Wanted to update this thread for those of you that had followed along. Life has been real hectic and progress has been fairly slow. A lot has happened even at the slow pace I have been able to work on this project. I have the rear suspension completely finished.
The front suspension is a completely different story...
Unfortunately it had to go... You can see the new clip on the table in the background.
The new clip is a front steer Laughlin Racing Products piece. It is what they have been running for the last 30 plus years. There was no steering pieces available for the rear steer clip that I started with. So the logical call was to change to something that I could find plenty of parts for. Got lucky and came up with this clip with the first phone call. All the pieces except upper control arms. It is just not possible to find an upper with the fitment I need so we will take a good set of uppers and use the pivot shafts along with the ball joints to fab what I need.
The new front clip is on and fully welded. I did install it 1'' higher to give the front a slightly lower stance. The bottom of the front crossmember is 1/4'' lower than the main rails. As are the lower control arm support struts that run back to the main rails. I needed jackscrews for the front so I ordered some 1 1/8'' threaded rod from MSC and made 2 on my lathe. The square on the top is a 1/2'' drive 9/16'' Craftsmen socket that the socket end was cut off of. Bored the end of the threaded rod to the OD of the socket and Tig welded it in. I cut the sockets out of a junk set of jackscrews that I had. Surprised me what they were when I got them out...
Next will be the cab mounts that you can see laying on top of the rails and then running board mounts. I should have it home in my shop soon.
The front suspension is a completely different story...
Unfortunately it had to go... You can see the new clip on the table in the background.
The new clip is a front steer Laughlin Racing Products piece. It is what they have been running for the last 30 plus years. There was no steering pieces available for the rear steer clip that I started with. So the logical call was to change to something that I could find plenty of parts for. Got lucky and came up with this clip with the first phone call. All the pieces except upper control arms. It is just not possible to find an upper with the fitment I need so we will take a good set of uppers and use the pivot shafts along with the ball joints to fab what I need.
The new front clip is on and fully welded. I did install it 1'' higher to give the front a slightly lower stance. The bottom of the front crossmember is 1/4'' lower than the main rails. As are the lower control arm support struts that run back to the main rails. I needed jackscrews for the front so I ordered some 1 1/8'' threaded rod from MSC and made 2 on my lathe. The square on the top is a 1/2'' drive 9/16'' Craftsmen socket that the socket end was cut off of. Bored the end of the threaded rod to the OD of the socket and Tig welded it in. I cut the sockets out of a junk set of jackscrews that I had. Surprised me what they were when I got them out...
Next will be the cab mounts that you can see laying on top of the rails and then running board mounts. I should have it home in my shop soon.
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