I don't have a rear brake issue, cause when I did the 9 1/4 inch rear axle swap, it came with 11 inch drums! If I didn't have rear ABS that truck would scare the $&!t out of me in the rain to have to stop, cause it locks the rear wheels up without effort (I went for 2 days without ABS cause I had to make the wiring harness)

You are 100% right about the lift, the point is to let you put on bigger tires, which is what gives you the ground clearance. I'll keep thinking about it before I come up with a final design.

 

I found the picture I was looking for to answer my steering knuckle question...

knuckle.jpg?t=1238373994

It looks like I did have the right idea in how trailmaster did it. I designed a similar spacer for the upper ball joint to knuckle connection, but I might remodel mine to look more like theirs :P One thing for anybody who has considered fabbing one in the future is that you have to match the taper on the ball joint when you drill out that hole in the spacer.

Now the only thing I have left to think about is the best torsion bar mount design. So, knowing what I know now, I can fab one myself for about $150 in steel (and I have access to a CNC milling machine to make that spacer).

 

as soon as i pulled that out of the box i seen what you were talking about. that spacer has 2 peices one you cant see in that pic. i will take pics of both pieces before on nuckle and after i put them on the knuckle if you would like. also you might want to know that part is very heavy duty. i am sure you knew, but thought i would tell you anyway. by the way this lift come with 2 times more stuff than i ever seen come with a lift. while reading instruction i found out it will require cutting one of the crossmebers and some more stuff. might take awile. just let me know if anyone wants me to post those pics of the stearing knuckle.

 

hey 95, if you plan on fabbing your own lift, would you mind posting any drawings you come up with for any of the spacer components (what program do you use btw?). I have machine access, though I am not too experienced w/ the cnc mills, however I have a friend who has access and is better with that sort of thing that might also be interested... that is of course if you don't mind sharing them.


wow those run-ons even hurt my brain...

 

Yeah, I would definately like some pictures of the steering knuckles! My plan for the spacer was to draw up my design, stick a chunck of steel in a cnc mill and let it go to town, so it will be very heavy duty.

I don't mind sharing my ideas at all! I plan on ordering steel within the next week, and when I start really getting into this project I'll write up a post with measurements, designs, pics, etc. I use both AutoCad and SolidWorks