It seems you have more issues than i first thought. To tell you the truth i am a little overwhelmed at the problems your having. A little confused to. So i will let the experts take over. I will still check in and help out when i can. Im sure we will get to the bottom of these problems sooner or later.

 

If some one could get me a picture of the pitman arm that would help out me alot.If i cant get a fix to this i am going to get my cousin who owns a machine shop to help me build a drop bracket to mount my Idler arm lower. I would really rather not go jerry riging my truck though, Tomarrow i will mesure my Center link to make sure the one i have is for the 4X4, but i am sure it is, becouse i had it laying beside to old stock one when i pulled it out, also with the threads being out on one side and not the other are due to when we put the tierod end on the Center link I did this out of the truck so i could torq everything down to spec, then i put the whole assembly in the truck, but i put the drivers side tie rods on the passager side, and the passager side on the drivers side, when i figure out what is cousing my Center link to be tilted up in an angle i will put the tie rods on the correct side, but i dont want to get but one alignment so i will do it all at once after i figurre out the problem. The center link will not go but one way becouse the bolt for the pitman arm is like 1/2" where the idler arm bolt is 3/8" ( these are rough mesurements out of my head, they are different sizes), Also woulda video help explane the problems? if so i can take one tommarow. thanks for the help you guys have given already.

 

Just out of curiosity have you let a shop look at it yet? A different one than you originally took it too last time for an alignment. No offense to the way you did it off the truck, but you really should have done it on the truck to get the threads right on both sides, torquing it on the truck isn't much harder than doing it on the ground. That alone is a problem due to that one side not having many threads left, it could potential snap that tie rod because its putting all the leverage on the very end.

That alone could help cause that side to be pushed up higher, think about it this way if one side is longer but both sides have the same mounting distance that extra length has to go somewhere.

 

yes i let another shop look at it today, and both shops said that the main problem was how the center link was so high on one side, and so low on the other. i am going to call the people i got the parts from to double check to see if they may have sent me a center link for a 2 WD, i cant find any spects on the lenth for either on to check. but from the pictures to me from rock auto the 2wd, and the 4 wd look the same but have different part numbers. I have my stck one i took off, but it is bent up from where i hit the ditch/ storm drain and it was rubbing the fram also. I have taken mesurments off the lift to see if something moved in the lift, but could not find anything that was out of place, I also looked to see if the steering box had move but it has not. nothing looks out of place.except the center link.

 

Ill try to get some pictures tomorrow morning, little dark now. Ill get a measurement or two if i can also.

What brand idler arm did you put in? I had no luck with anything other than moog. Thats not helpin you any right now, as you saw.

 

I would not think so but could a Regular 4x4 have a different Idler arm than a FX4? the 4X4 i compaired it to today everything looked the same except the Center link on it was level. i mesured from the bottom of the idler arm to the bottom of the first blt hole and both was like 3-15/16-4".

 

dont remember the part brand, i wll try to find out tomarrow. I will also try to get to the shop where my old parts are to see if both pitman arms are the same, or if this one has more of a drop to it. i think they are the same though

 

Yea, comparing them off of stock photos like on rock auto is probably going to be hard because when it's stuff where it's just minor differences like length they'll use the same photo. And there is either two different idler arms or pitman arms, don't recall which one off the top of my head.

 

This may sound stupid and might not work but here goes. Jack up front of truck to lift front wheels off ground. Remove center link from idler arm. Pull down on center link till it pops into lower plane. Turn idler arm till the bolt lines up with the center link hole. At this point you may need to turn the wheels to get the center link to line up with the idler arm. Make sure the linkage does not pop into the upper plane.

 

i do not understand about the upper plain or lower plane.

 

I understand, hard to visualize.

A____________B____________________________C

Pull up on B till you see a slight slope. B will be higher than A and C. A is the Right hand tie rod end where it attaches to the center link. B is where the Idler arm attaches to the center link and C is the Left hand tie rod end where it attaches to the center link. With B higher than A and C shows how it is attached now. If you were to push down on B it is how the linkage should be attached.

 

I understand now. lol. i will try this

 

Guys, I figured it out, and Feel like a DA. the Idler arm mounts with 2 ½" Bolts. The lowwer bolt hole is just big enuff for the 1/2 bolt to mount, the upper bolt hole was 1 size bigger allowing for some adjustment. now all i need is a front end alingment. lol. so if anyone has a problem with this, loosen both bolts about 2-3 turns, get the center link ligned up like it is suppose to be, tighten the lowwer bolt and then the upper bolt. there was alot more adjustmant in this with the upper bolt hole being just a little bigger than i would have thoght. probly like 2-3" up or down.maybe this will help some one down the road. Attached is a picture to show what i am talking about.

 

I do not want to burst your bubble but the idler arm is not adjustable. Both bolts are the same so if you are using different ones to make it fit you have the wrong idler arm.

 

It is adjustable, The bolts are factory, Both 1/2" bolts, the top hole is drilled out bigger from the parts store. if you look closly at the pic you may be able to tell, and may not be able to tell. but the 2 bolts that go into the frame is the same size. but the bolt holes are different, you have to enlarge pic to see. that one hole being bigger alows for about 3-4" of movement at the end of the arm where it conects to the center link. I losesned up the bottom bolt and the top bolt, then pushed the tire out untill the center link was level, the tighted them both down with a pull bar. I have i looked back at the wore out stock on and it was the same as the one from napa.