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Is a pitman arm needed in my situation? (pics inside)

4K views 37 replies 14 participants last post by  rdunagan 
#1 ·
ok im still getting some bump steer after i have replaced upper and lower ball joints, added a dual steering stab, and i have a track bar bracket. this is driving me nuts! it didnt do this stock and i put this on and its killin me. its a 4" rough contry lift. idk what else to do. i dont want to spend 500 on a pmf track bar or drag link. should i try changing my ball joint on the pitman arm or on the tie rod or do i just need a pitman arm? here are some pics to show how it is now
 

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#3 ·
the bolt is as tight as me and a friend could get it and then we tack welded the nut so it wouldnt move. i had the death wobble because of that bolt so i made dang sure it was as tight as we both could get it. the drag link will swival but idk if thats normal or not
 
#5 ·
thats the last thing i want to resort to. i would like to keep all the factory stuff on there if i can. i didnt think a 4" lift would cause this much problems. i just dont know where else to look
 
#36 ·
I have this same Lift on my 06. A 4.5 rough counrty with dual steering dampners.

I installed the lift,pretty straight foward.Had the truck aligned to the spec sheet they sent with the lift.The bump steer is unbeleaveable, its all over the road.checked and double checked everything,cant find anything wrong.
Life lesson...instead of buying nice i'll be buying twice
 
#7 ·
well a buddy of mine basically did it for me while i cleaned his turbo. we traded off work. (i got the good end of the deal :) ) he said he left it the same but i have no idea where its at. should i have my truck aligned? i was going to wait till i got new tires but does that matter?
 
#8 ·
Check the bushing in your trac bar, mine was shot, and caused horrible bump steer, and death wobble at certain speeds if I hit a bump.

Get under the truck with a buddy inside, have him turn the wheel back and forth, while you look for any slop or play in any of the steering components, and the track bar. That was the only way we were able to narrow down the bushing on mine, The whole track bar would move about 1/2 inch when the steering wheel was turned back and forth.
 
#9 ·
i will def check that in the morning! i dont have a death wobble after i did the ball joints everything tightened up quite a bit but its still there. i have a buddy rollin on 46's and his doesnt even move at all! atleast its not bump steer it moves a tad because the stock pump is strained on the size of the tires. anyways ill check that! is the drag link suppose to twist a bit? i can take my hands and twist it back and forth. i dont have the stock dampener on because of the dual steering stab. btw
 
#11 ·
If you installed the lift and didnt have everything realigned then I would think you should start there. Have the alignment done and see what happens.
 
#33 ·
If you installed the lift and didnt have everything realigned then I would think you should start there. Have the alignment done and see what happens.
This is where my money is on this one. It needs aligned. When you lifted it, you took out castor. These radius arm trucks like to be in the +4-6* range.

However I would find it odd that you're getting bumpsteer from a possible alignment issue.

If you drop the track bar aren't you supposed to drop the pitman arm to keep them parallel. If you had an adjustable track bar you could get away with the stock pitman arm and stock track bar bracket. Least that is how I understand things to work.
Correct. Trac bar and drag link need to be as parralell as possible.


Sorry fellows. I'll have to disagree. I've installed more then 20 lifts. I've never installed a drop pitman arm on anything under a 4.5" lift and never had a bump steer or any issue for that matter.
I tend to agree with this. In the OP pics, the trac bar and drag link are pretty close to being in the same plane, as far as I can tell. At any rate, they are close enough not to cause a bunch of bumpsteer. They look about the same as my truck which drives great.

We need to set the record straight about the adjustable trac bars. The ONLY thing an adjustable bar is needed for is to get the axle recentered under the truck. Simply having an adjustable bar is not going to cure bump steer issues.

One thing I haven't seen brought up yet is the steering box. Is it lashed correctly? When you lifted it you may have just uncovered a problem that was already there but wasn't apparent untill larger tires came into the picture.
 
#12 ·
ok i will have that done here shortly. and we checked the wheel bearings when we had them off for the ball joints and everything looked ok
 
#13 ·
It is a good idea to have an alignement done whenever you change anything that could affect the way things line up on a suspension system. Aside from the steering issue, hows the ride?
 
#14 ·
the ride actually isnt as rough as i thought it would be. if i could get the steering figured out i think it will actually ride better than stock! lift was easy to install btw.

On the turning side to side. i had a buddy turn the wheel side to side. at the track bar bracket you could see it twist a tad but not much. also it would move maybe a few millimeters but thats it nothing big. is this where my problem or atleast some more of it might lie?
 
#15 ·
I don't think I have ever seen a 4" lift without a drop pitman arm. I know my RCD kit had one. If you drop the track bar aren't you supposed to drop the pitman arm to keep them parallel. If you had an adjustable track bar you could get away with the stock pitman arm and stock track bar bracket. Least that is how I understand things to work.

Here is how mine is, for a 4" RCD lift



You could go under the truck and with a pry bar start prying at all the ball joints and links just to see if there is some play at any of them.
 
#16 ·
Not all lifts are the same (no duh right??). I know of a kit that doesnt offer either dropped pitman arm or a trackbar drop bracket but they do include a new adjustable track bar and that lift is a pure performance 4.5in lift. I would agree though that the steering link and track bar need to be parallel.
 
#22 ·
Yup I think icon is the same way. They offer an adjustable track bar on the 4.5" kit instead of dropping the drag link and the track bar.


and jdc i was lookin at yours and your track bar and drag link are way lower than mine also. idk if thats from the bracket or not
Yea its from the bracket and pitman arm. Th drag link and track bar dropped almost as far as the axle to retain the factory geometry.
 
#17 ·
do mine look parallel or do i need to take another picture? they looked pretty good to me. i just feel that if i get a drop pitman arm that the drag link will sit to low
 
#18 ·
and jdc i was lookin at yours and your track bar and drag link are way lower than mine also. idk if thats from the bracket or not
 
#19 ·
See how many turns to right and to the left you have, they should be even. Most lifts Ive installed needs a drop pitman arm. I put a 4'" on mine without one and the steering wheel was off and so were the number of turns of the gear box.
 
#20 ·
thats fixed i can turn easy and the same both directions. i had that fixed right after i did the lift. my problem is bump steer but thank you for the reply
 
#21 ·
No problem. Did you check your axle joints for binding? We had one with bad joints that was messing with us.
 
#23 ·
so should i get a bigger drop or should i check into that bushing at the track bar bolt.
 
#24 ·
Well if you drop one you have to drop the other. So drop track bar bracket needs a drop pitman arm. No drop pitman arm use the stock track bar bracket with the stock pitman arm but with an adjustable track bar.
 
#25 ·
ok. so what if i get an adjustable track bar but keep the track bar drop mount?
 
#26 ·
That wont do you any good. I am sorry that i forgot what you said you had. If you have the track bar drop mount, then you need a dropped pitman arm. Now if you dont want to put a dropped pitman arm on then your other option is to reinstall the factory track bar bracket and get an adjustable track bar. It really doesnt matter which way you go but if it were me I would just reinstall the factory track bar bracket and get an adjustable track bar because i wouldnt want to pull the pitman arm. Hope this helps.
 
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