This morning, here's what's left to pull off
- swaybar
- brake lines
- axle shafts (gotta pull the c-clip in the hubs)
- 2 bolts holding the 3rd member in
Oh, and putting all this stuff back on.
We're watching monster trucks on TV while we wait for it to get late enough the air tools and radio won't aggravate the neighbors. 20 more minutes.
Before I go anywhere with the truck, I need the airlines attached to make sure we keep crap out of the air line bulkhead fittings. Our earlier drive used a zip tie and a nitrile glove, but I'm not good with that as a solution for much further than the first break-in run.
All right, the Blazeland portion, and the front gears/ARB are installed as of today. More details later, but I am totally shagged. I am no longer the young pup I once was. Good thing my son helped so much. He did a LOT on truck, really helping make it come together.
With 285/75R16s on stock Toyota steelies, the Blazeland hit at full stretch. A lot. And get much worse when turned. It wouldn't take more than a few feet to carve a big gash in the sidewall.
I took a grinding wheel to the edge of the upper control arm, making it flush with the uprights that go to the lower plate on the upper control arm. Pics later. The edge of the plate is now flush with the washers of the outermost plate bolts (gold), and matches the angle to the 2 upright pieces of plate going down to the lower plate.
That keeps it from hitting the tire at full droop with them pointed straight ahead. Barely. Like maybe by 1/8"
Any turning, tho, and I won't have a sidewall as the tire gets forced into the corners of the plate (front or rear). It only takes a few degrees.
I'm really prefer not to do spacers and I'm not considering a wider offset wheel for a couple of reasons. I'd need like 2" more offset, and that's quite a bit.
Sitting on the ground at the ride height I've chosen, there's plenty of clearance. I'll be taking a look at it next weekend to see what other options I might have.
There's no way to make the stock swaybar work, so I'll have to look into other options.
No driving until it gets align, which I'll probably do after I get the rear up. Lifting the rear is my priority, I can always just put some limiting straps on it to keep the tire sidewall from getting carved.
The used torsion bars I bought had the adjusters locked on. In the background are the used Blazeland arms.
I could wiggle them, but could not hammer them off with a dead-blow or with a sledge. And since I don't have a press...
I drilled out the backs (there's a pinhole there to let air in which provided the guide)
The wet shorts, btw, is sweat and water I poured over my head. It was very hot when I did this and, now that I'm 41 with a long term desk job, I sweat very easily.
While I don't have a press, I do have gear pullers. Which is what I needed the hole for.
And the torsion bar came free! That's sand. Lots and lots of sand. The PO had not left the rubber caps on the torsion bar, and they packed up. Needless to say, I reused the caps from the old torsion bars!
Pulling the control arms and front diff in the driveway in the heat was a lot of work considering there may not be more than 30 bolts which need to be pulled.
This is what most of the front diff oil on the ground looks like. The front diff fell off the jack and flipped the oil pan upside down. It did not speed up the operation.
A little Dawn and a whole lot of scrubbing with a push broom when I was done and you can't even tell oil was spilled there. Whew!!
As I mentioned, my phone went missing with a lot of pictures. Take my word for it, it went back together that day. It was a long day, but well worth it.
When it was done, we had both sets of gears swapped out, the front lifted and new balljoints installed, but with a clearance problem at full droop with the wide tires, and the rear drooping since it was at its stock, sagged height.
That was the end of Sunday.
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