I went about 3 1/8" over, and kept the geometry congruent to stock. I want to ride in the middle of my travel with cvs level. That being said, all the control arms are adjustable length as is the ride height via preload in case I want to lift a bit.

LCA joint is a capable of 35 degrees, UCA 40. cvs limit travel for now; Kore inner cvs should give me a couple more inches. i will be bumping and strapping before i get wild, but i am going to cruise around town testing it out first.

spring rates are posted above somewhere; 750/10" over a 900/12" I think. I have a qc; and I found the weight distribution, but did not use it. I mounted a known rate spring, and put the weight of the truck on it, level and at ride height to measure the deflection of the spring. It moved x inches and needed to move y inches, so I did the math, and came up with an overall rate (412"lbs i think). Plugged in the dual rate formula and came up with my springs. Wayne at alltech helped me with this. Obviously this rate is specific to my particular wheel rate, so it wont apply to the same truck with different length arms or shock locations.

I have the ram axles. No issues; they are the right length and they fit both ends. the inner joint is slightly further outboard which steepens the angle a bit unfortunately, but still worth it. I plan to move the LCA frame mounts out as far as possible with the camber bolts and adjust alignment with the threaded bushings on the CAs. This will bring the inner cv and the LCA frame pivot closer to being co-planer. The inner joints get better angles when they are "unplunged," that is why the CAs are fabbed 3+" longer whereas the cvs are 3-" longer; pulls the cv shaft out a bit for less interference.

Miller Maxstar foot pedal TIG with argon and standard (e72?) mild steel rod. No qualifications.

I trimmed about 1 3/4" from all four wheel arches when my rears started rusting a while back. These are being swapped for glass, though. With a firewall chop (not too bad) and some clearancing of the structural members above the wheel, 35s will fit at a pretty good stuff. Doubt i will sustain full stuff with the wheel cut like that. If I do, i suspect I will have more problems than rub.

with these particular joints I needed most of that spindle clearancing. Dirtfab is right about heims and spacers, but i wanted something more suitable for the mud/salt in wv (greaseable, adjustable, rebuildable). with 4x4 there is not much stack height available between the outer cv cup and the lower ball joint location on the spindle. I even had to shave the head of the bolt i used.

I was very concerned with the cup warpage. As dirtfab suggests alternate welds, try to keep heat even and not excessive. take breaks and be patient. The joints I used have bronze and chromoly races that can be left in place while welding. If there is some deflection the ball will re-seat over time and the joint can be adjusted.

 

By bind-free you mean smooth and progressive? Its pretty tight in there, but no interference as of yet, and the shock pretty much ends up at perpendicular to the LCA at full stuff. Rides at 25 degrees or so. cycles smooth on the jack stands. going to bump it and strap it to leave 3/4" of shock travel at full stuff and droop to protect the shock.

 

RAM CVs are 66mm longer than Dakota one rite? So 3 1/8" is about 79mm. So 13mm extra length on the CAs for minimizing plunge? Are there snap-rings or some other countermeasure to prevent the shaft from plunging fully into one joint and leaving too little spline in the other or is the length enough so that this is not an issue?

 

It is the 3- lobe joint that slides within the triple slot cup. No splines. It is the inner joint within the boot; not the splined ends, those do have snap rings. The bearing surface is the same unless it comes all the way out. We'll see how much I get and how much it stretches the boot, that is probably the limiting factor. I have a fair amount of wiggle room with the threaded bushings.

 

So the LCA is using ballistic fab forged bushings and their uniball too? What about the UCA? The frame mounds aren't wide enough for the 2.63" BF bushings and I can't tell if it's their uniball up top.

 

I found a rubber bushing that fit well from ride tech for the uppers. they are threaded shank also. The upper bj is an emf weldable unit (if it ever shows up) that has the pin machined into the spherical ball. Similar to a uniball, but no through bolt. that gives it a smaller profile and more articulation (40 degrees? or so)

 

Update: front end is back together. newly fabbed upper and lower CAs, extended tie rod ends, longer ram axles, 10" foa coilovers, 6"+ increased track. Ride is phenomenally plush and the truck is more stable despite being soggy and having no swaybar.

the upper ball joints i wanted never came through, and i used ones with "only" 32 degrees of movement. this seems to be limiting the bump and droop to about 11.5-12" of total travel. not bad. with a different upper ball joint and flexier cvs 14" or more is no problem, but i'm in raptor territory as it is.

no pics yet; the truck looks dumb anyway right now with the wheels sticking out and the fender liners and mud flaps gone. 2" wheel spacers coming for the rear and 35s seem like they will not rub unless i can fully stuff the tire with the wheel at full lock (firewall). pics to follow soon. getting ready to paint the hanneman fenders.

 

oh yeah, have to change my sig soon. Btw alignment is not nearly as bad as i thought it would be. getting it aligned on friday. inspection will be another story!

 

Cmon bro. Online fabricator 101....pics or it didnt happen :-P

Props to getting it going. I really need to get my build thread started. Gotta sort through mainly useless pics and find the good ones.

 

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