2007 Western Alpine Coach 36' SE Limited

[Janet and Todd]

I took mine to Kaiser Brake & Alignment in Eugene, OR to replace those ball joints on the ends of the drag link. They replaced the worn out ones with sealed joints. The quirky thing about these is the fact that they are both right hand threads, not a right and a left. An alignment will need to be performed after so they can do that too.

[rrthor]

Replacing drag link ball joints won't affect wheel alignment. It can make the steering wheel position off center when going straight down the road.

[wolfe10]

Originally Posted by rrthor

Replacing drag link ball joints won't affect wheel alignment. It can make the steering wheel position off center when going straight down the road.

Correct!


Re-center the steering wheel and you are good to go.

[RVPioneer]

Originally Posted by wolfe10

Correct!


Re-center the steering wheel and you are good to go.

How do I do that?

[wolfe10]

Originally Posted by RVPioneer

How do I do that?

The drag link length is adjustable.


Best answer is to exactly measure the old "joint to joint" length or distance from drag link end to center of new joint. Duplicate that/those length(s).



If no "before measurements" taken, get close by having wheels dead straight, steering wheel dead straight.


Turn ends so that they line up with pitman arm and left steering knuckle.


On some models, because of the bend in the drag link, it would be necessary to remove it from one end in order to screw in/out an end to change length.


Yes, likely fine tune would be after driving.


Note: Changing/adjusting the drag link has no effect on camber, caster, toe-in or ride height-- the things that a front end alignment would address.

[RVPioneer]

I believe that is what Henderson’s tried a few years ago. End result was either down on the left or down on the right.

[wolfe10]

Originally Posted by RVPioneer

I believe that is what Henderson’s tried a few years ago. End result was either down on the left or down on the right.

What was "down"??

[RVPioneer]

Originally Posted by wolfe10

What was "down"??

The steering wheel. It’s turned to the right a bit.

That’s “down on the right” when giving back up directions.

[wolfe10]

In terms of centering the steering wheel:


You should be able to get as close or closer by rotating one end of the drag link's joint one revolution than by R&R of the steering wheel, as I suspect the steering wheel splines have "more degrees"/each spline represents more degrees of change than one revolution of one end of the drag link.


But, no first hand experience-- never had the problem.


Also, be aware that centering by adjusting at the steering wheel (if drag link is too far off) will affect cut angles-- limiting one side and adding to the other.

[Raylinda]

Janet and Todd. do you have a part number of the 2 ball joints ??

[rrthor]

Try these.

Dayton 310-444
Euclid E-10163
Meritor 1698846
Industry Standard ES9601R

IIRC when I bought mine I used the Euclid #.

[rrthor]

Originally Posted by rrthor

Try these.

Dayton 310-444
Euclid E-10163
Meritor 1698846
Industry Standard ES9601R

IIRC when I bought mine I used the Euclid #.

Looking back I did order the Euclid number. These ball joints are permanently lubricated. They do not have grease fittings.

[Janet and Todd]

Originally Posted by Raylinda

Janet and Todd. do you have a part number of the 2 ball joints ??

Part numbers were not written on the invoice, sorry.