Ive got a 74 f100, Ive switch it over to 1 ton gear with cross over steering. The drag link goes to the passenger side tie rod end, which since they dont make a drop pitman arm its at a decent angle but very close to the same as the trac bar,does have mount to lower trac bar. You drive it down the road and it wanders little and has some bump steer not bad but enough to drive you nuts. Whats the best way to eliminate all the bump steer, the wandering might be the alignment. It only has a 4 inch lift. Thanks for any help or advice!

 

How about posting a pic and let us see what you're working with? We're visual creatures, ya know.

 

Pics = A billion words

Are you still running coils in the front, in stead of leafs? Sounds like it if you have a track bar... the purpose of the track bar is to keep the suspension from moving side to side and if you have a cross over steering system it might be doing part of the job that the track bar is supposed to be doing. We won't know till you post pictures.

Cheers Mason

 

Still coil springs in front, I will try and post pic tommorrow

 

Will not let me post pictures?

 

use photobucket

 

 

Chasetruck thanks, first time posting pics. I'll try to get better pics of steering in morning.

 

Install a steering stabilizer to absorb some of the steering backlash. The factory did it and you should too.

 

HIO, thanks for the quick reply. I will add a stabilizer and see what happens. Any particular one I want?

 

If you take a pic of the steering snap a mirror pic too, but those are some serious mirrors!

 

I don't have any particular recommendation. My rig had a Rancho when I bought it and it seems to do its job.

Them are West Coast mirrors.. the three legged version with the third "steady arm". They regularly appear on Ebay for $200... on FTE, around $100 or less.

 

I love the mirrors to, when I put them on I didnt think it was coming out the barn. Its a tight fit going in and out of barn.

 

I wouldn't add a steering dampener yet. They are nice to have but they will just mask your symptoms until you get them properly repaired. Bump steer occurs when the steering linkage is longer or shorter than the trac bar. As the suspension cycles, the axle deflects to one side (towards the passenger side on our trucks), and if the steering doesn't pivot at the same height as the trac bar at the top and bottom, its travels through its own arc, which means the business end (bottom) of the trac bar and the drag link end up at different points after the suspension cycles a given amount. Obviously the axle and therefore the trac bar aren't going anywhere, so the wheels steer to allow the drag link to go its own way. Thats what bump steer is. Ideally you want the track bar and the drag link to pivot close to each other and the same height at the top, be as close to the same length and at the same angle as each other, and mount close near the bottom. So if you install a drop trac bar mount, you want to install a drop pitman of the same height and key it so that it orients the drag link close to the trac bar.

Thats sorta the basics of it. You may be able to use an F150 drop pitman. I have an F250 box at the house that has a drop pitman off an F150 mounted to it.

 

The drag link and trac bar are very close to the same angle. But the drag link is a little higher and longer, I think if I moved the drag link to the bottom of the pitman arm it would be just about right. But I already reamed the pitman arm out for the chevy rod ends. I would have to change that end to a ballisitic joint or heim joint and use a bolt. I dont know how I'd get them to be the same length though?