It started... (3 Viewers)

[97kurt]

Also been there, done that. I'm such a wuss now with my eyes. Not only did it cost me 1/2 a paycheck, but having the doc dig that chunk of iron out of my eye was less than pleasant.

On a good note, he was one of the best eye doc's I've ever been to, and would gladly do anything the man ever asked of me.

This was the second time in 3 years that I have had rust removed from my eye. First time costed $15 (copay), I got lucky at the St Maries Urgent care up in Galena when there just happened to be an eye doctor doing rounds at the right moment. Second time costed about 10 times that much..

Anyways, this just arrived for me. Worth every penny. (~$40 Uvex face shield, from amazon)

 

[Krusty Krab]

The straighter shot to the right side knuckle, the better. I've got a buddy with a buggy that has about 2" of offset to the front of the rig, from being square to the high steer arm on the pass side knuckle. He has nothing but problems with either bending the tie rod end, or breaking knuckles because it's pushing rearward and sideways rather than just sideways.

Clear as mud?

Straighter shot is good as long your not contacting the draglink or pittman arm while flexing up. I would hold off on bolting the P/S on till you've been able to stuff that left front tire and cycle the streering left and right. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[97kurt]

Straighter shot is good as long your not contacting the draglink or pittman arm while flexing up. I would hold off on bolting the P/S on till you've been able to stuff that left front tire and cycle the streering left and right. Just my 2 cents worth.

Good idea, I'll probably need to remove one of the front bolts on the arms to be able to get it to flex completely.

 

[97kurt]

Keeping it low sucks.. No way around it, had to notch the frame. Was a little fearful about it but it was holding me up.

Using some frame tubes I got from WFO I have the upper two mounting holes for the steering box on the top of the frame, should be easy to fully weld and beef them up. Also means less drilling

The GM draglink end is massive, had I run the fj80 end on the pitman arm I would of had a few more mounting options. As it stands I have about a 1/8" margin of error between the tie rod making contact with the draglink end (full bump turned right), or the tie rod making contact with the sector shaft (full bump turned left). I fully get why people use the rear swing IFS box now.

Just for comparison, found this image of the two ends.

Worst case I can buy the fj80 end, new pitman arm and put a different end on the draglink I guess.

 

[chicago]

There were no other options besides notching the frame?
Keep a close eye on that man.
Funny how these things snow ball, isn't it.

 

[97kurt]

I could of added 2" of lift or switched to a rear swing IFS box. Snowball is a good way to describe it though.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Snowball? In some cases it's more like avalanche. The chain of cause and effect gets crazy when you start doing some of these mods.
It's easy to see how some builds go one for two or three years.

 

[97kurt]

Snowball? In some cases it's more like avalanche. The chain of cause and effect gets crazy when you start doing some of these mods.
It's easy to see how some builds go one for two or three years.

Days like this I wish I had a separate garage just for this stuff, wife would be much happier.

Steering box is mounted, made the draglink and got that attached, Now if I can shoe horn in a panhard bar in on sunday then that will be a huge victory.

Is it best practice to just match the drag links length and try to get it as parallel as possible to the drag link? Or should I go longer if I have room?

 

[97kurt]

Well the one tool I need I do not own. Panhard is gonna need a few small bends. Making a template right now with some scrap tube so that I can take it to samco or trent.. unless I can track down someone in town that has a bender. Even with the bends its gonna be a pretty tight fit with 1.5od tube.

 

[chicago]

Wow!!!!
Gotta love though. Welcome to my world my friend!!! lol!

 

[97kurt]

Snails pace... Hoping to have the truck off the jack stands on Sunday.. Probably jynxed myself. ;p

Chris (Mr Burns) over on reno4x4 was nice enough to let me use his bender and after two trips to the hidden valley area from NW Reno I think I have something that is useable.

I got some POR-15 tank sealer at summit and coated the oil pan. Once I get the pan back on I can finish the frame side panhard mount and figure out how I will build the axle side one.


Also ran to hose & fittings today to get two brake lines and a HP power steering line made.

 

[DiscoveredLC]

Progress is looking good! Didn't read this till today, but I live up in nw Reno and have a 1.5" die set... I just work and live out of town during the week. Keep up the good work!

 

[97kurt]

Progress is looking good! Didn't read this till today, but I live up in nw Reno and have a 1.5" die set... I just work and live out of town during the week. Keep up the good work!

Sweet, good to know. I had never used a bender before till this week. I'm guessing there are a ton of tricks to getting things to land where you want them and I knew none of them.

I re-did the frame side panhard mount to get it about 1/2" lower last night and got the axle side mount half way done. I'm either gonna need to bend some plate or weld and angled piece to fit the contour of the axle. All in all not a bad night.

 

[97kurt]

Rolling.. but far from done. Got a drive line noise, resi mounts, issues with the hubs and alignment to deal with in the morning.

 

[locrwln1]

Very cool.

Jack