Dana 44 sway bar mounts and high steer

[8WR_ZJ]

I am wanting to put the high steer on my jeep and redo my upper link as well. If I want to run high steer I will not have room to put my swaybar mounts on my axles. Unless I go outboard of my springs. This is my dd. drive 16 miles to work everyday right now. And I have 0 cash. More kids comming and we are buying a larger house. I have access to a plasma table just looking for pics and ideas / suggestions. Thanks

[dyn0mitemat]

If you need the link high and in front of the coil, I've seen one where a guy took a piece of 1.25" tubing, bent it 180° (just a little larger than the od of the coils) and welded it on the spring perch so it came up at like a 70° angle right in front of the spring and then just put a tab on it to mount the end link. I'm sure ypu can get something to work without going through too much trouble. Ill we if I can find a picture on my co.mputer of what I was talking about when I get home.

Could you grab a picyure of yours from a few angles possibly so I can see what your working with?

[8WR_ZJ]

Here are some pics.









thnaks for the input. normally i would not have a problem working on stuff but i dont have the luxury of down time or lots of free time to work on it. plus i dont have my shop anymore.

[dyn0mitemat]

Looks like it'd be workable, let me get home and ill draw something up. Is the axle side trackbar bracket moving or is it staying there?

I'm thinking something setup like the factory mount just oversized to fit, kinda like a big letter s put of 1/4" plate, mount on side next to the coil brackets and punch a hole in the other end.

edit: I'm on my phone so excuse the typos
you end links are in front of the coils (same prob I had) you can do what I said above and have the end links not parallel to each other, or do what I wrote in the post above, ill draw up a quick sketch when I get home

[8WR_ZJ]

No worries. Yes my end link fall out directly in front of my springs. With the high steer I only have about 3/4" of clearance between my tie rod and springs. Yes my axle side trackbar mount will be moving as well. I was thinking of going really wide with a crazy bent end link or something. Just wanted to see what others had done.

[dyn0mitemat]

I'd just run shorter endlinks if you have to. Keep the axle mount where they bolt up above the tierod. I'll see if I can illustrate this in paint lol. I did a view from the side, front and top, excuse the shitty ms paint stuff (although i got better by the last one lol)

I'm going to have to do the same thing when I put my 44 under (thanks for the help with it btw!)






I know, most awesome pictures you've ever seen , i can print and sign a copy of them if you'd like

[8WR_ZJ]

Hey they looks legit. Not to bad to fab up. Paint skills are pretty killer.

[dyn0mitemat]

haha, i dunno how close the drag link will be to it when at full droop, but I'm sure theres a way to fab something up.

I'm still looking for the actual pic I saw of this though, I'll post it up if i find it

[IndyZJ]

Pull the coils, sit it on the bumpstops, mock up a tie rod with the steering at full lock and see what you really have room for. Just a thought - If you raised your panhard to be as high as the drag link, your roll center may end up high enough to not "need" a sway bar.

[8WR_ZJ]

Yes that's the plan. I was just wanting to see what other have done. Sway bar links will be the last thing to be finalized and welded in place. But at the same time I wanted to have a general idea of where I wanted to put them. I'm running the stock pan hard mount at the frame end with a 1ton tre and a heim on the other. My pitman arm and pan hard mount are about 3/4" off from each other. I know I need to redo my axle end mount and raise it parallel with my steering rod. If I don't have to run a sway bar that would be great but we will have to see. I do not have one on the rear either. They would both be nice because I do more highway driving than anything.

[IndyZJ]

dynOmitemat's idea would work well as long as it didn't interfere with anything, but clearance around the panhard already look pretty tight. It looks like the axle-side mount is going to have move completely from in front of the spring to clear the tie rod when turning. You may also have interference at the frame side depending on where your bumps are set.

Looking at the pictures, I'm actually curious - do you have full steering now? What's your measurement from the center of the upper balljoint to the center of the drag link end? What pitman arm are you using?

[8WR_ZJ]

what do you mean by full steering? It will go from axle stop to axle stop. So the measurement you want is down the high steer arm? or from upper ball joint to the pitman arm? i am using the factory zj pitman arm.

[dyn0mitemat]

Top of the ball joint to the drag link TRE in the high steer arm.

What he's referring to is if your pitman arm (the points between pivot and the TRE) is a different length than the high steer. For an extreme case example lets say the pitman arm TRE is only 2" (inch)away from the shaft I bolts on to, and your high steer arm is 2' (foot) from ball joint to TRE. As you can imagine, steering lock to lock would only move the tires a little bit. Now that's an extreme case, and the opposite happens if the pitman is longer than the knuckle, but you get the picture.

[8WR_ZJ]

o ok gotcha. it is 7" on the high steer arm and 6.5 on the pitman arm. I knew there was a varied just didnt think 1/2" made that big of a difference. Although it does seem a little less responsive now that I think about it.

[dyn0mitemat]

http://mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthr...l=1#post254368
Post #69
Thats the setup I was referring to

[8WR_ZJ]

Sweet thanks for link. Do y'all know of a longer pitman arm that will fit on my j20 box? I doesnt really matter if it has a different amount of drop I would actually benefit from a slightly less drop one.

[dyn0mitemat]

I know a lot of people use the flat waggy arms because they're a bit longer and a good match with high steer, but dunno about fitment on that box (i know they'll fit on typical xj/zj boxes though)

[8WR_ZJ]

Cool I guess I will have to start looking for a new pitman arm. Thanks for the help y'all.

[IndyZJ]

There's a good pitman arm thread on pirate in the general section. It's hard to say what would work for you without knowing what kind of drop you're looking for. As far as I know, an FSJ pitman arm is an FSJ pitman arm. If you're hitting the steering stops at your knuckles I wouldn't mess with it. If not, you can experiment with it by moving the drag link to the other hole in the high steer arm.

I would still suggest sitting it on the bump stops and getting the panhard right first. Then you can see what you have room for with the tie rod - it would be stronger and much likely easier to package just flipped it on top of the knuckles. Then worry about a sway bar if you still feel a need for and can fit one. It will feel different after raising the panhard high enough to be correct since you'll be raising the roll center about.