Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hey guys bit unsure with what i have to do. i have spoa my little truck but now i'm wondering what i have to do for the draglink/pitman arm (bit from steering box thing to left wheel). do i need custom or can i find another way???????
cheers
stuart.

Pitman arm is the arm attached to your steering box, the draglink is the rod that attaches to this and then runs down to your tie rod. In a SPOA set up you really need to buy hi-steer arms from BBM or somewhere similar. Im not sure if there is a crossover steering arm manufactured for zooks, if there is, this would be fine too.

You can also use certain mercedes steering arms that bolt to your caliper bracket but there is some conjecture as to how safe this is. A search will hold the answers.

Steering is one of those things where its just not worthwhile to cut back on costs (brakes being another). Get the hi steer arms and never worry about it again. Do it once do it right.

call brian at suzistore (www.suzistore.com.au) he has something in the pipeline you may well be chasing!

v840, you have pretty much covered IMHO the only "correct" option - the snake racing highsteer kit.

The merc arms are not sound as far as I am concerned. Merc stuff is lovely quality and all, but once you have ovalised one hole to make it fit, played around with ball joints, taper, cut and shut drag link etc, it's far from a bolt in option and a LONG WAY from ideal as it is only bolted via the caliper bracket which was not designed for steering loads.

I do not believe it is possible to make a proper high steer arms to bolt on to a sierra knuckle. There isn't enough area or bog enough bolts in this area to make it viable. I have a small museum of scary high steer arms in the shrd from cars I have put back to SPUA.

Steve

hey guys just been checking out snake racing and bbm sites for some info and prices.
what's the difference between dropped pitman arm and high steer rods?????
still new to how things work.

A dropped pitman arm lowers the point where the drag link attaches to the steering box. These are helpful to counter bump steer and prevent the ball joints binding, however, they won't fix your problem.

Drop pitman arms also add stress to the steering box.

The issue with steering SPOA cars is that the drag link fouls the passenger side spring, so there are two solultions.

1) bend up your drag link into what is known as a "Z link" so it runs parallel to the tie rod in the area of the spring

2) fit a high steer kit that lifts the drag link above the spring.

Option 1 is hack as is does nothing the address the bump steer and you end up with a bent and possibly welded critical steering component. Z links kinda work (and work better with a dropped pitman arm) but engineers don't really like them for those reasons.


with a high steer kit there is no requirement for a dropped pitman arm.

Steve.

I did drop pitman arm and the drag link still fowled on the springs on full lock flex, it wasn't a fix just a band aid solution as such.

I ended up going the Snake racing High steer as its not dodgy, but its not the only solution there is a proper high steer kit as such on Spidertrax and with current exchange rates it is alot cheaper even with freight than snake racing.

As for the Z link I have one sitting in my shed if your interested in buying it (PM if interested), but again I don't know its strength the Engineers up here made me get rid of it and I'm glad I did.

This kit puts the tie rod above the springs as well giving more protection IMO
Link couldn't get pic to work
http://www.spidertrax.com/s.nl/it.A/id. ... tegory=118
Spidertrax Cross Over Steering Kit - Samurai

Price: $299.95

Snake racing gear $950
And to add to the snake racing Kit I had to extend my bump stops on the passenger side so rod wouldnt fowl on the Chassis on full up travel.


Z link

http://www.rocky-road.com/ottsteer.html

thats wat i have been running on the zook for years, lifts evrything above ur springs and works a treat, with the aussie dollar so strong you would be mad not to by it.

IMHO the rocky Road kit looks more usable than the Spidertrax

Reason? The spidertrax uses heim joints which are 100% unroadworthy and unengineerable in a steering application. Also, the spidertrax steering arm will be set up for the wrong knuckle. (LHD application)

Steve.

PS I would still prefer the snake solution over a bolted arm using the caliper bracket/kingpin bolts, but I accept that the RRO kit looks pretty strong.

bazooked wrote: thats wat i have been running on the zook for years, lifts evrything above ur springs and works a treat, with the aussie dollar so strong you would be mad not to by it.

How do you find the kit on up travel...? Did you need to modify the bump stops to stop anything hitting...? Or did standard bump stops kick in before anything got close...?

MUD-PIGSIERRA wrote:

bazooked wrote: thats wat i have been running on the zook for years, lifts evrything above ur springs and works a treat, with the aussie dollar so strong you would be mad not to by it.

How do you find the kit on up travel...? Did you need to modify the bump stops to stop anything hitting...? Or did standard bump stops kick in before anything got close...?

what bump stops? , never had any issues with up or down travel.