nate4567

I put a 6" lift on my truck along with a leveling kit because I didnt have the stock hardware that the leveling kit replaced so I just had to use the leveling kit. So I acually have a 7" lift. And when it was time to put the trac bar back on I had to turn the wheels all the way to the drivers side to get the holes lined up enough to get the bolt from the reloction bracket to the track bar back in. I am thinking the the bolt should go in with the tires relatively straight. Is this right? I noticed that my steering is jurky, is the because of the trac bar and would it help if I got a track bar that was adjustable and put it to the stock location?

thanks
nathan

Desert Dually

stand in front of your truck, facing it, take a look at the position of the tires in relation to the fenders. You will probably notice that the passenger side front wheel/tire is positioned further out of the fender than the driver side. This is because when you lift the truck, you in effect change the suspension geometry which shifts the axle further over to the passenger side. An adjustable or custom made trackbar will likely be necessary. It will make a noticeable difference in the way the truck drives, steers and handles.

nate4567

I have other lifted trucks but this seems to be jurky on turns. I just am not sure if a longer trac bar will help. It cant hurt, but can I make it back the way it should be with a longer - adjustable trac bar. Should the trac bar hole line up with the bracket hole with the wheels straight? I say yes. because I had to turn mine along way to get that bolt put in the hole. I think I am sitting down on the ground with a lot of preload. Does that make since??

thanks
nathan

OOPS

On linked suspension you either have to drop the frame mount, or raise the axle mount, ot make a panhard bar with the same amount of drop as the lift or you will get "Bump Steer". The panhard bar needs to be on the same angle as it was when it was sitting stock. The more you lift it the more angle it puts on the stock panhard bar and the more bump steer you will get. In effect it makes the stock bar shorter because of the angle it is sitting at and in order to hook it up you move the frontend over to get it hooked up. It also puts more of a strain on the front d-shaft because it is at more of a side angle and the drop angle.

yelloz28

Actually bump steer is caused by a difference in angles between the track bar and the drag link. This is why when you do a track bar drop, you need to get a pitman arm with a similar drop in it.

Obviously the closer to horizontal the track bar is the more effective it is going to be at controlling lateral movement, but just getting a trackbar drop and expecting your bump steer to go away like the previous poster said isn't going to work.


I'm assuming your lift kit came with a track bar drop bracket and a drop pitman arm. I would just get some new hardware and ditch the leveling kit. Or get an adjustable track bar.

The previous poster is correct in saying that as you lift your truck you essentially shorten the track bar which offsets your axle to the drivers side on our trucks. go out and measure from the frame to the same point on the tires on each side and you will be able to tell how far off your axle is

nate4567

the kit did come with a new pitman arm. You hook the drag link to the bottom of the arm instead of the top like stock, and then you have a bracket that moves the the mounting hold over about 4". I know this is a dumb question. But what is the trac bars main job. As far as I can tell it is there to make sure the the axle will trac up and down straight whether or not your axle is fully extended all the way to fully compressed. Is that right or does it have some other feature that it controls.

thanks for the help
nathan

yelloz28

It locates the axle laterally on the truck

ptgarcia

Check and make sure the track bar is parallel with steering link. If they're not, make them so.

nate4567

that is exacly the answer I was looking for ptgarcia. Thanks again

nathan

OOPS

That is exactly what I wrote.

Also I forgot to say the Draglink need to be dropped also.

You want all of the steering componets, trac bar (panhard bar), tie-rod, drag-link, and swaybar if you still have it on to be exactly as it was with stock suspension before the lift.

nate4567

Ok so how do i get the drag link down more. I have the lower pitman arm and the drag link to the bottom of the pitman arm. But i think it is still taller then it is factory

thanks
nathan

yelloz28

You don't have to get it as low as factory. Are your draglink and trackbar parallel?

nate4567

no, i looked at it at lunch and i need to lower the bar about 2-3 inches. However I dont under stand how to do that with a straight bar. The relocation brack moved the hole toward the passenger side not down to keep them paralel. So do I need to make the bracket lower the arm instead of move it over to the side?? Or is there trac bars that sweep up a little. I cant really explain it. Sorry

thanks
nathan

yelloz28

Your kit should have came with a bracket that does both:

Lower it & Move it closer to the passenger side

That is for sure why you are getting the bump steer

You could buy an aftermarket track bar, but I'm not sure that is gonna fix this. You could buy a different drop bracket, just about every lift company has a different variation.

What kind of lift is yours?

nate4567

yea like i said it lowered it an inch but moved it to the passenger like like 5. But moving it over to the passenger side deffinetly took away from the parrell of it