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1990 steering problems


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ok guys, this has me stumped I picked up anothe shee awhile back. It's a 90, well I just got it running today for the g/f she was riding it around and i noticed as she was coming at me directly head on it look like the back wheels were offset to my left(4 wheeler coming at you) so I started to ride it and noticed that, this thing just sucks you can try and turn the thing and it will just pretty much push the front wheels, the turning on it sucked. I"ve had it down to bare frame to get it powder coated and no weld or anything were broken. Well after examining some more I noticed that the right side j-arm is sittin closer to the shock enough to notice. So would a bent j arm make it feel like this or bent frame, Also do you guys know of anytype of measurements I can take or something to check out the frame,

any info greatly apreciated sorry for the long post :confused:

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My experience with my 1990 j-arm bike is that when a j- arm is closer to the shock on one side than the other it's usually not always, a worn bushing or frame mounting bracket where the j-arm attaches.This is very common on j-arm bikes hence the change to a arms in 1991 among other reasons. This shouldn't make it steer noticebly diff. My guess is the frame is probably bent.

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I know its not the bushings just put new brass bushings in it, the mounting brackets look fine. so its a bent j-arm causing this thing to act wierd or a bent frame a bent j-arm i can fix as long as meat still sells the conversion kit. A bent frame on the other hand is a different story how can i tell if its bent? :confused:

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Every J frame I ever had was sloppy. Too bad you didn't convert before you PC'd everything.

Since the J arm mounts to the frame in a different place than the A arm frame, a seemingly insignificant tweak in the rear brace of the J arm mount will result in a VERY significant movement in the end of the J-arm. to remedy this, you will need to do some creative clamping to pull the rear brace outward to move the end of the J arm forward. Unless you're saying that when you turn the tires seem to flop all the way to the side and you can't correct.

In that case look at your steering stop and make sure your bottom stem bearing is tight.

I would also check the swingarm pivot bearings, the swingarm tabs that the carrier mounts to and the carrier itself {the old style carriers are also weaker than the newer style}. A little bit off on any of these will translate into alot off over the length of the quad.

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well done measuring and found out that for some reason the chain tighteners were out of wack which may be the reason for it looking bent. but still the answer to the j-arm is unsolved it's not alot off you can tell just by the shock. Holyman I hope your wrong about the mounts being bent. I guess I'll take the j-arms off tomorrow and go from there. thanks for the help.

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holyman you jerked that thought right out of my head....I'll do that tomorrow. I'll follow up thanks

400059[/snapback]

Sorry dude I ain't into that <_<

 

If you still have your old worn out bushings, you should be able to drill them out {maybe not have to} to .625" and get a couple long 5/8" bolts from the hardware store and run them thru the pivot point to make sure you have everything lined up as well as possible. That way all you have to do is set the bolt on some blocks on your workbench and put the two arms top to top and just eye 'em up.

Or you could see if someone has an innner sleeve from an upper A arm and that would work with your brass bushings.

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yeah holyman im not much into that either :shootself: i took the arms off this morning before wrok and measured them they look perfect i took a tape measurer from the ball joint end up to the bolt end both sides measured perfect right on...holyman i made the barss bushing myself on a lathe and they have the inner sleeves running through the brash bushing. I did find one this out though, one front tire it out of align and i cant back the lock nut on the tie rod sleeve to fix it, its on there good. I'm guessin that maybe the back mount for the j-arm is tweaked a little bit like you said, anyway do you think everything would staighten up if i done a a-arm conversion? banghead

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yeah holyman im not much into that either :shootself: i took the arms off this morning before wrok and measured them they look perfect i took a tape measurer from the ball joint end up to the bolt end both sides measured perfect right on...holyman i made the barss bushing myself on a lathe and they have the inner sleeves running through the brash bushing. I did find one this out though, one front tire it out of align and i cant back the lock nut on the tie rod sleeve to fix it, its on there good. I'm guessin that maybe the back mount for the j-arm is tweaked a little bit like you said, anyway do you think everything would staighten up if i done a a-arm conversion? banghead

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I'm guessin that maybe the back mount for the j-arm is tweaked a little bit like you said, anyway do you think everything would staighten up if i done a a-arm conversion?

 

No.

I have not personally done the A arm conversion but I have looked at how it is done. Usually the existing J mount is used as an alignment for the new rear mount for the A arm and then the J mount is cut off. If you already know your mount is off, you will only transfer that to your new mount. Personally I would correct the J mount and then decide if I was going to do the conversion.

I would just take a piece of heavy bar stock that's maybe 1.5x1.5 and put one end under the top shock mount and the other end just to the side of the lower A arm mount and use a c clamp and pull it back little by little until you get it straight again. It's going to take you 7 million tries to get it just right but when you get you've got it.

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