Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey,

Just curious if you guys have started working out a solution? I am still scouring my local yards for a steering box to see if it will fit on the other side.

If it doesnt fit I can see about sending it to you, might work since your steering is reversed.

I dont have any time to be going to machinists right now, with school and all, so I am waiting on you until summer.

Good news though. I went on my first trail ride this weekend without bendingt one in a long time. I drove a little less with the throttel and a little more with my brain. Both the tierods and the idler arms came out unscathed.

So maybe there is hope for the steering yet.

If I get this idler arm sorted out I am going to look into making the center link and tierods out of dom tubing, with bigger tierod ends.

If you do that now it is pointless since the idler arm is the weak link.

Cheers,

what we really need to do doug is lower the steering assembly down so that the line of force going up the tierod is flatter and not acting upwards on the idler arm and bending it. one quick fix is to flip the tierod ends over at the wheel end so the joint is on top of the knuckle and not below it, but thats illegal in australia so i've been told.

redrocket wrote:what we really need to do doug is lower the steering assembly down so that the line of force going up the tierod is flatter and not acting upwards on the idler arm and bending it. one quick fix is to flip the tierod ends over at the wheel end so the joint is on top of the knuckle and not below it, but thats illegal in australia so i've been told.

Maybe new tie rods, and flipping them to the top. I am willing to try it, but I would have to find two spare spindles. You would need to weld up the current tapper, or find a large tierod end, and ream out the current spindle for the new taper.

I think some one tried this already and had really bad handing, but who knows.

Thats how you would have to do it. putting bigger tierods on wouldn't hurt anyway. withthe amount of lift we have dough it would probably return the steering geometry back to factory settings anyway.

redrocket wrote:Thats how you would have to do it. putting bigger tierods on wouldn't hurt anyway. withthe amount of lift we have dough it would probably return the steering geometry back to factory settings anyway.

I dont know.

The tie rods would actually be shorter than stock so it may not be the right solution. I am thinking that the smaller tierods is going to have a negative effect, but I may be wrong.

What about moving the tierods on top of the knuckle.

Then moving them inboard on the center link until we get tierods that have the same length and angle as a stock no lift rig.

yeah that sounds the go. would have to check clearances off the chassis rails and bash plates though when wheel up and down.

Toyota independant front ends have the tie rod on top of the knuckle....
So shouldn't have any legality probs...

Yeah I'd be careful about mounting the tie rods on top of the knuckle as it could dramatically effect your bump steer. A certain amount of bump steer is designed in standard (you do actually need some).

Yeah I've sort of lost interest in all that IFS stuff now but I spoke to Barry today about it and he is still willing to machine up idler arm shafts out of 4140 or better.
However solving the bending idler arm issue by doing that may transfer the load to the next weekest points - drag link and tie rods.
The heilm joint set up on that Challenger looks good but I'm very dubious about it's handling characteristics. I'd rather stick with balljoints and have heavy duty draglink and tie rods made up.
With a torsion bar lift the tie rod ends up on more of an angle and binding of the outer end to the knuckle (balljoint runs out of movement) can occur, this will bend and stap it in no time.
Aftermarket tie rods (outers) just don't seem to sit as nicely in the knuckle and the ball joint seems at more of an angle and likely to bind than a factory one.

tritonasuras wrote:Toyota independant front ends have the tie rod on top of the knuckle....
So shouldn't have any legality probs...

They also had spring-over axles as standard - doesn't mean that's legal in Qld either...

Scott

Bitsamissin wrote:Yeah I've sort of lost interest in all that IFS stuff now

Oh no
Now who're we gunna get expert advice from ?

Bitsamissin wrote:Yeah I've sort of lost interest in all that IFS stuff now but I spoke to Barry today about it and he is still willing to machine up idler arm shafts out of 4140 or better.

I guess I will go it alone then. No sense in me having a machinist all the way across the world do work for me. I will wait until I get out of school this summer to find a solution.

If I can find a spare set of knuckles I will test a couple different solutions.