[jonnybronco]

I just ordered my 6" superflex springs formy dana 60 conversion and I am still trying to figure out how I am going to do my steering. I have the original tie rod from the dana 44 with the drag link hole in it and I also have the original tie rod for the dana 60. I was thinking of using the dana 60 draglink and getting a high steer arm from Sky or ORD. It seems like the 6 inch lift with high steer would keep pretty close to stock drag link agle without a drop pitman arm. I have been reading a lot of posts and have heard of clearance issues with this setup but have not been able to figure out where the issues arise. Has anyone done high steer with coil springs succesfully? If not is the dana 44 tie rod stong enough to handle 38 inch tires and severe off roading?

 

[wetnsloppy4x]

First off, the D44 tie rods have the wrong stud size for the D60. It will also be a couple inches too short.

I don't see how you could make a stock D60 drag link work for crossover steering. All D60 drag links I've seen are the push-pull type that attach to the driver side knuckle.

The cheapest and easiest way to get your steering together is to use Chevy 1-ton TREs. They make a pass. side TRE that has a hole for the drag link, very similar to the stock 78'-79' Bronco setup. There's a couple of issues to deal with though. First, the Chevy TRE's use a slightly different taper on the studs. You have to ream the stud holes in the steering arms to get the to properly seat. The other issue is that Chevy mounted the tie rod on top of the steering arms. Unless you do a tie rod flip, the taper in the pass. side TRE for the drag link will be tapered in the wrong direction. No biggie, since it can be re-tapered from the other direction.

The tie rod flip is pretty simple. You can either drill out your steering arms and weld in inserts to reverse the taper, or you can ream the steering arms from the top to get your TR on top. The reaming method leaves a little bit less contact area for the stud, but not too much less. It's like 1/8" if memory serves.

I'm using Chevy TREs on my D60 and my TR is flipped. My tie rod and drag link are 1.5" DOM and I have no issues. It's not true high steer but flipping the TR raises it up about 3" over stock.

 

[jonnybronco]

What Chevy application uses that type of TRE? I am still wondering about the high steer problems. Anybody done it, or tried it and failed?