Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I have a new car
Well it drives like one anyway, last night I went down to the Burmuda triangle (shed) and fitted the knuckle, it took a lazy 3 hours with hand tools, and I replaced all the seals, bearings and grease while I was at it, the knuckle needed a small amount of file work (3 mins) to remove a missed high spot in the machining, but that was no big deal, after that it went together extremely well, I reinstalled the king pin shims in the same order and amount as I removed them and after cycling the newly packed bearings a few dozen times it felt nice and snug
the kit comes with a Snake Racing "ROCK ROD" this thing is HUGE and plenty beefy, I brought it back from Sydney on the plane and the bastard sent me into excess bagage.
I took it out for a spin this morning and the diferance is huge, I have a corner near my house that is long and bumpy, back with the Z link I was all over the shop, kidding myself that I was in control, now with the high steer knuckle it was like being in another car
For many years I fooled myself that the Z link was OK and I was used to it, and it was predictable, and this is how zooks drive anyway,
BZZZZZZZT WRONG!
Without sounding too evangelical "I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT"
Now for the power steering, then the auto
Peter.

ace! got pics?

I must apologise, I thought the wandering all over the place was just old age or similar setting in chrustover

dumbdunce wrote:ace! got pics?

No, to busy working on it to take em.
But I can guess what you want to see, the 2 links are spot on parallel, I have a drop pitman arm fitted (required for my suspension/Zlink set up) when I fit the power steering (maybe after lunch ) I will sacrifice a small amount of the perfect geometry to regain a standard pitman arm.
Peter.

christover1 wrote:I must apologise, I thought the wandering all over the place was just old age or similar setting in chrustover

I know what you mean krusty, wandering around the street forgeting if I am going shopping to buy food, or I am going home having already eaten it
Peter.

one of my mates has just finished his sierra ute. he had to get the snake hi steer knuckle kit as well, as he went SPOA. he's using standard pitman arm, and is probably the exact same kit as what droopypete has.

i have a couple of photos of when we were 'trying' to put it in, but i don't know how to post pics.

SiKiD_01 wrote:i have a couple of photos of when we were 'trying' to put it in, but i don't know how to post pics.

What do you mean by trying?
I though mine went together very well.
Peter.

well, 'trying' was more a figure of speech.

it was myself and my mate, and we had no idea of what the hell to do, so we were both blind in leading each other. first up, we had to take the knuckle off, easy part, just keep undoing all the nuts and bolts until it came off.

when we got it all off, we had the task of trying to take/press the hub out of the spindle, little did we know it needed about 6 tonnes or something. anyway, we got pics of that too. (this was about 12 midnight)

in the end, my mate got his mechanic to do it, and put the spindle/hub together, so all we had to do was put the spindle back onto the diff. he used new bearings for the wheel bearing, new seals, and the kit came with king pin bearings and seals for the knuckle.

this was all good until it came time to put the knuckle and axle shaft back onto the diff. my mate, not me, had put the lower king pin bearing cup in upside down, so the bearing would not sit in the cup. so we took it all out and off, and pressed the cup out and put it in right. by the time the knuckle was on the diff witht he axle in, we had rtv sealed twice, and loc tighted the bolts twice. how frustrating this can get.

then, we found that we forgot to put the rubber seal on to the diff first, this is to stop water and crap getting in from the inside of the knuckle. i don't know how to explain it, but the diff has a 'ball' end and the seal seals this to the knuckle. so we took the knuckle off.. again, and put the rubber seal on to the diff first. to top it off, the seal was the wrong size, it was too small, and we couldn't figure out if it went anywhere else. i think i got pics, not sure.. too busy trying to think at that stage.

well, a bit of food and a couple of refreshing drinks later, we had an assembled diff, and the wheel was back on and we were set to go. only now with the rock rod fitted, the steering wheel was way out, the steering was way out. with the wheels straight ahead, the steering wheel would have 1 turn right, and 2 turns to the left or something like that, so the steering box was not centred.

now came the task of trying to take the factory pitman arm off. this is another story in itself, but a pic tells a million words in this case.
we got it off, and reset it straight.

so the last word is, we tried, we almost did, but we couldn't do it ourselves. but i must admit, what we did achieve, was a great feat, even for me. well, there will always be a first time for everything.

my mate's ute has been on the road for a week or two now, and so far everything is holding up. so we did do it right to some extent. just don't know how well the seals will hold up when we go to play in water and mud. time will tell.

if i had to do it again, at least now i have some idea.
an sorry if this was boring, but threads are more interesting with pics.

SiKiD_01 wrote:well, 'trying' was more a figure of speech.

it was myself and my mate, and we had no idea of what the hell to do...

dude, I'm no zook nut, but it sounds to me like you made all that a whole world harder than it needed to be! good to hear it's all together and working now!


cheers

Brian

sikid shouldn't need to press anything apart maybe a tap with a knock ameter here and there but thats all .

if your steering was ok before it would only need adjusting on the drag link to centre your box not removing the pitman arm itself ?

the seal that is to small looks that way but are meant to be . you can install the seal after the hub is on (you just cut the seal as stated in the manuel)
good to see you gave it ago anyways , be easier next time (i hope for you sakes )

Droppy pete i much prefer the hi-steer compared to the z-link but i don't think a z-link is a s bad as some make out , but the more lift you got the worst it gets .
like i said to hardcore (we spoa his last week using my old z-link) just keep the panadole in your pocket and when you get a headache from gritting your teeth for too long take two