GSMTR Buildup Has Begun - Finally

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Eric...

You dont have to replace with a single soft line right away, or possibly ever. But it makes it much easier to move the caliper around. Those tires look huuuuuge on your truck.
 
lowtideride said:
Eric...

You dont have to replace with a single soft line right away, or possibly ever. But it makes it much easier to move the caliper around. Those tires look huuuuuge on your truck.
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I'll take a look at it - so you're saying I could just attach the softline directly to the caliper, right? Wouldn't that bind on turns?

Anyway - it just got a whole lot easier to get under the Cruiser to work on it!

I'll take a look at the front brakes tonight and see what's up. I'd hate to have to ditch the braided stainless lines I have up there now - they're only a couple years old.
 
No you would keep the hard line there with the soft until you got the longer soft lines. I ran it like that for a while til one day i was breaking into my knuckle and the hard line said no more and broke off. So i ordered the longer soft lines....Its just easier to cut all the junk away now and then later when you need to replace the line.


You could put the steel braided ones else where... like on the 80, its getting up there in miles. or maybe off of you MC for the bling factor.:D
 
Eric Gets Radical

Eric - Pics look great. Get some more posted up.

I like you're new line of thinking - the old Eric would just say I'm not going to wheel that hard to the point where I'm breaking birfs. The new Eric is implying he's gonna go ballistic on lower 2 and must get those damn dust shields out of the way - gonna break so many birfs I'm gonna need the extra 5 minutes for each change out - kool :flipoff2: Seroiusly now, roll cage, PS, lockers, lift and 35's - you are going to have some serous fun.
 
Bill: take a look at your shackles, I thought when we were there they may have been upside down. I think the short triangulated section goes towards the frame. There is a similar post in the 40 section.
 
They are - noticed the other day. Moving those to the rear and installing some shorter shackles up front I borrowed from Mike M. I'll probably end up making my own smaller anti-inversion shackles - who needs cad plating anyways :D

Bret said:
Bill: take a look at your shackles, I thought when we were there they may have been upside down. I think the short triangulated section goes towards the frame. There is a similar post in the 40 section.
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nice

sweet cage chuck...where's the seperate dog rollover cage for the rear??? lol
 
Slow progress this week. Wired new outdoor outlets under breaker box for a 30a 220 for the welder and two 20a for misc. Then still swapping shackles and leaves to get the height down. Another night or two and should have it lined up to tack weld in place - maybe this Sat. Damn slow having to work and all.

Chuck - I like the new soft top Al pointed out - looks like good UV rating but maybe a bit weak for highway speeds.

On the rear brackets for the cage - while it's good to use the stock mounting holes - remember to try and keep the width narrowed down so you can lift the whole thing out - my brackets will hit the lip so if I ever want to remove the cage I'll have to trim a bit - Brett noticed this on mine and adjusted his accordingly. Looking good.
 
The rear has lots of metal to go as does the front. Rasco is going to be like a bird in a bird cage. :eek: That xlarge soft top gets high marks from my neighbors too. lol. Very classy look. Good point about stock holes. This does use them and is designed to be removed in one peice. ...one heavy 200 lb peice that is.
Not positive but thought I put in a 50 amp circuit for my welder.
 
ChuckD said:
Not positive but thought I put in a 50 amp circuit for my welder.
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Also meant to mention I really like that little bend at the top of the rear hoop - looks good.

Yeah I'm confused on the welding outlet amperage. Common sense says 50 amp and 6 gauge - but the specs seem to imply 30 amp (i.e. 10 gauge), that and the NEPA plug is a 30 amp job as well - don't want to be running 50 amp thru that? All this and it's a decent sized Hobart Handler 185 - if anybody knows any better please post - heck, I rewired many of the things in my house including a 60 amp for the 19 seer air handler, and 40 amp for the convection micro - so yeah, 30 just seems downright wrong???
 
One more shackle to change out and ready to start welding up. Came down about 1.5" - and that's after putting on the 38.5's versus the 37's - so figure it came down about 2.5" from last week. Still - looks way stable with the other tires on it - the beadlocks are only 2 or 2.5" offset - so really widens it up a bit. Check out the steering arm that was on the doorstep at lunch - Gary Kardum - damn impressive service and turnaround.

Double checked the welding plug and it is actualy a NEPA 50 amp - but checked another website and it too said 30 amp - and was using a 10 gauge extension cord?
4-6-lowered-web.webp
4-6-mudrakarm-web.webp
 
I have a Millermatic 175 (230V) and I have it running on a 30A dryer outlet with no trouble. I think it pulls 20A at full load. If you can I would run a 50A line. You can always make an adapter extension cord, mine comes in real handy. You never know what you'll want to run next. A hot tub maybe???

Edit: I used a 6ga extension cord (25ft) because it wasn't much more to build instead of 10ga
 
The FJ40 rolled out of the garage for the first time in over a year tonight - progress!!

The brake system had drained to empty in the last several weeks so I had to bleed the master first - wasn't too hard to do actually. Then we added fluid and bled all four corners.

Tomorrow night I plan to put a battery in it and get it fired up.

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to drive it to work within a week's time.

-Eric
 
While you guys are building up your rigs, Now would be a good time to locktite your hub studs in. I did that last night while I was changing out the rotors. Everyone of them was loose from running large tires and a front locker. Loose hub studs is the number one cause of why they fail. Plus its easier to lock tite them now rather than easy out them on the side of the trail....Just a thought. Builds look like they are coming along nicly!!!!
 
lowtideride said:
While you guys are building up your rigs, Now would be a good time to locktite your hub studs in. I did that last night while I was changing out the rotors. Everyone of them was loose from running large tires and a front locker. Loose hub studs is the number one cause of why they fail. Plus its easier to lock tite them now rather than easy out them on the side of the trail....Just a thought. Builds look like they are coming along nicly!!!!
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Ditto - this is why I spent some 3 odd hours swapping out all the brake rotor and bearing races into a spare pair of parts hubs (or whatever the wheel bearings ride in and the rotor attaches to?) - the pin holes on the old ones were all wallowed out putting too much pressure on the actual studs - broke one or 2 every trip and literally had to retighten every other day of wheeling. Bought 6 new studs, and will use 6 old - but remember what you lock tite in is much harder to remove when you break them - I for one go the lock tite route and cross my fingers.
 
Bret said:
I have a Millermatic 175 (230V) and I have it running on a 30A dryer outlet with no trouble. I think it pulls 20A at full load. If you can I would run a 50A line. You can always make an adapter extension cord, mine comes in real handy. You never know what you'll want to run next. A hot tub maybe???

Edit: I used a 6ga extension cord (25ft) because it wasn't much more to build instead of 10ga
Click to expand...

Bret - I made up a 15' 10 ga cord using hardware store parts - could easily do the same with the same outlets/plug I bought (50 amp NEPA stuff) with 6 gauge wire - but I think 10 is fine for a 15' run...

Question - what wire are you running for stuff like 1/4" plate to 1/8" or 3/16" stuff on the Cruiser? Flux or gas shielded - let me know which. Have a welding shop 3 blocks from my house and was thinking of getting something thicker than the .30 that I currently have for both.
 
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