how else can i adjust caster?

its easier to turn 35" tires now with manual steering, than it was with 31" before the lift. i installed the 7* c bushings, and the track drop, and drop pitman, and i set it to about a 1/8" toe in. all tires about 35psi.

but it wanders like crazy, it's dangerous to drive over 45mph, no difference in wandering on accel, or decel. Oh! and i got twice the slack in my steering wheel, i'll figure that out once i change my tie rods, and drag link, they need it.

i figure the wandering and the really easy to turn the wheel says caster?

 

If you got 5.5" lift springs you will probably need some type of drop bracket or extended radius arm to achieve proper caster. If you have 3.5 and body lift....


Try dropping the pressure to 20 see how the truck responds. Ive run 10 on the streets with 35s and they work fine because the sidewalls are so tough. I always run a tire like a Goodrich Mud Terrain or Geolander M/T so its decent rubber, tread pattern and radial.

What make and type of tires are we talking about here? If they are bias belted, god help you and who balanced them? Sometimes the cheaper tires are much harder to balance and that can lead to a wanderer.

Start by doing the normal dumb checks like the pitman arm nut tie rod ends, steering box play....

My advice is steering stabilizers. Dual on the rear connected to the tie rod and then add the one from the frame to the drag link.

You are shooting at a moving target here. When you change ten things on your rig it's hard to figure out which one is the main culprit, start by checking all the it won't cost anything like tire pressure and then work up.

 

You need to have the alignment checked to see where your caster is at.

What about your front lift. How much lift did you go with? Did you install a drop bracket for the track bar? How about a pitman arm? Since you have more play in your steering box now, you probably need an adjustable draglink to center the steering at the tightest point in the box. This can magnify a small wandering issue.

I've run up to 5.5" springs without extended arms or drop brackets with no major handling issues. Is it possible that you installed the C bushings incorrectly, causing your caster to be even more negative? I've run across it before.

A steering stabilizer is only a cover up for the real problem. Not a fix. If the steering and suspension is in good shape and the geometry between them after the lift is correct, you should not need a stabilizer at all for it to handle properly.

Jason

 

If your front axle uses kingpins, there are replacement kingpins that'll give you some positive caster.

Also as a last ditch effort, a frame shop could put a degree or so into the radius arms. I would try other option first though such as the drop brackets for radius arms or lenghtened arms before going to the "bend it to fit" method.

 

I'm only a 3.5" lift total, no body lift. cut fenders

tires are mickey thompson baja radial MTX 35x12.5 rims are 15x10

i got the drop pitman arm, drop trac bar bracket.

i followed the markings on the c bushings (rear bottom etc.) , and installed them level, i don't have a lean or anything. how could i have installed them wrong???

i don't have a steering stabilizer on now, and wasn't planning on running one, unless i should?

i have 79 f150 knuckles and spindles for my disc swap, brakes work great, no complaints, and i have the tapered bushings for the tie rod to fit the f150 knuckle.

i understand what your getting at with the steering box not being centered, and the adjustable drag link, but before lift and tires no problems at all, now its just scary. just from the box not being centered could it cause that much play and wander?

i'll try fooling around with tire pressures, and maybe 1/4" toe in.

 

Do the toe-in first. Try it then go to a lower tire pressure. I run around 27 lbs. Chalk the tread of the tire. Go straight a few revolutions and make sure the entire tread is touching the road.

 

Just some numbers to help you figure out where you ar at.

For every 1 inch of lift you loose approx. 1.2 deg of caster
Then for every one inch you lower the radius arms from stock location you gain approx. 1.8 deg for caster
I think you neeed to be about 4 to 6 deg of caster a ride height.

keep in mind these numbers are approx. just a start point every truck is different.

hope this helps

 

If you followed how the bushings were marked you should be ok. But it is something to think about.

Having the steering box out of center makes the steering feel a little sloppy, but not undriveable at speed in most cases. Is the drag link and track bar as parallel as possible?

Have you checked for anythnig that you could have left loose? You had quite a few things apart, so it would be a good idea to go over it. Also, have someone turn the wheel back and forth and look for any movement or play.

Is your problem just wandering, or could it be bump steer?

Jason

 

The larger the tire the harder to balance. What weights do you have on the tires? 4oz 16oz 20oz? Is the weight in one place or three? The more weight on the rim the more out of balance your tire is. The more places the worse the carcass is. I would do this. Put the tires with the least wieght up front and the most wieght out back.

Pull one. Find a shop that will let you watch, and spin a tire and see if it is balanced.

Large tires generally are less round that small tires, so that is what you are fighting and why people use stabilizers on steering links to deal with that wobble.

When you lower the air pressure you are allow the sidewall to flex more and therefore the weight of the vehicle will push the tire flat to the road, which will reduce the wander.

 

i think i found my problem. dont know why i didn't see this before, but my toe in is about 3/16, however my pass. tire is toe out, guess when all the parts were laying around the right side tie rod might have spun on the adjuster, or something, so between the tires i have toe in, but not in relation to the car. i noticed this because i have a few miles on the car now, and was looking for any abnormal wear on the tires, and found that the left tire was scrubbing on the outside, and the right tire was scrubbing on the inside. come to think of it whenever it would wander or pull it was always to the right side. I was so close to the forest i couldn't see the trees.

i also found that the aftermarket drop pitman arm is about 3/4" thick, and the stock pitman is about 1" thick, so the nut wasn't fully seating the pitman, rocking the steering wheel back and forth in its "play" area i noticed that the pitman was moving up and down on the steering box shaft, it was moving less than a 1/16", but threw another lock washer on it, and now the steering wheel play is about half, just like it was before the lift.

steering wheel/box wont be center until i get an adjustable drag link.

Bumpsteer: jumping up and down on the front bumper i can see the steering wheel wiggle a little, however just to see, i took it diagonally over a speed bump one tire at a time at about 10 mph. and the steering wheel stayed dead straight, and i don't get any problems over pot holes at 30-40 mph, but there were a couple times that i hit something so small i can't even tell you what it was that made the wheel jump out of my hands, so just to be safe i put a steering stabilizer on anyway. i also agree that a stabilizer is a band-aid not a fix. don't know how to get rid of the intermittent bumpsteer.

my tire pressure is at 30psi. now, because i was chasing that wandering problem, but the ride is smoother now so i think i'll leave it there.

my tires are not "mud" tires they're more like all-terrains, they got bigger lugs than BFG all-terrain, but are quieter than BFG Mud terrain, i got a set of crap steelies that i'll use for serious wheeling, and maybe i'll put 37" Baja Claws on those- Oooh that sounds nice. (don't mind me just "dreaming" again)

i took my tires to a shop i used to work at so my ex-coworker does it for free, but i help so, one tire was .75oz (i had to look twice at the balancer, i couldn't believe it) another was under 2.5, these two are on the front, the back two were around 4.5oz and 6.0, but the 4.5 tire i couldn't get it to zero out, if i kept chasing the machine i would have had 10lbs all over it, so i did the best i could and ended up a quarter ounce off.