Need help on SOA conversion!

[TuffMudder]

Thanks Lil' John

If you're interested, this is the Tech article I was referring to that recommended the stock leaf springs with an add a leaf
http://www.ih8mud.com/tech/soa/2.html

 

[NikP]

Nik, are you spring over or under?

Spring Over.

 

[TuffMudder]

Spring Over.

How hard is it to climb into at that height? Don't suppose you have a pick you could post?

 

[NikP]

Here is one I took Saturday. I can't tell about getting in and out. All I do so far is sit in the drivers seat and make motor noises pretending there will be a day when it will run and go down the road.

I'm thinking my 5'2" wife will need a step stool. I'm thinking I will likely fabricate some king of combo slider/step.

 

[TuffMudder]

Looks nice, and oh what i wouldn't do to have a seat in which to sit and make my own vroom vroom sounds

 

[scrapdaddy]

Do what you have to do, I used a milk crate. Just don't let your Wife catch you.

 

[fj55tlc]

My wife is not much taller than that and she hops up there with no problem with a grin on her face. She gets more excited than I do, I think.

 

[TuffMudder]

This is a question for everyone reading.

What's the minimum clearance between your oil pan and axle?

Lil'John, how close were you when you did the fork lift test pictured previously?

 

[TuffMudder]

I went to measure and found that my oilpan is standard small block chevy(rear sump) so the frame comes up quicker straight up from the diff than the oil pan.

Lucky Bastard. So what is your smallest clearance distance?

JMack, and anyone else with a 4bt for that matter, how much clearance do you have between your oil pan and axle?

 

[J Mack]

Everything is out of mine but from what I remember it's under 5" and I'll put air bumps in to control the upward movement.

Might PM Boots4 and ask how much he has on his 60, it looks like he is also is close on his diff to oil pan but he gets plenty of flex still.


Boots4 build thread :https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/family-haulin.160807/

 

[TuffMudder]

Thanks JMack. I'm right at 5 inches at the moment, but that's in a vehicle that would take a step ladder to get into. I need to get my frame down under nosebleed height but still keep enough clearance to allow for flex. It's like threading a needle with a 2+ton vehicle

 

[TuffMudder]

Well, if worse comes to worse, turns out the 4bt oil pan is symmetrical, so I may be able to get better clearance by reversing it and getting a new oil pickup to make it a rear sump

 

[J Mack]

I turned mine around and bought a rear sump oil pickup.

 

[TuffMudder]

I turned mine around and bought a rear sump oil pickup.

Now he tells me! I'll be doing that as well. Did I mention that our builds seem to have alot of similarities?

Did you have to move the dipstick?

 

[J Mack]

Did you have to move the dipstick?

Yes..

 

[TuffMudder]

Alright, so after much perseverating, I finally decided there wasn't anyway in hell this thing was going to work with the current spring setup. So order some parts and today I recieved



Liquid Iron Industries Leaf Spring Sliders. I think i'll be alot happier with the leaf sliders all around, not just with the lowering. I should lose around 4 inches going from shackles to these. I'm also going to have the leaf perches lowered and in the end I think I'll end up with the bottom of the frame at around 23-24" which will still be a heck of a step up, but more manageable by far.

The hangers will get cut off tomorrow and hopefully have the sliders on by weeks end.

 

[TuffMudder]

I almost forgot...

Lil' John, how did you decide where to mount the sliders?

 

[TuffMudder]

Thanks Lil John. That helps. It sounds like my best bet would be to verify bolt placement at full compression or droop to make sure I'm not running out of channel on the slider. Barring that it will be a bit of a guessing game.

Of course this build has taught me I suck at guessing games based on the things I've had to redo

 

[SAWTOOTH 55 LC]

I also found these nice pictures of the front from when it was on the forklift:

This one is the spring as compressed as it will get. You can see the spring starting to go negative arch. You can also see tie rod spacing.

Another interesting thing to note in the above picture is the VERY small spring pad on the driverside. With it THAT small, I could get axle wrap with a breaker bar on the pinion

Here is the other side at droop. You can see how much of the spring slider is used.

And sorry about the picture highjack in your thread

hope you don't need to make a right hand turn at this angle...looks tight at the pitman

 

[TuffMudder]

From looking at your pics, it looks to me like the bolt only uses about 1/2 of the length of the slider channel from full compression to full droop. Is that correct?