Basic Off-road Ball-Joint Beam rebuild PT 2 starts on p. 13

[Steve Arndt]

I have five of those floppy mavicas. great wheel chocks...

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I bought a Nikon D3100 w/two lenses. So far, it is better than I am. Taking it to the dunes in a little over a week and getting some lessons from a pro-photog. They probably won't help me much but the price for the lessons it right... free.

I just got the protective UV filters for them.

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

UV? I think you want the sand filter! My Old-Fogy-Dad just got a new Nikon cool pix for ~170$ Amazon and it is the best digicam I've ever used.
S

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I use it for more than the garage. It will should be almost worn out after this winter down in AZ when we snow bird. There are a lot of places we haven't visited down there yet. the old Mavica doesn't owe me anything.



Troll Haven by Squim WA

Tomorow I hope to get time to go back into the garage and do some more on the beam. It always seems to be something that comes up to take away time.

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

I need to wash mine and add some pics to this post. It is pretty much the most upgraded ball joint beam setup that I could come up with without any re-inventing the wheel. I did the beam gusseting and adjusters 6 years ago so I can only do after pics.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

"I need to wash mine..." "...I have five of those floppy mavicas. great wheel chocks..." get 'em out ad use them.

Steve.post what you have on this string or your own string; there has to be more ways of doing this than the path I took/am taking.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

http://www.swayaway.net/joomla/images/I ... USTERS.pdf

I found this, it is much clearer than the reduced pictures and text that comes with the kit.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I got to work for a few minutes in the garage today so I started to do step #4: “Scratch a 3” long line, lengthwise along the top tube, through the center of the set screw. If you have a ball joint front end.”



The easiest way I know how to do a straight line on a tube is to use a piece of angle iron. The location in this picture turned out to be a little off once I got the beam rotated a bit more so I had to erase and do another line.



This is the re-adjusted line ready for the next step. I am cutting only one tube at a time but I will mark the other tube tomorrow in prep for when I can cut the 2” piece out of each tube in turn. More marks to make and adjustments to the adjusters to make.

More Pix and diagrams to follow.

I then went off onto another project I am also working on.

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

As Lee noted, always cut only one tube at a time for the easiest setup. Also clamp angle iron to the assembly like Lee has done to act as a parallel jig and brace to help hold things straight.

Sway A Way says to tack the adjuster in, then fit the torsion spring pack and check that they are centered at each end of the axle tube. I would pre-fit the springs into the adjuster during the tacking process and use them to verify alignment before actually tack welding.

Go over the inside torsion broached/keyed section of the adjusters and fully debur and polish it. That helps getting the pesky springs to guide through easily. I also tape up the spring pack tight (black tape) and hit the edges with a scotch bright wheel in the grinder just to knock down the corners of the springs on the outside. This makes fitting the trailing arms onto the springs much easier. This is getting ahead though of ourselves though...

Steve

[hotrodsurplus]

Here's something that's really handy for this sort of thing. It's a contour template and it's a common pipefitter's tool. They come in a range of sizes--the one for pipes as large as three inches in diameter are perfect for beams and rear torsion housings.



Yous can orders 'em from the Orifice Depot. I believe if you order them from the store directly and pick it up there you don't have to pay shipping.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/9 ... und-Ruler/

They're just rigid enough so you can use them as a guide for a scriber without having to go through the hose-clamp thing (which is a good idea if a little bit tedious at times).

Also, quit torturing yourselves and get some layout dye/stain/Prussian blue or whatever you like to call it. Then you can use a scriber to make precise layout marks instead of using a vague and inconsistent sharpie. A sharp silver line on a blue background is a lot better defined than a black sharpie line on reflective metal hence the reason machinists use it.



It's out of stock at Amazon but you get the point. I've had a can of the stuff for going on 20 years and it never seems to run out--and I use it frequently. I can't imagine working without it. For some reason it seems that it's easier to see the marks in blue rather than red but your mileage may vary.

http://www.amazon.com/Dykem-CL-BLUE-Lay ... B0018ACR6G

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I have blueing spray but just didn't use it. I lost my scribe somewhere and can't figure out where I put it. I'm not too far along to change but I still like the hose clamp. The only time it was a pain was when someone was grilling me about something that wasn't important at the time.

I like the idea of the tape ruler though, I had not heard of it before. I'll have to see if I can come with some locally.

Thanks Hot Rod Surplus!

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

True on the machinist dye. All these tips collectively may really help someone in the future. For the basic instructional pics that Lee lays it out nice and quick with the sharpie. For precision when doing this job, try to get down to close tolerance with scribe marks. Good work on the post so far, it takes a lot of time to document everything.
S

[Ol'fogasaurus]

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/9 ... und-Ruler/

Snot sold in stores.

Lee

[hotrodsurplus]

True on the machinist dye. All these tips collectively may really help someone in the future. For the basic instructional pics that Lee lays it out nice and quick with the sharpie. For precision when doing this job, try to get down to close tolerance with scribe marks.
S

All of this underscores another idea: there's no official right or wrong way to do any of this. I help people chop tops every now and then so I've seen a number of ways people do it. I have my anal-retentive dye-and-scribe which drives some people nuts; others use masking tape for their cut lines which sort of drives me nuts. My way is slower up front but probably faster at the back end because my weld gaps are tight without excess filing but that suits me because I pretty much work myself into a panic attack with preparation before I cut anything. Their way is faster up front but they usually spend more time in the back end filing and trimming. But some people just can't wait to dive in and that's cool too.

In the end we both probably end up doing it in the same amount of time and the results are probably the same. I like to think that my way encourages careful and thoughtful work but I convince myself of all sorts of wacky things. Ask my wife.

Here's a more pertinent example, though. An engineer friend of mine worked for Ron Lummus in the early '90s. He said he was appalled that Ron very seldom used a protractor for cage uprights and such (he's meticulous with the platform, though--these were drag cars after all). He said Ron just sort of eyeballed things and paid most of his attention to fit-up. So to prove a point to Ron one day my pal threw a protractor on the major tubes. They were all within like something crazy like a degree of each other. But my pal's way has served him just as well: he manages the pressure structures department in the company that built that craft that just docked with the International Space Station. Strangely enough I don't think they use protractors either.

Back to the subject at hand. And thanks for documenting!
[/ramble]

[Ol'fogasaurus]

It is very true; it’s like a mechanic being able to 35# of torque or just as easily 150# of torque using a hand wrench or ratchet wrench not a torque wrench. In my field I could eyeball certain dimensions to within a couple decimal places. I could recognize mistakes in projection in a glance or missing projections without going through the process. Angles are easy too when you are used to looking at them. That is a skill mainly of repetition but skill in iteself, not luck.

I didn't use blue dye partly because in the past it hasn't photo'd well while a black sharpie does photo better except for the flash washing it out. I am not taking time to do a setup for photos and maybe I should. I didn’t have a problem with your comments as they were correct and I guess I should have done it right the first time; I learned from my mistakes.

I am trying to walk people through this as I learn and they can learn from my mistakes... this being one of them. If they see where I went wrong they are so much the better for it.

Thanks HRS, Steve and others, this is going to be a whiz-bang build or an exercise in futility, whichever comes first.

Lee