I just did the slot/weld version of castor correction, on the front bolt of the axle mount.
Wow, man is that alot of work! Kumar (ktp_inacoma) took some great pictures when he did his, but actually getting in there and doing the work is another story...oh and starting at 10:30pm, finishing at 3:00am, that's a bit of a challenge also.
I do not have my digital camera so no pics...sorry...
I will tell you the ONE clever thing I found out, to slot the hole it's easiest to just cut down the sides with something like a sawzall starting at the hole, however the blade for a sawzall is to tall (maybe 3/4" and the hole is smaller than that), so what I did on the 3rd hole (I caught on eventually), was to cut the sawzall blade in half height-wise, so it was still the same length, but only about 3/8" tall, then it would go in the hole and cut perfectly...that made it WAY easier. Granted you still have to get that metal out of there, I used the peel/cut/rip method, which does NOT appear to be the best way. I had a air diegrinder which sucked, the bits would just grind away, it would grind a little bit of metal but hardly anything, I went through 3 bits on ONE hole, and got maybe 3/16" of metal away, so that was useless.
The holes I drilled in my new side pieces were 9/16" (14mm), since I was told the original bolts were 14mm...well as far as I can tell that is completely wrong. My bolts would not even come close to fitting into that hole, I drilled a new hole with a 5/8" bit and they were snug in there. The 14mm bolts I bought were ofcourse way to small, I was replacing the bolts so I would have plenty of threads after the weld-in side pieces. So I ended up reusing the stock bolts (for then, just bought new ones today), that had maybe 1/2 of the threads in the nut grabbing, not a great solution but when you're 40 miles from home at 3:00am, you make sacrifices..
I guess the factory bolts are 16mm?? I found 16mm bolts but the place only had one bolt, so I got 5/8" bolts...so I'm going to put those in tonight, atleast that is the semi-plan. I can't say for certain what sizes the bolts are, I think the ones I bought were mislabeled and were really 12mm not 14mm...not sure, I'll figure it out tonight, and edit this post then...
I already have the OME castor correction bushings, but they were not handling the suspenion well...with the mod and those bushings it drives WAY better. I honestly couldn't believe the difference driving home. Granted I was mostly asleep and not paying alot of attention, but even being asleep hitting the brakes on rutted roads did not cause immediate unexpected lane changes...quite the change!
So if anyone else is considering this, and wants some pointers, actually more what NOT to do than what to do, let me know..
While under mine, my brother discovered the lower knuckle bolts (holds the steering arm on) were loose, REALLY loose, not even finger tight, showing a 1/16"-1/8" gap inbetween that arm and the knuckle...bad, BAD...so I tightened those up, but was still very suprised to see that, I torqued them plenty when I did the knuckle work, which was about 60K miles ago, but still didn't expect it. So check your knuckle joints!! Atleast it wasn't as bad as what we found on his Rover Disco, a broken spring, his right rear spring just broke, both top and bottom are retained by design (not like our's) so the two halfs just kinda hit each other and was still holding up, coils bent slightly where they were hitting since one coil just snapped...wow, never seen that before!! They were Safari Gard coils, which I think come from OME...several years old, looked really rusted...
Later..
Mark Brodis
Wow, man is that alot of work! Kumar (ktp_inacoma) took some great pictures when he did his, but actually getting in there and doing the work is another story...oh and starting at 10:30pm, finishing at 3:00am, that's a bit of a challenge also.
I do not have my digital camera so no pics...sorry...
I will tell you the ONE clever thing I found out, to slot the hole it's easiest to just cut down the sides with something like a sawzall starting at the hole, however the blade for a sawzall is to tall (maybe 3/4" and the hole is smaller than that), so what I did on the 3rd hole (I caught on eventually), was to cut the sawzall blade in half height-wise, so it was still the same length, but only about 3/8" tall, then it would go in the hole and cut perfectly...that made it WAY easier. Granted you still have to get that metal out of there, I used the peel/cut/rip method, which does NOT appear to be the best way. I had a air diegrinder which sucked, the bits would just grind away, it would grind a little bit of metal but hardly anything, I went through 3 bits on ONE hole, and got maybe 3/16" of metal away, so that was useless.
The holes I drilled in my new side pieces were 9/16" (14mm), since I was told the original bolts were 14mm...well as far as I can tell that is completely wrong. My bolts would not even come close to fitting into that hole, I drilled a new hole with a 5/8" bit and they were snug in there. The 14mm bolts I bought were ofcourse way to small, I was replacing the bolts so I would have plenty of threads after the weld-in side pieces. So I ended up reusing the stock bolts (for then, just bought new ones today), that had maybe 1/2 of the threads in the nut grabbing, not a great solution but when you're 40 miles from home at 3:00am, you make sacrifices..
I guess the factory bolts are 16mm?? I found 16mm bolts but the place only had one bolt, so I got 5/8" bolts...so I'm going to put those in tonight, atleast that is the semi-plan. I can't say for certain what sizes the bolts are, I think the ones I bought were mislabeled and were really 12mm not 14mm...not sure, I'll figure it out tonight, and edit this post then...I already have the OME castor correction bushings, but they were not handling the suspenion well...with the mod and those bushings it drives WAY better. I honestly couldn't believe the difference driving home. Granted I was mostly asleep and not paying alot of attention, but even being asleep hitting the brakes on rutted roads did not cause immediate unexpected lane changes...quite the change!
So if anyone else is considering this, and wants some pointers, actually more what NOT to do than what to do, let me know..
While under mine, my brother discovered the lower knuckle bolts (holds the steering arm on) were loose, REALLY loose, not even finger tight, showing a 1/16"-1/8" gap inbetween that arm and the knuckle...bad, BAD...so I tightened those up, but was still very suprised to see that, I torqued them plenty when I did the knuckle work, which was about 60K miles ago, but still didn't expect it. So check your knuckle joints!! Atleast it wasn't as bad as what we found on his Rover Disco, a broken spring, his right rear spring just broke, both top and bottom are retained by design (not like our's) so the two halfs just kinda hit each other and was still holding up, coils bent slightly where they were hitting since one coil just snapped...wow, never seen that before!! They were Safari Gard coils, which I think come from OME...several years old, looked really rusted...
Later..
Mark Brodis
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