Extended steering knuckles

Theblackflag

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Had my front end torn apart this weekend to swap out diffs and I got to looking at the stock steering arm/knuckle assembly. I remembered seeing what Big Mike from Marlin did on his 3rd gen taco to help the steering rack hold together with the 40s he's running. Basically, it looks like they took a pitman arm, 80 series land cruiser or ifs mini truck maybe? and just grafted it into the stock knuckle.
http://instagr.am/p/BrOIcKIBjoY/
They claim it decreases stress on the rack, tie rods, and steering effort by 15% which makes sense from a mechanical advantage point.

It got me thinking though, even with 33s Ive noticed a pretty big increase in the amount of force it takes to turn the wheels aired down, especially in the rocks. And on more than a few occasions this year I have had the steering essentially get bound up and me unable to turn it just because a tire was climbing a wall or whatever. Obviously, this is somewhat normal but I know it going to be even more of an issue with 35s when I get those in a month. I am planning to do some sort of sealed heim steering here shortly to replace the tie rods, which I think are superior on the 3rd gens compared to the newer truck which are comically small, but still lacking strength for big tires, front locker, and big rocks.

Ideally, I also like to replace the lower ball joints with a uni-ball Like @SRQ Fabrications and @4Running Daily are doing on the race truck, and if they ever release a weld together stock length arm I'd be all over that and busting out the tig welder.

But why hasn't anyone done this to a 3rd gen? it seems like it would be pretty easy to do a near identical setup to what Marlin did and Im not understanding the downsides if there are any. So Im thinking get some new OEM ball joints and a pitman arm off a ifs steering box and drill out the taper to make it accept a bolt for the heim steering and welding it together. Thoughts?
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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I guess the only negative would be that your steering angle would be reduced possibly. If the stock rack is able to push past the stock steering stops, then this makes sense, but if it limits your turning radius by 15%, then that would really blow.

Other than that, I guess the reason nobody has done it is that there really isn't any demand for it. This is the first I've heard of it.
 

Theblackflag

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Ill have to measure my old steering rack and see if it has any extra throw in it. I would assume it does. Id never heard of doing this before but it would be nice to squeeze some more strength out of the stock rack, and possibly make it last longer
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
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Ill have to measure my old steering rack and see if it has any extra throw in it. I would assume it does. Id never heard of doing this before but it would be nice to squeeze some more strength out of the stock rack, and possibly make it last longer
Or at least make it easier to turn when the seals do blow out and you lose power steering...
 
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