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Question re: AZC billet shortened steering knuckles


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I bought these AZC billet steering knuckles in prep for my big "bump steer elimination" project. I'm also excited about using rod-end style outer tie rods to get the angle out of my stock outer tie rods to reduce inner tie rod angle/wear at lowered ride height. Anyway, I'm not loving the angle on these knuckles in relation to the spacer washers. I'm thinking about having a little of the aluminum milled off so that the washers fit flat against the knuckle. Anybody else with experience with this product? Advice before I get them milled?

post-5903-0-41577800-1460985801_thumb.jpg

Edited by RebekahsZ
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I bought these AZC billet steering knuckles in prep for my big "bump steer elimination" project. I'm also excited about using rod-end style outer tie rods to get the angle out of my stock outer tie rods to reduce inner tie rod angle/wear at lowered ride height. Anyway, I'm not loving the angle on these knuckles in relation to the spacer washers. I'm thinking about having a little of the aluminum milled off so that the washers fit flat against the knuckle. Anybody else with experience with this product? Advice before I get them milled?

I'm confused as to what I'm looking at here.  Is the hole in the knuckle actually drilled at that angle, or is it just oversized by that much?  Either way I agree with your assessment - that looks funky.

 

Also, those appear to be safety washers, intended to keep the bolt from pulling through the heim joint if the ball fails.  They are cupped like that to not limit the travel of the joint.  I'm not sure why there is one between the knuckle and the heim joint - that's usually where the adjustment spacers go, and the joint can't fail in a way that that washer would help anything.  I guess you could stack more of those washers to get your adjustment, but that's usually done with sections of tubing cut to the proper length.  I'd be worried that the washers would flatten out under stress and lose clamping force if you used them as spacers.

Edited by TimZ
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I think I would notify Arizona Z Car before I did anything. That doesn't look right. I'm thinking that hole should be perpendicular to the top and bottom face of the part. I have a pair of the Datsun original forged short knuckles and they are just like stock except the tie rod hole is closer to the ball joint than stock. 

chris

Edited by NCchris
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The hole is at an angle to mimic the bend in the stock knuckle. I agree with Tim that your safety washer shouldn't go there, but I have no idea why AZC would leave that angle in there for a rod end part with a through-bolt. If you're using a bump steer kit with a tapered pin that would make sense, and I think your answer then is that it wasn't built for that, it was made for use with stock tie rods.

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I think you are spot-on JMortensen-it was originally a tapered hole for a stock tie rod.  It just dawned on me that I'm mixing parts from different suppliers.  The bumpsteer adjustment bolt and heim joint tie rods come from dpracing.  The first part of the kit is to drill the tapered hole for a 5/8" bolt.  I'm gonna look at the TTT version of the steering knuckle with integrated bumpspeer spacer to see how they handle this.  I may just need to have an angle machined into the steering knuckle.  But, I have no idea how much removing the material will weaken the knuckle...  And, BTW, I put the washer on so that you guys could see the angle clearly.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

Hey RebekahsZ, did you get a response from dave? I have the same issue as I am using the t3 tie rods with azc steering knuckles. Bought them a year ago and finally getting to the point of assembly.The top side sits perfect but the bottom has a similar spacing to your situation. How did you fix it?

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Edited by boosted_drew
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

No sir, didn't snap.

Just the hardened steel ball joint wobbled out the aluminum cone it sits in, so the ended up flopping about.

I went back to a T3 drop spacer and steel knuckles, but I miss the slight ratio improvement.

 

In AZC defense, I was running 275 R7 and A7 race tires and abusing them pretty handily.

 

Tj

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