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So as I mentioned a few posts ago, I plan on redoing the rear suspension over the next few months. Spare time seems to be hard to come by these days so I'll be working on this slowly over the next couple months with the hope that it's ready to go by summertime.
Before I remove the axle and start hacking away I figured I would start with the crossmember. Taking cues from Nukegoat's very helpful thread, I got to work. The only permanent change at this point was cutting off the exhaust as it's in the way. Nice thing is I haven't made any irreversible changes...yet.
Building the crossmember is not really hard per say but it is a giant pain in the ass. The most miserable part of all this was drilling multiple holes in thick plates of steel with nothing but a hand drill. I recently obtained a drill press but apparently need some sort of blackmagic contraption to allow my lame civilian household voltage to work with the 3-phase motor of the press. Oh well.
As in Nuke's setup, the crossmember can really only go in one place in order to avoid serious fab work. And that place is right across the gas tank under the front-facing retaining strap. That gives you just enough room to clear the tank and the driveshaft.
The current state of my rear links and driveshaft. Plan is to run a DC shaft (which I bought from Tatton) and rotate the pinion up to give me a bit more ground clearance.
After cutting off the exhaust I welded on some 1/4" plates to serve as a base for the mounting point.
The crossmember itself is 2x3 square tubing, 1/4" thick. The mounting plates where the crossmember bolts to are 3/8" thick.
Pictured here is the small mounting base and crossmember. Also notice the drill bit graveyard. I broke several drill bits going thru the 3/8" plate and 1/4" crossmember for 5/8" bolts. The crossmember was sleeved for the bolts so that meant I actually had to go to 1" holes. By far my most miserable experience. 1/10 would not recommend.
Here is the crossmember with all the holes drilled. 3/8" mounting place is tacked in place for hole alignment (this will be a fully removable crossmember).
And here is the crossmember bolted up after welding the 3/8" mounting plates to the frame. Not quite done yet, still need a few more gussets/reinforcing of the mounting plate to the frame. The crossmember will also be notched to allow more clearance for the driveshaft at droop, especially because I will be running a DC shaft which has much bigger CV joint at the tcase.
Welding upside down sucks. I tend to believe I can put down a decent bead until I have to weld upside down. Then it looks like herpes and hammered dogsh1t.
Side view showing the 1" sleeves for the 5/8" bolts. This will be capped off once complete.
And started buying some brackets and junk. Will run beefy 1.25" FK heims (avoiding Chinese heims for sure). Since I'll be triangulating the lower links, I grabbed some 10º offset brackets to set the joint position back to neutral. Not sure how far I will inboard the lowers, but this is just to give you an idea.
I believe these brackets will give me enough room to clear the gas tank but we shall see. I could always lower them a bit if needed by welding on extra 1/4" plates. Where there are currently will put them at the same height as my front lower links.
Good visual of the height/length of my front links vs the stock rear setup.
Till the next update
Before I remove the axle and start hacking away I figured I would start with the crossmember. Taking cues from Nukegoat's very helpful thread, I got to work. The only permanent change at this point was cutting off the exhaust as it's in the way. Nice thing is I haven't made any irreversible changes...yet.
Building the crossmember is not really hard per say but it is a giant pain in the ass. The most miserable part of all this was drilling multiple holes in thick plates of steel with nothing but a hand drill. I recently obtained a drill press but apparently need some sort of blackmagic contraption to allow my lame civilian household voltage to work with the 3-phase motor of the press. Oh well.
As in Nuke's setup, the crossmember can really only go in one place in order to avoid serious fab work. And that place is right across the gas tank under the front-facing retaining strap. That gives you just enough room to clear the tank and the driveshaft.
The current state of my rear links and driveshaft. Plan is to run a DC shaft (which I bought from Tatton) and rotate the pinion up to give me a bit more ground clearance.
After cutting off the exhaust I welded on some 1/4" plates to serve as a base for the mounting point.
The crossmember itself is 2x3 square tubing, 1/4" thick. The mounting plates where the crossmember bolts to are 3/8" thick.
Pictured here is the small mounting base and crossmember. Also notice the drill bit graveyard. I broke several drill bits going thru the 3/8" plate and 1/4" crossmember for 5/8" bolts. The crossmember was sleeved for the bolts so that meant I actually had to go to 1" holes. By far my most miserable experience. 1/10 would not recommend.
Here is the crossmember with all the holes drilled. 3/8" mounting place is tacked in place for hole alignment (this will be a fully removable crossmember).
And here is the crossmember bolted up after welding the 3/8" mounting plates to the frame. Not quite done yet, still need a few more gussets/reinforcing of the mounting plate to the frame. The crossmember will also be notched to allow more clearance for the driveshaft at droop, especially because I will be running a DC shaft which has much bigger CV joint at the tcase.
Welding upside down sucks. I tend to believe I can put down a decent bead until I have to weld upside down. Then it looks like herpes and hammered dogsh1t.
Side view showing the 1" sleeves for the 5/8" bolts. This will be capped off once complete.
And started buying some brackets and junk. Will run beefy 1.25" FK heims (avoiding Chinese heims for sure). Since I'll be triangulating the lower links, I grabbed some 10º offset brackets to set the joint position back to neutral. Not sure how far I will inboard the lowers, but this is just to give you an idea.
I believe these brackets will give me enough room to clear the gas tank but we shall see. I could always lower them a bit if needed by welding on extra 1/4" plates. Where there are currently will put them at the same height as my front lower links.
Good visual of the height/length of my front links vs the stock rear setup.
Till the next update
