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Need help please, tie rod end hitting disconnect after lift.

xj5150

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Bay Area, CA
Just installed a complete 6.5 longarm Rusty's lift with adjustable tracbar and a dropped pitman arm on 33x12.50's. I did a driveway alignment, just enouigh to get it to the tire shop and when I turn lock to lock the tie rod end that attaches to the draglink is hitting the bottom of my jks quicker disconnect gouging it and bending the lock pin. How can I fix this? Do I need a longer dropped pitman arm? The one I have drops about 1 in lower than stock and is slightly longer. Help, please don't flame because I bought Rusty's.
 
Both the steering wheel and the pitman are slightly off center, By the way I am using a heavy duty tie rod with stock ends, if that makes any difference, which I don't think it should. It's not the pitman arm hitting ,it's the tierod end attached to the draglink.
 
Her's what I did. JIM.
HPIM0175.jpg
 
if your control arm's are ajusted to long, that can cause the steering to bind like that.
 
Adjusted arms according to length per instructions. Should I shorten/ lenghten uppers or lowers, and by approximately how much without screwing up front pinion angle?
 
Last edited:
It sounds like you already know that changing the length of the control arms will negatively impact your pinion angle (however I'm not sure how those Rusty's radius arm adjust and if it would work for you...) but if you were able to roll the axle back a little (lengthen the LCA or shorten the UCA) it will create clearance to lessen or eliminate that rubbing.

Using a DPA will help, but I wouldn't use any more than the 1" DPA that you already have because any more will negatively affect your steering, unless you correct it by raising the track bar mount to above the axle.

The pic above is one way to do it...

I've also seen someone cut or shave off the offending part of the swaybar mount and they drilled a hole for the swaybar link further down on the mount. It worked only it was VERY close to the coil spring.

Someone else I knew heated up the mount and bent the end upward...

I had the same problem before and decided to do it right by installing 2" extended swaybar mounts by JKS. Cut off the old ones, weld on the new.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I think I will go with the extended bracket, don't want to mess with my pinion angles. Nice to know it wasn't my install, but a common problem with an easy solution.
 
EricsXJ said:
I've also seen someone cut or shave off the offending part of the swaybar mount and they drilled a hole for the swaybar link further down on the mount. It worked only it was VERY close to the coil spring.
Here's what that looks like...

sway2copy.jpg
 
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