i was working on my '91 LT250R today, putting on the new +2" A-arms & tie rods, when i ran into an interference problem between the upper A-arm and the tie rod when i'd turn the bars almost to lock.
how i solved it: put the (outer)ball joint under the radius arm instead of over it.
after doing it, i noticed that the tie rod is now almost perfectly parallel w/ the top & bottom A-arms, then disconnecting the shock i went through the entire range of motion and it did not interfere at all anymore.

all the other Q-racers i've seen out there put this on top of the radius arm as well. now, after seeing this, i wonder if there was a mistake made in the assembly instructions from the factory? if not what will the problems running it set up like this be, if any? or will it improve handling?

has anybody else made this change?

i always thought that there was something funny looking about the stock tie rod set-up!

 

I am buying +2 a-arms for my 88 Lt250. Will i have the same problem? Or did that just occur on the 91-92 models? I'm not sure i grasp what you're saying. So in other words you just installed the ball joint upside down?
...freddie

 

i'll try to clarify....
the way my tie-rods were set-up when i got it, the ball joints are on top of the plate on the steering shaft and on top of the radius arm, (which attaches to the spindle), with the bolt pointed down. this is also the way the factory manual shows the tie-rods being installed, as well as the clymer manual(i have both).

installing the new A-arms, i did a minimum of breakdown so i'd have less bolts loose, & thus less work. so, removing the tie-rod i simply unscrewed them from the two ball joints or rod-ends w/o removing the rod ends from either the steering shaft or radius arms. thus, it'd be in the same location as it were before as well.

once i had all but the tie-rod installed, I installed the new +2" tie rods that came with the set. upon doing this, i noticed that the tie -rod was very close to the upper A-arm. so, i put the suspension through its range of motion, turning the bars and moving it up & down as system to see if i had any interference.... and it did! the tie rod hit the upper A-arm slightly before the bars went full left or right.... very bad, (i don't want to bend a brand-new set of tie-rods)

so i asked what could be wrong here???? i know it's not supposed to hit there.... so why???
& how do i remedy it????

after looking it over i removed the outer ball-joint from the radius-arm on one side & flipped it over(so the bolt points up,) mounting it underneath the radius-arm. this completely remedied the situation, no more interference in any of the motion of the entire supension.

to answer your question: since the '87-'90 has the same front A-arm set-up as the '91-'92 you will most likely have to do the same.

now, onto suspension theory: should the tie-rod be paralel to your A-arms or not?

in factory form, it is definitely not. unloaded, the tie-rod is almost parallel with the ground, where the A-arms are at a definite angle going down from the frame to the spindle. however, there is no interference between the A-arm & tie-rod at all(do you see what i'm getting at?????)

to prevent bump steer, the two(A-arms & tie rod) need to be as close to parallel as possible,(as lond as the A-arms are parallel... which as far as i can tell, they are on Q-racers) doing what i did, as described above, fixed it.
now, back to my question, if anybody can answer it... will this cause adverse affects on handling?.... bump-steer, etc. has anybody else had to do it??

 

Well, I can give you a little bit of information. On any four wheeled vehicle, the best form of handling comes when the A-arm, lower control arm, etc...whatever the application calls it, is parallel to the ground, as is the tie rods. Now in some cases this is impossible to do, but it should be as close as possible. When yo go to far in either direction from parallel, you will get excessive bumpsteer. On a car, lowering the vehicle to much can give excessive negative handling characteristics. So I think you did it right, no matter what pics show. Later

 

Guys

we tried this with stock A-Arms thinking it would reduce bump steer, WRONG. Remove the front shock on one side and run the suspension through the full travel and track the tire toe in. We found a significant increase in toe in from half travel onwards which was very noticeable, the quad would try and dive to the sid ethat the suspension was compressed on, very scary on high speed landings.

the stock setting, tie rod end over the top works far nicer. There is a lot more going on in the geometry than meets the eye due to the diffent length of the A - Arms to the tie rods etc.

I'd be asking the A-Arm manufacturer why his arms don't clear the tie rods at full lock ???

Kiwi

 

thanks for the input. i'll call them today to see what they say.

 

I called World Class ATV. They gave me the number to the guy that makes them, I'll talk with him monday morning.

meanwhile, i'll try something else to see if it helps.... upper balljoint??

 

i talked to the manufacturer today, he said i've got it set up correctly.

last night i took the shock off & ran it through the motions with tie rod both on top and bottom of the radius arm. with it under the radius arm there was a little bump steer (almost none,) but nothing compared to the bump steer with it mounted on top of the radius arm, in addition to lots of interference problems w/ the upper A-arms. i'm going to compare it to my brother's stock set-up when i get a chance.
i'll see if i can get it out to go riding this weekend to test it, just gotta set up the camber and toe-in. i just can't take any big jumps for a little while.... until i can afford my new shocks. it sucks being on a student's budget sometimes.

 

By the way, what kind of a-arms are those anyways? Did they come with bushings as well? I'm thinking of going with roll design. Maybe i won't encounter the same problem as you did.
...freddie

 

these are 'Magnum' A-arms bought from World Class ATV. they came chromed, w/ upper ball joints & polyurethane bushings; you use the stock lower ball joint; chromed tie rods are included & use the stock rod ends.

the only real complaints are:
1) obviously no instructions
2) no place to put a wrench on the tie rod tube
3) left hand threads were difficult to thread onto the tie rod ball joint (rusty threads, dull tool??)

i may switch to a set of kart tie rods, they have anodised aluminum (purple?) ones that are hex shaped & are reasonably cheap... and are available in the right length but you have to get the whole setup, rods, ends, bolts & spacers...(they have SAE threads.) the rod ends are way cheaper, but wear out faster too.