fuster's runner build continued from the garage rig pic forum...

[callmej75]

Absolutely gorgeous Fuster...

[PhorunninDuke]

Torque bar,

And it escaped my truck too and never made it back
Might have joined up with the French Special forces.

Hey Reg, I understand that without the torque bar, the front end gets alittle squirrely. Was that your experience too?

Absolutely useless. Never noticed it was gone - even on the highway.

[fustercluck]

Yup, I see now that with cross-over steering, the torque bar is impossible to employ. I should have cut the bracket off when I had the axle up on the horses. I'll cut it with callous abandon later this week.


Anywho, I reassembled the hub assembly and encountered a problem. I can't get the little cir-clips into their grooves at the end of the axles. Looks like the axles need to move outward about 1/16 of an inch to fully expose the groove and allow the clip to do it's thing. Any ideas? This condition is present on both passenger and driver sides. I pulled on the axle ends. They moved a bit, but not enough. I'm stumped.

When I get stumped, I go to what I changed to examine what may effect such a problem. I wonder if it's worth continuing assembly and driving down the street to see if that helps....What do y'all think?

Regardless, tonight I had enough of the hubs reassembled to throw the wheels back on and see what my ride height will be. Below are those images. I wanted to snap some pics of the brake assemblies because they are fairly bling-worthy, but they weren't ready to install since I spent so much time on the cir-clip issue.




Well, the other pic didn't turn out, it was too dark. So there's only one for tonight.

[waskillywabbit]

You need the c clips on there...sounds like you might have the spindle seal on backwards or something...the brass looking seal that goes on the spindle on top of a gasket just before you slide on the wheel hub. The c clips should easily have room...as I was just messing with them on my rear full floater axle. You got something awry or not fully seated on the spindle.

[fustercluck]

Thanks Brian, I was hoping you'd respond. I'll give that a shot...

[waskillywabbit]

Also make sure the rear inner bearing seal is fully seated inside the wheel hub and then make sure the wheel hub is fully seated on the spindle...you should be able to put the C clip on with room to spare.

What does that sticky note say?

[toywthbdydmge]

cool build keep it coming

[fustercluck]

I AM INVINCIBLE!!!!!!!!!

After hours of cutting the rear passenger spring hanger bolt with a reciprocating saw and very little room to do so, I am the victor!!!!

The Toyota spring hanger and shackle bolts must be made of some intergalactic exotic hardened steel or something...I went through seven, count them, seven rescue strength steel blades while cutting only 1/4 of an inch through the first side of the bolt. I still had the rest and one more larger circumference side of the bolt left to do. Yikes! It occurred to me to use a carbide encrusted blade for cutting cast iron and ceramic. That did the trick. It still took me hours to do it.

I cut the other bolts off with old smokie, but the passenger rear spring hanger bolt is about 2 inches from a full and apparently immobile fuel tank. When I cut the others with the torch, the bushings would ignite and burn unquenchably. Open flame and intense heat next to a full fuel tank seems to me an undesirable combination. It would not come out by any other means except for cutting; and I tried them all(I did conjure a method which would work, but I had neither the patience, nor the equipment to accomplish such brilliance).

Refusing to be conquered by space-age steel alloy from an alien source, I turned to my trusty reciprocating saw and old fashioned elbow grease. It seems desperation and tenacity are a good combination...at least in this case.

I'm tired and it's dark. I'll post some pics of the carnage and battle ground tomorrow.


Parenthetically, I've not forgotten the promised pics from this weekend's progress. It's just that there was no progress since I was asked to help a buddy trailer and tow an FJ40 project he just bought. It'll be a rough build, but he's one of the best resto-guys in AZ. (IMHO). I'm sure he'll do it right.

[ChickenLover]

I went through seven, count them, seven rescue strength steel blades while cutting only 1/4 of an inch through the first side of the bolt.

You were using the denticular side of the blade, right?

[amgraham]

I ran into the same problem when I had to drop my leaves the first time.. It's always that one beside the gas tank too . I tried the sawzall too to no avail and finally had to drop the tank and use my cut-off wheel to cut the ends off the bolt and pry it out. AALs should not take 8 hours... I was tired too :P

Can't wait to see your progress Fuster!