3" lift and lowered front diff now steering is all wacky

i have a 94 carry , and I did a 3" strut spacer from xroads, and made 2 1/2" front cross member spacers but here's where i think i got messed up.
The front 2 1/2 tubing spacers i made to lower the cross member worked great. But now my steering is all wacky and front tires are swinging way out of arc and causing major tire rubbing even with fender trimming :frustration:

Now my Q's

1. I've seen a couple different drop pitman arms, does anyone manufacture these or are you pretty much on your own to build one.

2. i couldn't for the life of me get anything larger than a 1 1/2" piece of 1" schedule 40 pipe in the diff support behind the cross member resulting in my driveshaft rubbing my oil filter adapter. should this spacer be the same length as the xmember spacers i made and if so i guess i need to figure out whats restricting me from getting a larger one to line up?

3. i've heard people are lengthening there radius arms but haven't seen any "detailed" pics (YES I'VE SEARCHED) of how its done. Does anyone make these or are you on your own to build these as well and if so was wandering if anyone can help me out with a couple good pics how they did it.

Well thanks in advance for any help or discouraging words

 

Radius rods

In order to properly center my wheels in the well, and to preserve the radius rod angles, I did two things.
1. I made a mount that drops the radius rods by about 2.5"
2. Since this made the radius rods too long (wheel too close to the rear of the well), I have taken the radius rods, cut 2" out of there length, threaded half with lh 5/8-18 threads and the other half with rh 5/8-18 threads and used an 8" swedge tube in between.

I was supposed to be done tonight, but needed order a lh tap to clean out the swedge tube.

I'll post pics when I get it done.

 

cool thanks man ! did you get my pm?

 

Has anyone tried to drop the crossmember that holds the diff and LCAs? I was looking around last weekend and thought that may be easier. On my 93, this poses 2 other challenges.

1. The front diff is also connected to a tube that the steering is mounted to, so dropping the crossmember would also require extending the brackets that hold the front of the diff
2. The front drive shaft only has like 1/2" of clearance from the engine crossmember and cant go far down w/ out having to hack through that as well. But this is a problem for a front diff drop regardless (ive seen a few "mods" to the engine crossmember to accomidate) and it looks hard to do.

which "could" explain why people dont mess w/ the front suspension crossmember and extend from it rather than b4 it and leave the diff in place too.

 

maybe i'm confused but ...........i thought thats what this and a hundred other threads on this forum are about!?? I was almost embarrassed posting all this because it's just basically recycled info, i'm just trying to get some photo's and info on a couple of key mods i still need to make. If you have questions about your mods then start your own thread this doesn't help me or anyone else.

 

point taken... yes, if you lift a lot with strut spacers, you "should" lower the rest of the components as well. Given that, I am trying to describe a subtile difference though. I havent seen any pics or heard stories of anyone actually lowering the entire front suspension cross member, rather, they all leave it in place and hang lowering brackets off of it for the lower control arms (LCA)s and/or Differential. My suggestion was to just lower the cross member, and everything moves down with it. I dont know of anyone who has attempted that.

to re-itterate, i believe the reasoning is based in items 1&2 in my last post. But i may take this approach shortly and see where i end up.

Clear as mud?

I really should have waited till i could illustrate w/ photos. It would be way easier to see what im thinking.

 

if you guys post pictures of your front ends i can probably steer you in the right direction as far as setting up the proper geometry of the steering components.

 

pitman arm needs a drop bracket made any idea's

 

I've heard of adjustable arms, but can't seem to locate any. I could use a better setup myself.

 

Mine is set up like greg0187 describes. In fact, where he suggest placing a spacer/bushing I have one end of a steering stablizer. It works ok for helping with the angle of the steering arm, but there is some flex induced. I have a shake in the front end at about 40 mph and this is an area I'm looking that may be the source of the shake.

 

fixed my steering today just lowered the pitman arm with a longer bolt and a sleeve to reinforce the original portion of the arm. readjusted my tie rods but my tires are still rubbing i think my wheels are to far off set so i'm gonna swap out my 25" itp mudlites for some 24" .
Anyone in the market for some new 25x8x12 mudlites ?

 

Where are they rubbing? Did you see my thread on lowering the radius rod mount and making adjustable radius rods to center the wheels.

I could have had a 4"+ lift, and my 175/70/13s would have rubbed without centering them due to the offset. Now that they are centered, I might be able to go to just the spring lift (and remove the strut spacer)

 

What size bolt and sleeve did you use, that way I can run to the store with out climbing under and taking it out? Do you have a picture of it installed?

Thanks,
Rob

 

Mighty Milt,


I am sure others intended to thank you for your offer of assistance, but got busy with other stuff.


So, thank you.

 

sorry i haven't posted my updates in here , lost all my steam when i found out how much red tape is envolved in taking this thing to Canada with me when i move in june.
So i'm guessing my best bet is to sell this one and get another once i get situated in Manitoba. So if you know someone interested in a truck i've gotta get rid of this little guy.
Guess i should buy a membership and post it in the classifieds here.

 

Yeah sorry about that Milt thanks for the offer.