A little more Effie Progress?
I could put it off no longer I had to get on with the IRS. I did in my
naivety think I could finish all the front off even to the point of painting the
chassis then concentrate on the IRS after Ha Bloody Ha yeah right course I could
;o) So I took a deep breath and started by marking where the axle
centre was, strange it wasn't in the centre of the bump stop? Once marked I
cleaned off all the old brk's, flaky paint and surface rust.
I roughly sat the axle in place after first removing the old cage and giving it
a quick wire brushing. then it came apparent that this was not going to be an
easy job, for one the axle wanted to go any way but level and the Shox wanted to
share the same place as the chassis *hum?*
I took the shox off and hide them away and thought I will cross that bridge when I
come to it. I sat for hours wondering, how the hell am I going to get the diff to
sit level and central while I mount it and make a crossmember????????
Ahh haaa cut a piece of box to sit tight in the chassis rails, mount the already
drilled diff plate dead central and Voila. So that's what I did and it worked a
treat, all I had to do now was level it and central it and the job was a good un
eh! Then it dawned on me, the axle may not be sat central in the arch, I think
there is not a lot worse aesthetically if the wheels don't sit right in the arch
so I had to re-fit all the pick-up bed and rear fender to double check and guess what?
It bloody didn't sit in the centre, it turned out the bump stop was the right
position not the old axle centre, so using the centre of the two bump stop bolt holes , I
had a datum to get it sat peach in the rear wheel arch.
So it was now a marathon measuring and leveling session, that took literally
hours of checking and treble checking until I was satisfied it was right in every direction.. It's one of those jobs that sounds a doddle and probably is if you know
what you are doing, but for me it was a nightmare knowing where and what to
measure from. There was to be no guess work this had to be bang on, I had it
finally in the position I was totally happy with and set about with the welder.
I stuck some ally sheet over the calipers to stop them getting weld splatter on
them, That was it, the Crossmember was sat plumb, I was happy remember the diff top is angled so make sure the diff flange is at 90degrees to the floor..
Update:The setting of the pinion angle has been under much discussion, when using say a Ford 302 V8 the engine and trans are decline at angle of around 5 degrees, to help submarine away from the cab and its occupants in an impact. Now the pinion should in theory be incline the same amount so the two UJ's run parallel so not to invoke undue wear. Many go with the set up as above, but some are also now disputing this as the best set up and say to incline the pinion to match the E/T decline. I guess you pays ya money you takes ya choice, if you wish to read more try this http://www.nsra.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40688&whichpage=1 Your input would be much appreciated, But I feel angling the diff will cause the track to alter not a good situation so bugger it I am going with much respected Geoff Kremer's way (also much respected Steve Langy Langs way) and sit the diff flange at 90 degrees to the floor.
Now had to work out what to do
with the shockers??? I must of sat and looked at the job for at least 4 hours
before tackling it. I thought AVO's would be best as they can be bought shorter
and they are physically smaller in diameter so they would not cause to much of a
problem. A quick look in the mags and on the internet soon changed my mind as at
£400 for a set with springs they were a definite no no. I will re-use the old coils for now see how
it sits. This meant cutting a C out of the crossmember and also cutting a chunk
out da chassis to Oh My Gawd! Once the chassis was cut and the C done I then had
to work out how to make some top shock mounts and I wanted em adjustable *hum?* You can simply weld the shock mounts to the outer chassis, as I have seen done I wanted the shocks at more of an angle for a softer ride.
I cut the top out of the old cage and used the section that the shocker originally mounted on, and that would make the shox bang on the
original spacing etc, so I made up some box to simulate the shox with 2 inch of
drop as I guessed the shox would drop under load. I have since redone the whole rear end see pages later on.
Then I got disturbed, home chores stopped play, as school holidays
mean a break for us to, so it will be a couple of weeks until I can get
near the truck again..
Loads to do and my head hurts.
Update April
Well after some serious head hurting sessions the radius rods
are done! Hoorah!
I took a piece of copper pipe (straight) and pushed it through the lower inner fulcrum
holes after removing the bolts ;o) (not daft me) This gave me the point where the, foremost end with the spherical rod end on
would need to be mounted on the crossmember. I then held the bar/radius rod at
this angle and tacked it on. Luckily I had some old bushes and so I could fit
them so the rod sat bang where it will once the new bushes are fitted. I got a
pr from powerflex complete with housing tubes which saved a lot of hassle.
It is important to get the radius rods at the right angle so you don't get any axle bind, this is the rear mount and the front is as described above, where the lower fulcrum bolt hole dissects this rod (see photo)
I could now concentrate on the inner mounting, I found I needed to make a
bracket that dropped 60mm so I made some mounting brks from some 50mm box off
cuts I had left from the crossmember and split them and narrowed them so they
fit the rod end a treat.
This is the front mount.
This shows the front crossmember radius rod brk that will screw into the other end of the radius rod shown, this is the finished welded rear
radius rod bushes. That fits to the axle lower arms
Once I was happy I had the rod and brk in the correct plane I tacked them on and
after measuring and rechecking a dozen times
I finished welded them and fitted
the crossmember in its final position and welded that to .... job done... now it
is chassis boxing and anticlimb bars next and tie plates and lower diff plate
and and and arghhhhhhh why didn't I just buy a Truck already done??????? Tip do not do as I have done just tack weld everything until it is all done then final weld once you are happy with everything.... see later pages if you need convincing of that ;o)
More photos here of the jag rear fitting click here
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