94 Crawler's sas thread #1

[Kirby N.]

I agree, and i disagree. :

Me too : I haven't seen many wristed setups with heims on the frame end. Mine is wristed with a poy stock style bushing on the frame end. Mine flexes so much better with the pin out that it is scary to go wheeling with the pin in. Here is the deflection that is relieved as a result of taking the cbushing bind out (taking out my pin)

 

[94 Crawler]

That is definatly a possibility with the wristed arm. But I have put a large amount of work in my arms to just trash them. actuly I think I'll head out and try one spring at a time to see what happens mabe it will ease my mind.

 

[94 Crawler]

This is a great big thank you to Kirby N. and james t. I may actualy sleep tonight. Any way i think a pic is worth a thousand words so here it is, and expect more next saturday as I'm getting realy close to being back out the door.

 

[Kirby N.]

That is definatly a possibility with the wristed arm. But I have put a large amount of work in my arms to just trash them. actuly I think I'll head out and try one spring at a time to see what happens mabe it will ease my mind.

I wasn't suggesting you should. I dig your arms. They turned out great. I want to see them get dirty! Lets have some details and pics on how you built them.

 

[94 Crawler]

Lets have some details and pics on how you built them.

Sorry Kirby for some reason throughout the whole deal I didnt take any pics of the actual build.
1) I cut the beam behind the shock mount holes abought 8-10 inches then I cut the top and bottem of the I off so it would fit inside of the 2" dom tubing.

2) I figured the onty place to attach the arms to the chassis to get any length out of them was outside of the frame attached to the transmission crossmember. The arm pivots close to the C/L of the front driveshaft double cardigan. This should keep the pinion in line through out the travel.

3) I bent the dom for tire clearence and to make the turn for the outside if the chassis. I built up the inside and length of the I beam with flat stock to fit tight inside of the dom and welded it into place.

4) I made a template from a cardboard box for the side plates and cut them out with my metal cutting saw and a band saw for the curves. then i welded the plates to the arm one end on the dom the other ending at the ( on the I beam. Then I welded some round stock inside one side to the beam and the other to the plate steal. Then i finnished my box with 1/4"x2" flat bar. It should be realy strong as welded it every where I could run a bead.

5) almost forgot I used ballistic joints and weld in bungs at the chassis, I'll get some more pics this weekend.

 

[94 Crawler]

Here are a few pics of the superduty pitman arm. If you do this mod you will have to cut splines in the flats with a file because they are in the wrong spot. This only adds abought 1/2" to your pitman arm but now the wheels almost travel to the stops and my upper tre no longer hits the track bar. If I'd just used hymes.... oh well.

some of the splines modified

 

[94 Crawler]

Help!!!!

Dose anyone have a spare spindle for a ford d-44 full width? I like to eat but now I'm convenced that I have a problem. One of my spindles is gone from this earth. I must have eaten it is all I can figure.

 

[Kirby N.]

I don't have a spare and unfortunately the last time I tried to locate one it was pretty hard to find. broncograveyard.com may have some.

If I'd just used hymes.... oh well.

Heims suck. You will be glad you didn't use heims when you don't have to replace them in a year. I had to replace mine regularly. That is why went to Chevy TREs. My trackbar has 2 heims still and they both clunk due to slop. I hate heims. The only place I will use heims again is on a buggy that gets garaged and trailered. I would still do my best to avoid them.

 

[james t]

I have heims on the steering, and one day when i have money again p im going TRE's. The clunking and squeeking on the street is harming me psychologically.

 

[94 Crawler]

I don't have a spare and unfortunately the last time I tried to locate one it was pretty hard to find. broncograveyard.com may have some.
Heims suck. You will be glad you didn't use heims when you don't have to replace them in a year. I had to replace mine regularly. That is why went to Chevy TREs. My trackbar has 2 heims still and they both clunk due to slop. I hate heims. The only place I will use heims again is on a buggy that gets garaged and trailered. I would still do my best to avoid them.

Thanks Kirby I just didnt want to come off of that Ben-Gee. But I did anyway.

I have heims on the steering, and one day when i have money again p im going TRE's. The clunking and squeeking on the street is harming me psychologically.

Thoughts on heims 1) one day I will learn to spell it
2) almost every concern I have at this point would be fixed by them
3) the wear is the concern that kept me with tre's and once i get the bugs out I will be ok.

Any way here are some pics of my front shock hoops. ( The rear will be done when I flex it and check for shock to tire interference. As I may be cutting into the wheel tub to get the proper location, but only if i have to)

 

[94 Crawler]

I dont have any pics but The truck has been out and flexed. I still have some issues. Need to mount rear shocks. Over all I am pretty tickled with how it hasa turned out. The front could flex better maby a longer coil. Pics and updates to come.

 

[chad551]

I have some large bearing spindles from my D44.

 

[94 Crawler]

Ok I have driven it. And I have some issues. The alignment is only close but when at road speed it feals like you have to over correct the steering to get it to turn from center it is almost unnerving in curves as it tends to want to go straight. Dose anyone have alignment specs not that I can check camber but it seems like if I can tell that it is positive it probably is to much. When i flexed the driverside down the left axle seal puked (damn it) And I still have a fuel related running issue. But i'm pretty happy with it at this point I know there will be bugs to work out.

Check out the camber you can see it in the pic

More lift in the front than I wanted

Front spring after I rebuilt the spring seats no lean

Rear shock hoop

 

[94 Crawler]

More pics

By the way lockers are the ($#!*)

 

[lifeguard379]

for your steering issue what is your caster set at

 

[94 Crawler]

for your steering issue what is your caster set at

I set it around 5 degrees positive when i set up the arms

 

[IZwack]

Awesome awesome! Since you're in NC, the Outer Banks sounds like a fun place to visit with your truck.

 

[94 Crawler]

Awesome awesome! Since you're in NC, the Outer Banks sounds like a fun place to visit with your truck.

The wife and I are to spend a week there in august. Abought a mile from Hatteras light in Buxton. You realy are not suposed to ride on the dunes since they are the first line of defense against storm surge. But unless the laws have changed you can still ride on the beach. By the way Cape Hatteras is the best break on the east cost. Hopefully all of my major bugs will be worked out by then.

 

[slammer67]

looks good

You could raise the coil buckets some if it's too high in the front, they appear to be bolt on so it shouldn't be much trouble.

I like how you modified the pitman, I need to do that to mine, I'm glad I tuned in today.

 

[94 Crawler]

looks good

You could raise the coil buckets some if it's too high in the front, they appear to be bolt on so it shouldn't be much trouble.

I like how you modified the pitman, I need to do that to mine, I'm glad I tuned in today.

1) My plans are to raise the coil buckets any way and go to a 7" spring to get more travel. I'm still hopefull thet the wild horses springs will settle out some and I'll lose some height that way.

2) the super duty pitman arm line up splines are in the wrong place so they have to be cut out (I uset a triangle shaped file to cut the flats and make them into splines not to terably hard my file was new) then just line it up manualy.