its time for the next upgrade! i am in the process of buying parts and building the axles for the swap. the axles im building are a 79 f250 dana 44 with 5 lug outers and a 79 9 inch. i am at a bit of a block when it comes to the steering. my plan is to buy a reid knuckle for the passenger side but im not sure what arm to run?? i have never dealt with high steer before, one concern i have is do i need an offset arm? i plan on running 15 inch steel wheels with 3.75 bs. also what is a good arm to run? thanks in advance!
I used stock flat top knuckles off a chevy/dodge, and made some arms from 1x2 solid stock. Way cheaper than aftermarket knuckles. I ran factory steering linkage shortened a little until I bought enough heims and Dom to redo all the steering. Knuckles cost me 50/pr and the steel was like $16 for some scrap pieces which I cut to length and drilled for the studs.
The reason I was planning on buying a reid knuckle is the axle I'm using was just rebuild last year, all of the components are basically new. With the Chevy knuckle u have to use Chevy brakes right? I could probably get my local machine shop ( Mennonite) to make me an arm. They are very reasonably priced on stuff and have a pretty nice shop. Could u post up a pic of ur arm?
I could, I have since gone 1 ton stuff. I'll be helping a buddy who has the old axles tomorrow. I have the diagram for the measurement saved on my computer. Or you can google Dana 44 high steer images and find it there. Didn't have the knuckles machined or anything just light grinding of the top to clean it up.
IIRC Sky Off Road and Design has the high steer arm and can machine the current knuckle to accept it. Ruff Stuff has GM tapers so you can drill out any part and locate TRE's where you need them.
I'm doing the same swap soon. I'm using a Reid knuckle on the passenger side so I can keep the Ford style outers as well. With 3.75" backspacing you should be fine with any high steer arm. I'll be running 5" backspaced rims, so I'm using a Crane offset high steer arm:
The part of the reason I made them was that I could make them fit with stock wheels. 15x7 with probably a 5" bs. Worked well, maybe I can round up some old build pics.
Also another factor to the Reid knuckle is that 5 lug Ford knuckles "can not" be milled and tapped for high steer. Going cross over I know is the right thing to do, it's just a lot of extra cost ontop of building axles and getting everything ready for the swap. I have been going back and forth between cross over and a bent drag link. Im pretty well set on cross over now tho. I was looking at the ballistic fab arm. But before I went any father wanted to make sure 1 ton stuff would clear the wheels.
I've seen the ford ones tapped and ground flat. They work, but just don't have the same shape and structure as gm flats. I'm sure the 1/2" cast is fine enough for milder build, but Chevy one is already cast for beef. I'm honestly just cheap as crap. I like effectiveness, effective doesn't have to mean expensive in this scenario.
I'm sure it would be fine for what i am doing, and i hear ya on the cheap and effective thing!! the steering knuckle is one thing tho that i dont really want to skimp on. the plan is, i have a nice shopping cart list for both summit racing and ruff stuff. i plan on either black friday or cyber monday buying the stuff. im hoping they have some for specials running to save a few bucks (back to the cheap as crap thing hahaha) ive changed some of my stuff around and am not buying anything from ballistic now( not that i have anything against them) just i can get everything from ruff stuff and will not have to pay for ballistics outrageous shipping and handling charges. i also know from searching that people talk very highly about dan at ruff stuff.
just put my order in for ruff stuff! the high steer arm and stud kit are ordered. also got their 9 inch install kit. i used the discount code DEARWIFE this gave me free shipping plus an additional $4 off my order.
Santa has brought me some early Christmas presents i still have 3 packages in shipping but here is the stuff that i have gotten. ruff stuff is beefy!!
1. order from ruff stuff. axle swap kit, high steer arm, stud kit.
2. high steer arm top
3. high steer arm bottom( to me they could have moved the hole a little bit to center it better.)
4. two out of the four springs( other 2 in shipping) re 1.5 soa springs. ( they have a lot more arch than i thought they would!)
here is what is going on in the rear. when i tore the 3rd member apart this is what i found.
so, i had to order one of these got an install kit and have the 3rd member almost together. just waiting on the new yoke to come( is in one of the packages in shipping.)
