If you are meaning a "block" that goes between the steering-arm and knuckle, those are a death-trap.

Use a raised steering-arm instead; much more expensive, but a whole lot safer.

I tried the block and soon found all but one of the bolts broken and the only one not broke was badly bent.

The block may be okay for a slowly driven off-road application, but it can get someone killed on the road.


That is just my experience with them.

 

Thanks so much for all your input. I havent had a chance to take a look at anything yet, working to many hours. I was gonna go with a cross-over setup anyway, a buddy of mine makes them... North West Fab Works, so hopefully he can cut me a deal. The kingpins are on the list since they are a bit worn, being the originals haha, although still well within spec. The steering gear is probably junk, i just resealed it a month ago and i go through about one re-man a year. All my other components are new and the frame, brackets, and mounts appear to still be solid, however a few nice beads and some gussets couldn't hurt. Also i dont think my drop bracket for my sway bar is long enough, ill try and level out the bar, and box in the bracket. Hopefully all this will work, but as other northern dtr members know, the roads here suck and those big tires are probably still gonna grab at the truck ruts and frost heaves. Its fine on smooth roads and at low speed so who ever was worried about me killing someone can breath easy, im a responsible driver

 

IdahoSurveyor thats a edit looking truck. With your steering stabilizers, why are they stacked? the kit i got instructed me to install them end to end?

Ill try and take a pic or two, although its getting dark... How do you post pics and stuff?

 

BK, why is this block a death trap? It's has the matching bolt patterns with grade 8 bolts.

Ace, Ford must disagree with you on the leaf spring cross brace. They run the brace parallel with the steering linkage to prevent bump steer.

 

Does that 2-leaf pack have shackles on both ends? If so, I can see why you would need it then. Kinda kludgy design, IMHO. But we are talking multi-leaf Dodge's here, so....

 

Ace, don't reckon I've ever seen a leaf springs with shackles on both ends.

The Ford has one set of shackles on the rear of the springs and the Power Wagon has them up front.

 

Trailers are set up that way all the time. 2 leafs is still going to be kinda flaky on a steering axle without it, soooooo.... The problem with the trackbar is the same thing seen with cheap traction bars - binding. The range of useable movement is going to be relatively limited. We have all sorts of related issues with the 2nd & 3rd Gen trackbars in coil suspensions. Not that they bind (normally), but get out of whack from poorly done lifts or normal wear and cause other problems like contributing to DW, abnormal tire wear, stress cracking frames and drop brackets, yada yada.

It is what it is. I still say there's no application for it in a leaf spring suspension - at least not one that I would build. JMHO.

 

Strive21, thank you for the compliment on the truck. As for the steering stablizers, they were installed by the previous owner in his attempt to remove the bump steering. I have seen them mounted both ways and prefer the looks of the inline method better than mine.
The way I post pics is to get a free account with photobucket.com and upload your pics from your computer to them. It will list several codes and file types below your uploaded photos to choose from. Then I copy and paste the 'IMG code' into the post I am writing on DTR and thats it.

 

A little 1st grade physics lesson about leverage is why.

Under all that strain, the bolts will stretch.

Once the bolts are stretched a hair, then the block will start to lean whichever way the steering is pushing/pulling it.

A little more stretch, a little more lean, then bolts start breaking.

I have had enough first hand education about those blocks that I will never put another on anything of mine.

Now, if the block were steel, and if there were some way to counter-bore the block down to about an inch from the bottom, thus eliminating the long bolts, and fasten the block firmly to the steering-knuckle, then mount the steering-arm onto studs made into the top of the block; then maybe, just maybe, it would hold without flexing.

I raised steering arm is the only way to fix it right.

 

Ace, I tend to dissagree on the block for the steering arm.. When done correctly it can be just as safe as the arm bolted to the knucke.. When running a decent size lift kit and a cross over set-up, a block with a raised arm is almost a neccesity to achieve a corect angle on the steering bar. although I am not a big fan of blocks on anything, there just isn't another way to do it sometimes. those little wedges tend not to come loose and therefore things stay pretty tight.. that is of course one uses grade 8 studs and the wedges..

 

Seems like I get disagreed with on things I don't even mention sometimes!

 

I wondered if you would catch that.

 

Well, that's what you get for being disagreeable.

 

Mine was exactly like that till I adjusted the steering box, now its like night and day

 

All I have to say is that that block is that it looks almost as safe as lift blocks on the front or stacked lift blocks. They are not even safe on a trail rig, to say nothing of being a royal pain fix when they break.