Part #'s 97-02 drag link ball joints???

[Renipladlo]

Gary, confused, was informed by Freightliner in Tolefson, AZ the upper ball joints are bad,hmmm, going to crawl under the thing and look over what I was told, and get a visual bearing on what I'm supposed to be looking at. If understand correctly, the drag link is rubbing on the left front tire when wheel is cranked all the way to the left, hense the ball joints are bad causing it to droop. EM says I should support it with something, and those joints need replacing anyway.

[Algoma]

The wheel should only touch the drag link when turned all the way to the right, or rather it shouldn't touch but be very close. It won't be any where near when turned to the left.

[Renipladlo]

Hmmm, Guess I was turned around when I said that. You are correct, and it rubs on the tire according to Freightliner, but since I don't know how in my mind its all arranged, a crawl under there will enlightin my memory, and then I will know what I need to see. I will have to figure out the ball joint numbers so the repair place and I are on the same page. I think I have the information someplace, at least who made the front end for western.

I do know one thing, the front end makes a lot of clunking sounds when I apply the brakes, and I figured it was the calliper assembly loading up and unloading when releasing the pedal. Won't know until I have it checked out. Must be a bad design, since we lube the coach twice a year, and it's only got 28K miles, but it's an alpine, so that answers that.

[EngineerMike]

Monty- Your coach may have been made w/the turn stops not properly set, or the PO might have run them in so s/he got sharper turning radius. Tire shouldn't rub. If it does (and you sent me a pic that sure looks like it does), it will be putting pressure on the ball joints by the RF tire that they are not designed for.

[Renipladlo]

I have not looked at this yet, it's on the agenda for this week.

[Old Scout]

Ok--think we have the right problem here but the wrong cause. Agree, driver-side tire rubbing on drag link is an issue but this only happens on the rare occasion when you lock the steering wheel in a max right turn and hold it there. I have had a shinny rub spot on my 03 drag link for over 10 years and 135K--no joint problems. Problem with the newer coaches seems to be the off-center geometry [ie, drag link was bent to accommodate the shorter turn radius]. End result is a shifted CG that seems to cause the joints to wear. Recently noted on my friend's Tiffin product that they used a two-piece drag link with a center support to over come this/perhaps other issues.

[Renipladlo]

OS - Any chance of a picture of he Tiffin to see how they supported the DL? Believe EM said he supports the newer ones in a conversation we had about this, but old brain cells, and cannot be sure.

[EngineerMike]

The 30" trucker's bungee support for the drag link is for the newer drag links. So far as I know the older style links don't need it.

So why do they call it a "drag" link anyway? Its only in drag half the time. Seems like "bi-" link would be a more politically correct term. I'm sure that's been bothering a lot of people.

[Old Scout]

OR--Nope their coach is gone on the road for the summer so I can't get access to it. However, its not an after-market solution. This was designed from the start with two separate drag link assemblies, end/ball joints and all. The two links are then supported mid-way by a substantial support arm that is suspended from the frame with a full bearing pivot point. It would take a major effort to replicate and retrofit the design to our coaches. Looking at our other friends 05 Apline, the interesting part is that the drag link doesnt have a great deal of lateral movement to accomplish even a lock-to-lock turn. However, you need something akin to a bungee or steering damper to hold the link in position. Given the weight of the link, a stiff bungee can work but in the event of a major bump/pothole, the link is going to move downward with a lot of force.

[Renipladlo]

I will have to crawl under mine, take lots of pictures and see what I can learn from those. This is distressing to a point, but other things are in the way of doing that, weather for one, and some appointments for another. It looks like late tomorrow, or Wednesday afternoon.

[Gary Arnold]

Here is my solution to correct the off center weight of the bent drag link on my 2006. I designed a counter balance weight to balance the drag link and make it natural for rotational twist. I used two old lead dive belt weights on an arm mounted close to the pitman arm (steering gear).

[Old Scout]

Now that is "outside the box"--my compliments....