-Someone on another board keeps bringing up a trac bar issue & it didnt dawn on me until this theory entered my head,,, I understand the trac needs to be parallel with the drag, so is the rolling/movement of the knuckles with the now OTK setup, the fault of the trac still bein in its stock mounting spot????? Basically if the trac bar is moved above the axle & parallel with the drag, would that fix the whole issue?????

 

Before we to far in too what needs to be done, can you post a picture of the current setup?

 

Took a few pics earlier but need to take some better, more detailed pics & it rained today so hopefully tomorrow. If i can find someone to help, ill take a short vid clip which will show exactly whats goin on!!

 

-I now realise that the OTK steering job shoulda included moving the trac bar up & parallel to the drag link. The BIG question is, since i did NOT know this, shouldnt the shop, (a 4x4 specialist), have known this & told me so before doing the job???? 2nd, i now have to buy a custom trac bar & bracket & have it mounted, welded, & set up, so whos pocket does this come out of???? 3rd, theres dammage to the sways, possibly the lower ball joints, & the tie rod itself when they took the factory bend out of it, plus they owe me a truss since its on the bill but not on the axle!!! (Dumbasses)!! I can see havin to pay for the custom trac & bracket since i woulda occurred those charges anyways, but now theres a mess to clean up & it comes with a big headache.

 

Well, I have to tell you this, but I have a feeling that most of it will becoming out of your pocket. I could see you having the shop that billed you for the truss.......actually putting the truss on. They should have contacted you before they went ahead and bent the TRE to fit. The Sway-bar mounts........the shop should fix them becuase of the wrongly installed steering. But to be honest.......most shops just put on what the buyer wants and doesn't question it. Granted they should have called and asked before they went ahead and bent your TRE. At least have you come in and have them explain exactly what needs to be done. At least thats what my experiance with "better" shops and fabricators.

On the steering, what "kit" did you have them install? Was it a T-style chevy one-ton set-up or????? If its what I am thinking and a t-style with the passenger side tie-rod TRE having a hole to mount the passenger side drag-link TRE.....when you flip it, it puts the Drag link tre on the inside of the tie-drag.......and will pretty much hit everything.

As far as the trac-bar........to be honest unless you are going really fast or your angles are really that off...you will not notice any really bad bump steer. For example, I am running a WJ conversion, stock locations for the drag link and tie-rod, RE HD trac-bar and bracket (stock location on the axle) with a stock YJ pitman arm and have no noticeable bump steer. I wouldn't worry about the trac-bar unless it really is in the way.

 

-Yes a better shop shoulda knew these things & also shoulda contacted me before makin any hasty decisions.

-My steering is a 1-ton setup of which ive had since 2008. I dont know the brand but i expect it to be JCRs older design. The way u flip an UTK to an OTK is with tapered inserts. U drill out the knuckle 1", weld in insert, turn the TREs facing down not twisting the tie rod at all to keep the factory bend where it needs to be, then drill out the pass TRE & weld another insert in for the drag link connection, adjust & done!

-I had no bump steer on the drive home at all. In a straight line all is good up until u turn. I believe the trac bar theory is that the OTK steering is now above the trac bar mounting location on the axle & needs to be above it to keep it from moving.

Pic of it turned pass. Note the distance from the trac bar bolt to the tie rod:


Pic of it now turned driver & note the distance difference:


Sway bar sheered off:

 

-Ya know the BIGGEST question here is that when doin a steering upgrade like this, you need to check for clearance from lock to lock & what baffles me here is how in the HELL did they not notice the extremely crooked steering issue in the first place ??????????????????

 

Well it looks like you need higher sway bar mounts on your axle, JKS has some nice one. I put a set on my XJ a while back and never actually used them. Haven't had a sway bar in......well.........5 years.

And how did you shear off the driver's side upper sway-bar? I thought all the contact was coming from the passenger side?

Can you take a pic straight on of the whole front set-up and then looking down at teh passenger side to show the interferance?

 

what is your castor set at?

if its set too far off it could be affecting the knuckles like you're describing


also, your track bar mount on the axle needs to be raised to match the drag link when doing an OTK conversion

 

-No thats not the case. Those are JKS disco's & ive had em for years & this is the direct fault of whatever is now wrong with the front end.

-To everyone,, i know this is hard to picture without seeing whats goin on for urselves, but im startin to repeat myself over & over here. There was NO problems with the steering before hand except for an alignment needed & thats it. I decided to do the UTK to OTK flip while its there & now its as worse as any steering problem ive ever had.

-Just picture this, staring at it straight all looks well, turn it pass side & that side of the jeep picks up & the steering is now slanted upwards, (crooked), & has picked up the knuckle AT THE TRE about 2 inches essentially twisting the knuckles!! This problem is DIRECT FAULT of the work done, PERIOD!! It is NOT a caster, camber issue, no parts are bad or at fault, & the only fix that seems liable is gettin a custom trac bar, mount it above the axle & parallel with the drag, or atleast i think it is...

Its gettin towed back there tom mornin.

 

Dude, now that I've taken a cooler look. The reason it looks like your TREs mounts on your knuckles are twisting up when turning is your caster angle. It has nothing to do with the steering linkages. Now that you have the TRE's on top of the knuckles the contact your swaybar link mounts. When your TREs were on the bottom they still twisted up and back, but you had the clearance.

Cut off the swaybar mounts and get some taller ones from JKS and weld them up. I promise you moving you axle side trac-bar mount above the axle line will do nothing for your swaybar mount / tierod interference.

 

They did move up the drivers side mount but not the pass side, then they just adjusted the links to be even. From what i see, its a close call with clearance on the pass side & both sides shoulda been moved up equaly.

 

exactly. like i said.... caster is really the only thing that will cause the knuckles to behave like that.

that track bar thing is just ANOTHER issue that needs to be addressed.

to be honest im kind of surprised you dont have any bump steer

 

My caster was out some as it was in need of an alignment at worst before this job & was supposed to be corrected. So since id say, yes the caster is still bad, whats the fix??????

 

sounds like you had the work done at kryptonite

there is a good shop in pearl river...j&j performance...good group of guys plus they wheel jeeps one of them has a massive cherokee
or go to total in mahwah nj, a little pricey but chris knows his stuff