Drag Link options

[red.EDDIE.4x4]

what up guys?
wow its been awhile since ive been on here...

id like some opinions about this, im about to start driving my 1st gen explorer daily again and was curious about the drag links. i battled the skyjacker FA600 arm for awhile and deemed it useless for me and had zero luck with it. i noticed that with the 2wd explorers, the drag links are bent and seem to provide a better steering angle. i threw a set on my rig and this is what i got.

notice the angles look much more appealing then the steep 4x4 drag links, and looking at the tie rod ends, they also seem to have a larger diameter. meaning they seem to be stronger.

this is my only concern...

the angle at which the tie rod end is going into the knuckle.
does anybody find this acceptable? too sharp of an angle?

thanks,
Tyler
-red.ED

 

[Anime]

I always wondered if the larger diameter 2WD links would work on a 4WD, but I figured they were actually hollow and so were weaker. I don't think the bent links are stock though, as far as I've seen those are custom stuff done for prerunners with cut and turned I-beams.

The TRE angle doesn't look too bad, for full lock. It's only going to be completely vertical at neutral when both wheels are completely straight, which is important so you get the full range of motion when steering, and no binding between one side or the other along with suspension travel. That angle at full lock looks like it will cause some binding during suspension up travel though.

It looks like you could adjust the TRE into the adjustment sleeve more and get a little less angle from that, if you needed it. You really want the same amount of thread on the TRE and the link for the most adjustability, otherwise you run out of thread on one side. As long as the TREs are vertical with the steering centered, they should be within their range of motion for steering and suspension travel, even at the limits.

 

[red.EDDIE.4x4]

I always wondered if the larger diameter 2WD links would work on a 4WD, but I figured they were actually hollow and so were weaker. I don't think the bent links are stock though, as far as I've seen those are custom stuff done for prerunners with cut and turned I-beams.

The TRE angle doesn't look too bad, for full lock. It's only going to be completely vertical at neutral when both wheels are completely straight, which is important so you get the full range of motion when steering, and no binding between one side or the other along with suspension travel. That angle at full lock looks like it will cause some binding during suspension up travel though.

It looks like you could adjust the TRE into the adjustment sleeve more and get a little less angle from that, if you needed it. You really want the same amount of thread on the TRE and the link for the most adjustability, otherwise you run out of thread on one side. As long as the TREs are vertical with the steering centered, they should be within their range of motion for steering and suspension travel, even at the limits.

i pulled the links from a 2wd at the salvage yard, so they should be factory. they are pretty freakin heavy, so they should be solid not hollow.

with all that being said, does it look ok to run as a permanent setup? i ran it for a few days and noticed my steering wheel had less slop in it and was a bit more responsive.

 

[Maniak]

i pulled the links from a 2wd at the salvage yard, so they should be factory. they are pretty freakin heavy, so they should be solid not hollow.

with all that being said, does it look ok to run as a permanent setup? i ran it for a few days and noticed my steering wheel had less slop in it and was a bit more responsive.

I'll have to check this.. My neighbor has a 2wd explorer in his yard still.. I "think" the steering parts are still on there.. It is worth looking into.. I don't know if I really want to cut it (since it is free) to see if it is solid or not.. If it is solid, then I have to buy one from a yard instead of using a free one..

If I understand what I'm seeing and what I remember seeing, I'd need 2wd tie rods and couplers (sleeves) in addition to the big tie rod(drag link) BUT the Tie rod Ends (the part that goes into the knuckle) is the same size as the 4wd so they should fit in the knuckle just fine..

and of course, I have a spare set of Tie rods/drag link and sleeves in the back of the X in case I bend them wheeling. That would mean I'd need to replace my spare parts too.

as it sits now, my front end looks like this (except put together )..

It does have a little more angle now since I broke another Duff spring and replaced them with skyjacker (I think that is the brand) instead of using 2.5" duff springs with f150 spacers.

