Hello, several years ago I upgraded to Longfield 30 spline axles and birfs on my ‘77 40. We ground out the ends of the axle housing as needed for clearance. A few years ago the DS birf started clicking when in full turn. I thought maybe it was just a product issue and replaced it. Recently, the same thing has happened. I don’t put many miles on this truck so now I’m trying to figure out what is causing this.
I have Saginaw PS with a 7” Pittman arm. On the trail I’ve always thought the turning radius was still less than ideal (compared to my 80 series). However, after reseaching some I’m now wondering if my steering travel (turning radius) is exceeding what the Longfields can handle. I dont like the thought of having even less turning radius on the trail but can’t keep replacing birfs.
I ran my steering from lock to lock as limited by the steering stops on the knuckles and it measured 50 degrees. The Longfield literature claims they have 40 degrees of turning travel. I just put my replacement Longfield back on the axle and moved it from one side to the other on the workbench. It measured 72 degrees of travel. I assume that although the birf can physically rotate that far it’s not designed to handle the load when extended that far, correct? My thought is that I need to adjust my steering stops until I only have 40 degrees of travel. Before I do this I wanted to see if anyone has some knowledge on this in case I’m missing something. Thanks for any help.
I have Saginaw PS with a 7” Pittman arm. On the trail I’ve always thought the turning radius was still less than ideal (compared to my 80 series). However, after reseaching some I’m now wondering if my steering travel (turning radius) is exceeding what the Longfields can handle. I dont like the thought of having even less turning radius on the trail but can’t keep replacing birfs.
I ran my steering from lock to lock as limited by the steering stops on the knuckles and it measured 50 degrees. The Longfield literature claims they have 40 degrees of turning travel. I just put my replacement Longfield back on the axle and moved it from one side to the other on the workbench. It measured 72 degrees of travel. I assume that although the birf can physically rotate that far it’s not designed to handle the load when extended that far, correct? My thought is that I need to adjust my steering stops until I only have 40 degrees of travel. Before I do this I wanted to see if anyone has some knowledge on this in case I’m missing something. Thanks for any help.