so after 3 days i finally got an email back from "hard on off road" with his phone # and a very brief note to call him after 5pm. hmmmmmmm.
more compromises. i was'nt happy with the sky mfg. hi steer arms. i had one of their arms already. it's for the passenger side and has 2 holes in it for the drag link and the tie-rod. so i called them and ordered the "matching" driver side arm which only has one hole in it for the tie-rod along with a pair of high steer arm stud kits.
when i got the arm, it looked like a nice piece; well machined. i started to compare the two and quickly realized that the tie-rod hole location was different between the two arms. the newer arm's hole was .5" closer to rotating center than the old arm. that did'nt look and sound so cool in theory so i called sky right away, of course before installing them. they were pretty easy to talk to just like the time before and asked me to send both arms back so they could look at them, mentioned something about changing machinists,....... .
i called them today after having explained the urgency of this situation and its resolution during the previous phone call. they had received the arm but nobody had bothered to call me. either way. the bottom line was:" the old arm you have is our previous design and should not be used in combination with the new arm, but we'll be happy to sell you another arm to replace your old unit." that did'nt sit so well with me because i was not infomed of that possible problem prior to purchasing the driver side arm. there was no mention of old and new designs neither on the website nor by the guy i talked to when ordering the arm.
on top of that, i initially really wanted to use a double arm setup to move the tie-rod behind the front axle. however, since i had the one arm already, i figured to save a few bucks, i'd just buy the matching arm and run the tie-rod in the stock location, in front of the axle.
so i pondered the thought for a while and then decided to go with the new blue torch arms. they look cool and set my steering up the way i want it to be. only problem is that they only have the arms set up for heim ends right now. the arms machined for the TREs won't be available for at least 5-6 weeks. that really created a problem since i do not have that much time. the only other option is to go with the heim ends. i did'nt want to use them initially since this cruiser will be street driven.
i ended up talking to gather at blue torch (
http://www.bluetorchfab.com/home.htm) and ordered their arms, u-bolt kit for the d60 front, weld in tube ends, jam nuts and heim ends. they gave me a good deal on all these parts and since a few friends of mine had used them and were really satisfied, i did'nt see why i should'nt patronize them. i should have their parts by the end of next week so i can hopefully get this dam front axle done.