Re: spring over axel steering

[Christopher Eveland <eveland@domain.elided>]

Hi all-

	So I had another thought on how to fix my problem.  I was taking a look
at a "big" (as in full-size pickup) truck that is in my club, and I
noticed that on its steering gear the drag link goes from the pitman arm
to an arm attached to the king-pin on the axel.  This means that its
mounting point is quite a bit higher than it would be if it attached to
the drag link (like 4"-5" on a Dana-27)
	So I was thinking I could probably come up with a similar arrangement
on my scout.  All I'd need (I think) is to make the arm, which would
mimick the arm that the tie-rod attaches to, but higher up, and bolted
on with the same bolts that hold the king-pin bearing cap on (4 3/8"-24
bolts, according to my manual)  I could make the arm out of 1/4" plate
with a vertical fin to keep it from bending.  The only other think I'd
need to do that I can see, is re-locate the shock mounting point on the
spring plate to the read of the axel rather than the front of it, so
that the arm doesn't bind with it.  I suppose I could take the
opportunity to put in longer shocks and when I relocate the upper
mounting point, move it up too.
	Anyway, this significantly reduces the angle on my drag link, from
about 30 degrees at full droop (estimated) to about 5 degrees (also
estimated), which means that the joints don't have to take any axial
load that they aren't designed for, and I've taken a lot of the bump
steer out as well.
	The only questionable part that I can see is the 4 3/8" bolts holding
the arm on.  Do you think if I used grade-8 they'd be up to the task?  I
don't know how much shear they'd be exposed to.  Presumably most of the
force would be take by the friction between the arm and the bearing cap,
right?  Thoughts?  Thanks,

-Chris
'67 800 - 9" of lift and left turns only