Ruff Stuff 7/8" Heim Steering

[DIRT_NASTYY_]

Sorry for lack of pictures, I was kind of doing this with no guide so I didn't think it would turn out so well. 

My stock steering was totally blown out so I opted to get a good replacement. 

 

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/78STEER.html

 

First thing I did was mock up the tie rod on some jack stands. Because I was using 1.5" tubing, it was going to need clearance. 

 

 

I eyeballed some different angles and measured, and figured 15 degrees should be good. I put the bends in 9.5" from the end of the tube. 

 

 

With the bends in I started to mock it all up to see how much I would need to trim, Ruff Stuff gives you pretty long tube just in-case. 

With the heim threads screwed in halfway, I trimmed off the ends until it sat aligned, and ended up cutting around 4.5" off either side.

 

 

I used the same method for the drag link, heims half way threaded and cut to fit. 

You will need to drill out your knuckles and pitman arm to fit 3/4" bolts. Took me 2 drill bits to get through it all, I am also running a drop pitman arm to match the track bar angle. (sorry for no photos!) 

 

Once I had everything mocked up, I welded in the bungs, bolted it on and cycled the steering to make sure everything cleared and there were no binds. 

 

 

The last step was to add some metallic silver paint, and had it aligned. 

 

 

I have about 350 miles on this steering now and it has been great, it didn't wobble or anything before the alignment and feels great driving through the desert at speed. 

I realized after I should have welded a tab onto the pitman arm to double shear the heim so I'll be redoing that at another point in time. 

 

 

[JMO413]

Looks awesome. Heavy duty for sure and at a good price. Nice write up.

[DeWManche]

How hard is it to adjust toe on this setup? I’ve been wanting to do this but I’m worried on how it will affect my alignment.

[DIRT_NASTYY_]

22 hours ago, DeWManche said:

How hard is it to adjust toe on this setup? I’ve been wanting to do this but I’m worried on how it will affect my alignment.

 

Not bad at all, only down side with how I did it is that you can't spin the tie rod itself to adjust like you would usually. So you have to unbolt it at the knuckle to adjust it every time

You could probably run like a 1" DOM tube to avoid clearance issues but strength and reliability were more important to me than convenience. 

 

I did a rough alignment in our shop, then drove it to the tire store by me and they aligned everything with no issues. 

Steering feels great, even when the alignment is off it doesn't like death wobble or anything, just feels twitchier than normal.