Diff Whack Daddy
And the Roll Over Posse! Under the Hood Moderator
Elite Explorer
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- February 19, 1999
- Messages
- 3,739
- Reaction score
- 14
- City, State
- Mount Vernon, WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1st Gen XLT 4dr
- Callsign
- KG7VTT
Well I finally did my post trail run inspection of the Ex after this last Moab trip and I expected the steering to be a little off after the panhard bar bracket decided to come lose half way through Golden Spike, but what I found was interesting.
First off, with the panhard bar bracket flopping around it was obviously putting an extreme load on the steering as evident by the smoke coming out of the power steering fluid when the cap was removed after the Golden crack obsticle. But it apparently also wasted both heim joints on my drag link(pitman arm to passenger side knuckle). They're both a little on the lose side now. They'll last for a couple of more easy runs, but deffinately on the next parts list order.
After getting the allignment set I went to correct my off center steering wheel by adjusting the drag link. I thought it was just off a little cause the panhard bar bracket didn't get pulled all the way back, but after checking my measurements, the axle was centered under the truck right where it was supposed to be. It took a good 1/2 inch of travel on each end of the drag link to correct the steering wheel position. Once it was done, I looked at the pitman arm and it deffenately has a bit of a tweak to it. The bolt going through it is no longer straight up and down as it was before and the pitman arm seems to be further toward the driver side than I remember. It all adjusted out, but it just goes to show you how much stress is on that panhard bar on the trails.
Posted via Mobile Device
First off, with the panhard bar bracket flopping around it was obviously putting an extreme load on the steering as evident by the smoke coming out of the power steering fluid when the cap was removed after the Golden crack obsticle. But it apparently also wasted both heim joints on my drag link(pitman arm to passenger side knuckle). They're both a little on the lose side now. They'll last for a couple of more easy runs, but deffinately on the next parts list order.
After getting the allignment set I went to correct my off center steering wheel by adjusting the drag link. I thought it was just off a little cause the panhard bar bracket didn't get pulled all the way back, but after checking my measurements, the axle was centered under the truck right where it was supposed to be. It took a good 1/2 inch of travel on each end of the drag link to correct the steering wheel position. Once it was done, I looked at the pitman arm and it deffenately has a bit of a tweak to it. The bolt going through it is no longer straight up and down as it was before and the pitman arm seems to be further toward the driver side than I remember. It all adjusted out, but it just goes to show you how much stress is on that panhard bar on the trails.
Posted via Mobile Device
