High Steer on a Dana 44

This HI STEER setup was done to a 1978 Jeep Wagoneer Dana 44 front axle. First thing you need is to get all the parts.

The flat top knuckles can be found in 1974 to 1978 Jeep Wagoneer's, pre 1977 Chevy's with the Dana 44, mid 1970's Dodge's, and all Chevy's have the drivers side knuckle with the studs already in them, so you wouldn't have to do anything to that one knuckle. Mine came off a 1976 Jeep Wagoneer. Notice how the top of the knuckle has a big flat area on it, compared to it being rounded and thin as in most cases.

For the Steering Arms, there are different manufactures out there: Sam's Off-Road Equipment, Poison Spyder, and Parts Mike. I chose to go with Parts Mike steering arms, since he offered the best price, $229 to my doorstep, and that is with all the hardware included. Sam's price was $300 for just the arms while Avalanche's arms are a good price, they are setup for hiem joint ends NOT stock tie rod ends. Also I talked with a local machine shop and their price was $300 for the arms only and that is with me providing the steel. Do also keep in mind those conical washers are only found at GM dealers and are $8.25 each and you still need the studs.

Here is what you get from Parts Mike. I was worried since they were so cheap and we were having phone problems when we spoke. But all in all the quality was A+ and I am very happy with his product! You don't see the washers in the photo, he had to ship them separate to me, so they arrived several days later. In fact they arrived the day I was putting this together, I mean I was about to put the arms on the knuckles which were on the jeep when the mail man delivered them. What timing! So they didn't make the picture, but you do get them and for that price.

O.K. now you have the knuckles and all the hardware, next step is the get the knuckles machined. Any local machine shop can do it and some of those people listed for the arms can do the work also, but you would have to mail your knuckles to them. The local machine shop here charged me $60 for milling the top of the knuckles (for a smooth, flat finish), drilling the 6 holes, and also tapping those holes and that was for both knuckles.

Here you can see the knuckles before and after the machine work. On the inner side of the knuckle there three "bumps", where the knuckle will be just a touch thicker, that is the general area where the holes will be. When they do the holes just give them one of the arms to match them up too.

A shot of the finished product on the jeep.

For your tie rod and drag link setup, it's pretty much up to the owner of his/her vehicle. I wanted to remain as much as stock as possible, so I used my stock setup. But it's not quite that easy, those arms move the holes inboard about 1/2" each. Making it just narrow enough so you can't just bolt it up. What I did was take the long side (passenger) of the tie rod and cut off the solid end (after measuring it of course) then had that cut side machined down so an adjuster sleeve would just slide on (actually I beat it on with a hammer - you want it kind of tight). I then welded that sleeve onto the end of the tie rod and I now use a short side tie rod screwed into that. By doing this you keep the drag link stock.

Here in the left picture you can see where I have welded on that adjuster sleeve to the long side tie rod end. I used the drivers side short tie rod end for it, so yes they are both right hand thread, kind of messed with the alignment guys. To the right is a pic of the drag link hook up to the pitman arm, I used a stock Wagoneer pitman arm.
In these two pictures you are looking straight down onto the new high steer setup. You can see how they are shorter and slight more inboard.