So I just got done installing my street performance struts and I'm running into some issues. To start off, I already have aftermarket control arms on my front end. They came with the truck when I bought it so I'm really not sure if its the 2" or the 3" control arms. I just installed the belltech drop struts and I dropped my front end another 1.5" with the struts. I can turn my wheels about 90% of the way in either direction but if I turn them any further I hear a clank noise and it jolts the front end a little bit. It sounds fairly damaging and I'm in a panic to find out what the issue is so I can fix it before any real damage happens. I was reading that I may need to cut my tie rods about a half an inch and thread them further if I go any lower than 3" on the front end. Can anybody confirm this? Has anybody had this issue? And does anybody have any advice or input on what may be causing this? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!

Have you done an alignment yet? Sounds like you’re trying to change some geometry in the suspension. I’d start with that and see what the alignment report says.

no alignmenf yet but I may just go do that today just so I can eliminate that as a possibility. I’ve been doing some reading and it seems that people who lifted their truck seem to run into the same sort of issue. People are talking about having to lube the bump stops but I can’t imagine that’s the issue I’m having based on how bad it feels and sounds.

UPDATE: So I pinpointed the issue. The combination of the 2” control arms and the 1.5” drop struts causes the tie rods to hit the lower control arms. Is there any fix to this without having to raise the struts? I don’t want to buy drop spindles right now because I don’t want to spend the money. I heard something about installing a bump steer kit but will that actually work?

bumpsteer kit link:

http://michiganmetalworks.com/store/...product_id=139

UPDATE: I am going to try grinding down the part of the lower control arm that is hitting the tie rod. Looks to be only about 1/4 inch of grinding at about 3/4 of an inch wide. Pictures to follow...

So here was the problem I faced: tie rod was hitting the control arm when I cranked the wheel, as shown in the red circle

I was lucky enough that the tie rod just barely hit the control arm so I was able to grind down the area of the control arm that was being hit. As shown in the picture, I ground down the area that the tie rod was rubbing on and it clears it just fine now with just less than 1/4 of an inch to spare! (Picture shows it with the front end jacked up just to show where I did the grinding) I think it will possibly hit it just a little bit when I go over large bumps but it's not very often that I go over large bumps with the wheel cranked all the way anyway. No more issues!