DAY 8
EXTREME BUILDUP 2000 Project 2
Damian's 1970 800a
First, let me apologize for the delay on getting this project wrapped up. We hit a small snag but that has been taken care of
(nothing worth mentioning at this point). Here is an interesting picture of one of the sole remaining stock suspension parts
left on the rig.
Now that the lower links are in place, it is time to locate the upper links and get their mounting spots in the correct place.
These links are particularly important. The lower links give the front-to-back support and also give a center point on which
the axle will drop away from the truck during trail riding (which moves in a semi-circle using the lower link as the “radius”).
With that in mind, we must make the upper links such that they not only give side-to-side support, but also controls the pinion
angle as the axle drops, moving along this radius.
If we were to make the upper links exactly the same length as the lower ones, then the pinion would stay at the same angle throughout
the entire angle. Although this is desired in some cases, for off-road purposes we want the pinion to point at the T-case at all
points of travel. For this cause the upper and lower links are slightly different lengths with particular care given to
their placement.
The upper links attach to the pumpkin via a custom built mount. We cut flatbar to match the contour of the housing itself and
carefully weld them on. If a person incorrectly welds to the housing, the heat will destroy the strength of the housing, this
is why it is best to leave this to the pros. After the these mounts are in place and securely welded to the pumpkin housing,
we used 1” tube to gusset the mounts to the axle tubes. The result is a strong mount for the links (which transfers the forces
that will be imposed on it to the strong points of the axle).
The upper mounts are built off of a box tube structure that has been welded to the frame rails similar to a crossmember.
The link mounts on this structure are the same style that we used on the axle tubes for the lower links.
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
|
