Ok, this is admittedly redneck engineering and not a permanent solution.

But yesterday's test drive without a track bar had the steering wheel rocking back and forth over every bump, rise and dip in the road. Between the tie rod roll, uber soft springs, the absence of sway bars and a stock track bar that was too short to be installed, the steering was vague and almost scary.

I've read a lot of people that say they deleted the track bar after the RSK and they do not have bump steer issues. Maybe they use a high steer kit that puts the steering link parallel with the axle, I don't know.

All I can say is that I installed a track bar and the bump steer was significantly reduced and the vague scariness was mostly gone. The tie rod roll continues to be a concern and I know that the additional lift aggravated this.

The softer B code rears and U code fronts without sway bars at either end will take some getting used to. New shocks ought to help.

I cut the bushings, trimmed the raised lip, pushed the big pieces in both sides, pushed the metal sleeve in and pried it to the outer edge of the track bar casting, sprayed all of it with aerosol brake parts cleaner to make things slippery, and tapped the cut out piece in. I did this on both ends. I measured the need for 21-1/5" of track bar and this came within an 1/8" of it. This works good enough for the test driving I needed to do to confirm I need to buy an adjustable track bar.

 

I have both seats,excellant condition, no center section, probably other parts you may need as well for your swap, 94 f350 for parts

 

Todd, I tried to PM you but I think you need a certain amount of posts before you are given that permission. Please call or text me. nine four oh, 367 four four two four

 

This is a great thread, Thank you for sharing your project!

 

Awesome write up! I just received a 2.25" PMF RSK (or so i was told) but now i'm skeptical if it is a 2.25 or 3.5. could you measure the total height of the outside bracket on the frame? mine is 10" from top to bottom. And from eye to eye on the shackle? Mine are 3.5" Thanks!

 

Rear shackle, 3.5" center to center? Check.



Total height of bracket, 10"? Check.


Bonus measurement: Bottom of frame plate to center of spring bolt, 4.5"? Check.



This picture may help but you are going to need a little imagination. The stock spring is still bolted to the rear fixed mount.

You can see how much longer the SD springs are, and that all of their additional length is in the front. And how, if the stock front spring pivot was raised back into the frame, that the new mounting point in the RSK bracket is about 2" lower.

Visually the RSK bracket looks huge and way longer than the lift it provides. But, no way is this taller than 2.25" of lift.

 

Thank You. Now I wonder how much taller the 3.5" RSK is. I was told today that it is 1.25" longer but I'm skeptical, because that would only lower the spring at the centerline 3/4" since both kits use a 3.5" shackle.

 

Leo, why didn't you use a drop track bar bracket?

 

There is no need to

 

Like Brad said, I didn't need to. But….

A drop track bar bracket and a drop pitman arm need to be installed together.

As I understand it, the goal is to keep the track bar and the drag link parallel to each other. Each other, not necessarily the ground.

Depending on how much you raise or lower the suspension, you may not want/need to add these.

Earlier I mentioned the tie rod roll? As the truck gets raised the angle of the drag link increases in relation to the tie rod. (The track bar does too, but that's irrelevant to tie rod roll.) Because of how the drag link connects to the tie rod at the front of the rod, the increase of angular difference also increase the amount of steering force in an up and down direction.

Steer to the right and the pushing force of the drag link rolls the tie rod down.
Steer to the left and the pulling force of the drag link rolls the tie rod up.

I'm very used to vehicles with sloppy steering. But with all new steering pieces (except the steering box itself) this steering was worse than the 140,000 worn out factory TTB steering I removed. Frustrating.

The clincher was a drive on a local road that is about as close to an Arkansas road as we have here in Texas. It has turns. Many of them, one after another.

Because my steering pieces are new, the tie rod roll takes a little bit of effort to overcome. You normally don't feel the roll, you just know you need to add more steering input until you quit heading to the ditch. Then you keep adding more steering input the other direction until you quit heading into oncoming traffic.

But on the curvey road, as you start to steer into the turn, all seems fine until you get a little deeper into the turn and you add a little more steering input. If this is happening when the steering input being given is equal to the friction within the pivot joints in the tie rods, the steering wheel moves but there is no input into the tires. This only happens as the steering wheel moves through the no-mans land of the tire rod roll, but as the steering input goes soft it feels like the front tires are sliding. A few nanoseconds later all the slop is taking up and the wheel firms up again.

Exit that turn and then do the same thing going into the next turn to the other direction.

I ride a scooter too so steering feedback is a critical sensory input for me.

This was at night and not fun. Not a dangerous issue, just unnerving.

There is a differently designed drag link and tire rod that I may pursue later.

But for now, the easiest solution is to decrease the angle that the drag link goes into the tie rod. A friend gave me a 3" track bar drop plate. I sourced a 3" drop pitman arm and installed both.

It did not stop the tie rod roll. But, it quickened it to the point that most people would never know their tie rod is rolling. With the non drop pitman arm the steering wheel would move 6 to 8 inches each direction as the tie rod rolled up or down before the wheels would be turned. With the drop pitman arm (making the drag link closer to the angle of the tie rod) the steering wheel would move only 1 to 3 inches each direction before the tie rods rolled up or down and the wheels would be turned.

