We ensured no chafing issues when routing the fuel lines by encasing them in hoses where they passed our frame plates installed to reinforce the bump stop locations...
Now that we have the upper and lower shock locations dialed, we need to smash the suspension while the leaf packs are still apart and measure the distance between them, then put the spring packs back together and droop this bad boy out to get the long measurement as well. This will give us the information we need to order up our shocks. Here is what the rear system looks like at full droop. We measured for our limit straps as well. All measurements were realistic with buffers to allow for limit strap stretch and plenty of room at smash and full droop to ensure our shocks would not be a limiting factor.
Rear suspension travel appears to be a clean 17 inches. This image was printed, laminated and is on the fridge! Big Bird Tribute is coming to life!
Pretty much finished with the Bedcage. Later we will fab up a locking system to keep the fuel jugs secure while parked outside the strip club or taco stand. With fuel jugs and without.....
As you might have noticed, we have been working on the bedsides as well. By removing the stock bedsides and installing these dapper units from Hanneman Fiberglass.
Next up, were headed to the front. We removed the stock Dana 44 beam setup in favor of plated, skidded, trussed, extended, cut and turned units built by Dave at Threat Motorsports. The new setup will replace the stock radius arms with longer mucho beef units designed for better ground clearance and pivot on 1.25 inch rod ends.
First Wyatt and his brother Jake removed the stock system.
Time for hanging these wide swinging whoop scissors! We located the radius arm pivot boxes with a c-clamp for now. We will wait until we get the differential and axles back in before determining final location and mounting them. Remember, cycle, cycle, then cycle again to ensure everything is where it needs to be! #threatmotorsports #threat
The parts from threat came with the necessary longer axle shafts as well. Next up will be changing the ring and pinion on the Dana 44, getting new u-joints in the front axles, changing the hubs over to massive wheel studs and getting everything together with all new bearings, seals, brakes etc. Lots of work ahead of us, including some trick coilover shock towers!
Before we could move forward on the front end, we had to change the gearing in the front differential to match the nine in the back. When moving to lower gears on a Dana 44, you have to get a "thick" ring gear which is commonly available. When working in a reverse rotation situation (front diff application) nobody makes a thick ring gear, you have to use a special carrier. Changing out the carrier makes the job much more difficult.
Wyatt's oldest Brother Jake, an engineer and all around gear head took the lead after Wyatt got it apart. Diff settup is very important so when we got it done, we had it checked out by Billy at Garage Works in Yuma. He verified the pattern was perfect and made a slight adjustment to ensure we were where we wanted to be.
Next up was getting the axles in (after we installed new u-joints of course) and get the hubs installed. Before we did this, we needed to upgrade the wheel studs to 11/16th monsters to match the rear. Heard many upgrade the half inch babies that come OEM to 5/8th, weak!
We pounded the old studs out, cleaned out the hubs, drilled everything out to make room for the Trophy Truck wheel studs and used the wheel nuts to pull them together. Yes, you need a inch and an eighth socket!
Couldn't find any images of putting the hubs together, it was a greasy mess of course so probably avoided the cell phone during that process. We utilized a set of Original Equipment (OEM) manual locking hubs we salvaged from an 80's F150, they are pretty stout. This should be good enough for now, and much better than the centrifugal units that this truck came with.
Now that we have a complete front Twin Traction Beam (TTB) front axle system installed it is time to determine the ultimate location of the trailing arm pivot points and cycle, cycle and cycle some more to ensure there is no binding or other issues to address. First we removed the OEM coil buckets. Removing ford suspension rivets was discussed earlier. As you can see, Wyatt was a bit timid with the man hammer. Junior had to take the lead to instruct the lad. After a brief delay to address an injury we finished up the frame rails nicely.
Check out these coil-over shock buckets. They were acquired via our good friend Dave Baldwin (the Modelman). Getting these units really set our project ahead as far as time line goes. Huge thanks to the Modelman! Without his generosity, we would have taken several weeks to build a set, then test, fix, try again etc. These units were fabbed by Southwest Performance out of Ramona CA. Very nice parts which not only provide for the coil-over mount but there is room for a by-pass shock and a hydraulic bump stop. Both items Wyatt may want to add in the future.