Dana 60 Crossover Steering and High Steer Kits

The straight axle GM trucks suffer from some serious steering problems, one of the biggest is due to poor geometry.  The factory GM steering will fail to steer the truck when you're in twisted offroad situations.  In fact, there are many times when the steering box is all the way to lock and the tires are pointed straight!  Our solution to this is a "crossover steering" system where the draglink runs side to side instead of front to back. This dramatically improves the steering geometry and makes turning to the axle stops possible under all conditions.

The other common problem is tie rod damage and our solution to that is our new High Steer kit which places the tie rod over the leaf springs so that it's out of the way of any trail obstacles.

At left you can see the tie rod totally above the axle and out of the way.


A typical GM full crossover steering kit will run $440.00. This includes the pitman arm, steering arm, draglink and end kit and chromoly knuckle stud kit.

The parts required to do a crossover steering on a GM truck with a Dana 60 front axle are pictured below:

Here is our High Steer Kit:


You can see that the High Steer is the same as the crossover kit plus the left side steering arm and the new tierod.  This means you can install the basic crossover kit and then upgrade to the highsteer system at any time.  The complete High Steer kit as pictured above is $800.00, including a pair of the ARP knuckle stud kits. If you are an existing D60 crossover customer you will either have the RH arm with 2 holes to make it work with High Steer, or we offer a 20% discount on a new RH arm when you upgrade to High Steer.

Here is a breakdown of the kit parts and prices:

Pitman arm: This is the arm attached to the steering box shaft. This is available from ORD as part of our kit or separately if you like.
Part #: 70203
Price: $70.00

Steering arms: These are the arms that attach to the steering knuckles on the axle.  Each one is supplied with new tapered nuts, but uses your factory studs to attach to the knuckle.  Replacement studs are available if required.  At this time (6/03) all right hand steering arms will have 2 holes so they can be upgraded to our High Steer conversion later if necessary.  All current D60 arms are also drilled with the extra bolt hole to bolt on Dedenbear HD knuckles or factory GM, Ford and Dodge D60 knuckles.

RH Arm Part #: U9001
RH Arm Price: $150.00

LH Arm Part #: U9003
LH Arm Price: $150.00

Stud kit part #: U9002
Stud kit price: $30.00 (set of 4 ARP high strength, 190,000 psi studs)

Draglink: This is the link that ties the pitman arm and steering arm together. We will sell the threaded tube and the ends separate if you wish. If you have a GM truck, we can usually build your draglink from lengths we have on file. For some GM applications and for other vehicle types, we will need a measurement for the draglink.

Tube part #: U9015
Tube price: $95.00

Ends for draglink and tie rod #: U9016
Price: $95 per pair (1 LH, 1 RH with jam nuts). These are a new HD end with angle capability similar to a GM draglink end but with the short strong shank of a tie rod end.

High Steer Tierod: This is the tube that ties the two knuckle steering arms together. It is a specific length to work with the high steer arms and is not the same length as the stock tie rod. It uses the same U9016 end kit as the draglink.

Tube part #: U9014-High Steer
Tube Price: $85.00

2WD GM steering box: This is required because the factory 4WD shaft will not allow you to use a pitman arm necessary for side to side motion of the steering. ORD is now stocking the PSC steering boxes, pumps and hydraulic assist systems.

Tall Truck Crossover Steering: For trucks with over 8" of lift, we offer our crossover kit with a billet ORD riser block and ARP stud kit to raise the right side steering arm. We do not recommend using our High Steer system on kits that use our billet steering block since both arms would have to be on top of steering blocks placing even more stress on the knuckle tops. The tie rod damage solution in this situation is to run our 1.5" heavy duty tie rod in the stock location. Our HD tie rods are VERY resistant to bending and stand up to a lot of abuse.

Tech notes:

ORD High Steer and crossover kits use heavy wall 1020 DOM tubing, strong and durable HD tie rod ends and the best possible construction techniques. This quality will take you through the trails you want to run and back again. We won't build anything less.

Most of our steering components will work with other vehicles than just fullsize GM trucks, if you have a kingpin Dana 60 axle in another vehicle type, let us know and we'll work out a customized kit for you.

You'll notice from the picture below that the ORD steering arm is cut on an angle where the tie rod end seats. This is to correct for the kingpin axis inclination angle and keep the angle on the rod end minimized for best life of the joint and more vertical wheel travel without steering bind. We've attempted crossover steering systems using arms that aren't built with the angled end and the rod end was maxed out at ride height with no droop available at all. This is an essential feature for a properly built fully functional system.


 

Our steering arm and pitman arm are both tapered for the large GM tie rod ends. These are not the same as the draglink ends, be aware. We can custom build the steering arm with no hole if you wish, or the holes can be drilled out for a heim joint. We've had the best luck with using factory type tie rod ends for steering since they are a good single shear connection and have good service life.

Our draglink is bent to help clear the factory crossmember. We cannot guarantee that you will not have some contact with the crossmember, it may require some trimming to work under all suspension conditions. '67 to '72 GM trucks can often use a straight draglink but will typically be supplied with a bent draglink to minimize operating angle on the link ends.

We recommend using a steering stabilizer on all D60 axles to help with wobble problems. We have a steering stabilizer mount plate that will allow you to bolt a stabilizer to any of our tierods in the stock location or high steer location. If you are using a hydro assist kit, the cylinder will take the place of a steering stabilizer very effectively.

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