12-21-2014, 01:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-21-2014, 01:25 AM by broncosbybart.)
Had a hair-brained idea that I came up with. While working on the motor, I couldn't help but notice that the bolt for the heim steering on the pass side knuckle looked a little wonky.
I removed it and noticed that the hole in the knuckle was beginning to oval. That got the thoughts running in my mind, so I thought I'd try and make that bolt double shear, as the knuckle has provision for using a high steer arm. I contacted Dynatrac and ordered a blank high steer arm (no hole drilled in it for the 3/4" bolt). It arrived a couple days ago. I mocked it up and guess what? The arm was too short. The 3/4" bolt was located beyond the end of the arm. It was an inch too short. Sooo, I decided to pull the axle completely and take the it up to Chris at Mars Fab to see if he could cut an arm for it with his fancy computerized plasma table. He said it would be after the 1st of the new year before he could get to it.
Well that wasn't going to work. So, out came the plasma cutter, grinders, welder, and drill press. I only had some 1/4" plate here, so I had to make 2 identical pieces and sandwich them together. After cutting and forming them, I beveled the edges that faced each other so I could weld them together. I also cut some holes in one of the arms so that I could plug weld them also. The end result was an arm that is 1/2" thick. Having 1/2" stuff here would have been nice...
Just got this done tonight. I'm happy with the end result. Granted it isn't as fancy as the Dynatrac unit that I have to return, but it will work just fine and is a ton cheaper.
Oh, and the whole thing with the tape and all is that I used a 1/4" drive socket that fit snugly into the holes on the Dynatrac arm to mark the locations that I needed to drill into the new arm. A tap or two with a small hammer is all it takes to mark the tape enough to determine accurately where the new holes need to go. Worked great.
I removed it and noticed that the hole in the knuckle was beginning to oval. That got the thoughts running in my mind, so I thought I'd try and make that bolt double shear, as the knuckle has provision for using a high steer arm. I contacted Dynatrac and ordered a blank high steer arm (no hole drilled in it for the 3/4" bolt). It arrived a couple days ago. I mocked it up and guess what? The arm was too short. The 3/4" bolt was located beyond the end of the arm. It was an inch too short. Sooo, I decided to pull the axle completely and take the it up to Chris at Mars Fab to see if he could cut an arm for it with his fancy computerized plasma table. He said it would be after the 1st of the new year before he could get to it.
Well that wasn't going to work. So, out came the plasma cutter, grinders, welder, and drill press. I only had some 1/4" plate here, so I had to make 2 identical pieces and sandwich them together. After cutting and forming them, I beveled the edges that faced each other so I could weld them together. I also cut some holes in one of the arms so that I could plug weld them also. The end result was an arm that is 1/2" thick. Having 1/2" stuff here would have been nice...
Just got this done tonight. I'm happy with the end result. Granted it isn't as fancy as the Dynatrac unit that I have to return, but it will work just fine and is a ton cheaper.
Oh, and the whole thing with the tape and all is that I used a 1/4" drive socket that fit snugly into the holes on the Dynatrac arm to mark the locations that I needed to drill into the new arm. A tap or two with a small hammer is all it takes to mark the tape enough to determine accurately where the new holes need to go. Worked great.