Draglink Question

[Jake_S]

I'm doing a SOA on my '84 GWag soon. I'm using a Chevy D44. My question is, will I have to get a W/T FSJ draglink & tie rod to setup my steering, or can I use the Chevy tierod w/ the N/T draglink?
I know the better setup would be to use a x-over set up, but I won't have the money , or the facility to set it up.
Jake

[tomd]

Some people say that they flip the Chevy tie rod around and use the NT draglink w/ a drop pitman arm. I don't have any first hand experience though.

[Jake_S]

'74, did they flip it around, passenger side to driver side, or did they flip it on top of the knuckle? I thought about swapping my Jeep knuckles on to the Chevy D44, to put the tierod up higher and hopefully reduce the draglink angle, reducing bumpsteer.
I plan on using a DPA to reduce bumpsteer, but I want to make sure that the draglink wil be long enough to reach the Chevy tierod.
Jake

[oldyellowwagoneer]

If you are going that route you would be better off using the chevy knuckles for now. They will allow more clearance at the right hand spring. You'll have to use the chevy tie rod as even the w/t jeep tie rod isnt long enough. Just flip it around so the hole is toward the passenger side. You'll probably need to make a draglink, just use your old jeep diff tie rod and have a machine shop cut it down and thread the end. DENNIS

[Bob Barry]

Hey, deja-vu! I was just posting this EXACT same question.

The arm for the tie-rod is lower on the Chevy than on the Jeep, in order to clear the springs above the axle (I imagine Jeep's were higher in order to clear the springs under the axle). The Jeep knuckles would put the tie-rod right where the springs want to be.

There is a hole in the tie-rod for the steering stabilizer, but it's on the driver's-side. Since the tie-rod ends are the same taper on both sides, switching the tie-rod end-to-end would move that hole to the passenger-side and make a handy spot for hooking up the ball-joint drag-link.

The one hitch there is that I don't think the hole is tapered; you would have to find someone with a tapered reamer to add the taper for the drag link.

With the drop pitman arm and the factory springs, the drag link and the tie-rod will be nearly parallel. In theory, at least.

What I'm interested in finding out is:

* What's a good source with a good price for a dropped pitman arm?
* What's the right taper for the factory Jeep drag-link end?
* Where can I buy my own tapered reamer to get the right taper in that tie-rod?

[tomd]

Thanks for clearing that up Bob.

[Bob Barry]

One thing to add, though; the NT drag-link will not reach that hole. I don't know if a WT would either. I'll probably have to fabricate something to make it all the way across there.

Anyone have experience with intentionally bending a drag-link for clearance? Is heat a no-no (I'm guessing it would be)? An hydraulic tubing-bender? How about adapting a factory-bent linkage from a Ford? Maybe I'll just have to go scour the pick-a-part for ideas...

[blt2krl]

an NT and WT drag link are both to short to reach the hole on a Chevy tie rod. Even if it did the bumpsteer would be terrorible.

[bchesley]

For a good price on a DParm call www.crawltech.com (http://www.crawltech.com) . I think that you can get a reamer from www.spidertrax.com (http://www.spidertrax.com) .

[bchesley]

http://www.spidertrax.com/hardware_enc.htm

Try this link!!

[Bob Barry]

Thanks for the links! Unfortunately, those reamers they have a straight reamers for opening up a tapered hole. I have to go the opposite way: add a taper to a straight hole.

So if anyone knows of a source for tapered reamers (no, I don't want to do rod-ends in my steering), let me know! smile.gif

[edit]

Oooops! Maybe I should have done a Google first. It appears this place has reamers:

http://www.reamer.com/tapered-reamers.htm

Can't get much more straightforward that that, I suppose... :D

[ September 12, 2002, 03:43 PM: Message edited by: Bob Barry ]

[Bob Barry]

Here's a picture of the stock Chevy linkage, with that hole I was speaking of:

http://home.off-road.com/~wagoneer/cherokee/axle06.jpg

It has a slight "kink" in it; when flipped to the other side, the kink would put that hole almost perfectly perpendicular to the linkage coming back from the steering-box, which sits forward of the axle on an FSJ:

http://home.off-road.com/~wagoneer/cherokee/axle08.jpg