I just picked up a new (to me) 89 lifted B2 need some help with steerin problem

[1988broncoll]

Ok so heres the deal I picked up a new to me 89 lifted b2 it has a 6 inch suspesion lift. It was a 4 inch then they used 2 inch spacers up front and 2 inch blocks in the back to make it a total of 6 then it has a 3 inch body lift My problem with the truck is. As soon as you let the clutch out and start rolling the truck pulls violently to the right I mean you have to have both hands on the wheel and its still trying to turn right. If you get up to like 10-15 mph and let go of the wheel it would do a u turn in the middle of an intersection thats how bad it is. I checked for excessive play on anything on the front end and nothing that would lead me to believe it could make that big of a problem. I looked at the beam on the passanger side and it looks as if the ear where the upper ball joint goes is bent intowards the spring the end of threads on it are about a half inch from the spring and on a sharp angle which it shouldnt be and the driver side is straight up and down like it should be. What do yous think the problem could be the guy i bought it off of said that he would get it aligned and about 2 weeks later it would be out of alignment again everytime. Its got a D28 in it and I was going to put the D35 under but if its something on the lift kit thats causing it to mess up Id rather fix that first then throughing another axel under the front and it still be doing the same thing. Also you can not get the truck past 25mph with out it pulling a death wobble. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[alpinestar]

its the TTB something in that is causing it to go out of alignment. he may not have done something right. if you want to and have the time i would just put the new one under it or do a SAS. either of those should fix the problem.

 

[tpking]

sounds like it could be bent .. a stuck caliber will cause it to pull also ..

 

[2low]

sounds like it could be bent .. a stuck caliber will cause it to pull also ..

a broken rear shackle will do it to ya too. i broke my shackle and under any exceleration it would pull left (broken shackle was on the right)

 

[1988broncoll]

I checked the calipers they where fine I jacked the front up and spun each tire no drag or anything. I will post up a pick of the one side and the other so yous can see what im talking about you can just tell looking at the ball joint on the passanger side something is wrong. As far as doing the SAS swap. We still have stability inspection in NJ anything lifted 4inches or more over stock height has to go through rigerous inspection and If anything is swapped that wasnt an option from the factory IE small block swap 4.0 swap SAS anything like that it will fail automatically. So I am trying to keep the truck steet legal cause we have a lot of state parks we ride in and the rangers check paper work on everyone every now and then to make sure everyones up to spec cause you not aloud to be there unless your legal to be on the street.

 

[Lee_533]

you know...I had the same problem on my ranger. Turns out that the guy that I bought the ranger from put transmission fluid in the break lines. It froze up the right brake so I lost a ton of power and it pulled violently to the right. I just bled the brake lines and it stopped.

 

[Hahnsb2]

It needs a bigger drop pitman arm. I'm willing to bet your steering linkage is totally jacked.

 

[1988broncoll]

I did a little bit of looking over on the truck. So far I found that the pitman arm nut was so loose that It only had to back off 2 more threads and it would have fallen right off. I torqued that down. Then I was looking over some more. They tried to take a 4 inch lift and turn it into a 6 inch lift. They added 2 inches to the bottom of the drop bracket by making up 1/4 inch thick plated and bolting them where the beams bolted into the bracket then bolted the beams to them. Also not of the drop brackets are tight. I also checked the passanger side beam from them rigging up the brackets. Is rolled forward a good 1inch. I am going to be taken the drop brackets off and taken the 2 inches they add to them off and putting it back to a 4 inch lift the way it was made for. Then tighten everything up. I am not sure if its just from the beam being rolled forward or not But on the passanger side the wheel base is 3 inches shorter then the driver side. The back rear looks a little cocked but I know its not cocked 3 inches. So I am going to fix there lift and see if it brings it closer back to being the same on both sides.

 

[swamprat]

Sounds like you are headed in the right direction. Get rid of anything that was added to that lift. I have seen where people add to the lift by transfering hole up on a plate to make it taller. It could change the steering geometry. I would also double check the fasteners used. Make sure that they are at least grade 5. It is always a problem buying a used 4x4 that somebody modified, fixing what they modified.

 

[BlackBII]

Sounds like a hack job to me...

I would go through like previously said and take anything extra off, get it back to just the lift kit, none of this extra brackety garbage, also, you may need a longer pitman arm and an alignment. I bet your camber is out of whack, along with the caster that the previous owner most likely neglected.

Have any pics of this setup?

 

[1988broncoll]

I normally hate picking up something already lifted for this reason but it was a good price well seemed like it for what it was. I already went and picked up some new hardware to replace what they did half the bolts on the lift are all loose. I already have it half apart so pics would be kind of useless i removed the extended peices they put on the ttb drop brackets. I am getting ready to remove the coil spacers they added. I already new I was going to need an alignment once I get it figured out I will take it in for that. I was half tempted to just go buy a new 4 inch lift for it and take all there stuff off but dont feel like spending the cash if I can save this one.

 

[Hahnsb2]

Can you get us a pic of the steering linkage?

 

[1988broncoll]

I know it has a 4 inch drop pitman arm as I had a spare in the garage from my last B2 and its the same lift. I also know all the drop brackets are for a 4 inch lift so im taken all that stuff back down to the origanil 4 inch lift brackets so Im going to see if that helps with anything I will get a pic tonight or tomm as I dont want to get grease on the camera lol.

 

[4x4junkie]

When you say a "4 inch drop pitman arm", are you speaking ACTUAL drop compared to the stock arm? Or what the arm was simply sold as (or the height of the lift it came with)?

If the latter, it's actually not a 4" drop arm, but rather a 2" arm (and very likely is partly why you were having issues).
The only true 4" drop arm out there is the Skyjacker pt# FA600 "extreme" arm. I always strongly recommend this arm with any lift higher than 3-4".

That thing with the balljoint nut may be perfectly normal on the D28 if there is a high-degree camber/caster bushing installed. What I would do however is get the D35 under there, and see where you're at in regards with straightening everything out. My guess is it was a combination of the loose bolts and the too-short pitman arm causing the handling issues on it.