woodsRIDER92

Hey guys, I haven’t been here for ages but I came across some first hand information that I went through trying to better the steering linkage in these trucks. I’d like to pass on for the guys that have thought about tackling the 2010 steering upgrade on a 2nd Gen. Ps bear with me this will be a bit long.

This is on a 97, so from my understanding 94-99 have the same front axle and 00-02 have a newer axle which is a simpler swap from what I understand.

After only 80,000km on stock Moog replacement linkage and already becoming loose, I recalled seeing people talking about changing the steering linkage to the 2010 linkage and “only” needing to change the taper on the knuckles and pitman arm. Well there’s more to it, first off on retapering the knuckles and pitman arm(which they’re 2 different angles), I couldn’t find any concrete info on the Internet on which is the proper tapered reamer to get, to keep this part short I ended up finding a custom chassis builder that would ream them out but wouldn’t tell me the size of them. Maybe someone can chime in if they know for sure the size.

Next I got everything assembled after getting the knuckles and pitman arm reamed, to find out there’s not enough adjustment on the tie rod end to get the toe close to zero or a negative, just with a tape measure roughly measuring it I was 2 1/2 inches toed out, this is because which I am guessing, the 00-02 the knuckles are different on where the tie rods mount or something along those lines are wider. So that being said you can get the driver side tie rod shortened to fit, I got a machinist friend of mine to shorten it 1 3/4 inches, I probably could’ve been fine with 1 1/2 inches. So this first picture is of when I realized it’s not going to work as is. The adjustment is bottomed out even with this threads still showing, the red line is roughly 1 3/4”.

This second picture is with everything machined over, but the tail of it not cut down yet. There is also a slot in the tail of it that is used to make sure both tie rod ends are pointing in the same direction which again machined over 1 3/4”

Then with all this installed and I could get the tires to toe in, I sent it off to get properly aligned by a good shop, but they had to shorten the drag link tie rod that went into the pitman arm a 1/4” but he said he should’ve cut a bit more to allow for more adjustment.

Next the steering stabilizer shock doesnt mount in the same location as factory, it needs to mount below the trac bar mount on the axle. This part I still need to finish up and will post pictures of it completed.

So this swap is possible but it takes modifying, is it worth it, time will tell if it will last, the steering does feel better, even without the steering stabilizer shock installed.

I will check on here if anyone has questions about it and if anyone knows for sure which tapered reamers are needed please let us know it will save a bunch of guess work for the future guys that do this swap.

u2slow

Look into Luke's Links... they let you tighten up the joints as they wear. My buddy had good results with them on his '95, converted to HD steering (98?), and a free-spin kit (recycled Ford parts).

patdaly

Not to dissuade you, but some poor fool in the future is gonna play heck figuring out what you did, and potentially hurt himself.

Is there a reason you didn't just bolt on the 98/99 linkage and call it a day?