Aussie Needs Help when bagging front.. Radius rod binding

Hey B-scene members!

baggin my 85 mazda, rear's all good... started the front and have run into a problem we think...

the radius rod (the bar that runs from the lower arm to the front to stop moving backwards and forwards) is binding up on the steering rod...

what has everyone else done with this??

we're doing the left side now... and the right side is still stock.

if anyone can help that'd be great... we've got just under 2 weeks to get it rolling for halfway havoc...

i'll post some pics in a minute

heres the pics:






Binding point


how much travel the arm has



This is the stock side, arm on the bump stop mounts, about 10mm from binding on the steering arm.








sorry the photos arent the best but yeh was pretty late last night haha

if you can help us out that'd be great!!

looks to me like it is the sway bar... if thats the case just remove it... i'm not running it on my truck and i have the front bagged on mine...

Remove those rods and place them in the scrap pile. Then triangulate the lower arms like this:

I'm sorry, but I don't see a sway bar. What are you looking at?


Your strut rods are hitting the steering yes. But your arms shouldn't have to go up that high to lay the truck out. Use a tape measure to figure out if the tire goes up as far as the bottom of the frame, and thats where you bag it at. Or, find the radius of your tire, and measure to the center of the spindle. This way you don't have to put the wheel on while you work.

thanks guys... got it on the ground last night...

got it pretty close to laying, was laying exhaust pipe, but yeh we'll fix that.... havent flipped ball joints or anything yet.. running stock spindles...

we're going to triangulate the lower arms but will do that later we just have 2 get it going for this show in a couple of weeks then come back and get into it again.

at the moment just running the stock 14's

but wanna set it up for big wheels for later on when i get some...

we have the top bag mount almost at the top of the chassis... should i move this down so it doesnt hit the top arm when airing out?!

thanks for the help guys any more advice is greatly appreciated

Keep the upper bag mount as low as you can while laying out. Its best to bag these on the wheels you plan on running. If you keep the upper bag mount as low as you can on the frame, without compromising the truck laying, you will get more lift for two reasons.

1 - The bag collapses all the way, so there is more travel to use.

2 - The upper arms hit the bag mount. The lower it is on the frame, the less this will limit lift.

yep! or if you don't have those, at least get the same size overall diameter tire. it eliminates the guessing game.

Yeah, I hate seeing people bag their shit like this.

and wonder why they get 3" of lift