High Steer nightmare, need some help!

Ok here is some background on this project:

Ford F150 D44, Chevy flatop knuckles, Poision Spyder Customs high steer arms, Custom steering links, 1ton TREs, JKS custom track-bar. Redneck Ram Hydro Assist. Every single nut and bolt and every thing gave me problems! There isn't a single piece on this entire setup that hasn't caused me headaches!

I did all the high steer stuff first, and wanted to test it out before the hydro-assist went on. I took it out, wheeled it acouple of times, everything worked perfect! Here is what the steering looked like without the hydro:

You can see in red where the ram mount was designed to go.


Here is how much clearance I had between the tie-rod and the track-bar bolt:



I thought i had the steering all done, and all figured out, till I went to mount the hydro assist!

Basicly there is NO room for the ram, anywhere except under the tie-rod, and that would last about 15seconds in the rocks! Here is what my steering looks like currently, at full lock, I have less then 1/8in between the tie-rod and the trackbar bolt. With the ram mounted it would hit the ram, and the where the ram mounts to the tie-rod would hit the diff, or the ARB line, or both.


If I moved the tie-rod out to the outter hole on the arm, it would put the tierod directly below the pitman arm, and it would hit on even the smallest bump! Plus, if I moved the draglink out to the high steer arm, then my track bar would be too short, causing bump steer!


This would be the perfect setup IF my high steer arms had one hole right between the 2 it has! It would give me good clearence around stuff, and also enough room to mount the ram! As it sits now, the pitman arm would still hit the tie-rod!


Does anyone have any thoughts on what i should do or try? I'm really sick of this steering project, but I want to get it right, i dont want to mess with doing it half assed!

Those of you who have high-steer, what arms are you using, and what is the distance from the stud and the TRE mounting hole??? I can get any other pictures you'd like, just let me know, I really want to get this figured out!

Couple more pictures, the more I look at it, I might have room, cause as the tie-rod moves closer to the ram mount, the ram would move away at the same time, as long as the ram is mounted to the tie-rod, it will also be that same distance away, correct?:




It looks like if I cut off my truss, and get a 90* fitting for the ARB line adn get it out of the way, I might be ok?!?!

It looks like if you had moved your axle a few inches forward you might have been able to avoid all this. If your coils and trackbar mount were centered over the axle, the axle would be moved forward around 2 inches. Then the tierod could be mounted on the holes closest to the axle, the draglink would go to the outer hole in the steering arm, and the tierod would be farther away from the trackbar. You would also then have room to mount the ram behind the tierod.

I thought about that. The axle is already pushed forward as far as I'd like!

Plus, that wouldn't free up any room between the tie-rod and the axle itself, I would still have clearance issues between the tie-rod and the diff.

Plus when setting up setterin, the distance from the ball joint to the drag link need to be the same as the lenght of the pitman arm, or you get major binding issues.

Could you not cut a u-shaped bracket that gets welded to the metal between the two holes? You could just about position the hole where you want to mount the ram cylinder, if it has an all-thread bolt mount.

I haven't gotten into my steering project yet...

but have you thought about crossover steering?

How about running a Waggy Pitman arm. They are basically flat and should help you with the clearance problems you will have with your tie rod. You can then use the farthest out tie rod hole on the high steer arm because you will gain some throw in you pitman arm because it is about 1" longer.

That is basically what I did. My measurement from center of ball joint to the center of the tie rod hole is 7.25". Which works perfect with a Waggy pitman arm.



If you have anymore questions you can PM me.

Cruzin Illusion said:

How about running a Waggy Pitman arm. They are basically flat and should help you with the clearance problems you will have with your tie rod. You can then use the farthest out tie rod hole on the high steer arm because you will gain some throw in you pitman arm because it is about 1" longer.

That is basically what I did. My measurement from center of ball joint to the center of the tie rod hole is 7.25". Which works perfect with a Waggy pitman arm.

If you have anymore questions you can PM me.

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The problem is the clearance between the tie-rod and the axle. I have a waggy arm I used for mock up, but that didn't really solve any of my problems.

What high steer arm do you have?

I had the same problem you when I added the hydro assist to my high-steer steup. I ended up putting the ram under the tierod and building a tube bracket under the ram attached to the axle to protect the ram. It is angled up such that it is still behind my approach angle but rocks and stuff will hit it instead of the ram. It sticks out slightly further then the ram so If I hit something head on it should also protect the ram. It isn't an ideal solution but it works.

jmop said:

I had the same problem you when I added the hydro assist to my high-steer steup. I ended up putting the ram under the tierod and building a tube bracket under the ram attached to the axle to protect the ram. It is angled up such that it is still behind my approach angle but rocks and stuff will hit it instead of the ram. It sticks out slightly further then the ram so If I hit something head on it should also protect the ram. It isn't an ideal solution but it works.

Click to expand...

Do you have any pictures of your setup? I'd like to see how its setup!