I put 37's on my '83 SR5 short bed and have been busy making clearance

before



after





I redrilled the spring perches and moved my axle 1" forward. I also had to heat and bend my "J" arm to clear my u bolts.



I'm running stock steering since I can afford to buy hy steer yet. My new problem is clearance when turning right. My tire will hit my steering if I flex at all.





Anybody have an bright ideas? Has anybody tried to build a bracket to move the steering box?

 

If it were me I would have held off on the 37's till I had the money for hi steer to go along with it. Having said that I dont have any bright ideas to clearance the pitman arm and think it would be a lot of work for something that you hopefully will not have to use for too much longer.

 

wheel spacers, or deep dish rims to move the wheels out away from the axle.

 

X2 on Spacers or different offset wheels. Simple and effective without heating and bending stuff.
It looks like you had to bend your j-arm only because you have a spacer moving your bumpstop and u-bolts upward.

 

I already have 1.5" Wheel spacers and yes I had to bend the J arm because I welded a spacer to the bump stop and redrilled the spacer to move the bump stop up 1" with the axle. If I have to get different offset wheels, I may as well just wait and spend the money on high steer. I found an IFS box for $135 and high steer at Datin Fab for $284. I may as well just go for it.

 

This is hard to believe with 1.5 inch spacers. I've seen rubbing on the springs lots of times but not on the pitman arm. What size/offset rims are you running? Do you hit the springs too?
Do those wheels have a positive offset?
I am still running original steering without issues with 15x8 Rockcrawler wheels and only 33 and 32 inch tires.

 

i would look at the offset on the rims. what lift do you have?. i am running 38's with 4 inch lift springs ans 2 inch shackle lift i now run trail gears x overstering but with the old set up i never had problems with the tyres hitting the arm

 

I run 40s and they seldom rub on the pitman arm. Must not be much offset on the rims.

 

I don't think the rims are offset at all but they came with the tires. I have another set of rims, I'll check to see if they have more offset. I have a 3" Rough Country lift and 1.5 inch body lift. I don't want to lift any more, I've already been on some off camber trails in Moab and don't want to lift my center of gravity any higher. I would probably hit my springs, but I adjusted my stops so that it wouldn't happen.

 

dude, don't heat up and bend your steering! you've just created a weak point, and now adding the stress of the large tires is going to cause a huge point of failure! also, when you redrill your springs i hope you used a press and an extremely low drill speed, as well as keeping it cold with water as you went. leaf springs are tempered and heat caused by drilling through your springs will cause the temper to be lost. you can now get cracks around that new hole and again, another huge point of failure!

i'm glad you don't drive where i live.

Al

 

I guess we'll see if it causes problems

 

BTW, I didn't drill the springs, I drilled the spring perches on the axle. If you have done any reading on this subject you would know that this is a common way to move the axle forward .

 

those tires look familiar... looking good

 

intalled '87 steering box and TG high steer. Headed to Moab this weekend, we'll see what happens.

 

you will like the feel of the high steer vs. the old push pull steering.
glad you aren't driving with that modified j arm any more

 

rode w/14 jeeps in moab on Behind the Rocks in moab last weekend. The yota performed great w/no problems. The jeep guys didn't like the fact that I accomplished obstacles they had problems with or couldn't do at all.

 

how did you like the high steer. im thinking of eventually buying one. i play around in the mud and on trails and hills etc. im not into the rocks thats just a quick way to break your truck roll it or bash your body panels. guess its a little more redneck where im from ha ha.

 

I had high steer and loved it and now Im back to the stock push pull and it is a world of difference going between the 2 I want the high steer back

 

I love the high steer. Definitely a worthy mod.