Track Bar clearance

[CityHick]

Quick question: How close to the oil pan can a track bar safely run? I've got a few inches of clearance - pics to come later.
The guy who built my axle (and ran it on his EB for a while) put a riser on the axle, so a drop bracket probably won't work for me. I think that I may need a new oil pan on my engine. I don't have a good way to compress my front suspension to test it at the moment, but it does look close.

[highlander]

Do you have a picture?

[seahawkfan]

Try to post a side view pic if you can.

Why a new oilpan? Isn't it new like the engine?

Jeff

[CityHick]

pic of track bar clearance

Here's a side view pic of my track bar as it runs under my oil pan. About 2" clearance does not seem like enough.
Jeff, to answer your quesion - I may need a new oil pan that does not hang down as much as the one that shipped with my engine.

Of course this setup is subject to change as I still have not figured out my steering, etc. I just don't see the track bar angle changing unless I do a drop bracket on the frame and do something else with the riser on the axle.

[highlander]

Still no pic!

[CityHick]

I get the dumbsh!t of the day award...

There's a pic attached now to my earlier entry.
Tony

[highlander]

It looks pretty close to me. Your front axle can probably move up about 5-6" at the track bar mount so the track bar probably needs 2.5-3" of movement in the center

[highlander]

What does the diffrential clearance looke like? If it is OK you might be able to use a bent track bar, but the pan might be cheaper.

[CityHick]

The diff is very clear. I've got 5.5" springs so the differential and the engine are pretty far apart. I can jack up either side about 24" (where my floor jack maxes out), still have 3 tires on the ground and no noticeable suspension/axle contact where it shouldn't be. I had not thought about a bent trac bar, but that might be the answer or there is always a different oil pan. Just more parts to add to my list... I really need to decide what I'm doing for steering, figure out the geometry there and see what will make the trac bar and drag link parallel.

Thanks!

[highlander]

If you have two jacks, put one in the back on the opposite side.

[earlybronco72]

You could always take the coils out of the front and lower it down to the bumpstops. This would give you worst case.

[69crawler]

Or you could take the 5.5 coils out for some 8" coils.

[CityHick]

Or you could take the 5.5 coils out for some 8" coils.

Why stop at just 8"? Somebody's got to go to 10-12" with semi truck axles or rockwells...

[69crawler]

Well I was going to suggest the 10"ers, but that would just be silly.

[Daddy4zack]

OK Crazy question BUT could you flip the track bar over?? it looks like it kicks up at the axle end.. What if you flipped it? Would that work?


Aaron