I completed my sas and soa setup on my 00 mountaineer. Front axle is a wagoneer Dana 44 with new wagoneer leafs up front. Steering is handled by a Toyota steering box mounted outside the frame. The first test drive was extremely disappointing. The truck drove terrible and the bump steer was uncontrollable. I added a track bar which helped the bump steer some, but over 30mph it was still totally dangerous. Took it to a shop to get aligned. They said the caster was off 5degrees and that is causing the poor handling. I ordered a pair of axle shims and put them in before attempting to rotate the knuckles. Even with the shims it still drives terrible. It darts around the entire time and if you hit a bump, you never know what way it's going to go. I haven't read where anyone has had any steering issues, nor have I seen where anyone used a track bar with leaf springs.
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SAS Mountaineer undrivable
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SploderXLT
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Steering shaft is all brand new flaming river joints. No binding or play of any kind when steering it without the engine running. I have had the toe from 1/2" toe out to 1/2" toe in with no change in driving. I came from +3 caster to -3 caster with absolutely no change in driving characteristics, while another couple degrees may benefit it, I cant see it fixing the problem. As far as the tires wandering, I hadnt heard that, but dont doubt it. Wandering isnt so bad, its the fast darting that it does that is scary.
SploderXLT
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Ok, then I am saying it backward... the top balljoint is to the rear of the bottom balljoint 3degrees
Kirby N.
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That rules out the steering shaft. I wouldn't expect negative caster or toe out to help at all man. I would set the toe in at 1/4" to 1/2" and set the caster at positive 5, 6, or 7 degrees. Then you can eliminate those variables and move on to more investigating if it doesn't work.
Kirby N.
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Also I had those tires on a lj jeep. 16" wheels. They were like load range e. I ran them at 23-25lbs. This helped ride/ handling and wore the tires evenly. Otherwise the middles wear first due to the heavy duty tire stiff sidewall and light weight rig.
SploderXLT
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Ok, so correction is my axle HAD -3*caster and now has +3* caster.
jmdirk
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So I've been thinking about this a bit...
When you use coil springs, you use a track bar. The track bar and drag link need to be parallel in order to minimize any bump steer. By keeping them parallel, they move in the same arc. So when the suspension compresses, the track bar causes the axle to move to the passenger side. A parallel drag link moves the same amount as the track bar and as a result, there's no movement on the pitman arm.
However, when you use leafs, you can no longer keep the drag link and track bar in sync since there is no track bar. In this situation, the front end compresses and the axle goes straight up instead of moving out to the passenger side. The drag link still moves in an arc though. But since the axle can't move, it force the drag link to push the pitman arm the opposite way, towards the driver's side.
So on compression, the truck will want to pull left, on droop it will pull right. If your shocks are underdamped (i.e. the truck bounces up and down a bit after bump) you're going to get the feeling you describe.
You've done the right thing in putting on the high steer arms. The other thing you can do is get a drop pitman arm and get your drag link as flat as possible.
The trac bar you installed helped, but it'll cause binding and twisting in your setup. Under compression, the leafs will want to keep the axle straight, the trac bar will be trying to push it to the drivers side. That's going to cause binding in your bushings, and limit the amount of travel you have
When you use coil springs, you use a track bar. The track bar and drag link need to be parallel in order to minimize any bump steer. By keeping them parallel, they move in the same arc. So when the suspension compresses, the track bar causes the axle to move to the passenger side. A parallel drag link moves the same amount as the track bar and as a result, there's no movement on the pitman arm.
However, when you use leafs, you can no longer keep the drag link and track bar in sync since there is no track bar. In this situation, the front end compresses and the axle goes straight up instead of moving out to the passenger side. The drag link still moves in an arc though. But since the axle can't move, it force the drag link to push the pitman arm the opposite way, towards the driver's side.
So on compression, the truck will want to pull left, on droop it will pull right. If your shocks are underdamped (i.e. the truck bounces up and down a bit after bump) you're going to get the feeling you describe.
You've done the right thing in putting on the high steer arms. The other thing you can do is get a drop pitman arm and get your drag link as flat as possible.
The trac bar you installed helped, but it'll cause binding and twisting in your setup. Under compression, the leafs will want to keep the axle straight, the trac bar will be trying to push it to the drivers side. That's going to cause binding in your bushings, and limit the amount of travel you have
DB_1
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TTB, twin I-beams and dual triangulated suspensions do not use a trac-bar but that's getting off topic. Yes the trac-bar and drag link need to be on the same plane. They also need to be the same length or else they travel in different arc's even if they are parallel. With that said, it's not always possible to have them the same length due to space constraints.
My trac-bar is a few inches shorter than the drag link and they are not flat and still drives decent but nothing like what SploderXLT is describing.
Now that you have hi-steer knuckles installed, I would take out the trac-bar and see how it does.
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