Malburg114's 3Link go fast SAS

Not sure if I want to drop the tank, but I'd definitely pull the bed if I do it

 

How did it go.....sorry we had to peace out like that got stuck behind that redic full size Chevy that kept breaking and time was not on our side. Dennis said he gave you some welding rod.

 

No big deal. Dude in the chevy was crazy. Yeah he gave us some rod. We sheared the steering studs off the driver knuckle on Friday and welded it up on Saturday but the weld broke. Ended up using a couple tie downs and driving half a mile per hour in 2wd till the end to get out. Was a long day but we made it lol.

 

Thats what she said

 

Awesome dude glad you made it, that road in has got to be the worst fucking road in the history of roads no?

 

Rubicon Trail 2016
Marlin Crawler Roundup-Loon Lake-Lake Tahoe
September 15-19, 2016

The weekend for us started on Thursday with the 10 hour drive to Ice House road where we found a good shoulder to park the tow rig and sleep for the night. Friday we ate breakfast and started the trail. All was going good and having a lot of fun. Trail was pretty hard and truck was a little top heavy with the tent. I did have a little trouble learning how to drive through everything though but quickly caught on. We made it to Buck Island where we walked around and let my dad drive for a little. Just at the bottom of Big Sluice the wheels started rubbing super bad and we wherent moving. Got out to see the studs in the knuckle holding the driver side steering arm on had sheared off except for 1. Only problem was we where right in the middle of the trail with no way to go around us. We tried backing them out and drilling them out but were not able to. Ended up pulling the whole knuckle and drilling some more and just putting some new studs on top of them. This held till right before the springs. We stopped to check 200 yards from camp when we saw it was about to break off again. So we backed into a flat spot, made some dinner and called it a day.

Saturday morning, we got up and walked to the springs to try and find someone who could weld the arm to the knuckle for us. Without any luck, Marlins crew came out to us and ended up welding it for us. Was pretty cool watching the guy weld with two batteries. Once that was done, we packed up the site and made our way over to a camping spot near the springs since we where on private property. Made it there without problems and set up camp again and went for a swim in the water which was nice after laying in the dirt and grease for the last day. We went to the dinner and raffle but didnt win anything and got up early Sunday to try and beat the crowd out of camp. The day started out fine except for the closing the tent with my keys inside of it and made it up Cadillac hill without any problems. On one of the last real obsticals, it was a tight turn with a large rock to crawl over, the tires rub and just a little after that, I could feel a clunk in the steering. Well the weld ended up breaking and only the last stud and the back of the weld was holding. So we pulled over and decided to put a rachet strap on the knuckle and steering arm to suck it down and limit the down travel with some straps as well. A few people stopped and checked and gave us a few small things. In the end, we decided we had no real choice but to go for it. So for the last 6 miles, we did about 1mph in 2wd with my dad walking in front watching the arm. We redid the straps a few times to make sure they where tight and avoided everything we could. We eventually made it to the end of the trail and it was a huge relief. We are pretty lucky we trailered the truck and had a buddy in another rig with us because we couldnt go over 15mph without feeling like the front end was going to fall apart. At the end of the day it was still fun and I learned a ton. The trail was hard and we broke some parts but it all makes for a good story and good pictures. Already ordered parts to redo some of the front suspension and picked up a whole axle to use as parts since it was cheaper. The truck will be done soon and I plan on going next year most likely. Hoping to do Hump n Bump in Logandale and a Parker run in November as well as maybe Moab next year. We will see.

Now some of the pictures.

DSC_0055 by Harrison M, on Flickr

Only body damage from slamming down on the side. Flattened the DOM tubing
DSC_0202_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

The death trap of tie downs holding the steering together
DSC_0193 by Harrison M, on Flickr

Top of Cadillac Hill and Observation point. I was pretty stoked to make it up haha
DSC_0182 by Harrison M, on Flickr

DSC_0077_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

More to come. Still uploading from my camera.

