Superliner RW700 Steering axle

[mrsmackpaul]

I gather this arm is the one your talking about

I don't think these can be switched from side to side, the key ways will be all wrong amd ass about 

 

 

And this bit is upside down ?

Is this correct

As far as Ackerman angles and how important it is, well it wont effect you much when your driving add speed, only when really turning sharp, the tyres will try and peel off the rims if wheel base is vastly different 

Good news is, these two arms have effect on the Ackerman angle, wrong arms for that

 

The two short arms with the blue arrows are the two that effect Ackerman angle

 

Paul

[1961H67]

Thank you, yes that is the arm that is turned opposite of my original axle.

[Mark T]

I had a couple Canadian Superliners. They started life as big tractors,and were converted to dump trucks. The one was on 20" rubber and had Hendrickson in the rear and taper leaf in the front (steer) .  I changed it to 22" on the drives and put multi leaf in the front to level it out. Ended up with the same thing you have going on.  I was lucky though as the two trucks were quite alike and I just ordered those arms by the VIN of the one already like I changed the other on to.  Maybe something like that can simplify it if you have a VIN ?  Those ones (top curved around levers to the drag links) aren't as critical as the ones on the tie rod. Big exaggerated angles will likely wear ball and socket joints fast and it may lose turning radius in weird ways (more one direction than the other) Usually they're sorta flat  through the tavel of the suspension (top ones) or the drag link'll be bent in such a way to drop the level of it. I think the RWs were straight ?  The ones on the tie rod ? if they're way off, it could make the truck steer lousy. (Paul may have worded it better than me) Like when you need it to turn it might be less than ideal. (loose grave, wet pavement)  like when you need every drop to make a turn with a lowboy ???  Be a pain in the neck if you go through swap'n the axle to fix one problem and discover doing so created another one.  

[1961H67]

Yes I can get the VIN off the parts truck, I’m sure I can make it work, it’s the same as hot roding a car back in the day, Change one high performance part and have to change 3 more to make it work . I appreciate all the help, I will probably do the same thing to my Freedom Superliner once  I figure this one out, it has a 12,000 lbs axle with a little play in the king pins, But mainly because I have some hub pilot floaters to put on it, I know it will not have a original look, but I love the way they handle, Around these mountains they are great, and will last twice as long as a regular steer tire , I put them on every thing I can. Even my old Volvo  and Western Star 

[mrsmackpaul]

The other thing to consider is bump steer 

So the link between your pitman arm on the steering boxes and arm I circled kin the redish orange colour in the top photo needs to be level when the truck is at ride height 

If it isn't, when you drive through a hole or dip on the road the truck will wander across the road height difference is lengthened and shortened 

Bump steer is pretty important, probably more important than Ackerman as Ackerman only effects the steering on tight turns and has no effect when cruising along down the highway 

Bump steer has a big effect at speed

Caster angle is easily corrected with wedges on leaf springs, so it's no big drama 

 

Paul 

[1961H67]

I figure that maybe why the levers are flipped , it had more springs than mine and they dropped the joint from the top to keep the drag link level, I’ve ran into the bump steer problem lifting some 4x4 pickups . Thank You for the help.