does anyone know what this swap is like in the area of steering? i am getting 79f250 44/60 axles but i heard the steering is VERY difficult to hook up to the stock steering box. anyone have any input on this? thanks!
- jake

well, you have to get a flat top knuckle for the passinger side and a high steer steering arm, then run the drag link to that arm from the pitman, but chevy, dodge, waggy, have the flat top knuckles, so if you do this, you'll need a chevy 76 and older spindle to fit your ford hubs, and then use a chevy backing plate and caliper.

the guy i am buying from said the front 44 has flat top knuckles. is this not true? by the way, i have a 94 YJ 6 cyl.. i thought all i would have to do was tap the knuckles and get hi steer arms. are the knuckles not flat on this axle? thanks!
- jake

high clearance steering is not the only way but is the best. you'll need two arms a custome tierod and a draglink. You could go tierod in the factory position and do crossover from the pitmanarm to a drilled and tapped flat top w/ an arm and a custom drag link

or you could just do a steering box relocation and a tie rod w/ a draglink to the tie rod to the factory mounts on the knuckles. (The cheapest way) the box relocation puts everything back into spec and allows the draglink to clear the springs.

The 44 could have flat tops..definatedly the driver's side but the passenger side has a 50/50 shot. All the 8 lugs I've seen were flat top but I know it's really just a crap shoot.

It does have flat top knuckles. I have one at home so I do know that much. You are going spring over I am sure so the steering is set up for that so I have know idea why it will be a problem at all. Are you going to cut it down at all or full width? If you leave it full width you should be able to hook it right up to you box with the right pitman arm ie: drop if you need that and the right size hole for the tyrod end.

i am going full width SOA. will the knuckles need to be tapped or anything or will hi steer arms just bolt right up? will full width look bad with 35's or 36's SOA with 2" springs and 2" body( and SRS)? just curious. thanks, yall are very helpful!
- jake

The left side is ready but the right side needs to be milled down and tapped.

left side is ready for the arm, right side, if its a flat top, only needs drilling and taping, not sure about the milling part, I haven't had to do this with any flat top I've done yet.

where can i get myself a set of high steer arms for a flat top ford?
just finally decided to do this today, and am just now starting my research. i have an f-150 axle under the jeep now, and have a complete donor axle (f-250) for the flat tops too.

x-mas is over, do a fawking search

dude i have the same axle in the front of my yj and it cost me about $700 to do, but i had a shop do it and the tube the used to make everything was really thick. also i had my pitman arm drilled out to accept 1 ton tie rods with everything else on the steering, so it can be done just do a search:flipoff2: . that is how i learined where to get my stuff done at.to do high steer on this axle is very coming and i'm positive there area many post on here that will show that.

The passenger side flat top will need to be milled, drilled and tapped. The arms can be found on Ebay for a good price. If you are not keeping the 8-lug you will need the Chevy D44 flat top knuckles and outers.