Bump Steer/ how ford fixed the problem

[Ruckus]

It worked! - so I'll post a few more... you can see they located the steering box low so the steering shaft goes below the engine mount. They added some material to the bottom of the frame for the lower bolts... If you do this, DO NOT USE THE STOCK RAG JOINT by the firewall. I have gone through 3 of them! there is nothing like that special feeling of having your steering suddenly spin freely with no effect. luckily I was on the farm and there was not a deadly wreck. I am in the process of putting a joint from Borgeson in place of the bullsh## rag joint.

[MountainMoparRobin]

Thanks for the pictures Ruckus, but yours is a 4x4 a little different than the 2x4, but good to see it done

I was reading in Street Rodder magazine and they wanted the cross over steering, to accomplish this they literally cut the arm off the driver side wheel, then welded it to the passenger side, arc weld is all

[RussRoth]

If you do this, DO NOT USE THE STOCK RAG JOINT by the firewall. I have gone through 3 of them! there is nothing like that special feeling of having your steering suddenly spin freely with no effect. luckily I was on the farm and there was not a deadly wreck. I am in the process of putting a joint from Borgeson in place of the bullsh## rag joint.

There is nothing wrong with going with a Brogeson although I just read last night (TDR) about the same thing happening on a 2nd Gen ram with one of their units. I would have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of the stock rag joint though. I have a later Chrysler tilt/extend column in mine and had my rag joint go bad in short order. I traced it to a faulty installation. In your third picture I see the same problems with the installation along with what I consider a another contributing problem. If you look closely at the bolts and the rubber in that picture you will see the bolt is not straight and the rubber is twisted. That's as a result of the two shafts not being aligned correctly. Any amount of real strain, as I see in your picture, will result in the degradation of the joint in very short order. It appears to be out of line in two directions. The other problem I see with the installation is a long unsupported shaft from the steering box. I believe that also will put added strain on the rag joint. IMHO, you need a pillow block near the rag joint for proper support and alignment. If you take care of those issues I don't think you will have any more problem with the rag joint working for a long time. I aligned mine after I discovered what happened and why, and I now have about 35,000 miles with no visible wear or other problems. Trust me, I look at it just for that reason. I didn't lose mine completely but I KNEW something was bad wrong all of a sudden. BTW, mine was not even close to as far out of line as yours is. I bet you don't get a whole lot of miles out if it that way.

[Ruckus]

I agree with your assessment. When they put in the power steering they increased the angle of the ragjoint. The increase in angle is the source of all my problems. However, I believe the ragjoint to be an inadequately engineered part of most autos. They are often placed where brake fluid or oil gets on them causing the rubber to become brittle and cracked. The consequences of steering failure is enormous. I think is is unwise to stake your life on a cheap replacement part. I have noticed the replacement ragjoints are thinner and weaker than the originals on my vehicles. I will systematically replace every one with a u-joint as I have no confidence in the ragjoint concept or execution.

[Ruckus]

For those looking to reduce suspension sway cheaply, IH Scout II's have a spring steel plate bolted to the front shackles. It really makes a big difference. I used to disconnect mine when going wheeling and I sure noticed the increased roll and sway on the road. Here's a pic of one:

[MountainMoparRobin]

I've been thinking about this and to do the powersteering swap from the gear boxes off the Van 3500, which would be a box like the one you got, the simplest way to do this and have crossover steering is just simply move the driver side spindle and etc. to the passenger side, the drag link would then have to be made but should be easy swap