The first thing you need for a Hy Steer setup is a set of flat-top knuckles.

Where do you find the Dana44 flat top knuckles?

73-77 Chevy / GM 1/2 ton 4X4 with Dana44 passenger knuckles are flat tops. 73-87 Chevy / GM 1/2 ton 4X4 with Dana44driver's knuckle are flat tops. 74-77 Full Size Jeep (FSJ) (including Waggoneer, J series trucks, and narrowtrack Cherokee SJ) Driver and Passenger side. 69-77 early Ford Bronco Dana44 knuckles are different from the Gm and Jeep, but are machinable flat. Mid 70's Dodge's with Dana44 front axle (don't know details) The advantage to the GM driver's side knuckle is that it's already drilled and tapped. Some of these knuckles are flat and some have a peak in the center that is machinable. NOTE - as with all things truck, Jeep, and 4X4 - the years have to be taken with a grain of salt. I have heard of 77's that are flat top, and 76's that are not - the pictures provided below will help you check.

OK - so which Dana44 front axles DON'T have flat top knuckles?

78 and later FSJ 78 and later GM passenger side 78 and later Ford F150 / Bronco Scout II Dana 44.

How do I tell the difference by looking?

What parts do I need to run a flat top knuckle Dana44 with a 5x5.5" bolt pattern?

Essentially you run the Chevy or FSJ knuckle out, but you use a '76-'92 Ford F-150 Hub, rotor, and Inner Wheel bearing seal. (Except the '87-early '88 model Fords with the weird flange mount hub). The manual lockout is the same part for both.

Timken Bearing Numbers

76 Chevy / 85 F-150 inner wheel bearing:

Set 37

76 Chevy / 85 F-150 outer wheel bearing:

Set 45

76 Chevy / 85 F-150 Front Axle Spindle Outer oil seal

722109

76 Chevy / 85 F-150 Front Axle Spindle Inner oil seal

722108

76 Chevy / 85 F-150 Spindle bearing

B2110

Inner wheel bearing seal (fits in back of hub)

Chevy 24898

Ford 24917

Warn premium locking hub applications that work

Part # 20990

Locking hub applications that work:

Chevrolet/GMC

Blazer, Jimmy, Suburban '69-91

1/2 Ton Pickup '69-87

3/4 Ton Pickup '77-87

DODGE

1/2 Ton Pickup & Ramcharger '69-74

1/2, 3/4 Ton Pickup & Ramcharger '80-93

FORD

Bronco '66-96

1/2 Ton Pickup '59-96

3/4 Ton Pickup '59-75

3/4 Ton Pickup, Light Duty '77.5-97

JEEP

Full Size Wagoneer, Cherokee, J-10 Pickup, Commander '74-91

J-20 Pickup '77-87

F150 hub and rotor part #s

Great, so I've got the knuckles what next?

The heart of a Hy Steer system is the steering arms, these are the custom pieces that are attached to the top of the flat top knuckles, and to which the steering linkage (drag link and tie rod) are attached.

They are available from many sources (see links at the bottom of the page), or can be custom made if you have the tools and skill.

When making or buying, things to consider are:

1. Mounting design (Chevy style cone washers, lug nuts, bolts and locating dowels etc.) - see next section for important discussion on this.
2. Whether they are flat or "step up" to clear the springs
3. Type of linkage mounting - TRE or Rod End, and whether the arms are drilled or tapered for you choice
4. Intended linkage design - True crossover will require 2 linkage mounting holes in passenger side arm, 1 in drivers. Hy Steer Inverted T will require only 1 hole in each steering arm.
5. Placement of the draglink attachment hole (if crossover) - you want this to be a distance from the center of the balljoint (point of rotation of the knuckle) equal to the distance from the center of the steering box shaft to the center of the TRE hole in the pitman arm. In other words - balljoint to draglink hole on steering arm = the horizontal "throw" of the pitman arm This dimension will affect steering radius and Ackerman angle
6. Placement of the TRE holes. With crossover design, proper location is important to avoid binding between the tie rod and drag link.
7. Whether the arms "angle in" to allow clearance between the steering joints and tire / wheel.
8. Whether or not you need or want an angle machined in the face of the arms so that the static angle of the steering joints is minimized.

Here are some pics of some arms to give you an idea of what's available:

Alright - but what's all the fuss about how you attach the arms to the knuckle - why can't I just bolt them on?

I'll let the text below explain, comments from knowledgeable folks (well, for the most part - some of the comments are mine ! :-)

It's actually pretty critical to have the two mating faces truly flat. This way the clamping force of the bolts or studs is maximized- it's the "friction" between the arm and the face milled into the knuckle that does most of the work.

