a different caster plate (2 Viewers)

[landtank]

looks to me that a standard drill length will be fine and it's not like I'm doing 20 trucks, just mine.


And I can't imagine cutting off brackets and rewelding them on is easier than drilling 8 holes.


The worst hole will be the rear PS one. I'm starting there, it will either make or break the install.

 

[semlin]

landtank, my compliments, you have come up with the first caster correction solution that I would actually feel comfortable adding to my truck (christo's is fine but too big for my lift). although you'd be drilling out a lot of dowel it looks to me that it will work down to 2 degrees or even one degree. I'd much rather install these than throw in OME bushings, and if the drilling is feasible it is not markedly a bigger pita than pressing out the stock bushings, plus you get to retain stock bushings.

so for the 4 and 5 degree corrections am i right that the problem is going to be drilling with the drill point on the crack? if so, one suggestion is this. For those two corrections only, instead of adding a positioning dowel to your plate, drill positioning holes in your plate in the stock location and then c clamp a second plate from behind with positioning dowels the stock distance apart that are the thickness of the stock bracket and your new plate. They would then fit through flush from behind into your positioning holes and give you a solid drilling surface. Might be as big a pita as drilling on the crack, but the backing plate does not even have to be welded to the dowels as long as it clamps them in place. Not perfect as you lose the "infill" of the partially drilled dowel unless you can weld the dowels in place or use a very thin backing plate.


that brings up one other suggestion, which is that you add one or two additional locating holes in the plate if you can find a suitable location that is easily drilled . I can see a risk of these things pivoting into the stock hole locations under load. maybe the dowel remainders will prevent that, but if they are spot welded to your plates they may shear away from the plate under stress and then drop out .

 

[landtank]

My thoughts right now is to use 3/16" plate and I have sourced some 5/8" x 1/8" thick shim washers that I think will weld internally to the plate. The 4 and 5 positions do fall in the crack so you can't completely drill through the plate but can get a good pilot up to that point. Once the plates are clamped in place I don't think the crack issue will be a problem.


This plate heavily relys on me getting good numbers from the alignment shop. That means my truck's axle has to be in proper shape as well as the rack used and the technician setting it up. If I get bad numbers to start with then I get bad numbers FOREVER afterwards. From another thread I got an idea that I should need about 5* of correction, anything way off from that will really set me back on my heals and probably postpone the install until I can verify the numbers with another shop.

 

[landtank]

Just thought I'd update everyone. I have my news Slee 4" springs installed and had the truck up on the rack. I need 5* of correction to get to 3.2* of caster. The plates arrived tioday and I'm very pleased with the results.

The steel was laser cut and the dowel was welded into place and the back ground flush and black oxide plated. I checked it's shape with my caster templates and the fit is perfect.

Just not sure when I'll have time to install them with TG coming up at my house and the dining room is torn apart right now.

 

[landtank]

Had an early end of week this week so I started to install my plates. Long storry short the knuckles had to come off. So a call to CDan and ponying up for next day delivery and I was in for a axle job to boot.

So tore down the axle on the PS since this would be were any problems might be with the diff on this side as well as the panhard mount.

The basic tools I used were as follows:

pin punch
1/8" X 12" drill
5/16" drill and 12" extension (1/4" hex drive)
1/2" drill
5/8" drill
12" extension for those drills.



Fiorst pics are the positioning of the 5* template for pin punching and the 1/8" pilot holes drilled into the plates.

 

[landtank]

Next I needed to mount the plates onto the axle and clamp them into position. Once clamped in place I used the holes in the plates to drill the pilot hole through the axle plate.

Then from there it was a pass with the 5/16" drill, 1/2" drill and finally the 5/8" drill.

 

[landtank]

Now it was just a matter of bolting up the arm and checking clearances. I haven't finished the birf job yet so it will be tomorrow before I can comment on the handling. One thing I did notice is a much better angle of the diff to the T-Case for my DC shaft. Also, after rotating the axle I noticed that the spriong sits quite a bit tighter to the axle. This is do to the fact that the axle basically rotated up on the shock mount.

