Topic: high steer steering shaft question

[drayday55]

OK I'm doing my highsteer with rears up front with 4 inch rancho pack mixed in, looks good and is perfect for 33 inch tires.
I have marlins steering box mount, sky's flat pitman arm, and a used t.g. highsteer kit.
so far i am mocking everything up and tried both the t.g pitman and the sky's flat arm.
i am most likely going to be running the flat arm because it has the most clearance for the amount of lift i have, but i have a weird thing going on.
the way i have the box mounted temporarily is i used  1 factory 1985 push pull box bolt hole at the back lower ifs box mount.  i used a c-clamp to hold the front up,
the ifs box is not touching the core support and it is near flat with no tilt.  the drag link and tie rod are both parallel to each other, the sky's arm clears the frame
by 1/2 inch and it cycles through the range of motion perfectly.  Almost to good to be true that is why i am double checking "why do i need to shorten the steering shaft instead of lengthening it like everyone else?"
the axle did end up moving forward about 1 .5 to 1.75 inches


on a side note, i got the u-bolt flip kit  and the passenger inner ubolt closest to the 3rd does not seat all the way against the bottom of the axle there is a 1/4 inch gap between the bottom of the axle and the u-bolt. seems as the u-bolt is narrow. this is not common is it? does not seem safe to me. it is torqued down to 90 ft lbs though
And,  why is it that marlins ifs box mount kit bolts are a larger diameter then the ifs box holes?  i think i have a 92 v6 4runner ifs box if that matters.

thanks for the help

[drayday55 [OP]]

o.k...........

[pumkin toy]

Sounds like you have the steering setup nicely.  Using the flat pitman arm is the best option for the most leaf spring clearance.  As for the steering shaft situation, I'm not sure why you have to shorten it, you didnt give a whole lot of information like the year of your truck and such.  maybe certain years of trucks had a longer shaft , I'm not sure.   just double check that all the splines are into the connections all the way. If they are, and its still too long, then go ahead and shorten it!  I would assume that the holes in the IFS box mount kit are larger so that the frame sleeves fit through the frame plate to allow you to weld the sleeves to the plate.  I have never installed one of their kits (I always make my own) but i would imagine thats why the holes are so big.  I have also had similar problems with that particular u-bolt. I always just tighten them to spec and leave it.  I have never had a problem with it. Just make sure you check the u-bolts after about 500 miles and re-torque them.

[drayday55 [OP]]

thank you!   i just finished welding in my ifs box mount,  im a crappy welder, but it looks like i had good penetration on most of the welds.
a couple angles were a bee-otch to do so they came out crappy.

the truck is a 85 x cab by the way. sorry

[Mavericks]

Tighten your u-bolts good, I have heard of a few guys who have broken leaf spring pins because the axle starts moving too much? They guy I talked to was convinced it was the u-bolt gap issue? I'm not sure, I have an 85 and have never had any problems with my u bolt flip.

[drayday55 [OP]]

Did your u bolt seat flush to the housing and what brand did you use

[Mavericks]

Mine are Marlin's, Mine have contact with the housing on the bottom but since they are square there is a small gap on the sides on the bottom. You shouldn't have a gap on the bottom?

[drayday55 [OP]]

so my u-bolt kit came with 2 square for the driver side and 2 round for the passenger right?

i took one of the square u-bolts and put it on the inner passenger closest to the 3rd and it fit way better.

i need to call sky's and ask them if they can send me one square u-bolt and ill be fine.

[Mavericks]

yea that should work!