Pumpkin gets a little maintenance and a new lower link

[Rick]

A friend of mine reconfigured the lower control arm on the Pumpkin. He is convinced it will work better than the last one which was straight I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

My weekend project is to replace the balljoints and a few heim joints that have loosened up.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Nice, they look like they should slide off of the rocks easier than a straight link bar.

 

[colintrax]

I'm betting he's right.

Also, subd to see how it works for you lol

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Hey Colintrax, you know you won the February EF Lottery, right?

 

[colintrax]

Hey Colintrax, you know you won the February EF Lottery, right?

Yup
First thing I've ever won. I woulda won fantasy SX the same night had I not changed my picks

 

[Rick]

I took it out today and was messing around near the house. It definitely handles rough fast trails better. I'm not bottoming out nearly as much as I was. I need to flex it out to see if it still has all the droop that it should.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Rick are those Chevy 1ton tre's?

 

[Rick]

Yes they are.

 

[Rick]

Well the drivers side ball joints went easy. The passenger side has fought me the whole way It was super hard to get the tapers to break free from the inner C. Took everything I had, one and a half times

While putting it all back together I accidently mounted the brake backing plate off by one bolt. I had already tightened the nuts on the six spindle studs, so off they came... well except for one. One of the studs stripped as I was removing the nut. I had to cut the nut off To make matters worse this was the bottom stud which meant the knuckle had to come out again in order for me push the stud out.

Well, that dang thing was locked just as tight, or tighter than it was in the first time around. I had to call it quits and start again this morning. I finally got it back apart, and I'm nearly finished with the job. Once I had the bulk of the components reinstalled I just dropped everything and I haven't been off the couch since.

 

[Rick]

Finally finished... The Pumpkin drives so much nicer with 4 new ball joints, 3 new heim joints and a trackbar bushing!! It's amazing how easy it is to get used to components that wear out slowly over time. All of these new parts made a night and day difference.

Oh, I forgot to mention the grease fittings that I had to chisel off of my CTM u-joints. The hex head stripped off two of them I called CTM to order replacements and a couple extras... $4 each for grease fittings!! I asked if they were also made of 300M like their U-joints. He laughed and said no 300M, but each fitting has to be chucked in a lathe and machined down so that they will clear the ball joint studs. Ahh the joys of custom everything

 

[turboexplorer]

Looks good! Fully agree, don't notice how bad things get when they go bad slowly. Excited to see the long term report on the lower links. How does the curve in the arm help the movement?

 

[MidnightRebel07]

So would you say I should put some anti seize or something on the threads of the grease fittings when I install the CTM u-joints or would it matter?

Definetly looking forward to seeing some action pics or vids with the new lower links and other parts.