~Mark

 

[Anime]

i pulled the links from a 2wd at the salvage yard, so they should be factory. they are pretty freakin heavy, so they should be solid not hollow.

with all that being said, does it look ok to run as a permanent setup? i ran it for a few days and noticed my steering wheel had less slop in it and was a bit more responsive.

I've just never personally seen bent 2WD links from the factory on an Explorer, so I'm going by that. Pretty awesome stuff if you found a set of solid bent links either way.

Hard to say on how it looks without seeing it centered. If you have it with wheels on and driving around, take some pics of the steering from the front and details of both tie rods and it'll be easier to get an idea of what the angles are.

It may just be that the tie rods/joints on the old steering links were loose or worse, and these are nice and tight, so you got an improvement. The main "improvement" you want from the steering setup you use with a lift is just a "normal", neutral-feeling, with an absence of bump steer.

Right now I'd say it looks ok, though you might want to make some new brackets for the steering stabilizer/damper so it's more horizontal, and cut some 1/8" or 3/16" thick 2x4" rectangular steel for those sway bar drop brackets while you're at it, looks like those C-shaped ones are tweaked.

I'll have to check this.. My neighbor has a 2wd explorer in his yard still.. I "think" the steering parts are still on there.. It is worth looking into.. I don't know if I really want to cut it (since it is free) to see if it is solid or not.. If it is solid, then I have to buy one from a yard instead of using a free one..

You shouldn't need to cut it to find out if it's solid or hollow, the weight and heft should tell you that. If that 2WD Explorer is the lowered one that had drop beams on it, that had bent links, but I thought those were either aftermarket with the drop beams, or just bent to make up for the drop, instead of using shorter links.

 

[Anime]

The 4WD TRE's have a different (7/8 in.) diameter than the 2WD (1.0 in.) TRE's, they won't thread into the adjusters.

It looks like the angle is better with the 'canted' ones to me, though if you did want to use the 2WD links with the 4WD rods, you'd just have to either re-thread the adjusting sleeves, or make some custom ones.

It'd be possible to weld some 2WD sleeves on one side and 4WD sleeves on the other for some custom adjusters, but I think part of the idea of the steering system is to not have any welds and eliminate weak points on a critical system.

 

[red.EDDIE.4x4]

from everything ive read it sounds like a reasonable that this should work out alright. ill give it a go and we will see what happens. i may weld up some adapters to use 4x4 tie rod ends and the 4x2 drag links. thanks everybody for your help

 

[mr cribb]

Let me know how this works out.

I just picked up a 91 4x4 that was wrecked and my 92 is 2wd. I have to pull the gear box off my 92 for the 91 (same part number on autozone website), because the gear box is snapped where the pitman arm attaches.

My existing 2wd linkages are well worn (dust boots) but could be used for a short while.

 

[Maniak]

I just picked up a 91 4x4 that was wrecked and my 92 is 2wd. I have to pull the gear box off my 92 for the 91 (same part number on autozone website), because the gear box is snapped where the pitman arm attaches.

That steering box was used on many vehicles. The one in our '92 explorer is from a 1991 Ford van (e-150)

~Mark

 

[mr cribb]

Good to know

 

[4x4junkie]

i battled the skyjacker FA600 arm for awhile and deemed it useless for me and had zero luck with it.

What exactly happened with the Skyjacker arm??

If it was the driverside tierod hitting against your pitman arm TRE, a slight bending of it back in a press would fix that... (it should only need another 1/8 - 1/4 inch or so, shouldn't really weaken anything).


The 2WD linkage definitely has bends like that as factory (why I'm not sure, with a quick precursory examination of one I didn't see anything obvious, though again it was a quick look).
Unfortunately it's not going to do much (if anything) to help your geometry issue because no matter how many bends & curves or squiggles it might have, you're still dealing with a straight line between the points where it attaches at your pitman arm, and your steering knuckles. As long as the point that is your pitman arm is higher than your knuckles you're going to have bumpsteer.

Maybe you might consider a K-link swap for it.