DAY 12
EXTREME BUILDUP 2000 Project 2
Damian's 1970 800a

The new exhaust was run down the inside of the frame rails. As the pipes approach the rear suspension they get an inward tilt to go OVER the new crossmember (for upper links) and then continue over the stock rear crossmember hugging the floor like it was a long lost friend. Once the suspension is cleared, the pipes separate and exit the back.
(Now all I need to do is loose that rear bumper!)

Curbing the amount of flex is something that I naturally want to stay away from. But with the amount of upward travel we have with our rear suspension we have to do something. It was time to stick the "Lil Mule" back on the ramp. At this point, we were at about 500 this is where the tires begin to rub little(the driver door is about 40" off the ground). We were being very careful not to rip into the tire (which happened a little before). For the most part we were watching the arch in which the wheel travels and tried to figure out what to do first. Here are some pictures.

First things first, we will be trimming about 3” off the fender lips (800’s have this natural contour that will allow us to do this without giving it a “hacked” look). Turns out that our next door neighbor happens to own a Paintless Dent Repair company here in Colorado Springs, called WorldClass PDR. He has offered to help us “cut and pull” the fenders out to help clear up our little dilemma. The steps were simple, draw the line, cut on the line, roll the fender and admire. These pictures are graphic, if you can't bare to see a good fender cut up, you may want to skip this..or at least cover your kids eyes.

How Clean is the Lil Mule? Here is a picture of the backside of the fender lip, they all looked like this. NO RUST AT ALL - just some dirt.

We also will be opening the rear spring clamps. In day 10 of this conversion we talked about the logistics of keeping the spring clamps on the pack. This, as we expected, kept the rear end stiffer which gives a firmer ride. However, it also stopped a majority of the downward movement. The problem compounds itself here. If the axle isn’t able to move down, it will pivot forcing the other side up (which puts our tire in the fender - our problem).

So the idea is this, we keep the clamp, but open it. The presence of the clamp keeps the leafs in line, but because they will be open, the leafs can “fan” out - giving us MUCH more droop. This droop gives the axle more downward movement and doesn’t force the other tire up as much. Another benefit of this is that as the axle moves down, it’ll tend to “pull” the other wheel inward. This inward movement will allow the tire to “tuck” into the fender (as opposed to onto it). With the clamp open and the fenders cut we got up to 970ish before we began to rub. Thats a full 47 more inches up the ramp, but far from the desired goal (1200 minimum).

Now we must figure out how to reach our desired goal of at least 1200. You'd think that this wouldn’t be so hard. I mean, we have a totally trick suspension that should be able to flex at least 1500+ without thinking. Now that the fenders are out of the way, and the spring clamps open, we are beginning to see some areas of the suspension that are binding considerably more than before - which is keeping us from the goal. Because of the great amount of upward movement, the tires still want to flex right into the cut fenders. This action took another slice out of our new 35’s. But we have done enough trimming - anymore would start giving us the “hacked” look. No thanks!

It’s time to lower the bump stops. With the “Lil Mule” still on the ramp we took the opportunity to measure how much the bump stops need to come down. Here is the picture, it looks like a good 5 inches would be good. I know the measurement looks more like 4” but remember that the bump stop is hollow and will give a little.

While we have this picture in front of us, I want to draw your attention to the shackle. Did you notice that the shackle isn’t pivoting on the axle mount? That is another problem. This barely recognized mishap tells us something important about our flex problem.

You see, if this were working correctly (without bindage) that shackle would pivot and flex. When the axle moves downward it wants to force the shackle forward a tad. This forward movement is enough to bind the bushing enough so that it won’t flex and operate. This in turn doesn’t let the springs flex the way they want to. We aren’t sure exactly how much flex we are loosing, but we know that this is limiting our flex.

Likewise, all springs settle, especially quarter elliptic ones. The springs will, under use, get softer and tend to flex better. This weekend we will be taking the Lil Mule on the trails. By the end of the weekend, the springs will have been worked and hopefully they will have softened up. Early next week the Lil Mule will be taken back to the shop for final adjustments. At that time the springs will be at their settled position and the binding shackle will be tossed out for some more Hiem joints. The Hiem joint will allow the shackle to move forward and backward as well as side to side, this will “unbind” our spring and hopefully give us some flex back!

Cheers to another day...another lesson...or two.

PLANS | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13