Topic: My new not so “home brew” steering arms 56k WARNING

[4runner freak]

In 2005 I designed this set of steering arms to place the tie rod and drag link above the springs, and to also use the Ackermann angle in them, which worked with placing the tie rod behind the axle.
The arms are milled to a 1” thickness through out.
The TRE connection points are milled at 10 deg and a thickness of .75”.

 

 



 

 




Modeled on a partial front axle

[4runner freak [OP]]

I started to fab these arms in fall of ’05 when I took a Manufacturing process’ class. For the class we were allowed to bring in our own designs to the machine shop and set up the processes for manufacturing and then make them.
Well suffice it to say, each student only got 4 hours of machine shop time because of the size of the class. So I talked to the Prof and was allowed to be there for every student group, which gave me about 10 hours.
Of course I wasn’t able to finish them in that time frame so I asked the machine shop manager if I could come back over the brake and work on them then. He said that I would have to get approval from the Dean in order to use the machines outside of classes, so I did.
 

From the beginning.
I started with a 2”x3” block of steel and started machining using a bridgport mill.
 

 

 





 

 

 


So now all I have left to do is find someone that has the Toyota TRE taper mill and mill it for the TREs. Then press the cylinders into it.
Then comes the fun of converting my 4runner to crossover and praying that my geometry pays off.

[Prismo]

Very cool

[fullthrottle]

if you are yousing a CNC then you can bore a taper

[Gearhead Wiki]

Thats an awesome idea man.  I am trying to do the same thing but I think I might see a problem with those arms you made, the one looks kinda "S" shaped and I just know that the stock arms point towards the center of the axle and they are still quite close to the tire.  So I was thinking that moving the arm closer to the tire might rub. I could be wrong, just my  .

[4runner freak [OP]]

Very nice.  Give me a call, we've got the taper you need.

Brian from FROR was kind enough to lend me his mill.
So into the machine shop today and taper the tre holes.
Press the cylinder into the arms and Walla!!! They will be totally done.
I'll post some pics when they are together!
Thanks Brian

[4runner freak [OP]]

Thats an awesome idea man.  I am trying to do the same thing but I think I might see a problem with those arms you made, the one looks kinda "S" shaped and I just know that the stock arms point towards the center of the axle and they are still quite close to the tire.  So I was thinking that moving the arm closer to the tire might rub. I could be wrong, just my  .

These arms shouldn't be any closer to the tires then any other hysteer arm.
I compared the dimensions of my arms to a pair of Marlin arms and they were pretty close to the same distance to the tire.

[Gearhead Wiki]

I was just going to go ahead and build a set of my own but I think I will wait and see what happens with yours. It never made sense to me to keep the tie rod in front of the axle.  What TRE's are you using with those arms?

[4runner freak [OP]]

I've finished milling the TRE tapers and pressing the positioning cylinders in.
I'll post pics of the finished produst later.

I was just going to go ahead and build a set of my own but I think I will wait and see what happens with yours. It never made sense to me to keep the tie rod in front of the axle.  What TRE's are you using with those arms?

82yoda
I'm going to use the fj-80 TREs
Good luck on your arms.

[Loki]

i want some...those look good. would it use a regular tie rod and drag link from most hy-steer kits? that looks awesome for keeping the tie rod safe

[4runner freak [OP]]

Well, I finally got into the machine shop on thursday and milled the TRE taper and pressed the cylinders into the arms.
Now I need to lift my truck and get these things on.
When I get my lift done, I will get them positioned for clearence and post some pics.

i want some...those look good. would it use a regular tie rod and drag link from most hy-steer kits? that looks awesome for keeping the tie rod safe

I think these will be close to the same length tie rod/drag links. At least close enough that you could adjust them to work.
I still need to get those measured and built.

[yotadork83]

do you have a set of plans that you are willing to sell i want to do the same thing for my school.

[4runner freak [OP]]

do you have a set of plans that you are willing to sell i want to do the same thing for my school.

Do you have any AutoCAD experence?
You are going to need more then drawings, you'll need the models in order to CNC the profiles.
I don't know where all my drawings went, but I do have some of them still.
I can also send you the solid models if you're interested.

[Loki]

well...you should patent these and sell the patent to someone that has the time/money to mass produce them

[jimbo74]

well...you should patent these and sell the patent to someone that has the time/money to mass produce them

carefull who you email plans to, there people around that like to steal other peoples ideas, and take them to production before the originator can

[Hyena]

there might already be a patent for these since 4x4 Labs builds pretty much the same steering arms.  awesome work for doing them yourself though!

[Gearhead Wiki]

what did you mill those out of? just plain steel or something special?

[4runner freak [OP]]

what did you mill those out of? just plain steel or something special?

I just used 1020 carbon steel.

[yotadork83]

i could use any drawing that you can send my way. i am just going to do it on manual brigport.