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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/24/2024 in all areas

  1. I've been chipping away at things since @TowndawgR50 was in town...and am stoked he's coming back out right after Christmas for another session! Major milestone today: finished welding the radius arm brackets to the chassis! Didn't take time to get pics, but I will...though it looks a lot like the prior pics except with welds and painted black. Crossmember got welded up and painted, too. Turned out great. I'm awaiting some exhaust gaskets before I can really button the center of the truck up, but it's nearly there. After installing the LH subframe with the new panhard mount the other week, I realized the lower panhard mount was no longer in alignment with the upper now, so the lower got chopped off. I welded the bracket together today on the bench, and planning to stick it to the axle tomorrow. After that, still need to do the bumpstop pads, and figure out the coilover and limiting strap bracket, steering stabilizer, and sway bar brackets. I have no clue how I'm going to get a sway bar in there...it won't be easy. Towndawg machined down the wheel hubs to clear Tacoma/4R/FJC rotors the other month and I finally got around to mocking things up a little. The wheel stick-out is about as expected and desired. 1" wheel spacers installed, for now. In hindsight, I should've requested leaving a little more meat on the hub face to help center of the rotor. Centering rings will be required, but I couldn't find anything that adapts 3.5" hubs to the 108mm of the rotor and spacer. So, going to have to get creative and modify some off-the-shelf rings to work. For now, I can machine something out of ABS or wood when I'm getting closer to really diving into this. It looks like there's tons of working space... But then again... I may need to get creative with the bracket for the calipers, however, the easiest way to mount the caliper is a simple tab/bracket welded directly to the spindle knuckle. But, that tab/bracket would have to be 3/8" thick and welded to cast. While my little buzz box has been great for 3/16" stuff, including welding to cast already, I just don't trust it for this job. But, I know a guy! Towndawg has also spent the last couple days jamming on the tone rings. We were originally hoping another guy at his shop could crank them out on some super fancy multi-axis CNC mill, but his timing wasn't great. So, we scaled the parts to something that could be done on another mill, and the results are beef. The ring started as a CHUNK of plate steel, reduced down to a 5.5" OD x 3.75" ID x 0.75" ring, with the teeth going the full width to give me some wiggle room to mount the sensors. The initial version weighed 3 lbs., though! By comparison, the OE tone ring is about 4" OD x 0.4" and a 3 OUNCES. End mills were destroyed in the making of these. After some rethinking, we opted to take the teeth width down to 0.4", which got them down to about 1.5 lbs. each. It'd be great to lighten them further, but for now it's probably best to prove the concept first. I have yet to hold these puppies, but they look awesome. Towndawg really is a master of his craft. But anyway, brakes are still a little ways away in the project. Next big step is figuring out the coilover and springs set up. I think I'm decided on the coilovers, but need to figure out the spring rates and lengths to go with. I need a way to weigh the new sprung weight of the front of the vehicle. There are coil exchange programs where I could dial it in without first knowing the weight...but time, shipping costs, premiums on the coilovers and springs, and other risks make it really tough to go that route. Most shops use Eibach springs at nearly $80 each (needing 4!) so I really hope to go with JEGS or Summit or house brands for closer to $35-$55/ea. For now, I may just order up the coilovers and figure out the springs later.
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