Need You Alls Opinion

Alright well when i undid the radius arms to make my extended, heimed arms i think my axle got moved some so my measurements, for my frame brackets got skewed.

so what it looks like now is that the passenger side bracket is about 1/2 to an inch farther forward than the driver side, this is an easy fix, cause i jsut torch and drill some new holes in the frame, and slide it back a tad.

Now for the hard part, the axle looks to be about 1.5 so forward of where it should be. so this means i need to shorten my arms cause i wont move the driver side bracket farther back since i already had to claearance it for the crossmembers, plus drill like seven holes through the frame and bracket.

So i am thinking that i need to shorten my arms and was wondering where the best place inthe arm is to do this. The arms are set up as follows,stock radius arm with a 12inch extension that is drilled for the 3 or 4 inch radius arm stud that is on the stock arm. Then the extension(1.5 inch solid stock) is welded to the arm, and the other end of the extension has been drilled and tapped for a 1 inch 15 thread pitch male heim. The male end ofthe heim and the tapped and drilled portion is around 2.5 or 3 inches long.

my first thought was to simply just cut off some of the heim, and the extension, but then i figure i will be at risk of breaking the heim since it wouldnt be near as strong anymore.

second thought, since the arms are going to be sleeved the full length of the extension, and about 2 or 3 inches along the stock arm, i could cut the extension about an inch from the joint of the stock arm and the extension. But only cut enough to free the extension and leave the stock stud intact. Now i would cut the extension and the stud of the stock arm by whatever i need to shorten the arms. Then bevel the two halfs of the extension, weld it back together and then sleeve it as planned.


Thirdly- if all of these sound like horrible, ideas, take the arms off take them to a machine shop, and have the needed length cut off the extensions, and then have it re drilled and tapped for the heims. if i go this route i can kiss tcc goodbye for good, but i am afraid this is what need to be done to ensure the proper intergrity of the arms.

here are a couple pics to give you an idea. Asl red lines on the second pis show about how far the heim is threaded in, and the lower one shows about where the stock radius arm stud goes to.

I always thought your gussets were going to go all the way to the end of the tube. Is there any reason not to? Seems like cutting off 1.5 or 2" from the very end and retapping is the easiest to do, but it may tough to keep from messing up the threads you are reusing. You could see how far they actually drilled...maybe they drilled a lot deeper than they tapped and you just need to cut it off and tap it deeper?
I definitely don't think you should cut the ends off your heims

I say just leave the axle where it is and wheel it like that at Katemcy just to try it out. You just might like your mo-betta approach angle and getting the axle away from the firewall will allow more uptravel with bigger tires and less lift. What is the problem?

those are guranteed to BREAK when you put some force on them to climb a ledge. I would venture to say that the gusset actually weakened the arm b/c that arm was probably forged until you started welding on it. Jerry I need some odds on this one. odds of where it will break. the obvious is at the tube/arm junction. I'll take that area for a five spot.

#2

But I also think they're crap.

you'd half to cut that threaded part off anyways to stick it in a lathe. Haven't other people done this?

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Originally Posted by Graystroke

those are guranteed to BREAK when you put some force on them to climb a ledge. I would venture to say that the gusset actually weakened the arm b/c that arm was probably forged until you started welding on it. Jerry I need some odds on this one. odds of where it will break. the obvious is at the tube/arm junction. I'll take that area for a five spot.

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alright captain asshat did you read the part about me sleeving it with hrew after all this is over, the arms are cast, and i preheated them, and let them cool slowly as well. many people have done arms like and used them for years with no problems. :flipoff2:

eric no they didnt drill any further than the heim cause the heim bottoms out with a couple thread left over.

robert no i cant take it to tcc the 60 is not complete or in there yet, and the f/r have different rartio's now.



you'd half to cut that threaded part off anyways to stick it in a lathe. Haven't other people done this?
i dont quite follow you doug, you are talking about doing the third option of cutting off a portion of the threaded piece that the heim goes into?

also if cutting and re taping is what i am gonna do(which i think i am cause it it sounds like the best way, do you all recomend vilas, or would you like to make a couple extra bucks an do it for me doug?

ok it sounds like you are going to cut the part of that needs to be drilled and tapped... What thread does it need to be and how deep?

