Not to mention a decidedly dainty radius...Originally Posted by tom4bren
Super VXer
Not to mention a decidedly dainty radius...
Super VXer
BTW,
Two things that I noticed when I installed my drops:
1. You'll need to extend, stretch or replace the axle vent hose.
2. You need to notch the passenger side on the rear where the bracket curves in. There's a bolt on the pumpkin that'll hit. (I took a pic for JHarris but haven't posted it yet - it's on my laptop so I can't get to it from here - I'll post it tonite).
Tom
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Put a smiley after you say that Bub.
Super VXer
"The berries are bigger than the twig..."
I have no response to that.
Super VXer
Zeus, are you saying you didn't weld the lower sections of your brackets on the sides, just to the 2" portion horizontally?
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on me.
Super VXer
Zeus was able to find a piece of stock with matching curvature (from a jeep bumper). He cut the diff bracket such that he retained the large hole for the axle and the 2 lower mounting bolt holes. This cut piece was positioned 2" lower and the donor piece from the bumper was welded in place to fill the 2" gap. Basically he traded one vertical weld for a horizontal weld (1 vertical & 2 horizontal). That's why he didn't have the interference issue with one of the bolt heads on the pumpkin that I mentioned earlier). His are welded all the way around even though it doesn't look like it in his picture since he ground down the lowest section of the vertical weld.
The way that BigMeat did it (& I copied) was to cut out only the flat center section and replace with new material (retaining the curved areas in place). We ended up with 2 vertical welds and 1 horizontal. IIRC this is the same method that Joe Darlington uses.
Did I get it right Zeus???
Super VXer
Ok, how I did mine was just to cut out the area around all four bolt holes and of course the CV hole and slide the piece down vertically, then weld in a 2" spacer. I retained the curvature and meat on both sides of the piece, so I guess mine was a little different than both. The advantage mine had was having all the holes line up flawlessly since they are the factory originals. This saved time laying out and drilling new holes, and I don't end up with extras that go unused. I didn't have to clearance anything either. I'll talk to Clint tonight to see if he'll throw up some pics.
Super VXer
I'll mention your method to 'Welder Guy' next time I see him to see if that's a better approach but I think he's already fabricated several sets of blanks for insertion & fabricated jigs for welding. He'll probably just stick with the process he's already used.
Super VXer
Yessir, you got it. It was easier for me to make those 2 cuts on the original brackets... like butta. Three cuts seemed like too much of a PITA for my lazy PITA.
Sent from my "two hands on a keyboard"
Super VXer
Well let me tell you what I did for mine. A whole day cutting the pieces out with a Dremel. I wanted the cuts to be as small as possible to minimize the area the weld had to bridge to keep the strength high. It worked, but took forever. I blew up several packs of Dremel discs doing that. Then there's the annealing after the welding and the shot peening and the magnaflux, then the sandblasting and finally off to powdercoat. I think I made up my time doing my crossmember which is just four plates with two big holes on top which fit around the existing "gussets" the original bolts passed through and two smaller holes on bottom for each, and four lengths of heavy pipe to act as stiffening spacers between the plates on the lower holes where the bolts pass through. I got some grade 8 coated bolts, some of which had to be installed in reverse for clearance reasons. All in all the crossmember project only took me about an hour total.Three cuts seemed like too much of a PITA for my lazy PITA.
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