Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
That Pitman arm IS stupid, but the solution is solid. I have several sets of CJ and YJ springs now if you need anything that length. FREE, of course.
Project: Cheap! But still OK.
- Thread starter I Lean
- Start date
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Is that pitman arm going to be long enough eye to eye to match the super duty steering arm?
Nowhere close, but I won't be using the factory drag link spot at the knuckle. I'll make some weld-on steering arms.
Carl - good stuff.... I noticed your extended stabilizers. I need to get a couple to support vehicles on a lift to keep it from wobbling around, and maybe hold up different things. There is the style you have, and harbor freight has one that opens up at the bottom with legs when being used. Do like yours? Would you get that style again? Thanks
I don't mind them at all, I don't wish for anything different. They are smaller and lower capacity than the leg-style ones, so that might be a consideration for you.
These will sadly not be mantis-y in look, only in function. They will look pretty much just as redneck-ish as they currently do.
Yes, will absolutely need a track bar.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
If this flexes half-decent (I expect it will do better than that) you're gonna have a lot of E-builders feeling awful stupid about that week they spent cutting/grinding all of those Super Duty brackets off.
P.S. I love it. 😍😍
P.S. I love it. 😍😍
- Location
- South Carolina....no public land
Damn, itsabout time we had an update!
🤣🤣
Your work is excellent as expected!
🤣🤣
Your work is excellent as expected!
Stuff happened! No valid excuses for why I haven't done much. I've been busy with other things, and when I've had time......it's been hot outside.
BUT
Firstly, more-permanent radius arms. Not fully welded still, but in place.
Nextly, the pitman arm I modified wasn't able to work out. Just too short--to get full steering, the attachment point at the knuckle would have been INSIDE the casting. Not really possible. So I used a flat pitman arm for a CJ, and beefed it up since they can bend sometimes. (they aren't as beef as some other options) 3/8" plate welded all around it should take care of that.
And the big time-suck was making these steering arms. I really made life difficult for myself by building the wheels the way I did. That forced me to move the tie rod's ends much farther inboard than I would have wanted them ideally. But they're on, welded ugly, and solid. I built the panhard and it's brackets, the drag link and tie rod. The tie rod had to be bent also for diff clearance, even with it moving away from the axle with the weld-on brackets. That's because of the inward placement of the ends.
As a side benefit, Ackermann angles are WAY out the window. I'm sure it'll be fine. With a spool in the rear, tires will be scrubbing anyway, so you won't know if it's due to the locked rear, or the incorrect steering angles.
You'll also notice the pitman arm faces forward now. Yes, that will reverse my steering. I'll purchase an Astro steering box to replace it. (I actually already did buy one, but the guy sent me an AWD box instead of 2WD so the bolt pattern is different. I found this out after the return window had closed....)
This is sitting at around 6-7" uptravel in these pics. Next steps will be to make axle-side coilover mounts, then lower the thing down onto it's own axles and start making room for the coilovers themselves.
BUT
Firstly, more-permanent radius arms. Not fully welded still, but in place.
Nextly, the pitman arm I modified wasn't able to work out. Just too short--to get full steering, the attachment point at the knuckle would have been INSIDE the casting. Not really possible. So I used a flat pitman arm for a CJ, and beefed it up since they can bend sometimes. (they aren't as beef as some other options) 3/8" plate welded all around it should take care of that.
And the big time-suck was making these steering arms. I really made life difficult for myself by building the wheels the way I did. That forced me to move the tie rod's ends much farther inboard than I would have wanted them ideally. But they're on, welded ugly, and solid. I built the panhard and it's brackets, the drag link and tie rod. The tie rod had to be bent also for diff clearance, even with it moving away from the axle with the weld-on brackets. That's because of the inward placement of the ends.
As a side benefit, Ackermann angles are WAY out the window. I'm sure it'll be fine. With a spool in the rear, tires will be scrubbing anyway, so you won't know if it's due to the locked rear, or the incorrect steering angles.
You'll also notice the pitman arm faces forward now. Yes, that will reverse my steering. I'll purchase an Astro steering box to replace it. (I actually already did buy one, but the guy sent me an AWD box instead of 2WD so the bolt pattern is different. I found this out after the return window had closed....)
This is sitting at around 6-7" uptravel in these pics. Next steps will be to make axle-side coilover mounts, then lower the thing down onto it's own axles and start making room for the coilovers themselves.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
TIG looks awesome. Those Ford rad arm files will be useful in the future, I think.
- Location
- Vehicular limbo
I was just kinda thinking that.
I didn't get a pic before pulling it out, but the fan/HVAC box on the passenger side was in the way of where a coilover needs to live. Since I deleted the A/C, it doesn't need room for the evaporator in there. Non-A/C plenums exist, but only in the used market, and are $300-ish. Nope.
Here's how it started:
A little choppy-chop, an ugly piece of orange fleece, and some epoxy resin shrinks it to this: You can't see it, but there's a second layer of fleece on the inside, so the "fiberglass" is encapsulating both inside and out of the plastic. That way even if it doesn't bond well, it's trapped in place. (and it seemed to bond just great)
Some paint to make it less orange:
And just to remind you how much I cut off:
And, back in place. Look at all that room for activities!
Here's how it started:
A little choppy-chop, an ugly piece of orange fleece, and some epoxy resin shrinks it to this: You can't see it, but there's a second layer of fleece on the inside, so the "fiberglass" is encapsulating both inside and out of the plastic. That way even if it doesn't bond well, it's trapped in place. (and it seemed to bond just great)
Some paint to make it less orange:
And just to remind you how much I cut off:
And, back in place. Look at all that room for activities!