Paging Ryan
 

Hey Ryan, I am working on the steering on my crew cab cummins swap and I came across a pic of what looks like a chevy steering box connected to a dodge dana 60 steering arm and as I remember, you were in the conversation of the thread. I have the same setup and am ready to taper ream the steering arm and am curious what drag link that is in the pic.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

That drag link is 2" Dom if I remember correctly with weldments welded on to accept D60 tie rod ends. Let me find the page in the build thread.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Here on page 5 about half way down shows the drag link. On page 4 there are some links for parts and ideas.

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...=527100&page=5

Re: Paging Ryan
 

If your using a Chevy steering box you will want to use the stock GM draglink, I think the only reason Ryan made the custom link is because he used the Dodge steering box.
I've used the Dodge arm on several Chevy Dana 60s and it works great with the stock draglink on a 4" lift...with a 6" lift you may want to use a block under the arm.

Ryan, somehow I missed this build all together till I clicked your link to it. I love seeing your work on these conversions!!

Re: Paging Ryan
 

if you need the lift of the dodge arm, i would just re-ream it for a top mount, or buy one of the little drop in inserts that lets you strait drill a 7/8 hole. then you can use a GM pitman, or a drop pitman for a GM 4x4 if you need that as well. then you can avoid having to have that awkward bend in the steering linkage. Ryan did his that way due to the customer wishing to use a part that may have been better off elsewhere(dodge steering box). Using the Gm box and adjusting the taper in the dodge arm will give you a less funky set up that leaves the TRE's at a better operating angle.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Rob's right, it was a Dodge steering box. Ryan's correct too. For what it's worth, the tie rods and drag link are still going strong.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I have a chevy steering box and if I top mount the tie rod end on the dodge steering arm, my angle should be pretty good. I am thinking I will end up with a 3 inch or so lift. If I use a chevy drag link setup it will be too long for the location of the dodge steering arm. I see several chevy steering arms for sale on ebay. If I use a chevy arm I would assume that a stock chevy drag link would work then? But will the angle be bad with the 3 inches of lift?

Re: Paging Ryan
 

With a 3" lift I'm pretty sure you'll need at least a drop pitman arm.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

i have a 2.5 on my yellow 72 and it does fine with no correction and a stock d60 steering arm. i have the correction for it, but it handles fine, or as good as i would expect without. but i agree with ryan. at three i would be considering a correction of some sort. i plan on installing mine, when i have the front end apart, just so i know its as close to stock geometry as it can be.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I read someplace that to minimize bump steer, your drag link needs to be in the same plane as the leaf spring. The guy I bought the axles from says that by using the dodge steering arm and redoing the taper from the top, the angle will pretty close with a 3 to 4 inch lift. The chevy arm curves back whereas the dodge arm comes straight out, what effect does that have on things? Whats the reasoning for that, doesnt the chevy and dodge steering box sit in about the same spot on the frame? Trying to get my head around why...

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Ryan's right. Dodge steering box. The chevy box that was originally on the v-rig was a re-manned gm box and it really sucked. When driving the donor truck to Ryan's the Dodge steering was like butter and that's why I wanted to use it. Looking at them side buy side they are identical with the exception of the output shafts on the box's (one was threaded and one was not) which meant I couldn't use the skyjacker 6 inch drop pittman arm. The rag joint set up was different to. Thanks to Ryan with a lot of trial and error My steering is awesome. If I had the resources and the skill I would do crossover steering. Like Ryan told me this is definitely a area you don't want to skimp on.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

After driving Tony 's suburban, I don't know if I'd bother switching it over to crossover steering. It drives so nice,you wouldn't believe it had a 6" lift with 35s and a 1200lb engine. Even the power steering works so smooth at a dead stop at idle. It really worked out well.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Went out and snapped a few pics of the first truck I used the Dodge arm on back in 2000, drove it 7 years with no problems. It has a 4" lift and the only steering correction is the reverse tapered Dodge arm. If I did another like this I would use the bung like Ryan used...when you ream the arm from the opposite side you run out of meat about halfway thru the thickness of the end, it's plenty enough to hold the tie rid end but having a full taper would be better.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Another

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Sorry I can only post one pic at a time on this ipad. Last one

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I've personally had the opposite experience. I had the original D-44HD up front with a 350, and with the Cummins Swap moved to the D60 with cross-over. The wheel/tire combo was the same in both with 315/75R16's, and both with a 6" lift. It's night and day for me. The old setup had a lot of "float" in the front end and (even with a new steering box) about a half inch of slop in the steering wheel. Going to the cross-over was a huge difference, the truck tracks great, no bounce-steer issues, and response is quick.

While I know some may say that it was the steering box, I can't agree with that completely... it remained the same through two different boxes, and all of the tie-rod ends were replaced in the old D44...

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I've had a lot of so called reman boxes lately that have more play in them than wore out ones. I haven't been really impressed with parts store boxes lately. Like I said, I couldn't believe how nice Tonys truck drove. Maybe the sway bar is helping too, but it drove sweet even with funny worn tires.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I've always been told you want the drag link in a push pull system to be nearly flat as possible to eliminate bump steer and to allow full side to side travel of the steering box. I'm guessing the reasoning for the steering arm differences are due to the placement of the steering boxes from the chevy to dodge frames. The dodge box is farther forward and attaches to a steel bracket, then to the frame. The dode drag link is longer than a chevy as well. Plus the dodge spring perches are taller so they probably needed to correct the drag link geometry and that's why they use a different arm design. Imo :lol:

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Hey Ryan, it was nice chatting with you last night. Cant wait to see your latest project. I bought a drag link assembly for my other chevy 3/4 ton pickup and I stuck it in place on the crew cab and it looks to be too long to use with the dodge arm. In Blazerman's pics it looks like he used the stock chevy drag link with his, now I'm confused, got to take a closer look at mine again. So my two choices are to drill the dodge arm out to 7/8" and use that insert or taper ream the dodge arm and drop the tie rod in from the top. If I go the reamer route, do I need to disassemble the arm and put in in a mill to ream it or can I do it on the vehicle?

Mike

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I took the arm off when I did it just because I knew I had to weld the adapter in. You can probably use a reamer and do it on the truck.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Here are some pics of my drag link. Its screwed inabout as far as it will go and its about 3/4" too long. I can cut the ends off and shorten it maybe an inch which should make it short enough. I wonder if the drag link from a 1 ton that has a factory dana 60 is a bit shorter, need to check into that.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

The length on those is another reason i used tie rod ends.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Just cut a little off the tie of ends, the drag link for a 1 ton will be the same part numbers as for the Dana 44. If you look at the chevy arm you will see it bends down and sweeps back a ways where as the Dodge arm is pretty much in line with the king pin making the GM draglink a little longer.

Re: Paging Ryan
 

Ok so you used tie rod ends instead of the drag link ends?

Re: Paging Ryan
 

I'm with Gerfunken. Ryan is right my steering is really sweet, but I also have bounce steering issues and some play in the steering. Just from reading other 4x4 forums it sounds like crossover is a definite upgrade.