Solid Axle Swap BS Thread

Those are some big steering heims haha. Try again... It's only a partial order right now

 

Ahhh. Didn't see the link ends with the 1.5 ID

So id say links....

And we have used big heims for steering lol....based on what was there I assumed....now if there were more parts and tubing length then it would have been more accurate.

So if its links spill the beans.....I'll be doing brians stuff at 4wu shortly...up front and then eventually rear.

ID be curious to see your numbers or layout, I contemplate doing mine raw and not semi kit form....

 

Thats what i have for steering and all 1.25" for links.

 

I did 1.25" hiems for lower links and 7/8" hiems for uppers links

 

Yea I'm going to try and 3-link the front sometime this year. Basically all brackets will be from ballistic fab and the other stuff as you see from the above post is bought from ruffstuff. I think I am going to run the barnes enduro joints on the lower links.

I'm curious to see my numbers too haha, this will be my 2nd time linking anything so yeah............

I like Brians stuff, but it's too expensive for me right now. I might get Radoflo coil overs from him... or ballistic fab CO, but I haven't decided anything. They both look really nice. Probably go with 2.5"... YOLO

Yeah 1.25" enduro joints instead of heims, but 7/8" upper link heims. I thought about 1.25" for the upper but I think it's overkill for my light truck that doesn't see speed or pavement.

 

a 7/8 link is very tough and where as I have a 4 link im not worried about breaking them.

 

Yeah, especially a 4link I'd definetly say 1.25" would be overkill haha.

 

I did 1.25" lower links because that's the link that take the most abuse. though in retrospeck I should have just made them all the same (1.25) ever kill everywhere is ok with me.

 

Yeah I did 1.25" Ballistic joints all around and after a year swapped out the uppers to 1.25" Hiems because the ballistic joints had to be tightened every few thousand miles the lower are good but those uppers were a pain.

 

I just did Hiems and so far haven't knoticed any issues at with them at all. the 1.25 joints are still stiff to move by hand.

 

I haven't seen a few thousand miles in over 4 years I shouldn't have to worry about much haha. How do the ballistic joints hold up on the lowers?

 

some ballistic brackets

Still haven't decided on CO's... Kings... Ballistic... Radflo... so many....

 

They are great on the lowers no issues from me.

 

Radflo's have the shortest compressed length in a 14 inch coilover compared to all the other major brands.

 

Why waste money on 3linking the front with a d44 if you are going to swap the axle anyway? Seems like the logical path would be to 3link when you swap in the new axle and leave the leafs for now if they work.

 

The leaf setup doesn't work well enough. Especially with the way Eric wheels haha. There's so much more tunability in a 3-link/coilover setup. It's financially unrealistic for Eric to do the the swap to a 60 and links at the same time. The most economical and 'fun' route would be to link the D44 first, tune the setup, and get some challenge out of it before moving on. He has beat the shit out of that 44 and I'm surprised it has held up as well as it has haha

 

this vvv and theres isn't much more work involved to swap out axles. all he would need is new axle brackets

 

I wheel the same places he does, ifs and on 33's, there's no real terrain within 1000miles of here that requires a 3link (maybe the dunes)....

I guess if its a project to hold ya over and keep you sane until you can swap, to each his own.

 

There's plenty of stuff in Attica where 3-link would be great. Not to mention Harlan. I'm still trying to convince him to move his ass down to CO.

 

I flexed out the 63's last night to get my measurements. I measured from the underside of the bed to the centerline of the axle. This is what I got.

Compressed = 29.5"
Extended = 43.75"
Distance between flat leaf and bump pad = 6"

So with adding an inch for forced travel I'm looking at 15.25" of travel in the rear, and there's probably a little more in there depending on the conditions.

I'm going with an 18" 2.5 King smoothie. The 18" shock has a compressed length of 28" and an extended length of 46". That would give me 1.5" of exposed shaft on compression and an extra 2.25" of extension past my calculated numbers. Definitely provides more room for error on my part.

It's going to be a tight fit between the tire and the frame, but with a spacer I'm certain I can clear both. My wheels have 4.1" of backspacing and I have 1.25" spacers sitting on the shelf already. I'll set it up so I just clear the frame, and then decide if I can move the spacer down to a 3/4".

I've ordered daystar progressive bumps for the time being. Later on when I'm feeling rich again I'll order up some hydro bumps.

Here's what she looked like with the forklift flex.