If you simply rely on the bolts themselves, you're just begging for a failure.

Same goes for drilling and tapping the holes square to the milled face- if the bolts are crooked, they try to force the arm one way or the other. Or, if the hole in the arm is a pretty close fit to the bolt/stud, the angle of the bolt to the face will keep the arm from clamping correctly, and we're right back where we started from.

Or worse, you crank down on the bolt 'til the faces DO meet, then the bolt is preloaded crooked, and more likely to break.

Being a "competent part time machinist" myself, I very strongly suggest letting a skilled professional do the work. Even for a trailered-to-the-trail, slow rock-rig, the steering is an extremely critical item.

- Comments by DOC, a professional machinist.

The steering arm obviously experiences continued cyclical loads that place the mounting devices (bolts or studs) in shear load. ( I realize the strength of the joint is primarily achieved by the friction between the mating surfaces - none-the-less the fasteners still experience these loads - as evidenced by them loosening) SAE bolts are not designed to be loaded in shear, not to mention are not manufactured to close enough specs to allow a tight enough fit so that play will not develop and they will not begin to oval out the hole. Not to mention, drilling holes is not the proper way to achieve an exact dimension hole - it should be rough drilled and then reamed to final size. So if bolts are used, holes should be reamed, and proper shear bolts (like AN - can't quote a number off the top of my head) should be used. This is expensive and rare and more difficult, so GM came up with the ingenious solution of using a stud with a split cone washer, so that as the nut tightens, the cone cinches down and provides the required zero clearance fit while still allowing use of SAE grade/spec hardware.

You can use bolts, but you have to use the right kind, or do something else to compensate (like using interference fit locating dowels).

OK - you've got the knuckles and the arms all sorted out - time to build / buy the linkage.

Since you've come this far, it only makes sense to me to do a "true" Hy Steer setup and mount the draglink and the tie rod above the springs.

You basically have 2 choices

1) A crossover design, where draglink and tie rod are independent. The advantage being that toe and steering wheel center are easily adjusted independently without having to disconnect anything, and that there is no chance of the draglink "rolling" the tie rod before steering the wheels. the disadvantage being the crowded linkage mounting on the passenger side steering arm, and the possibility for bind between tie rod and draglink.

2) An inverted T setup, where draglink mounts to tie rod. The advantage being simpler mounting on passenger side steering arm, and potentially less bind. The disadvantage being the draglink has to be detached from the tie rod in order to adjust toe.

In either case, exactly how you lay out the linkage will depend on things like spring height, location of steering box, type of steering arm used etc.

You can read about my crossover steering and the parts I used in parts 2 - 5 later in this article.

A very popular Inverted T setup is to use '85 Chevy Blazer steering joints and custom tubes.

The part numbers required are:

Tie Rod:
ES2233L for pass side (reamed hole for TRE) NAPA PN 269-2554
ES2234R for driver side

Drag Link:
ES2027L for pitman arm (high angle)
ES2234R for pass side (mounts to TRE ES2233L)

The ES2027L and ES2026R are stock 85 Blazer drag link ends.

The ES2233L and ES2234R are stock 85 Blazer tre's. the ES2233L is the tie rod end (not on the drag link) that has the steering stabilizer hole that is re-tapered to the GM spec (1.5"/ft, but Drag link end has same taper, but larger hole).

And all of these are 7/8-18" on the threaded ends

GM P/N's for the jam nuts (discontinued)

14024806
14024805

Below are some pics of this setup from Steve Meyers excellent page.

His article is linked below.

Part 2 - Design #1

Dana 44 Hy Clearance crossover steering Ver. 1

After building my Hybrid front axle with D44 outers, including flat-top knuckles, it was time to design the steering.

This was my first attempt at the "Hy Steer crossover steering" setup on my Jeep. In the end, some parts worked, some needed redesign. I eventually went through 3 more setups before being satisfied. I have included all 4 setups so as to show what I learned along the way. This is the first setup, the next 3 are linked at the bottom of the page. Each successive page just shows the parts that were redesigned, so all 4 contain useful info.

These are the reasons I chose to use weld in threaded slugs (or bungs) instead of just buying the correct ID tube and having it tapped:

Using the threaded slugs might give you superior threads than having the local shop cut the threads in the end of the tubing, particularly if the
slugs have the threads rolled and not cut. In fact, it is now not permissible to have cut threads on SAE rated fasteners.

