Ahh! SOA= Major Steering Delema! Help!

I have a 1963 CJ5 that I did a spring over axle lift to. Everything went well except I have no way of dropping the steering down. The steering is different than that of the later years (1970's...ect) and I don't have a pitman arm. Meaning that I can not buy a dropped pitman arm, and can not find any way of fixing it.

I have thought and thought, and from what I can tell the only way to fix it is to put new steering in it. Has anyone had this problem and know of a way to fix it!?

Thanks very much for any input.

P.S. I can post pictures of the steering if you are lost.

 

x2

 

Yeah I did SOA because it was a cheap way for me to get it off the ground. Its not really my primary jeep I use offroading, therefore didnt want to dump a lot of money into it.

But yeah, I had a friend that told me that also. I might end of doing it, but I didnt know if there was any other mod/way around it anyone knew of. I dont know as if it would be a reall fast/easy conversion

 

Biggest mis-conception in the off-road world of backyard mechanics. Properly done a SOA will cost 3 to 4 times what a set of lift springs will cost. There is no way to do one correctly (read: safely) with the stock Ross steering.

 

haha..... well spring perches cost me about $35 for all four. That is all I used. You are probably right; I didnt do it correctly. But considering the jeep sits at my camp except for the 30 mile a year I drive it to fishing spots and on logging roads (no it is not registered, stickered, or insured), I figured it would work just fine.
My real jeep is a 1974, and thats what I use for real off roading and driving.

So thats why I did SOA... lol

 

Ya, but can you steer it?

 

AHHHHHHH :smash:

hahahahahahahahahahahaha R) ..................... Noooooo not right now. But I will be able to. Ill do something. So just because you have to change steering around you wouldn't lift your jeep? I don't think you understand.... No matter what type of lift I do here, I am still going to have this same problem. Don't 'you' need a drop pitman arm no matter what type of lift you do?

 

I think the answer to your question is yes--but a dropped bell crank/Ross box setup can be highly detrimental to your health. The bell crank bracket can (and does) break off there in stock form, without a bunch more leverage applied to it. I think the cheapest route for you would be a manual saginaw box which I do believe you can now get a dropped pitman arm for.

I'm with most of the others. Do not care for SOA, at least in Jeeps.

 

At my house the Ross box steering is going on a sloppy, tippy go-cart to help teach my daughter how to drive things that are not so precise as a new car.
My DJ5a came with manual saginaw box and a straight pitman arm.
I got what amounts to a drop arm off a mid 80's GM Intermediate with power steering that has the smaller splined hole. Took it to a machine shop to ream the TRE taper from metric to standard. Works great and factory strength to boot.

 

There is a possibility. You could do a single tie rod conversion and flip them to the top. The drag link will be one of your short tie rods and you'll have to source the single tie wheel to wheel. You can use the cross steer TRE you have or get one from Speedway thats tapered both ways to attach the drag link to http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Cross-Steering-Tie-Rod-End,1540.html. To do the flip I suggest getting a couple of inserts from http://goferitoffroad.com/products.htm

This should get the steering up high enough you won't need a drop.

 

Yeah I see what you are saying. you do have a point there. It just sucks cause it seem that everything will need to be changed, including the hole where the steering wheel goes through the firewall. mehh

Thanks for some positive-ness! I mightt be able to do that! So basically, what you are saying is to leave everything the way it is, except change the tie rods to the modern type... correct?

 

Yep.

 

For what you use the Jeep for, that could be a good solution. I hope you don't think I was hammering on you. It's just that I have a special place in my heart for steering and brakes.

 

Yeah I could try that!

Yeah man no problem. I completely understand what you were saying, and if it was my jeep that I hammer on all the time and really use, then I would do something different. But the jeep is really just my grandfathers thats been sitting in the field rotting for the however long and I wanted to get it off the ground. I got a whole list of things to do to my other 74 and my wallet isnt thick enough to do both jeeps up very well. Thats all. But I completely understand what you are saying.

 

I'm afraid you will have interference problems with a tie rod flip with SOA.


The tie rod will end up were the leaf spring is.

You may need to make one of these bent tie rods, While certainly not desirable i dont think you have any other options. I would not run this on the street, but off-road only it may be ok.

 

If you really want to keep the ross system with the SPO, I think you may want to look into building a high steer arm for the passengers side.

Do a single side to side tierod, and then build a high steer arm like they do for the Dana 60/44 to help flatten out the draglink from the bellcrank to the pass side tire. You still have all the slop in the belcrank and ross box, but the geometry would be a lot better, ignoring the short length due to the belcrank location.

I found a picture of a very simple one I did years ago, far from pretty, but it got the job done. I was steering with a manual saginaw box, through a draglink that hooked up to a "high steer arm" on a Dana 25 with a spool, 5.38 gears, disk brakes and 35/15.50/15 Swamper TSLs. This was a pretty simple arm made from 1" bar, all I really did was stack it on top of the kingpin cap on the knuckle and installed longer grade 8 bolts. Amazingly in two years I never had to tighten them. Though as you can see the draglink did contact the frame just a little when really flexed out.

With a little time and a buddy at a machine shop, I don't think it would be too bad to have a new arm made that integrated the kingpin cap. Or even maybe just ensure the arm/top of kingpin are good and flat and put some high strength studs instead of bolts.

This all went away when I did a Waggy 44 with a ford radius arm suspension a couple years later.




Just an option I han't seen mentioned yet.

 

Doing an SOA can be inexpensive; or at least putting the axles underneath is. However, it's the other related items that cause issues / monetary expenses. To be blunt, your best bet is to swap to a D30 disc braked axle, then swap D44 outers to it and get yourself some hi-steer arms. Anything else basically jerry-rigged.

Fillping to TRE to the top of the kncukles will cause interference as was noted above, and then picutred.

Sure a bent drag link "can" work, but bent steering linkage is really never a good idea, IMHO.

Other items to address is axle / spring wrap, which can be addressed with a third link on the axle. Mounting the correct length shocks, and getting proper extended length flexible brake lines.

Your gonna be pretty tall on such a shot wheel based CJ. I would look at making / adapting a an anti sway bar for the front axle for on road time if this will see street time. And quick disconnects for off road.

 

Loving some of the ideas here! Seeing advanteges and diadvanteges in some that for sure but I can definitly see ways of doing it.

And for those of you wondering, the jeep wont be seeing road time at all, except crossing them. lol. The only roads it will see are dirt logging roads. If it was going to be seeing roads, I would have done a real lift and probably tried to rig up some type of power steering.