Torque rod help! Anyone!? (2 Viewers)

[Junetaco90]

Hello everyone I recently installed an old man emu Shocks and leaf springs front and back kit on my 1984 Toyota pick up I had to remove the torque rod to be able to drop the front axle enough to install the leaves now it’s really difficult to install the torque rod back I zip tied the torque rod as an example to show how little I’m off to where the bolt can’t slide in place. Any tips?? Should I buy a slightly skinnier bolt? Any suggestions will be much appreciative thank you

 

[gnob]

Throw it away. Seriously.

 

[Junetaco90]

Throw it away. Seriously.

really? I thought it made the truck swerve really bad while hitting the brakes on the freeway or on high speeds?

 

[gnob]

No one running a SAS runs one.
Seriously take it off, drive it, decide for yourself.
There used to be a riser bracket available for lift kits. Old skool.

 

[Junetaco90]

No one running a SAS runs one.
Seriously take it off, drive it, decide for yourself.
There used to be a riser bracket available for lift kits. Old skool.

cool I will thanks for the advice

 

[Toast]

If you still have push pull steering I’d leave it. I had the exact same issue when I went with OME stuff but still had my push pull steering. I left it off and didn’t like the way I braked. I put it back on and problem stopped. I used a skinnier grade 8 bolt. No issues. Since then I went RUF with crossover steering. Ditched it and the sway bar and brake fine. Just my 2 cents.

 

[gnob]

If you leave it, get a prybar and use the correct bolt.

 

[KLF]

I agree with @Toast, I had the same setup many years ago on my '84 when I was still running the awful stock push-pull steering. Without the torque rod the bump and brake steer was pretty scary. You had to be prepared for it every time you hit the brakes, and react accordingly or you were suddenly in the next lane.

I would either hook it back up, or make plans for hi-steer conversion. You might be able to get it closer with a ratchet strap and a lot of swear words.

 

[pappy]

Two ideas.

1- Put the axle back on jack stands and loosen the spring u-bolts. That might give you enough to twist the axle into place.

2- Looking at that I think if you support the frame on jackstands and lower the axle that hole might line up with the axle lower a bit.

 

[Zor]

What I’ve done to get lifted 80’s back together after doing caster correction...

If you have a spare bolt thats the correct size, turn a fairly steep, but rounded, taper onto it with a bench grinder. Using it as a draw pin, tap that bolt through the back side to get everything in place. Toss a ratchet strap around things to hold everything together. Then use the correct bolt to drive out the modified bolt/draw pin. If your taper is sharp enough, the correct bolt will be partially in place before things get a chance to come out of alignment.

 

[ntsqd]

Sounds like keeping the torque rod is going to happen. This is a good thing with push-pull steering & can only be discarded with a cross-over steering conversion.

Better is to buy either an alignment bar or one of these:
Amazon product ASIN B01HXM5XOU

 

[yotadude520]

Two ideas.

1- Put the axle back on jack stands and loosen the spring u-bolts. That might give you enough to twist the axle into place.

2- Looking at that I think if you support the frame on jackstands and lower the axle that hole might line up with the axle lower a bit.

This should allow you to get the bolt back in. I had this same issue after installing new leafs on my 85 pickup and couldn't get the track bar back into place. I jacked up the truck and put it on jackstands and messed with the axle height to get it lined up. Worked great.

Next time you do this I would make an effort to re grease the bushings as that would help some.

 

[masheen]

Sorry guys, but I gotta disagree with using a smaller bolt or forcing parts that are 1/4" off to line up. Under normal operation, the torque arm moves and the smaller bolt will begin to cause wear which leads to noise and failure of either the bolt or the steel bushing. Forcing things to line up will eventually lead to premature failure of the rubber in the torque arm bushings.

There's a steering arm mounted to the steering knuckle. One end of the drag link connects to it while the other end connects to the pitman arm on the steering gearbox which of course mounts to the frame. This means axle housing movement in the form of rotation under braking will have a direct effect on the pitman arm.

This rotation is prevented by the torque arm which connects the axle housing to the frame. Without it, the steering goes left when braking heavy; especially in an emergency situation where speed is a factor. Try going just 20 mph and slam on the brakes to experience this before it happens in an emergency.

