it right.

Your other option could have been to move your coil mounts back on the tube, and run the trackbar all the way to the knuckle. This ends up with the opposite problem, the trackbar will be about 3" longer than the draglink. The only noticeable effect is how awesome your front end is..

Yeah, scored a $50 D30HP so that's the plan for that.
For now I'm gonna tweak what I got and run the learning curve with my stock LP30. Shame I couldn't have started with the HP though.

Found the Tracbar had loosened a bit and the drag link jam nuts had loosened right off. tookj the time to recenter the axle and steering wheel, then had to grab the kids so no time to check/adjust toe ... but it looks close, and tie rod was still tight.
Gonna run up to the fatefull road tomorrow and see how it fares.