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Lift kit steering spacer
- Thread starter fridayman
- Start date
Chris Green90
Well-Known Member
If you are thinking of making one I have a spare in the garage. will grab a piccy shortly
Chris Green90
Well-Known Member
wow, that's a big one, must be for a huge body lift!
Chris Green90
Well-Known Member
no standard milner one. maybe my hands are small then
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it's the thickness I was surprised at. Are 90 series steering linkages vertical rather than at an angle?
fridayman
Well-Known Member
Chris Green90 said:
Cheers. Let me know what you want for it. I can have it milled down to suit my 25mm lift.
Jon Wildsmith said:
Nearly, they are at a pretty steep angle.
That's a pain in the neck, that thing - on the 120, Milner's supplied the same thing and it's too big - defo needs to come down to about 25mm I reckon - Chris (mostly) had huge probs fitting that when we did my lift Pretty convinced that's what caused the spiral switch to break - trying to fit that thing properly!
Pretty convinced that's what caused the spiral switch to break - trying to fit that thing properly!
I gave Milner one of two spacers that I had. That was the larger of the two. I did say that they might need to make a shorter version. I found that for every inch of lift that you fitted to a 90, you needed about 60% of that in the steering. So 40 mm lift needed no more than 25mm spacer. But I would be surprised if you needed a spacer for a 25mm body lift. There are two sliding joints in the 90 column and I'd think that these would extend sufficiently to accommodate that. Not such a pain to fit on the 90 as the rag joint is outside where as the 120 has it in the footwell.
Chris
Chris
fridayman
Well-Known Member
Chris said:
When we fitted the lift we didn't fit a spacer at first, but as soon as I drove it I could feel something was wrong, and the steering would not self centre like it should i.e. when I turned left and let go of the steering wheel, it just kept going left in the same radius. The steering wheel was a bit stiff and with the wheels off the ground would not spin freely at all. So we spaced out the flexi joint with some washers and longer bolts which cured the stiff steering, but now the steering has lost its precision and feels elastic i.e. the wheels take a split second to catch up with the steering wheel. This becomes most evident when driving on the motorway when I change lanes and have to correct the steering a lot more than before, or when it is windy and I am constantly correcting the steering. I suspect that with the flexi joint spaced out, the two pins that used to fit into the cut-out bit of the opposite side (this will make sense if you have seen the flexi joint) are now free, and the joint can twist more than it should. So I want to cut down a Milner spacer that has the two extra holes in the top to receive these two pins, and stop the joint flexing too much.
fridayman
Well-Known Member
Chris said:
Greg did it, so I am assuming that he did. I'm pretty sure he did, because he mentioned the broader bit at the bottom that stops it slipping off if it comes loose. I haven't actually had a look in there myself yet.
OK but do check to one in the wheel arch as well. When I did my 40 mm lift, I had the steering phenomenon too. Quite badly. When I slackened the joint, it pinged apart. But when I put the two ends together, I really only needed half an inch to join them back up. I got the only two spacers I could from the US. When I put the smallest one in, it actually pushed all the adjustment the other way, so I couldn't have got a bigger spacer in if I'd tried. That splined joint in the wheel arch really took some jiggling to get it free. Not suggesting Greg didn't free it off, and of course there could be simple differences between each truck off the line. But like I say, if you are lifting it 25 mm you CANNOT need more than a 25mm spacer. And as the slip joints give you close to that it can't be far out. Of course there is probably a minimum thinness that you can make the spacer!
Chris
Chris
Sorry, there is something wrong there. I have fitted three of these now with no issues at all. There should be no need to reshape the spacer like that. All the movement should be rotational. There should be no pitch at all.
Now I am not disputing for one second that this has cured your problem, but I am saying that the problem stems from something else, not the spacer. I don't know what at present, but that is, I can assure you, not necessary if everything else is in kilter. The rag joint is there to absorb minor steering vibrations and a certain degree of kick-back through the wheel and partly to cushion the valve actuator below as the teflon seals in there suffer if they get over pressured from downward movement in the column.
What you are suggesting is that the rag joint in your case appears to be acting as some sort of universal joint which works through and angle. This should not be the case. That really would load up the valve actuator. I imported the original spacers to the UK from which Milner made theirs. On the original that I used, I had to shorten the un-threaded portion of the studs seen in your pic as they fouled the bottom of the bling hole in the spacer and also open the top of the same hole as the shoulder of the spigot would not fit into the hole. I did not alter the one I passed to Miler to copy. I understand that the spigots are there in case the rubber joint fails so that you don't lose all steering and of course they limit the mechanical twist that you can put in the joint without the wheels moving.
Chris
Now I am not disputing for one second that this has cured your problem, but I am saying that the problem stems from something else, not the spacer. I don't know what at present, but that is, I can assure you, not necessary if everything else is in kilter. The rag joint is there to absorb minor steering vibrations and a certain degree of kick-back through the wheel and partly to cushion the valve actuator below as the teflon seals in there suffer if they get over pressured from downward movement in the column.
What you are suggesting is that the rag joint in your case appears to be acting as some sort of universal joint which works through and angle. This should not be the case. That really would load up the valve actuator. I imported the original spacers to the UK from which Milner made theirs. On the original that I used, I had to shorten the un-threaded portion of the studs seen in your pic as they fouled the bottom of the bling hole in the spacer and also open the top of the same hole as the shoulder of the spigot would not fit into the hole. I did not alter the one I passed to Miler to copy. I understand that the spigots are there in case the rubber joint fails so that you don't lose all steering and of course they limit the mechanical twist that you can put in the joint without the wheels moving.
Chris
Chris said:
The curves I created replicates the original unit. Admittedly, the cut out is quite large, and I doubt any normal situation would create such a large amount of vertical movement, but I would insist that at least some vertical movement must be allowed. There must be reason for Toyota's design, and it definitely resolved my firm steering (which only came about from the body lift).
The drilled out holes are also an issue, they should be deeper or go all the way though, to allow the unthreaded stud full extension.
Perhaps the overly thick spacer can mean there's a kink in the alignment of those two shafts if nothing else is adjusted which does introduce some binding? I'm also curious if you have to open up the hole the shaft goes through in the bulkhead to stop it making contact like I did on my 100 for the same size body lift or is it a great big hole so no clearancing needed?
Jon, on the 90 the shaft / bulkhead area doesn't really come into play. There isn't any adjustment there and the shaft is held pretty well secure through the firewall t the otherside. It's only once it passes the engine is there any opportunity for movement and adjustment and then again at it goes through the joint onto the rack. The 120 is different and the spacer fits in the footwell, inside the vehicle.
Chris
Chris
