Lifted Steering Help

[74CustomK20]

I need some help!! Haha. I have my project k10 to k30 swap in full swing, and it's down to start finishing the chassis before I swap the body back on. It' s a mid 80's k30 frame I'm swapping my 79 k10 onto. Has a 10 bolt front, 1 ton 14 bolt rear and 8" suspension lift. 350 - 465 - 205 setup for now. I have all the brake lines ran to the prop valve, and am working on the steering. It has a raised swan bar (the one with cone washers and bolts to the axle) and a drop pitman arm. The thing is though is the short piece inbetween still isn't level. Sorry I'm god awful with part names but idk what it's called. Anyone have ideas? I've considered crossover but it's $$$ and out of the budget for now until I get a house and get settled down.

[JIMs70GMC]

That is the drag link. So you have a "raised" steering arm (on axle) and the dropped pitman arm. Those two together are good for 8" or so of lift. I think once the body is on, the truck will sit lower and should get your drag link closer to level. But your best bet as said would be crossover.

[74CustomK20]

I'd love to do crossover but it's sooo expensive! I could understand if I had to do it all new anyway, as then I'd just be out of money for the knuckle on the axle, but I can't afford that lol. I'm hoping it settles some. Only thing really I can think of is an S shaped drag link?

[First c10]

Steering arm is good for 4-6" and a drop pit-man arm is good to 2-4" so I don't see a need for a dropped drag link. With what you have you should be good for 10". Can you take a picture???

I installed a drop pit-man arm on a 4" lift I am installing on a k20. I like the geometry on a drop pit-man arm at 4" then on a raised steering arm especially when turning.
Of course crossover is the best.....

[74CustomK20]

I'll take some when I go home c10. Need to take pics of my extra parts to post on here and CL anyway!

[74CustomK20]

The steering arm as promised. Sorry for the mess it's been raining non stop!!

[First c10]

The drag link is not even hooked up to the Pitman arm correct?

[74CustomK20]

At this point in time, no. But when it was on the 1/2 ton frame it wasn't level, and since the 1 ton frames are thicker and teller, I'm afraid it will be worse. The new gear box is gonna be here tomorrow so I can mock It up to see how bad it'll really be.

[First c10]

The joy of mix and matching parts. You will probably just have to play it by ear and get all the parts installed or mocked up so you can see where you're at probably K 30 frames did not have a Dana 44 front end So the steering knuckle is much higher on a Dana 60. This is where my knowledge falls apart as I have not worked with the heavy stuff much.

[74CustomK20]

Idk either. Just wonderin if there's a fix other than crossover. I guess a "S" shaped drag link would fix it but we'll see... I can live with a little difference I mean hell nothings perfect, right?

[b454rat]

Need to get it all together then figure out what you need. Being it's just a frame now, nothing is gonna line up or be where it needs to be. But with 8" springs on a 1 ton frame, you have about 11" of lift, which would be the limit for that type of steering. Crossover isn't that expensive if you know how to source parts.

[74CustomK20]

B454 if I was going to replace the box and all I would, but they are all less than 3 years old (except for the steering arm and pitman arm. The box tie rod ends drag link etc etc is new in 2013 when I redid the suspension for a 4" lift. Since then I traded it for my 8" superlift lift now, and now a frame swap. My box should be here tomorrow and I will post pics of it bolted to the frame loosely for ideas of what to do.

[JIMs70GMC]

Crossover with a dana 60 front is definitely cheaper than a 44/10 bolt. Most "systems" reuse the stock drag link ends, no loss there. The flat top knuckle is where the cost is for you.

[JIMs70GMC]

Something else to look into would be a panhard bar. I have about 7" of lift on my 83 and get a lot of side to side motion. The tall springs exert a lot of leverage on the spring bushings. Also works well with crossover steering. Just something to consider.......

[74CustomK20]

Uodate, got the box on and old drag link attached at both ends. I'm starting to wonder if this is more than an 8" lift honestly. Also what is a Panhard bar? Steering is a grey area for me so that's why I'm asking for help lol.

[First c10]

Originally Posted by 74CustomK20

Uodate, got the box on and old drag link attached at both ends. I'm starting to wonder if this is more than an 8" lift honestly. Also what is a Panhard bar? Steering is a grey area for me so that's why I'm asking for help lol.

I would say you are about 8" of lift. The drag link does not look bad since there is no weight on the truck it will drop at least 1 - 1 1/2'" when the truck is assembled.
When I was building my truck (hulk build) I thought it would not drop that much when assembled so I had about 6 buddies and I stand on the rolling chassis....it dropped

A Panhard bar controls or limits the side to side movement of the axle.

[74CustomK20]

Thanks c10, I thought that's what a Panhard was; but Google just showed pictures. The height difference from top of steering arm to bottom of pitman arm is close to 5", give or take 1/8.

[74CustomK20]

Found a 3" steering lift block for 30 bucks on CL... Thinking this will be my part time solution until I can shoots crossover... thoughts?

[kwmech]

I'd wait until you put about 6-7 hundred pounds of body back on. Do you need that much lift? What size tires you going to run? Maybe take 2 of the short leafs out of the bottom of the spring pack.

[74CustomK20]

Planned on running 40x15R15 Mickey Thompson Baja Radials I already have. If I wasn't set on pinching pennies I'd get a set of 37's from military surplus had a set years ago n were pretty decent for the cost.

[74CustomK20]

Alright ya'll. Plan is to put a 3" block under steering arm with lifted and lowered steering parts to get it level until I can either,
A: just do crossover on my 10 bolt using dana 44 parts, or
B: Crossover and find a cheap enough Dana 60 to swap in at the same time.

My rig is mostly just a driver/ shower so I'm not really gonna have a lot of suspension articulation unless I get into a bad mud hole so thinking this will be alright for the time being...

[74CustomK20]

Update, got everything on and bolted together, and torqued down with locktite and antisieze. My drag link is good and level now!!

[olive drab]

post some picutres

[74CustomK20]

Will later today. Unsure why I haven't been getting notifications on my posts, sorry for delaying.