Malburg114's 3Link go fast SAS

My dads in town so he helped me clean up we’re the engine cage will mount to the cab. Also got the plates formed and tacked for the inside frame gusset.

ordered solid inners after shop in town jerked me around and can’t find anyone else to do. Should be here December 1st

 

Cs finally showed up. Lots of math and mocking up today to figure out how much to cut the housing. Should have the housing cut and assembled tomorrow hopefully.

and don’t worry. My car parts are rona free.

I know the knuckle is backwards in the last two pictures. Just showing how I got my measurements. I’ll explain with more pictures tomorrow

 

What a long stressful day... but the cs are on. Driver side took 3 tries. First wasn’t hot enough and I pounded on only to pound off cause it wouldn’t move. Cleaned the tube up a little, iced it and got the c super hot and it slid right on. Got the degrees perfect only for the housing to still be to long. I cut an 1 1/8 out of it and iced it and heated the c again. It slid on but cooled quick so was .5 degree off what I wanted. Cleaned up the c and assembled the hub.
Everything fits but the shaft hits the locking up cap keeping it from turning so I’ll try to put the housing in the press to move the c an 1/8 or just grind the shaft a little.

Other side I cut out 21 3/4 of the tube. The shaft slid in but only had 1/2 in of spline engagement so took another 3/4 of an inch out and it was just right. Did the same thing, iced and cleaned up the housing and left the c on the grill for a while. Tried it and it didn’t even slide on so I found some patience and threw them back in the grill. Half hour or so later it slid right on and was able to match the degree within a .25 degree.

Pretty happy overall. Once I figured out the heat/ice it was very simple. Just stressful with the cuts. The short side is well.. short. Should make the lower mount ineresting. Overall happy with how it turned out. Mad cause I beat the crap out of the one c but happy it’s together and I can start cycling.

Ended up with 15.5 degrees (was shooting for 16) so I’ll do 7 3/4 degrees of pinion angle which will give me 7 3/4 caster

 

Man that kinda stuff is so nerve racking

 

I over complicated a lot of things and after I got moving and figured out how hot the cs had to be it got easier. Pretty funny watching me run around with mig gloves on and a piece of metal smoking on a metal plate lol.

 

Links laid out. 45 in long lowers. 44.5 in upper. 6.5 degrees on the lowers at ride height. -1 on the upper but I could lower the frame side an inch. I’m not quite sold on the upper mount yet so chopped it up and lowered it and moved it foward some and shortened the upper by an 1.5 to gain some more uptravel. Plan on shortening the wheelbase an inch or two to get the upper behind the ac compressor for more uptravel. Moving along and feel like I made good progress today. Threw a fender on just to see where I was at wheelbase wise as well.

 

Redrilled the upper and moved it foward some. Plan on making a new upper mount similar to bamf to clear the ac compressor.

My dad got me a brake from grizzly and can’t thank him enough. He always saw me playing with his and asked if I wanted one and I couldn’t say no lol. Got a stand made for it tonight. It’s a little tall so may shorten it some and need to ad some shelves but hot bad for some scrap and just metal I had laying on the shelf.

and a picture of the little man when he couldn’t find his way back out behind the band saw

 

Remade the upper mount to get most up travel. Straight up and down is roughly 7 inches but will probably get limited to 6.5 or so or until I do some more cycling. Upper link no longer limits the travel as the actual housing is getting into the oil pan at that much up travel.
Got the steering drilled and sleeved as well. Moving along. Signed up for trails at winter 4x4 so kind of have a deadline now

 

Steering arms. The factory hole is at angle so I’ll grind the misalignments to Match the angle and sit flat

 

Moving along. I think everything is in place. Need to get some dom to really start cycling everything. Panhard and draglink are in their approximate place I think. Clearance is tight. And garage is getting full with tools...

 

Great work man, you got that packaged in there tight!

 

Not much room that’s for sure. Stuff is just kind of going where it fits with a little adjustment lol

 

You may have to notch that pax side frame rail above the steering. Mine cleared when garage cycling, it started hitting the frame on the trail.

 

I ended up having to move the draglink to on top of the steering arm so it wil for sure need notched now. I’ll double shear the heim and notch the frame.

 

Got some dom in town and got all my links and steering etc cut. Need to get two 7/8 1 inch tube inserts as the ones I have are to big for the tie rod but other than that it’s time to really start cycling everything.

 

More good progress. Frame notched for draglink and panhard. All brackets are made. Need to drill the hole for the pitman arm and finalize the panhard. Looks like everything clears while cycling. Got one bump stop tacked. Going to start on the shock mounts tomorrow hopefully.

I also made a mistake when putting the cs on had them about an 1/8 in to far on the axle tube on each side keeping the locking hub cap from turning. Made a cradle out of some 1/2 plate scrap I had laying around and got them pushed out. Passenger side barely took any force. Driver side bent a bunch of plate and took some heat and ice but got them done.

 

I dig the knuckle puller of death!!

 

It was terrifying. Especially when the 1/2 in plate started bending and cracking.

 

I wish I still had a pic of the triangle of death my friend built to straighten his bent 14bolt. It involved an I beam, a section of RR tie a 50ton bottle jack and a bunch of chain. Scary as hell!!

 

5 or 6 different panhard brackets later and I finally have something I like. Draglink and panhard are within a degree of each other and pretty close in length. Got my bump stops tac’d so I have a hard stop point when cycling the suspension and started locking up the lower shock mounts as I was struggling coming up with an idea to mount them in such a tight space.
Idea is to angle them back 8-10 degrees to make sure they clear the hood. I may need to notch the bumpstops into the frame though