PAGE 20 - 2005 Double Shackle/Double (Triangulated) Link Susp. and Mods to be Added UPDATED May 17th, 2005

98% DONE! Got the front shocks/shock hoops mounted and I have an appointment tomorrow (Sat.) for an alignment!!!!!! YAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!

ALMOST DONE!!!!! Just gotta weld the shock hoops on and get it aligned!!!!! Some PIX :

...and a pic of my Tom Wood's Super-Flex Joint installed :

Just 2 pix from today (May 17th,2005). Very happy it's streetable again...just gotta get an alignment. :-) (and put on my shocks....>DOH!!!! :-) ) (...CAN'T WAIT 4 those 37" TrXus M/Ts!!!!!! )PIX :

YAAAAY!!!!!!! FINALLY got the driver's side knuckle cut/rotated!!!!!! ALMOST COMPLETELY DONE!!!!!!

TRUE X-OVER STEERING!!!!! :

Just an UPDATE...this is how she sits as of NOW!!! Hopefully Tomorrow I can get the Driver's Side Knuckle Cut/Rotated!!!! That Damn thing (pass. side knuckle) took me like F-ing THREE Hours of GRINDING!!!!!! I ALSO found time to wirewheel and paint my axletube and Crane Diff. Cover!!!! :-)

THIS is how they WERE (driver's side knuckle/inner "C")...both sides were initially -2 Degrees!!!! WOW!!!!! :

THIS is how they're GONNA BE!!!! (Pass. side = ALREADY DONE!!!!)...NOW they're at +10 Degrees!!! (my cheap angle finder says so!!!!) :-) :

Let me TELL YA...Cutting/Rotating Knuckles IS a Pain in the A$$!!!!!!!! (but hopefully WELL WORTH IT!!!! :-) )

Couple more Pix : (Bill welding the Gussetts I made for my Cusom Tranny XMember)

HERE...You can see more gussets added to beef up the XMember and some silicone that a "cooling fin" on the tranny housing will ride in. I ALSO have another idea for something to work in conjunction with this XMember so that the entire tranny/t-case load will not be placed solely on the tranny/t-case xmember (don't wanna snap that fin off!!!!) AND it should help to keep the rear driveshaft yoke/tailhousing to NEVER shift in any way, shape, OR FORM!!!!!) :-) .....STAY POSTED!!!! :

Got the Tranny XMember gussetted and fully welded AND painted. All I need to do now is radius those god awful square mounting plates (gonna be rounding them off) :

Here's what I have in mind to work in conjunction with my Tranny XMember : (Just a piece of that 1.5" DOM Tubing w/ a 3" exhaust clamp) whatd'ya think?????)...This IS JUST A ROUGH DRAFT...imagine the tube cut flush with the bottom of the xmember and the notch in the tube will be welded in the xmember, while the tube gets heavily gussetted on each side as to not let that tube move WHATSOEVER!!!!!

ANOTHER XMEMBER....who woulda thunk it??!?!?!???? (Same 1.5"x.250" DOM) :

I've had THIS RE Hand Throttle since Sept. 2003 and I FINALLY got around to putting it on MYSELF just last week!!!!!! :

(more pix further down the page)
All this stuff will soon be on my Frontier for a little "Rejuvenation" to it!!!!

Got some New Bilstein 5150s (yeah..I LOVE my Bilsteins!!! :) ) and some new Front Shock Hoops from All-Pro OffRoad.

