Builds reviving "isabel" (1 Viewer)

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hahaha, in a couple of months you're gonna change your tune to:"tow isabel, tow"! :flipoff2:


who loves you baby?! :grinpimp:
 
come awn nolan! :rolleyes:

so i did get a few things done this weekend, but parts issues made it a not so productive weekend.
good news, finally figured out a way to make my bead blasting cabinet work better:
MVC-909S.JPG
 
i got the new rotors mated to the hubs without any probelms so i went on to the knuckle assembly. i replaced the lower trunion bearing races and sealing flanges (or whatever you call those). next i installed the knuckles. i had bought some new grade 8 hardware just bacause, could'nt find the old bolts either way. then i went on to install the caliper mounting bracketts and spindles and that's where the trouble started and it would'nt end.
i had bought a "3/4 ton disc brake conversion kit for 15" rims" on ebay. the parts looked like they were nicely made and pretty good quality. they did however not include any instructions nor was there a contact phone # to be found anywhere. :eek:
on the first knuckle i decided to go in this sequence:
knuckle-caliper brackett-spacer-spindle
and this went together just fine but spaced the spindle an extra 9/16th away from the knuckle so the pivot point of the knuckle and axle u-joint would either be on different plains as long as the axle shaft was where it's supposed to sit in the spindle and the outer retaining snap ring was installed. this would mean having the axle shafts moved towards the outside and in turn sliding the inner axle part way out of the spider gear. not cool. i had assembled it this way because i had found a pic on deadenbear's website showing their conversion brackett mounted in that order.
so on the other side i tried to mock it up as:
knuckle-spindle-spacer-caliper brackett which was the only logical way of doing it. well, that did'nt work out so well since neither the caliper brackett nor the spacer ring would clear the spindle. the center hole in them was not cut quite large enough. on top of that, the caliper would hit the spindle doing it this way so a small radius would have to be removed from the spindle to clear the caliper.
i figured the best way to handle this would be to contact the ebay seller. that was sunday and no word yet. who would have guessed?! :mad:
the place is called "hard on off road". guess that should have been a warning but they had good feedback when i was checking them out. so i started a thread on pirate and not to my surprise, i was'nt the only one who's had problems with their bracketts.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3988266#post3988266

so all that pretty much killed my inspiration to get anything else done so i did some yard work instead. :frown:
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MVC-912S.JPG
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here's a pic of the "incorrect" assembly.
MVC-915S.JPG
 
I want your PIG! (don't take that the wrong way)
 
i knew you were'nt talking about my wife. although i'm not so sure what kowpie told you about her. :flamingo:

and yes, the 55 is for sale. :grinpimp:
 
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.
 
Get the BT arms with a 5/8" hole and ream it out yourself.

It is a piece of cake..
 
yeah, that's another option i contemplated. i do have the reamer at home. guess we'll see when i get the parts. i have one ton TREs at home as well.
 
orangefj45 said:
yeah, that's another option i contemplated. i do have the reamer at home. guess we'll see when i get the parts. i have one ton TREs at home as well.
Do it, Heck, I reamed out a TRE out at the hammers a couple of weekends ago. It really is easy..

BTW, I really don't like Sky, and am not suprised at the response that you got.
 
Mace said:
BTW, I really don't like Sky, and am not suprised at the response that you got.


yup. too bad, cause they do have some decent looking parts. i'm not gonna go out of my way and bitch about it on any forums though. too much of that going on already. :frown:
 
:) on the brackets, the guy i have spoke with a few time awhile back, seemed up to par.

take your old arm to local machinst, chuck it up and make you another, for the other side?

Biggest thing with TRE if you have enough room on the arms to fit them, but with rear tie rod do the TRE! BTW are they making front and rear arms for both sides? HA point for the future.
 
just talked to paul at "hard on off road". he's tellingme that they run the arms between the knuckle and spindle. i don't like that idea at all. he offered a full refunbd for the bracketts if i was'nt happy with them. i then talked to j.b. about the bracketts and he has the ones i'm looking for. they mount on the outside of the spindle in the stock location. they are bent to locate the caliper in the proper position and yo do have to "clearance" the spindle some for the caliper to clear.
2 small problems: COD only, no paypal, no credit card, and they're 2 weeks out. dam!!!!
but he is a great guy to talk to, really knows what he's doing. on top of that, they're building a kick-ass fj45 on 1 tons and 42" swampers right now. :grinpimp:

blue torch does make the arms in different setups. they're updating the website right now and it will be showing all the arms soon. if you look in the vendor section on the pbb in misc you'll see some of their new stuff. looks pretty sweet.
 
Damn those things are a work of art, not only function but the they have the pretty factor also.

After spending 4 years working along side machinist helping set up debur etc I can really appreciate what goes into parts like those shown.

Five axis machines with live tooling rock.....
 
found a damn good deal on a compressor that was only a month old and i needed something with a little more power to keep up with the bead blaster. could'nt pass it up. :)
 
Georg,

Is that a Husky from the Depot?? Just wondering on teh specs since I am hoping to be getting one sometime in the next few months... :)
 

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