Dana 44 and Corporate 10 bolt Crossover Steering

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 Dana 44 and GM Corporate 10 bolt crossover steering arm bolts to the top of the knuckle on the right hand side of the axle, just like the factory 4wd steering arm bolts to the top of the left hand knuckle. The problem is, none of the right side knuckles are machined for this steering arm. The right side knuckle must also have a large cast-in flat surface on the top of the knuckle to be machined for the crossover steering kit. This "flat top" knuckle is commonly found on '76 and older D44 axles. ALL GM corp 10 bolts and most '77-up D44's will need the knuckles from an older D44 in order to complete the crossover steering. The "flat top" and "round top" knuckles are shown below to illustrate the difference: The flat top knuckle you need is on the right.  And if you don't have good OE knuckles, check out our ultra-beef Reid Racing/Dedenbear knuckles HERE.

Note that the tie rod arm heights on the knuckle and the direction of the taper for the tie rod can vary by application so the best thing to do is get both the left and right knuckles and the tie rod for your crossover conversion.  The knuckles will interchange with many Dana applications, even in Jeep, Ford or Dodge, but keep in mind the tie rod arms and other seemingly minor details could make a big difference when you try to bolt it all together.

Also be aware that drum brake steering knuckles have a rotated spindle hole pattern and will not work with the crossover steering without modification. This caught one customer totally by surprise when he tried to bolt the kit together.

Offroad Design cannot currently supply knuckle sets since due to the nature of the salvage business, we just don't have any!  But we do the machine work on your knuckle if you send it in, price is $70, and it comes back ready to bolt in.

Once you have the correct knuckles on your truck and the right side is machined to accept the bolt on steering arm, the parts required to do a crossover steering on a GM truck with a Dana 44front axle are:

Pitman arm: This is the arm attaching to the steering box shaft. This is available from ORD as part of our kit or separately if you like.
 
Part #: U9012
Price: $70.00

Steering arm: This is the arm that attaches to the steering knuckle on the axle. It uses factory type studs, cone adapters and locknuts to bolt to the knuckle. The D44 install kit is available as an option as shown below.

Arm Part #: U9010
Arm Price: $135.00

Install kit part #: U9011
Install kit price: $30.00

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. At this point, the draglinks are custom built to your measurements for your truck.

Tube part #: GU9015
Tube price: $95.00

Ends for draglink: $95 per pair (1 LH, 1 RH with jam nuts). These are Spicer HD type ends.

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.

Installation notes:

The Offroad Design D44 steering arm end is cut on an angle 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!  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 better 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 we send the bent version to minimize angle on the link ends.

Choose the category you would like more information on.