Re: spring over axel steering

[Christopher Eveland <eveland@domain.elided>]

> Darrel swapped off his Scout II Dana 44 knuckles for a pair of GM Dana
> 44 knuckles with a flat-top. (or did he use IH pickup/T'all knuckles?
> Same thing anyhow) which has the provision for bolting on the "lift
> block" you noticed, and then running a parallel drag link.

So the "lift block" is the arm?  Or something between the arm and the
knuckle?

> Darrel's indication was that simply "building up" my stock knuckle in a
> similar fashion was NOT a good idea...even for my racer.  This is a
> steering component... vitally important to your life (and those around
> you)...

Yeah, thats why I'm having a hard time with this.  I don't seem to be
able to come up with a solution thats sufficiently safe.  Makes one
appreciate the work that the engineers did in designing the original
setup, when you start to see how just about any change will screw
something else up.

> You have 9" of lift and a Dana 27 front axle??!!  What size tires do you
> plan on running?  I'm having a hard time imagining a Dana 27 holding up
> to 35" tire abuse... when I've seen Dana 44s succumb to 33s..

Yeah, well, the lift kinda crept up on me...  The prev owner had done
the spring-over, and didn't do such a great job, as I'm starting to find
out with these problems.  Anyway, the springs used to sag quite a bit,
esp on the right, and now that I finally got around to replacing them
(and putting in the beefy shackels from anything scout) there is 9"
between the drag link ball and the tie rod, so I assume thats about how
much lift I have.

Anyway, I've got 33"x12.5" tires at the moment, which I was figureing
would be good enough for a while, but sure 35's would be nice one of
these days.  In the mean time, I've been using a light right foot.

> Maybe it's time for a Scout II Dana 44 front with the GM knuckles and
> "lift block" for the drag link?

Yeah, that might be the thing to do...  Previously I wasn't seeing how
the scout II axel was going to help the steering problem much, but I
guess if I'm going to kill 2 birds w/ one stone, it would probably be
worth the cash.  So I can just pick up a scout II front 44, and the
knuckels off of a GM 44 and bolt the parts together?

Anyone know the length of this "lift block" or whatever the arm is
called?  If its not the same length as the arm on the D-27 knuckle that
I have now, it will effect the ratio on my steering...

Thanks for the info,

-Chris