The torque arm also prevents the leaf springs from wrapping into an S-shape under high torque situations. Spring wrap becomes more pronounced when lifting blocks are used between the spring and axle housing. Force times distance. That's where traction bars or ladder bars come into play as well.

After changing the caster angle via 3 degree wedges between the axle housing and leaf springs which gave a 3" lift, I had the issue with the torque arm being too short. My solution was to cut it in half and cut another 1" or so from the length of one. Its diameter is that of a 5/8-18 thread. I used left and right hand die nuts along with oil to thread the ends. I then bought a '85 Buick Regal tie rod adjusting sleeve from Autozone (part # ES2032S) to complete the assembly.

I hope you all find this useful!

 

[ntsqd]

Having tried messing about the the push-pull steering and the reaction rod, the much better solution is cross-over steering. Not high steer, just cross-over steering. Then you can remove the reaction rod entirely as it binds up the front suspension if the springs move much.

Some thought needs to go into the angle of the drag-link or bump-steer will appear as if by magic. If you have limited up travel then the high steer arms may work. When I first converted those weren't an option because no one made them. Their Ackerman is so poor that I never had any interest in trying them when they did become available.

 

[liveoak]

Having tried messing about the the push-pull steering and the reaction rod, the much better solution is cross-over steering. Not high steer, just cross-over steering. Then you can remove the reaction rod entirely as it binds up the front suspension if the springs move much.

Some thought needs to go into the angle of the drag-link or bump-steer will appear as if by magic. If you have limited up travel then the high steer arms may work. When I first converted those weren't an option because no one made them. Their Ackerman is so poor that I never had any interest in trying them when they did become available.

What crossover steering are you using? I agree that the highsteer offerings not only eliminate the factory Ackerman(n) angle but they also, unfortunately, eliminate the sway bar. The loss of the sway bar on the road makes a noticeable difference in handling. Is there some sort of crossover steering available today that keeps the ackerman angle and the sway bar? yes, I would disconnect the sway bar when off-road.

 

[liveoak]

I had a similar conversation in the past

solid-axle-truck-power-steering-79-85-whats-the-difference-between-a-4wd-ps-box-and-a-2wd-one

 

[LN106]

Having tried messing about the the push-pull steering and the reaction rod, the much better solution is cross-over steering. Not high steer, just cross-over steering. Then you can remove the reaction rod entirely as it binds up the front suspension if the springs move much.

Some thought needs to go into the angle of the drag-link or bump-steer will appear as if by magic. If you have limited up travel then the high steer arms may work. When I first converted those weren't an option because no one made them. Their Ackerman is so poor that I never had any interest in trying them when they did become available.

Wouldn't the crossover steering and pitman arm limit up travel when the wheel is turned more so than the high steer arms?

 

[ntsqd]

Somewhere around here I posted pics of the steering arm that I built, and then re-made along with the linkage that I used (all "Marlink" FJ80 stuff). Dates back to the days when the only cross-over option was to weld a second steering arm to the top of the RS steering arm. For the record just doing that results in the axle end of the drag-link being too high. I can post them again if there's enough interest, but if that post can be found I laid out a lot of why I did things the way that I did them.

It was a juggle to get full up travel with the drag-link running under the 22R oil pan. I define full up travel as metal to metal because I don't want a failed bump-stop to allow damage to anything else. In this case I had all of the up travel available in a stock leaf spring frame, which would be more than an IFS frame could clear. I ended up using a Sky Mfg flat pitman arm with my fabricated steering arm.

I believe that the reason that the tie-rod on FJ80's is behind the axle is to make it easier to get a decent Ackerman geometry. It is pretty hard to get it on a closed knuckle live axle with the tie-rod in front. Trying for it is why some wheels rub on the TRE (or in my case the TRE boots).

With the OME front springs I never missed the sway-bar. Given that I started out in cars carving corners I thought that I would, but I did not. Perhaps that is because I learned to drive in a SAAB 96, and in a hard corner those things heel over like a sailboat. Body sway has never bothered me all that much, although ill handling does. I was pretty sure that I would need to fabricate a sway-bar after I got the steering sorted out, but it never proved necessary.