7.5" lift, Drop pitman arm question...

Hello there, I am new here with a question. I have a drop pitman arm on my Comanche with a freshly installed 7.5" lift on it. The best alignment shop in town tells me I need a further drop pitman arm in order to make the alignment last and have a decent steering radius (currently my truck is all over the road). I understand Skyjacker and Rusty's sell a "extreme drop pitman arm." Should this solve my problems? I hope I don't have to go crossover...

What do you guys think?

7.5" is pushing it, I believe the drop pitman arm olnly drop about 2". So if you have a 7.5" lift, it's like running a 5.5" lift with the stock pitman. I'm having the same problem with my XJ at 6.5" in the front. My Alignment guy said the quick fix would be the dropped pitman arm, but I know a new OTK inverted T steering is needed.

bout time you came over here to the best MJ/XJ site in the world. What took you so long??

Check MI jeepers, I responded there.

Later
dan

Looks like I may be going with an "extreme drop pitman arm". We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

XJCHUCK72 said:

7.5" is pushing it, I believe the drop pitman arm olnly drop about 2". So if you have a 7.5" lift, it's like running a 5.5" lift with the stock pitman. I'm having the same problem with my XJ at 6.5" in the front. My Alignment guy said the quick fix would be the dropped pitman arm, but I know a new OTK inverted T steering is needed.

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Skyjacker has a 2.5" drop pitman arm (Part No JA500), which I am currently awaiting to solve my vague steering problem on my XJ.

This is the only pitman I found with more than 2" of drop.

Rgds

I have Rusty's and i think it's the Skyjacker arm. I'm at 10" now and will do a crossover too. The pitman arm helps a bit but it doesn't solve the problems.

SV1CEC said:

Skyjacker has a 2.5" drop pitman arm (Part No JA500), which I am currently awaiting to solve my vague steering problem on my XJ.

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Vague steering often isn't a result of the pitman length, it's the lack of caster that we suffer with when XJ's are lifted high. You reduce caster so that you keep the front driveshaft inline and vibe free but you sacrifice steering stability and firmness.

xj4rocks said:

Vague steering often isn't a result of the pitman length, it's the lack of caster that we suffer with when XJ's are lifted high. You reduce caster so that you keep the front driveshaft inline and vibe free but you sacrifice steering stability and firmness.

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I am not questioning your experience here, but I doubt if this is the case with my XJ. I had the caster adjusted to the OEM settings (that was the sole reason I got the adjustable upper control arms for), without any effect on the steering feel.

On the other hand, I had some improvement, by installing a ZJ pitman arm. So now, I hope that the Skyjacker's one will improve things even more, or else, I'll have to get one of those over the knuckle steering systems, and I hate when I think of their cost.

Oh well, our Jeeps wouldn't be that fun if they weren't that peculiar and individual.

Rgds

I just ordered the Skyjacker 5.5" drop pitman arm. Should be here tomorrow.

I was searching Rusty's website and saw he had a tie rod steering conversion for the XJ's. With it the drag lind meets the tie rod almost at the passenger rod end, and the tie rod goes from end to end. Anyone ever run this/hear anything about it? I may install this too to help beef up my truck so trail breakage (bend my tie rod/pitman arm) may be avoided.

Thanks

I just talk to Rusty this morning, he does have the drop pitmans. One at 1.5" drop which he recomends for a 3-6.5" lift, and a 3" drop one for 7" and over. The smaller one is $59, and the longer one around $150 like the Skyjacker. I don't know why he does not have them on his web site.

LAWNMAN323 said:

I just ordered the Skyjacker 5.5" drop pitman arm. Should be here tomorrow.

I was searching Rusty's website and saw he had a tie rod steering conversion for the XJ's. With it the drag lind meets the tie rod almost at the passenger rod end, and the tie rod goes from end to end. Anyone ever run this/hear anything about it? I may install this too to help beef up my truck so trail breakage (bend my tie rod/pitman arm) may be avoided.

Thanks

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I have Rusty's 4.5" kit, which gave me (believe it or not) almost 6" of lift. I had ask Rusty if a dropped pitman arm would be necessary, when I ordered the lift kit, and he said no. he obviously didn't know that the kit would give me that much height (maybe because my truck is a 2.5 lt and the engine is pretty light compared to the average 4.0 lt you are mostly using in USA). Then when I wrote to ask him about a dropped pitman arm (after I installed the ZJ arm, which helped improve my steering a little), he said "if the 1" drop arm helped a little, the 2.5" drop one should help more". Go figure.

As for the tie-rod steering conversion, I also asked him if this will help me with my steering problems, but I haven't got an answer on this. I think, that ultimately, this will be the solution to the steering problems I have, but at the moment, I can't afford it.

I just talk to Rusty this morning, he does have the drop pitmans. One at 1.5" drop which he recomends for a 3-6.5" lift, and a 3" drop one for 7" and over. The smaller one is $59, and the longer one around $150 like the Skyjacker. I don't know why he does not have them on his web site.

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It's interesting how Rusty's prices change. When I inquired about the 2.5" drop pitman a little while ago, the price was 155$!

Rgds

Like I said the price was around $150. If I'm going to pay $150 for a steering part I might as well design my own inverted T. When people say something that I think is too expensive I tend not to pay attention. My wife luv's me

I was reading somewhere that you should just make sure that your drag link and your control arm are at the same angle. I'm at about 8" of lift right now, and looking at the front of my vehicle, the top of my drag link, (where it meets the pitman arm) is only about an inch or so higher than the control arm. So, that would mean at 8" of lift, I should only need a pitman arm with about 1-1.5" drop to make the drag link and control arm parallel to each other. Does that sound right?

LAWNMAN323 said:

I just ordered the Skyjacker 5.5" drop pitman arm. Should be here tomorrow.

I was searching Rusty's website and saw he had a tie rod steering conversion for the XJ's. With it the drag lind meets the tie rod almost at the passenger rod end, and the tie rod goes from end to end. Anyone ever run this/hear anything about it? I may install this too to help beef up my truck so trail breakage (bend my tie rod/pitman arm) may be avoided.

Thanks

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had one, not impressed.