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Friday, April 6, 2012

front axle work

Scouts had 0* caster built into their axles, a spring over lift needs roughly 6* (from what I've researched) to keep the pinion angle happy on and off road.  
After finding 0* with the stock pads on the stands, I used a punch to mark 0* on the tube and knuckle, then rotated the axle/pads to 6* and re punched. mark them away from where the grinder will hit.

This is the amount that the steering knuckles need to move. 
Just cut and rotate them- easy right?  Figure 2+ hours per side if you
haven't ever done this before.
Tools needed: 4.5" angle grinder with grinding wheel and minimum 2 cutting wheels,
wire wheel, welder and accessories, protractor,  stands,
 3lb and 5 lb sledges ( i used the backside of the wood maul)
marker, punch, and loss of mental function for doing this.

you can see the hairline crack- this is where the tube meets the knuckle..you have to grind deep enough to find this, deep enough into the knuckle to remove all the weld, but not too much.

This is the stock 0* before knuckles
note the cleanliness of the driveway before pounding

this is the 6* (far side) and 0* close side
all this dirt came out of the axle tubes because the
axle seals were still in.  BFH on right side of picture.


Here is where a lot of time was taken up- note the ring between the tube and knuckle
in the middle.  This was a teeny tiny amount of weld (maybe an inch) that penetrated deeper
than the rest at the factory- the result was a lot of pounding to get it to rotate

Safety note** I re-welded the knuckles using 4 + passes with a 180A welder to fill and strengthen
the ground out parts.  If you have any doubts - hire a professional
welder to get the parts reunited!  If not done right, figure the entire
wheel assembly rotating in a weird direction , locking up your steering,
or leaving the vehicle while driving. (either is bad)