It i installed a 1 1/2" alumn. tie rod with offset tre's. I am getting ready to do the same with the drag link and will be relocating it to the top of the knuckle. Does anyone see why I couldnt move the tie rid to the top to gain more clearance? Has anyone done this? I have looked and don't see anything done on stock knuckles. Just from looking at it my brain says it should work, but haven't closely investigated.
I think the issue is clearance at the knuckle between the tire rod end and the mount for the drag link. Not a JK guy but that'd be my guess. The other thing wouls be bump steer, since you're changing the hangulation correlation between the track bar and drag link.
You have to install a track bar bracket that moves the track bar up by about 1-1/2" when you move the drag link. Then you can put the tie rod on top, but you have to drill out the knuckles and use a tapered insert to stay with TREs.
The drag link may hit the frame when stuffing the passenger side, and you may have clearance issues around the passenger spring and track bar/track bar bracket. Clearance for a steering stabilizer or a ram assist gets tight as well.
Edit: I take that back. Chris is right on the tie rod - there isn't enough room between the tie rod arm and the drag link arm to get the tie rod to connect.
So long long time ago (2013) I started messing around with RHD knuckles on JKs to raise the tie rod several inches. I found out that the steering on the RHD JKs are mirrored and so you’ve got a drag link and a tie rod hole. The problems you run into is you’ve got to run and inverted T style steering which does have a dead spot no matter what you do when compared to cross over steering. You can use products like the cure from Ruffstuff specialties or other company’s but you’ll still have this tiny dead spot.
The second problem you run into when doing this style “high steer” is the track bar needs to be a little longer than the factory holes and you need to build a new bracket to keep bump steer down. You have to do this with the drag link flip as well. You’ll have to run at the minimum 2” but most likely 3” of bump stop to keep the track bar out of the frame. You can also notch the frame, few guys out there have done it and it can be a pretty clean job. It sounds pretty sketchy but it’s not really a weak spot there either.
When it comes to the geometry of it, the drag link hole is 1/2” back and 1.5” inward towards axle center like than the tie rod hole. This messes up the Ackerman angle up a good bit and changes the overall steering feel of it.
If you’re going to 37s, or already on, go ahead and put a ram on it, you won’t strain the sector shaft once you do it, and it’ll drive so much better on the street. The 1.75 rams are a little slow but drive great in the highway and the 1.5 rams steer faster in the parking lot, but are slightly sensitive going down the road. Last system I set up was a West Texas box, PSC ram, amazon heat sink cooler, and PSC tie rod clamp (makes it an easier install although pricey).
Edit: it also clears 15” wheels with 1 ton TREs. Makes me want to just put a new housing under the front after I truss it and wheel it so people can see some weird stuff, lol. Maybe I shouldn’t go 1 tons.