1. old carrier, one spider broke, the other is cracked the whole way around, the case was destroyed because of this failure.
2. shiny new replacement :2thumbsup:
3. 3rd member almost together with new install kit
!!!! anyone interested in buying a 9 inch 28 spline Detroit locker!!!!
other parts came in today. i got the weld in inserts for the tie rod and draglink. also got my stuff from summit. installed the new wheel bearings and seals on the shafts. tomorrow night i should finish up the third member.
1. all 4 re 1445 springs. 1.5 inch soa springs
2. new yoke for pinion.
got some more done tonight. finished up the 3rd member and cleaned the axle up some. the plasma cutter is really nice and quick, just have to be careful and pay attention to what ur doing. i got a little too deep on the one cut. i will just lay a weld in there then grind it flat.
1. 3rd member complete
2. i think i got a pretty good gear pattern. good as its gonna get.
3. axle housing bare
4. nick from the plasma cutter
tonight i got the welder out and filled in the few spots on the tubes and ground them down. you cant even tell where the spots were at. cleaned some of the stuff up and started putting it together. now it gets to sit in the corner for awhile lol. still have a long ways to go before its ready to go in.
i got another box today. my shinny Reid racing knuckle! this thing is soo beefy! compared to the stock 5 lug knuckle, this thing has to be twice as heavy.
Not too much more of an update. Got new calipers for the front and brake drums for the rear. I will be tearing the rear apart again tho, I got a set of Yukon axle shafts for it. To bad this isn't a trail rig, I have all stuff for free, dana 44 and 9 inch 5.13 gears and full spools :/ we are upgrading our mudtruck to 2 1/2 ton Rockwells !!
What kind of "force" are you talking about? Your question makes absolutely no sense. Yeah, the driver side knuckle will be weaker, but having a stronger knuckle on the other side isn't gonna make it explode for no reason.
Why would I be asking a question about stuff that could occur for no reason? I am not. Did you think about where a strong point transfers stress to a weak point. Stress will manifest itself somewhere. It does not just go away since you have one cool knuckle. By strengthening one knuckle, what have you asked the the other to do? It is attached to the same tie rod right?
If the opposing knuckle is being pushed on with a cross over set up, the direct link between the knuckles is the tie rod. If one knuckle is stronger than the other, something has to give. It could be TRE's, the tie rod, or a knuckle.
Why would I be asking a question about stuff that could occur for no reason? I am not. Did you think about where a strong point transfers stress to a weak point. Stress will manifest itself somewhere. It does not just go away since you have one cool knuckle. By strengthening one knuckle, what have you asked the the other to do? It is attached to the same tie rod right?
If the opposing knuckle is being pushed on with a cross over set up, the direct link between the knuckles is the tie rod. If one knuckle is stronger than the other, something has to give. It could be TRE's, the tie rod, or a knuckle.
You still haven't quantified anything. Making one knuckle stronger still doesn't weaken the other like you are implying. Even if it does transfer a weak point, a broken knuckle on the driver side is just as bad as a broken knuckle on the passenger side. The isn't a plethora of broken stock knuckles out there anyway, and plenty of people have run just one Reid knuckle.
Im a little confused about this also. Yes I'm only running a passenger side reid knuckle to get cross over steering. But just because the passenger side knuckle is stronger doesn't mean it weakens the driver side factory knuckle. What is the difference between the setup I'm going with or if I would have kept both factory knuckles and bent the draglink? Both knuckles are tied together the same way and are driven by the same source. I understand that yes since the passenger side is stronger it (moves) the weak point more to the passenger side knuckle but I highly doubt I will have a problem with it. I know from personal experience the ball joints are the real weak point with the knuckle. We ran 42's on the 44 front. Never had a problem snapping a knuckle. We did however lose a wheel when a u joint broke it forced the lower balljoint out off the socket and pulled the top joint out of the knuckle. Still after that the knuckle is fine, not broken.
One thing that I did notice and have never heard anything about on the internet, there is a difference in height of the arm between the 8 lug knuckle vs the 5 lug knuckle. The arm on my drivers side factory knuckle is gonna be lower than my pass side knuckle. I don't know if anyone else ever knew that or not.
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