BUMP....Axle or Alpine? Could either of you help me out here?


Thanks in advance.

The hole will be enlarged about .10" to make room for the new bearings. It should only go deep enough to seat the bearing flush on both sides. The original sleeve that fits between the bronze bushings and the bolt will have to be turned down to fit inside the new bearings. However with the new bearings there is nothing to keep the idler arm from sliding up and down the sleeve since there is nothing outside of the arm itself to fill the gap between the arm and the brace. Therefore the original sleeve only need to have part of it turned down to fit inside of the new bearings. The rest of it should be left it's original diameter in order to fill the gap between the arm (bearing) and the brace.

Axle

Here's a picture to help you out. I know the drawing sucks but it should help you get an idea of what's going on.



The red is the idler arm

The purple is the brace

The blue are the new bearings

The black is the sleeve

Axle

Cool!

Thanks for your help. Nice Drawing!

BUMP Its now October. :p

Axle...Alpine? Anything new?

Goin Good. Thought something was thunking but it turns out I just needed to replace the UCA bushings.

No issues with the fix. Tight and going strong, I am still greasing monthly too.

No problems here either.

Axle

Well thats good news!

Yep, looks like spherical bearings and body lifts for Xmas..

I'm going to do this soon.

Good to hear it's still going strong. It should outlast your truck, as its very hard to kill those spherical bearings.

Ok, so I bought and installed my Steering System in June '05, knowing some people had problems, but also having been told by Calmini (and reading what was posted here) that and about 3 months later with just one (that's one) wheeling trip (ECXC) and greasing the bushing every 3000 miles - worn idler arm bushing...

Note the use of the phrases " correct the chronic problem of a worn idler arm " and " a durable Bronze bushing."

So what we have here is a clear case of False Advertising, since we have here an 11 page thread about people's bushings wearing in what is clearly a chronic problem of a worn idler arm...
so after spending ~$500 on a steering system which does not perform as clearly advertised, I have to pay for the production of new bushings and the machining of the provided Idler arm...

So can anyone explain why Calmini is still selling the same steering system as before without fixing anything, but describing in it's ad on it's webpage that it This system is simple, durable, completely serviceable, and requires no modification to stock parts or vehicle.

I feel the same way. After wheeling last weekend, I was getting a front end cluck. Jacked up the front of the truck, and the idler arm is loose as hell.

I greased mine after every off-road trip, at least every 1K, it is 10 months old, and worn out already. I will do the bearing mod, but this is the first aftermarket part that I would say just plain sucks.

Calmini needs to step up to the plate and fix these for free, with no hassles.

Now I have 6 months with my own idler arm bushings, these are machined here in a local shop with bronze 64 (the shop´s guy told me that calmini uses standard bronze, weaker, 64 = the strongest), and they seem good until now, have had good off-road action w/them...

What's weird is I have the Calmini steering kit on for about 30K now, never a problem, still tight....the old design.

I assumed it was about to fail based on everyone's problems, and got a set of harder bushings (posted in this thread somewhere...) as spare set for when I needed them...

They're still sitting in the garage.

I used Mobil1 grease every 3k or so, and after froading.

I feel so left out, I don't know what I'm doing differently.

Yeah I dont know what the difference is. Not everyone is getting the problem.

Any news or noticable wear Axle & Alpine?

Anyone else done the mod?

I did it in November or 2005 -
No problems, no wear as of yet...

As for the cause of the problem - when I had mine doen, the shop that did the milling mentioned that bronze stock gets sold in different grades. I'm wondering if the grade of bronze got changed somewhere along the lines, either with or without Calmini's knowledge.

Has Calmini figured out their fix for this issue yet?

I have just a little bit of play in the arm.

I just looked at it the other day and well, the play I am gettin is from hosing 3 out of 4 tie rod ends, arghhhh. Oh well, pay to play.

Also someone else spoke to Calmini I know and they said:
"We will send you a new assembly for $60, we will keep you credit card on file until we recieve the old one back" so they will send out a whole new assembly but if you fail to send it back they will charge you more for not sending back the "core".

So they are charging more to "fix" the part which is chronically breaking in their Steering System which they advertised as Interesting.

Add another number to the list of failed arms.. mine is sloppy now.

Grease your bushings!

J/K ...

Get stronger bushings...

Update
Mine went bad again in July of 2006. The bearings are still fine, but my sleeve wore where it contacts the idler arm brace and that allowed movement with the idler arm.

So, the bearing is holding out, but the sleeve has worn instead? Is this giving the same symptoms as the worn original bushings (clunk, play, tire wear)???
How about you guys that have replaced with the higher grade bushing (non-Calmini)? How's that holding out?
And lastly, has anyone purchased a new Calmini SS lately, and if so, any problems with that?
I'm sure many of us would like to know. I, myself am planning to purchase one fairly soon, and would like to know what to expect. Thanks!

Just to be a PITA...

I got replacement bushings made from better metal assuming my Cal's would fail any day due to the problems others were having.

That was almost 80K miles ago.

My steering kit has lasted over 80k, and I checked it at about 80K, and it was perfect.

My tie-rod ends are ALL shot to hell....but my bushing is spiffy....so I still have the replacement bushings sitting in the garage waiting....if the originals ever DO fail.