dana 44 caster questions

[riggermortis]

hello, a while ago i swapped out the dana 30 in my '67 for a '73 or '74 dana 44. when i did i swapped the drums for disks from a full size f150. everything from the ball joints out, all new ball joints, u joints, wheel bearings, steering linkage ect... everything is tight and good but with 35's on it, it sits kind of wierd. the front tires are out of caster/camber and its wearing out the outside edge of my tires. shouldnt they sit strait up and down or is it normal for them to be kind of pigeon toe'd? kind of like this \ / when looking from the front. i have double checked my alignment and it is good 1/8 to 3/16 toe in. is this anything to do with the c bushings? i have a 4 inch lift and 4 degree c bushings. any help/ suggestions would be greatly appreciated !!! thanks

 

[djshnizle]

hello, a while ago i swapped out the dana 30 in my '67 for a '73 or '74 dana 44. when i did i swapped the drums for disks from a full size f150. everything from the ball joints out, all new ball joints, u joints, wheel bearings, steering linkage ect... everything is tight and good but with 35's on it, it sits kind of wierd. the front tires are out of caster/camber and its wearing out the outside edge of my tires. shouldnt they sit strait up and down or is it normal for them to be kind of pigeon toe'd? kind of like this \ / when looking from the front. i have double checked my alignment and it is good 1/8 to 3/16 toe in. is this anything to do with the c bushings? i have a 4 inch lift and 4 degree c bushings. any help/ suggestions would be greatly appreciated !!! thanks

caster bushings would not affect camber or toe... I am confused on what you are saying is out of adjustment. If you are looking from the front of the vehicle you would be looking at camber. From the top is toe. I will try to answer for both. your toe probably has something to do with your linkage being out of adjustment, but if you have camber issues my guess would be the upper and lower ball joints may not be pressed in all the way or too tall. Any way you look at it your caster is set on the axle tubes, and SHOULD not effect camber or toe... your problem will occur from the ball joints out unless your axle is bent. or the axle flanges.

 

[riggermortis]

the toe, from which you adjust with the linkage is correct. when i bought the ball joints i had my parts guy(NOT autozone or checker)look them up in the books for the '73 bronco dana 44 and for the '78-'79 full size dana 44 and they were the same part #, and they were installed/pressed in properly. as far as i can tell the axle is not bent, you would think if it was it would not be the equal from side to side and it would be bent the other way. i drew a quick picture in paint looking from the front of the bronco, it is exagerated but it shows the problem. hopefully it attaches correctly. untitled.bmp

 

[riggermortis]

i looked up caster and camber, couldnt remember which was which. my problem is positive camber. i found another picture also.

 

[Bully Bob]

I'm thinking you have the same prob. I have.....

You may need 7deg. "C" bushings to bring the U-joint end of the pumpkin down.

There should be a bit of downward angle at that U-joint....not a "straight line"

 

[riggermortis]

i did a little bit of research today and found offset bushings for the upper balljoint or spindle shims to correct the problem. i think my problem was caused from converting to disk brakes. my axle was originaly a drum brake bottom pinion axle, that i changed everything from the balljoints out with knuckels from a '79 full size. everything bolted right up but they(ford)must have changed the camber specs on the newer fullsize axles. when i bought the axle i didnt want to use the four letter "chev" word conversion parts so i took the knuckles from a ford 1/2 ton dana 44. i did the swap for less than half the cost of the kits and its all ford parts. even if i have to buy these shims/bushings it will still be cheaper than the kits and a pretty easy fix.

 

[riggermortis]

i forgot to mention that BC Broncos has the camber bushings. my parts guy told me that he could get some also, but i would have to find out what degree i would need... .5, 1.0, 1.5 ect....

 

[bartowb]

rigger i would have to agree with bully. i had the same issues on the ones i have done. have a 3 1/2 in both of them. used a 79 full size for my 75 and a 78 full size on my 73. both of which needed to have the c bushing increased. you shouldn't have to do anything with the casters it should be a direct bolt on.

 

[djshnizle]

i forgot to mention that BC Broncos has the camber bushings. my parts guy told me that he could get some also, but i would have to find out what degree i would need... .5, 1.0, 1.5 ect....

it sounds like you have it figured out. I didnt know there were bushings for the camber. put an straight edge across your rim vertically and put an angle finder on it, that should give you a rough measurement. They sell angle finders at almost any hardware store, harbor freight has em for like 5 bucks... just take into account that your bronco is probably not sitting on level ground.

 

[riggermortis]

hello, i know its been a while but i finally changed the c bushings to 7 degree from 4 degree. to my dismay they did not change the camber. or at least not enough to correct it. if they did change it it is not a noticeable differance. my question now is... has anyone else out there converted a drum brake front end to disks with 1978 or 79 full size steering knuckles??? and do you have the same problem???? i can put a 6 inch torpedo level on the disk and it is out of level about 3/16 of an inch in 6 inches.