I am in the process of making some high steer arms for my dana 44. For all of you who have made your own instead of sucking up $100 a piece, what did you use to taper the holes? I cannot see myself spending $90 on a taper to taper 6 holes. Any thoughts?

Just drill the holes out to 5/8 or 3/4 and use Heim joints :D Thats what I did, But I used an Avalanche Arm.

Rockbuggy, the holes that need the taper are the ones that the conic washers go into, the tie rod end or heim joint holes are different. Avalanche sells arms for $65, the arms with the 7 degree taper are like $100. For the amount of time you spend trying to get those stupid arms right, and the tools you have to buy, you might reconsider what option is better.

If you're talking about the taper for the attachment, so you can use the Chevy cone washers, there is no off the shelf tool, you either have to chuck it in a lathe or have a custom tapered reamer ground for you.

If you're talking about the holes for the steering linkages, you have to suck it up and buy the tapered reamer if you want to run TREs

along the same lines

I was hanging out at work today and noticed we have all this stainless bar stock there, I could easily find some 1x2 or whatever to make some steering arms from, would there be any benifit to 304 stainless over mild steel, I know its stronger, but its also harder to machine ( still not a problem) but is the strength benifit worth it?

I already have the metal cut out of plate, and I have a taper to taper in the hole for my tie rod, I need to get the holes tapered for the 3 cone washers that go on the 3 studs on the knuckle. I might be able to send off a 3/4 milling bit to get cut into the appropriate angle. On the other hand though I was wondering if anyone had done this any different. What can I say....I am cheap, but I want to do this right, ya dont Fu.....errr mess around with steering.

What about a lock washer and a grade 8 self locking nut? Or a nut jam nut setup.

Rockgolem,

See my steering pages for plenty of pics and ideas.

http://billavista.tripod.com/Steering/Index/SteeringIndex.html

You can substitute bolts for studs and cone washers, but not without some other method of providing the zero-clearance fit that the cone washers accomplish. I used 2 locating dowels.

Don't use a locking washer, they are useless.

Think of it like this, they "work" by providing extra spring tenstion against the bolt. Thing is, think about at how low a torque setting it takes to completely compress them, so that by the time the bolt has loosened enough for them to come into play it is already WAY too loose.

my .02

why not drill a hole in the bolt, and use a carter.... yes it may get loose but alot less chance of comming apart.... or you could safety wire tie the bolts.....

Safety wire would be coolt to prevent loosening of the bolts, but it won't replace the cones by itself...it's still important to have something provide a zero clearance fit

Billa Vista, That is a great writeup on your site, I appreciate the info. I like your idea of using locating dowels to get a zero tolerance fit, and I also like badassjeepguy's idea of saftey wire to keep the bolts tight. As an aircraft mechanic I love using saftey wire =). Maybe the dowel idea is a going to work better for me since I am a cheap arse. By the way.....anyone have a passenger side flat top knuckle they want to sell?? I dont mind drilling and tapping myself since I have the tap, I just need a flat top because I dont have a mill.

If I ever build a set of D44 steering arms, I was planning on using regular grade 8 bolts with a cone washer that had a generic taper to it...seems lik this would be the way to go instead of forcing the GM stuff to work, gotta be some easier way.

I'm talking simply from what BillaVista said about the wierd taper on the stock gm cone washers.

CJ

CJ,

You know, that's a heck of a good idea.

I was in the 18 wheeler part store the other day (great place for ideas) and they had about 5 different conical washers on the shelf in bins, so they're obviously used a bit on the big rigs.

One day I'll pick some up and measure the taper.