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Moose
02-24-2004, 10:21 AM
Passenger coil with all new grade 8 hardware.

Moose
02-24-2004, 10:22 AM
Passenger coil front view. Some say I went overkill with the lithium grease.

Moose
02-24-2004, 10:23 AM
From rear passenger side to coil.

Moose
02-24-2004, 10:25 AM
Driver side radius arm drop bracket with Energy Suspension bushings.

Moose
02-24-2004, 10:26 AM
From the front, radius arm drop bracket and B&M deep pan. Yes, I have a slight oil leak from the timing chain cover. I'm too scared of the engine to fix it though.

Moose
02-24-2004, 10:29 AM
Close up of B&M pan and crossmember. You can see the lack of clearance of the pan. I had to notch the transfer case mount just to be able to turn a few threads to get the mount on. Then started the rest of the bolts to start the crossmember. There is no way I'm going to ever drop the tranny pan again. And I'm going to have to cut a hole in the crossmember or notch it to be able to unscrew the plug. B&M sucks!

Doug Krebs
02-24-2004, 11:08 AM
All that exposed grease is going to be a dirt magnet! Otherwise looks good

J Cooper
02-24-2004, 11:20 AM
Originally posted by Doug Krebs
All that exposed grease is going to be a dirt magnet! Otherwise looks good


look at the rest.... cant hurt it... two words De Greaser :flipoff2: everything else is good

uglyota
02-24-2004, 11:40 AM
Ooohhh...that tranny pan shore is purdy!
Looks good...take an old pair of panties and wipe off all that grease, then build you a new crossmember out of 3/8" plate...with a notch for the drain plug! (or not...at worst you should only have to drain your tranny fluid once every 40k).
Don't be afraid of that engine...it ain't brain surgery or rocket science...just do it (stolen quote, by the way)! Just take your time, clean everything up good, use permatex and new felpro gaskets, and use a torque wrench so you don't strip anything out.
Have fun!

jerryg79
02-24-2004, 12:41 PM
did you put the trac bar back on yet?

The whole thing brings a little tear to my eye, reminds me of my old pig!

BTW supposedly on those radius arm bushings if you use the rubber ones instead of the poly ones, they wont bind up as much when you flex the front...just what i heard.

Moose
02-24-2004, 01:56 PM
I'll take care of the excess. I bought three tubes just in case. I thought I'd use more before I started. By the time I got here, I hadn't used hardly any of one tube. So I just went 200% with the grease gun. Guess I got a little too excited watchin it ooz out. Degreaser is a good idea. I figured my back wouldn't hate me as much if I waited after the lift.

Building a new crossmember is going to require some serious fabricating, of which I have zero experience. The crossmember serves three purposes: 1) transfer case mount, 2) radius arm bracket mount, and 3)... quit askin complicated questions.

Track bar; not with these pictures. It took me two weeks just to post these. They stayed out so long because I wanted Energy Suspension bushings instead of the Superlift ones. But the adjustable trackbar from Superlift has bigger than stock eyes.

Radius arm bushings; I agree. I thought the same thing when I merely installed them and just spun the nut and the bushings were holding the axle up a little. But I hoped Energy Suspension bushings have a "variable squash rate," like coils. They want to stay stiff at minute articulation, but at severe articulation, they squash a lot. Make sense? I might not know what the hell I'm talking about. They call it the perfect durometer?

AgDieseler
02-24-2004, 03:09 PM
Good work. I agree - grease is cheap, and good insurance.

uglyota
02-24-2004, 04:02 PM
Originally posted by Red Bull
Building a new crossmember is going to require some serious fabricating, of which I have zero experience. The crossmember serves three purposes: 1) transfer case mount, 2) radius arm bracket mount, and 3)... quit askin complicated questions.
I see....that sucks

Moose
02-24-2004, 04:13 PM
I might be able to make cuts "here" and "here" and use a punch to invert the bend to give me enough room to fit a wrench in there and drop the plug?

uglyota
02-24-2004, 04:25 PM
I don't think that's really going to help much, because any time you're gonna need to drain the fluid, you'll probably want to pull the pan and change the filter as well. You could use that same idea, but as wide as the whole pan (basically cut the xmember in half diagonally, then weld in 1/4" plate to cover up the hole)

Do you have to drop the radius arms to drop your xmember now?:eek:

stx4wheeler
02-24-2004, 05:02 PM
yes the rubber radius arm mount bushings flex better, but on a down side they wear out a lot quicker than polyurethane ones, and the more off road abuse they see the quicker they wear out. I could run a homemade skid cause i am gonna run extended arms :D . it looks good so far.

Moose
02-24-2004, 08:14 PM
Now that I've done it once, it only takes me a couple hours to pull the brackets off, the arms only take another hour. If I want to change the fluid and the filter right now, yes, I'll have to drop the RA brackets, but not the arms themselves. Once I unbolt the xmember, it slides towards the rear pretty easy, I just have to unbolt the xcase mount (1 nut/bolt) remove it, then begin the fluid/filter change. Yea, it's not gonna be a couple hour process anymore. But if I go through deep water, at least I want to be able to drain any milky fluid ASAP, once I get home, I can change the filter.

BigRedFord04
02-24-2004, 09:04 PM
i would suggest getting the angled coil spacers that kevin posted a while back, because after a while your coils will start to bow. i'm probably going to make my own @ work, and i'll let you know how long it takes. they'd just charge hourly ($48/hr). and if it only takes an hour (which i think it will) it'll be that + very little for mat'ls. i think they wanted $75 for the ones online.

Moose
02-24-2004, 10:44 PM
I could see what you mean since only a small part of the coil sit in the cups. That's depressing. Eventually I'll go with a progressive coil springs. Thanks again Austin.

stx4wheeler
02-24-2004, 11:24 PM
yeha you might need those coil spacer/straighteners but i have only heard or seen one or two with a 4 inch lift have that problem it seems to be mainly with six and up, but hey it couldnt hurt anything to have them.