I don't think so...if he's going to cut it off he might as well just cut 1.5" out of the middle and weld it back the right length

Check your PM's doug.

those arms are cast steel so welding them isnt as much of a problem as cast iron

numero tres.

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Originally Posted by uglyota

I don't think so...if he's going to cut it off he might as well just cut 1.5" out of the middle and weld it back the right length

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well you can't stick that big ass nasty thing in a lathe, well not to my knowledge. Maybe if you have a big ass nasty lathe you could...

I checked my PMs I'm still thinking about a good time.

doug it needs to be 1 inch number 15 threads,and be about 3 inches deep.

Something just doesnt sound right about cutting the damn thing in the middle and welding it back together, it would bea ***** to make sure it was exactly lined up right before i welded it back together.

put a slug in there and the alighnment on the reweld would be fine

It really doesn't need to line up exactly. That's what the heim is for. Tack it, eyeball it, burn it in, brace it.

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Originally Posted by uglyota

I don't think so...if he's going to cut it off he might as well just cut 1.5" out of the middle and weld it back the right length

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Exactly. As long as it's sleeved, you measure correctly, and weld with good penetration you'll be fine.

how deep is the tapped hole?

if its deeper than what you need to cut off, cut it off then use the hole as a guide to carefully drill it out deeper with a hand drill. be careful not to screw up the threads. then run a tap down it and presto done. its not like your gonna screw it up anymore anyways. :flipoff2:

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Originally Posted by stx4wheeler

doug it needs to be 1 inch number 15 threads,and be about 3 inches deep.

Something just doesnt sound right about cutting the damn thing in the middle and welding it back together, it would bea ***** to make sure it was exactly lined up right before i welded it back together.

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that is the dumbest idea yet.

why not something like this? this what people do on rovers' front arms. probably easier and cheaper

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eric no they didnt drill any further than the heim cause the heim bottoms out with a couple thread left over.

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there is your answer john.


i've decided to forget about bustin my ass to get it ready for tcc,so that i can get this all figured out right. i think i am gonna go measure the frame to bracket distance to figure out where i screwed up, and i am now also pondering doing what i previously said i wouldnt do and move my brackets where they need to be instead of cutting the arms or re working them. Cause my whole point of doing all this work and 60 swap was to get it to drive better on the road as well as off-road, and this is most likely what needs to be done to keep it as i planned.

I think you should have cut off a foot of the original radius arms and fabricated all new arms around it. It would probably still be easier and turn out better.

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Originally Posted by stx4wheeler

there is your answer john.

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i didnt feel like readin all of it. even better, drill it before you cut it off. then you dont have to worry about messing up threads.

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Originally Posted by uglyota

I think you should have cut off a foot of the original radius arms and fabricated all new arms around it. It would probably still be easier and turn out better.

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yes, out of indonesian black mahogany.

the arms themselves are fine, both arms are extactly the same length, its the fuggin mounts that i screwed up on i put them to far forward, this could possibly have to do with our rti ramp of a driveay and the axle moving around under the truck or something.

iwent out and measured and the pasengerside bracket is like 3/4-1 inch farther forward that and the driverside, and i took a rough measure ment of how far forward the axle is by using both my coils uppers& lowers, and they seem to be about 1.5 forward on both of them. i will do some more measuring later this week or weekend and fiure out exactly how much the brackets need to go back, and do that instead of ghetto rigging the arms or shortening them.

x4
tube frame, same axles, harnesses, full hyrdo steering, 460 EFI, and the same front grill.....but then again that might take 3 years :flipoff2:




don't freak out, i'm just talkin ****