2003 DCSB Tacoma 1 Ton SAS

a few more.

 

Looks good!!

 

Got the tire carrier and jack holder finished up and powder coated.

 

Wicked clean build man. One question, Professional Engineer, Petroleum Engineer, or both? Hahaha

 

Both, been a wild ride!

 

That’s awesome man. I just graduated last May from the University of Wyoming. Petroleum Engineering as well. I’m out in Pecos right now workin MWD For a directional company. Hopin to get some field experience and land a Drilling Engineering job. Likin it so far! Well glad to meet a fellow PE on here

 

Congrats on graduating! Likewise, don't run into many others. Hang in there, it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next 6 months with all of the supply chain issues...

 

Had a great time at the Toyota Jamboree at Barnwell! Met some great folks and ran some good trails! No breaks, but found a few clearance issues with my steering and brake lines. When the drives side tire stuffs, the spring would hit the Drag link and took out my grease fitting and would bind my steering. Got the solution working - next post. Saw how a guy used some springs and tubing clamps to get the brake lines out of the way, works well.

 

I am going to go to a heim joint for the pitman arm end of my drag link. This will require me to build a pitman arm to get the center line of the drag link centered with my pitman arm. I had the parts laser cut locally and tig welded it together. I'm no expert tig welder, but by the time I was done the welds looked decent.

 

I had to extend the drag link had to make up for the shorter heim joint vs the GM 1 ton drag link end. machined down a piece to act as an inner sleeve and plug welded the extension and welded around it, then cleaned it back up in the lathe.

 

Notching the frame was not as bad as I had anticipated - had to do this to clear the castle nut on top of the pitman arm. As luck would have it, when I was threading in the Heim joint for assembly, the threads galled and I was unable to get it out. I ended up having to cut the old threaded bung off and start over with a new heim joint and threaded insert. Anyone have any suggestions on lubricants for the threads? never seize?

 

For the galling: https://irate4x4.com/threads/welding-threaded-inserts.383350/#post-798158

Nice job on the notch! I would slap a plate over all that and tie your steering box mount into the frame plate next time you have the welder out. Should be pretty bomb proof after that and extra insurance against cracking above and around the notch.

 

Finished produce, used the never seize as mentioned in the post above. Worked out way better the 2nd time.. I gained a little over an inch of clearance from the spring, shake down run this weekend to make sure it all clears.

I did a lot of looking and there are strong feelings for both castle nuts and cotter pins vs the all metal lock nuts. I went the all metal lock nut route for the 5/8" fine thread bolts for the heim joint. Anyone had issues with the lock nuts?

 

I would still look into a mechanical fastener. My steering box is setup similar to yours, and I was still able to get a castle nut on there and a cotter pin. You could also look into safety wire but that may be a PITA the first time you have to retorque that.

I'm not too much of a safety dork outside of work (what I do for a living) but steering and brake systems I don't like to take many chances with.

 

Any reason why you couldn't flip the 5/8s bolt (you'd need new, slightly longer one) and drill a hole below the nut for a cotter pin? Would help the safety factor 2 part, Upgrading and adding the cotter pin would prevent it from coming loose, but also if it ever did, the bolt should have almost no way of pushing up and out of the arm (nice design by the way).

 

The bolt is flipped for clearance. I actually took a bit off the bolt head with the lathe to thin it up a bit. It could possibly clear with the bolt facing down, but I'll flex it out this weekend to confirm. I agree the ideal situation would be for the bolt to go thorough the top.

 

It's a late suggestion but why not run a 3/4" less than stock drop pitman arm vs a flat to prevent cutting the frame for clearance? Or run a nylon locking nut vs a prevailing lock nut like what you have? From experience, prevailing lock but tend to rattle loose unlike the nylon lock nut.

I ran heim in the past at the steer box with double shear setup and haven't ran into the nut coming loose or disappearing with the nylon designed.

 

FWIW my castle nut hits my frame notch, and I made sure to keep the TRE hole facing parallel to the notch and let the castle nut self clearance.