 

Cool! What studs did you have on there and did you check the torque on them after a few trips post swap?

 

Deeeeecent. I can't believe you guys managed to limp that thing 6 miles.

 

Stock studs and I checked them after 500 miles after the swap but everyone said you need to check them just about every trip and on hard trips, maybe on a break. I just ordered ARP studs and am going to do the 5th stud mod to my new knuckles once I decide what high steer arms im going to use. Will either be skys or marlins. If marlins ill do the 25mm king pin as well. 4 other guys there had the same problem so make sure you check yours lol

 

Limp is exactly what we did. I think it took us 4 or 5 hours to do the last stretch. Didnt have any other option lol

 

Some more pictures

DSC_0160_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

The springs where super cool. Felt good to take a dip and rub the dirt and grease off.
DSC_0145 by Harrison M, on Flickr

The camp and fix it spot. Our buddy also sheared the studs off his lockout so they where fixing that
DSC_0118_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

Guy used a ready welder with 2 battiers. Also had cordless grinders and such. Was a pretty sweet set up.
DSC_0112_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

Defeated after the first day.
DSC_0099_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

Putting it all back together finally
DSC_0123_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

Then some of us doing the trail
DSC_0081_1 by Harrison M, on Flickr

DSC_0167 by Harrison M, on Flickr

 

I just did last week. The guys i wheel with swear by new stock toyota studs as they have broken the ARP's and not the new stock studs, so some food for thought. I ended up going with stock new toyota studd. The only real loose stud i had was a 30yr old stock stud im using because i stripped one of the new ones. 5th stud is on my list of stuff to do.

 

Damn I hope Im that prepared for the carnage come Rubicon time. Looks like alot of fun was had out there

 

Where yours loose? The guys there all swore by the arps lol. Oh well. Already ordered. They also swore by having steel arms and not cast that they loosened up less. And the 5th stud helped a lot. Almost dropped the coin on front ranges keyed ones but they are to long.

 

Haha I wish I could say I was. I had all the hand tools we needed. Others had the power tools which made it easy. Our tool bag is definitely getting updated though lol.

 

The new stock studs took maybe an 1/8 turn of the wrench and the one old one took about a full turn. Im going to treat them as a wear item and change them evrey season.

Yea i was skepictal as well as all you hear about is ARP, however they swear by them (5 rigs running 35-37" tires all with hydro assist) so i went with their recomendations. Keep an eye out on pirate and mud, there is usually someone selling steering arms on there evrey month or so.

 

I had one good stud on the driver side and all the passenger where loose and one actually broke. If I have trouble with the arps I'll try the stock ones. When I have to tighten the a lot I'll probably replace them. Maybe every 2 years if I can. Idk to be honest haha.

I'll probably just get new ones. A guy won a pair of all pros in the raffle and I bought them for 40 bucks and plan to use them for mock up with the new pitman arm and springs to see if I need the shorter arms or if regular ones Will work. Then sell them or keep for spairs. I watch pirate but will watch mud as well

 

Just an fyi Parts Mike (big vendor in the jeep and dana axle world, not so much with toyotas) makes custom pitman arms if you need one. Easy people to deal with and it aa pretty cheap. I think my flat arm for the ford box and reamed for 80 tre's was like 80 bucks shipped or something like that.

 

Definitely take the time and chase the threads in the knuckles for the new ARP studs. It'll help fully thread the knuckle side of those ARPs and give that RED loctite something to bite to.

I have ARPs/37s/HA first outing I needed to re-torque the the nuts on the studs, after that they have always been tight when I check them.

 

I ended up getting skys flat arm. It's 3/8 of an inch shorter and hoping to be able to move my axle foward because of this. If I have full steering still, I'll do marlins Arms, If not I'll do skys cause they're shorter and made to have full steering with both pieces. We looked on parts Mike but he doesn't sell a toyota spline pitman arm. Unless we missed it? If not, skys arm was 110 so no biggie.