I'd at least want to see how the shop is going to cut the threads, especially in a 3' tube, and if they're just going to turn a big tap in the end by hand I might be worried. Not to mention there are pages and pages of references on different thread forms ( R type, J type etc.) , radius at the root, pitch, profile, different classes of thread (2, 3, 5 etc. - not to be confused with grades of fastener (2, 5, 8 etc.))etc and I'd want to be sure the male threads on the TRE or rod end were the same as those cut in the tube.

The rod ends and radius slugs I use are designed to work together. However, I’m probably overcomplicating the thread form concern (as usual) and they’re all probably some sort of SAE standard, so this is likely not a big concern (other than the previously mentioned bit about SAE not allowing cut threads – I guess in the past some SAE bolts used to have cut, rather than rolled threads, and they were not as good.)

One more thought about slugs vs. tapping tube. Obviously tapping the tube you are limited to the alloy the tube is made from, and I'm not sure your standard low carbon 1020 DOM mild steel is the best thing for thread forms. On the other hand, the slugs can be made from an alloy better suited to thread forms, as long as it is weldable to the tube.

Part Numbers Used:

Summary: A good start, but definitely not the complete solution. The use of rod ends is not the best, and the draglink and tie rod bind with any suspension movement. On to Version 2.

Part 3 - Design #2

Version 1 didn't work perfectly so I made it worse. A lesson in what NOT to do!

This was pretty much a disaster - it's sole purpose is now to serve as a warning to others.

The main issue to be resolved was addressing the binding between the drag link and tie rod. I accomplished this by raising the draglink attachment at the knuckle, and reducing the spacers under the tie rod rod ends. Since I was still doing R&D, i kept the rod ends for now -no point reaming a bunch of tapered holes for TREs and then having to re do them. The nice thing about the rod ends was the ease of changing spacers and moving stuff around. It worked as far as eliminating contact between the linkages, but using that great big spacer under the drag link is not a good design, and even with the weenie little 1/4" extra bracket, this was not a proper "double shear" arrangement. I ran and wheeled this setup for a while, but just wasn't comfortable with it, so it went in the bin, and version 3 was born. Anyway - here's a look at the ill fated version 2.

Summary: A learning experience......which led to the even more ill fated Version 3 !!!

Part 4 - Design #3

From bad to worse - see me bend and brake this poor design. More of what didn't work.

Not happy with the setup of version 2, I tried something else. I attached the drag link to the steering arm with the rod ends and only a 1/2" spacer. I then moved the tie rod down to the stock location in the Chevy knuckles using TREs

Summary: Back to the drawing board !!! On to version 4

Part 5 - Design #4:

See me figure it all out, actually build something that works and return to using good old fashioned Tie Rod Ends

OK - not happy with the rod ends of version 1 and 2, version 1 design caused binding, version 2 placed too much stress on the knuckle mount of the draglink, version 3 placed the tie rod in a vulnerable location - resulting in bending or TRE breakage. Time to put it all together in a system that will work. The major changes were the use of TREs at all 4 mounting points, and the use of a 2" spacer block of cold rolled steel placed between the knuckle and the steering arm.

Due to the fact that the weld in radius slugs I used on my linkages have a 3/4-16 female thread, my choice of TREs was somewhat limited.

There are only 2 TRE's available with 3/4-16 threaded shanks. They are

1) Moog ES-150L left hand thread and Moog ES-150R right hand thread

These have the "medium" size taper that is from .714" to .636"

The stock application include:

FORD TRUCK F100/F250 61-65
GMC TRUCK K1500/K2500 63-66
CHEVROLET TRUCK K10 64-66

They will be listed as "inner" and "outer" tie rod ends, with the inner being the left/drivers side (left hand thread, PN ES150L) and the outer being right/passenger side (right hand thread, PN ES150R)

They are also available from: http://www.afcoracing.com/ and http://www.stockcarproducts.com/

2) The other choice for a 3/4-16 TRE is with the "big" taper, that is from .776"to .667" (same as the TRE taper in stock Chevy and FSJ Dana44 knuckles)

The part numbers are:

Moog ES375L - left hand thread, drivers side "outer" tie rod end (left hand side) for '67-'72 1/2ton & 3/4ton GMC trucks

Moog ES375R - right hand thread, Passenger side "outer" tie rod end (left hand side) for '67-'72 1/2ton & 3/4ton GMC trucks

The catch with these is that they have a "dog leg" in them, that an either really help or really hurt your design, depending on application.

There is no "straight" TRE with 3/4-16 threads and the "big" taper.