 

[bjowett]

Excellent job, Rick!

 

[e9999]

whoah!
man, this is way smart!
nice job -as we expected from ya Rick!-

when you gonna start making some for us?

(why did ya need to take the knuckles off?)

 

[landtank]

(why did ya need to take the knuckles off?)

I needed to remove the knuckles to get a clear line of sight to the front position holes. Trying to work around them was near impossible and very frustrating.

 

[e9999]

I needed to remove the knuckles to get a clear line of sight to the front position holes. Trying to work around them was near impossible and very frustrating.

line of sight or line of drilling? cuz if the latter couldn't you use a right angle drill attachment?

 

[landtank]

line of sight or line of drilling? cuz if the latter couldn't you use a right angle drill attachment?

I don't think so, but maybe. I don't own one and the 1 person who I do know who has one was out of town. It gets real tight on the PS front area with the panhard mount on that side of the axle. The DS would work that way I think.

The driver's side and the rear passenger side was cake with just thge extensions. I only tore down the DS birf to keep them in sync.

 

[semlin]

rick, nice job. did you drill them out from both sides or from one side working in?

 

[Bambusiero]

Rick, what is that drill extension tool shown in your photo? It's has a very small diameter to hold that large drill bit. Never seen anything like that.

 

[landtank]

I drilled the pilots on the DS from each side and then the rest from the outside in through both plates. On the PS I had to drill all the holes from the outside in. For the PS you basically centerpunch and drill the the plates, then mount the outside plate on the outside and drill the axle plate using the pilot hole of the plate as a guide, then you mount that same plate on the inner side of the axle and drill that one. Now that both sides of the axled have been drilled you mount the plates appropriately. Then you just step up the drill sizes to enlarge the hole to 5/8".


That extension you see is a 1/4" hex drive extension. I bought that to go with a 5/16" hex drill bit for the first size up from the 1/8" pilot hole. The 2 remaining passes of a 1/2" and then 5/8" where done with a modified 7/16" extension drilled out to except the 1/2' shank of the larger bits.

 

[landtank]

Well as a final closing to the thread I just got back from my first drive. The truck handles great and the return to center of the steering wheel is much improved. One side affect that I didn't count on was the increase in lift to the front end. From rotating the axle the spring perch now sits flatter and the spring has less bow in it which produces more lift. An .75" more lift. On level ground my front hub to fender measurement was 22.5" and rear was 24.0", now it sits at 23.25" front and 24.25" in the rear. It's got a nice level stance now. Had I known this prior to drilling I could have selected 6* and had a more accurate out come, and 6* is a much easier setup.

 

[clownmidget]

Great job Rick. If you get a chance it would be great to get a pic of the front flexed out to its max to see how the plates and the front bushing behave. Also, are you considering welding the plates at any point?

Mike R

 

[landtank]

I'd like to get the plates welded in. I was thinking of posting in chat to see if someone in my service area might help me out since I don't have a welder or the abilities.

I don't mind flexing out the front end it's just not sure how to do it, I don't have a fork lift handy. One of the main reasons for my design was to continue to capture the bushing with the original plates. If you look at the pic of the drilled front of the PS you'll see that there is still plenty of the original plate to contact the bushing. From this I'd think it's pretty much the same as stock.


I'll see what I can come up with on the flex thing though.

 

[Cattledog]

Landtank, very clean install and well thought out caster correction. Any chance you could provide a cost breakdown. Are you thinking about selling these plates?

 

[landtank]

Landtank, very clean install and well thought out caster correction. Any chance you could provide a cost breakdown. Are you thinking about selling these plates?

I actually had 3 sets made up. I'm interested in selling the other 2. I've contacted a few people that have shown some interest. You can PM me and I'll let you know what I'm asking for one of those sets. I don't want to publically post that amount as I won't likely be able to provide more at that price without an order of 13 sets.