"+"

"="

Got some new Tom Woods Super-Joints and some new Longfield Super-U-Joints w/ the oh-so favorable Bronze Bushing!!!! sorry the pics so dark

Also got my old Driver's Side Flattop Knuckle machined by Parts Mike Parts...while also picking up a new Tie-Rod and Draglink from Mike also! Thanx Mike!!! Now, I can run TRUE Cross-Over Steering w/ a littly Hydro-Assist!!! (from RockStomper.com)

I also have a pretty unique suspension design that I'm sooo excited to get started on!!! That's why I picked up some 1.500" x .250" 1026 DOM Tubing and some 3/4" Heim Joints for some suspension links!!!!! :

Also re-finished these original Jeep Waggy shackles I had lying around for my NEW Project!!!! :

sorry 4 the blurry pix :)

WELL...got started around April 9th. We got the old knuckle off, the NEW PartsMikeParts Flattop Driver's side Knuckle ON (w/ the PMP Super Arm)....then got the NEW PMP Tie Rod and Draglink ON...after many adjustments and wrong tube lengths and cutting tubes shorter, and this and that...etc. (Didn't get any pix of that!!! DAMNIT!!!)

THEN...the next week, I took out the driver and pass. front Seats, shifter ring, center console, etc., Removed ALL of the carpet....tried to fill ALL the holes (seat bolts, plugs, CB Antenna cable) with a Waterproof Sealant!!! Then I sprayed bed lining in a spray can all over the floor to try to create a watertight seal!!!!! Here's some PIX :

While buttoning up the interior and such, I decided to get some Stainless Steel bolts to hold my Step Plates down in their position!!! PRETTY!!!! :-)
PIX :

I also guesstimated where my front shock mounts would have to be set up after the front axle was moved forward 3-4 inches and marked them accordingly w/ some good 'ol masking tape and a Sharpie!!! THEN....I started working on all of my Mounting Tabs with 3/16" 4" wide steel. Here's some PIX :

And Here's what they looked like after a little grinding. Almost 1" thick of pure metal and they're ALL damn near perfect!!!! (am I good or WHAT!??!?!?!? )

THEN...I started working on my own custom CrossMember!!!!!! :-)

OLD: , NEW:

Whilst it was just sitting there down at Racerzedge Motorsports I found time to also cut about FIVE INCHES off of my bed sides w/ my angle grinder!!! : Sorry for crappy pix!!!! (they still need a little more work before I'm gonna be done with them!!!!)

I also decided that since I have a 1.5" Body Lift....Why not do a Drivetrain Lift???? SOOOO....my Custom XMember raises the Tranny/T-Case about 2" over stock height which was DEFINITELY NEEDED as you can see in this pic my Rear D-Shaft was riding on the rear most XMember!!!!! (NOT GOOD!!!) NOW, there is a LOT of room between the shaft and the xmember!!! :-) PIX :

THEN FINALLY (around April 29th) after a coupla weeks of sitting and having me working on the Fronty doing little things....Lee and I got around to my NEW Susp. Idea (which is loosely based off a design that was in Petersen's 4Wheelin' magazine) It's a Double Shackle set-up w/ Traction Bars!!!! PIX :

Everything Fully Welded in place!!! PIX :

THEN...I got everything ready to be tack welded in place!!!!This included getting the DOM tubing cut to size, drilling the tube to plug weld the heim thread adapter in the tube, and let me tell ya something....1/4" wall tubing is NOT FUN to drill thru and takes a little while!!! PIX :

FINALLY....every mount has been tack welded just for a flex test to see how it does!!! OOOOH...I'm SOOO EXCITED!!!!! :-) Pix :

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH!!!!!!! I think it's SOOOO KOOOOL how you can't even see the links cause they're in perfect parallel with the Leaf Springs!!!!! I was SOOO F-ing HAPPY....nothing bound up...NO tack welds snapped due to overstressing or ANYTHING!!!! AND...there's still about another 1-1.5 inches of travel before the Teraflex Revolver is MAXED OUT!!!!:

FOURTY-FOUR INCHES between the top of the axle tube and the top of my FENDER!!!!!!! Lee (owner of Racerzedge Motorsports) is in the Driver's Seat in this pic cause I'm taking these pictures.

NOW you can see the distance created by moving the front axle 3-4 inches forward!!!! Pix :

Just to show you a different angle of the steep hill we did the test on AND a close-up of the front links!!!!