A whole week off due to weather. The wind has been the issue, Hopefully I can get back at the welding tomorrow. We have seen 50 - 60 mph winds. We are glad the fruit trees are still standing.





the wind has been the is

 

I am very relieved to announce that my chassis is boxed in and welded 100%. I have never welded this much on any one project. And I can say with every fiber of my being, I DO NOT LIKE WELDING UPSIDE DOWN!!! No, I am not posting any pictures of the upside down welds. You will just have to imagine how ugly they look. There will be some grinding involved, mainly to find any voids for repair. Molten metal and gravity don't like to play nice together. Just sayin'.

 

Actually, they play very well together, the problem becomes, being between the molten metal, and the ground, where it really wants to be.... Yep. I've done that dance before........ I had an audience watching though, I thought they were going to die laughing.

 

If ya squint, it's mint!!

 

Starting to move the axle housing into position. The jack stands are 1-1/2" too tall at their shortest position. Sounds like I need a couple more light duty jack stands. I will have to cut the cross bracing out as well. Mock up has begun!

 

The upper triangulated bars will need to be reversed due to the pumpkin being offset. The forward brackets will get trimmed to fit, and a square cross tube will be welded to the frame rails. The lower parallel bars will go on the inside of the frame rails, providing more room under the fenders for wider rear tires. This is why the leaf spring brackets were removed.

 

The universal triangulate four link kit I purchased has the forward upper mount brackets designed to weld to the inner frame rails. The offset position of the pumpkin gets in the way, as I mentioned. The instructions included mentioned the upper bars may need to be reversed on some rear ends. This is the path I am going. Here is a shot of the diagram in the instructions.



They included a photo of the kit installed with the upper bars reversed. The only difference with my setup is I am moving the lower parallel bars to the inside of the frame rails (photo shows them outside the frame rails). The instructions say the lower bars can be used either inside or outside the frame rails, so I am mounting them on the inside to afford wider tires while keeping them under the fenders.

 

With a lot of measuring, I got the axle housing into it's home position. Pinion angle, height, left to right, front to back at each end. I strung a length of rope just to see if anything would conflict with a straight shot from the trans to the rear end. The clearance looks fine, but when I took measurements for the driveshaft length (approx.), factoring for slip yoke and u-joints, I came up with a driveshaft length of 73". The original driveshaft was two piece with a carrier bearing. I was hoping to go with a single driveshaft, but everything I am reading online says 72" is the maximum for a one piece driveshaft. I am hoping a call to my driveshaft shop will give me some good news. Fabbing a carrier bearing mount just seems like a lot of extra work.

 

This is getting close to the final position. All my measurements are coming from the end of the axle tubes. Otherwise the offset pumpkin starts throwing everything off. Sometimes you look at it, and think that just looks funny, but the axle tubes are symmetrical to the frame, and the link bars need to be as well. One bracket is getting really close to the vent nipple, and the other needs to get a brake line bracket cut off.

 

Now that most of the math is figured out, it figures the lower front mount lands right on the plane change of the frame plates. Some trimming required because, custom!