I'm willing to bet that most with a F350 style steering set up have tie rod roll and they don't know it.

 

When is 3" not 3"?

Earlier I said I added a 3" track bar drop bracket. This is simply a flat plate that has two set of holes in it spaced 3" apart. If you held the stock track bar bracket up to its holes in the engine crossmember, then lowered bracket 3", that is exactly what this plate does.

Simple, but not pretty. It was free. And it dropped the track bar a true 3".

I picked up and installed what is described as a 3" drop pitman arm. And yes, if you measure the amount of "Z" in the arm, there is 3" of offset.

Problem is, the stock F350 pitman arm has about 1/2" of offset. The F250 pitman arm is almost flat.

So, going from a stock F350 pitman arm to a 3" drop pitman arm is really only a 2-1/2" effective pitman drop.

This pitman arm drop made enough of an improvement to the feel of the tie rod roll (didn't eliminate it, just made it feel different) that it was worth the $70.

But the difference in the 3" track bar drop and 2-1/2" pitman arm drop cause a little bump steer. Not significant, but if you let go of the steering wheel you can see it rock left to right.

I now know why PMF sells a 3" and a 2-1/2" drop track bar bracket.


I am chasing a shaking at about 65mph. I am currently using an adjustable track bar that has rubber/poly bushings. I hope to borrow a friend's PMF adjustable that uses spherical or heim joints to see if that tames the shake. Then I may order PMF's 2-1/2" drop bracket.

 

I asked the question because of your trouble with the track bar being too short. A drop bracket (and corresponding Pittman arm) would have made the track bar fit at least as well as it did before the RSK, right? I know Brad used an adjustable arm and F350 Pittman arm but others use drop brackets and arms. Just trying to see why you chose what you did.

 

Sure. As I didn't know what my lift was going to be (I didn't buy a kit) I didn't buy things I may not need.

If the amount of drop on a track bar bracket was the exact same as the lift, yes, a stock length would have worked.

Unless you can make your lift exactly 3", or whatever the track bar drops come in, you would need either an adjustable drop bracket (I think I've seen these) or an adjustable track bar.

If I didn't do it this way I would have bought a 3" drop bracket, now to find out I need a 2.5".

Some people seem to get away with a lot less tinkering. Maybe I'm looking for problems. Dunno

 

I didn't get a chance to borrow a solid adjustable track bar, I just broke down and ordered one from PMF. I also ordered a 2.5" drop track bar bracket.

The first shipment arrived with a stock length bracket. I ordered the track bar and bracket online Sunday evening. Earlier when I ordered my RSK I received an acknowledgment the next day. None came Monday so Tuesday I called to get tracking information. I was told it would ship that night and I would get tracking information Wednesday. Thursday I call and got tracking information…it was picked up Wednesday, not Tuesday. The shipment arrived Friday and I discovered the incorrect part Saturday as I prepared for the installation. I called PMF (Trevor answered, one of the primary reasons I like to deal with PMF) and we talked through a couple of measurements to confirm I had the wrong part, and he said he would ship out the correct item Monday. Tuesday I had a prepaid return shipping label for the wrong part and a tracking number for the correct part. It arrived Wednesday.

Mistakes happen.

An observation about using an adjustable track bar and stock bracket: The heim joint and spacers would not slide into the stock bracket. There is a lip at the raised/machined surface on the inside of the bracket that would catch the heim spacers. I have very little doubt that I could have filed a small amount of material (it wouldn't have needed) for it to fit. Or even used a hammer to drive (drive is too strong word but tapping it wasn't working) it into place. Rather than do this I decided to wait for the correct PMF bracket to arrive.

This noticeably reduced my low speed wiggle and 65mph shaking, but did not eliminate it. My fear of the solid heim joint transmitting noise and vibrations were unwarranted. I suggest that an adjustable track bar be purchased with your RSK. And it would have been helpful to have just doing the D60 swap with F350 leaf springs.

The combination of the "three inch" drop pitman arm and the PMF 2.5" drop track bar bracket have resulted in zero bump steer in normal driving.

This includes a dip I take at about 45 to 50 mph that causes the rear shocks to compress about 4" or 5" as the truck 'lands' on the other side. The rear shocks have an O ring on it so I can see max compression, the fronts do not. This would seem to be juvenile behavior, but this is a very scientific test. The fact that I giggle and the kiddos (seat belted in of course) laugh out loud is irrelevant.

 

Still with the shaking…

5th time into Discount Tire for a balance. No improvement. We talk about options. They give most of my money back on the first set against a better set. I tell them that I am skeptical they are balancing them correctly (as they say each time that they are 'perfect') and that if the new tires don't solve they issue, I want the old ones (and my extra $$) back.

We watch each rim be spun by itself. We agreed that if a rim was bent that we would put the old tires back on. They are near perfect with the worst one being almost imperceptable. I give the go ahead to install the new tires. I brought an extra rim (I have an extra set, though they are not in as nice of shape) just in case.

New tires, no shaking. Yay!