I have been picking away at assembling the rear suspension over the last two weeks, half hour at a time makes for slow progress but I managed to get it all tack welded into place and assembled. I recorded a short video for you to check out,
I wish I had more ways to test the suspension at this time but my crappy SUV jack really does’t stretch it out, but it did give me confidence that the tacks will hold for now and the geometry is going to work. I want to go back and compare what I have welded on the truck versus the 4 link calculator to see how close I actually ended up.
I welded and cleaned up the Truss on the rear axle. I ended up welding this on both sides of the truss, I thought this would be stronger and since I has access, why not? What could go wrong?
I than marked out the location of my lower links according to the calculator. I tacked these in place, all the links are currently just tacked with at least four meaty tacks just so I can assemble and test the suspension before committing to final welds.
I went back to the frame and tacked on the lower links to the new mounts I had made the previous week. These mounts worked out great, gave me more than enough clearance.
Now that the Axle is ready to connect to the frame I needed to move the axle back under the truck and center and square it with the frame. This was no easy task alone, specially with the meaty tires. I made two marks on my frame which represented where my axle needed to line up with, I hung two plumb bobs about 1/2 inch higher than the axle tube. This would allow me to center and square the axle with the frame. Moving a fully assembled axle sitting on the ground 1/8th of an inch is a pain.
After that was complete I measured for my tubes that would connect the frame links to the axle links.
I picked up a PorterCable chop saw over the last two weeks, knowing that I had to cut the DOM tubes to finish up the links. I really didn’t want to do this by hand with a grinder. I should have bought this along time ago, make very quick work and a nice clean cut.
One good suggestion I saw when researching how to do this was to drill a couple holes in your tubes so you can plug weld for additional strength. I ended up drilling two holes per end. I labeled my tubes so I would keep the ends straight and which side went to which side.
With the tubes all welded up and the ends threaded together I started to assemble the top links. I hadn’t welded the top links to the axle side just yet. I wanted to assemble the tubes and located them just right with everything lined up.
Top and Lower links all bolted in place I was ready to test my work. Thankfully everything worked out and it looks great. Time will tell how it performs but for now I think its time to move on to the front of the truck and see if we can get a rolling chassis before the end of June.
I have to still mount the rear coil overs but that is future Scott’s problem to figure out.