Re: Starting to build my single bar anti wrap today, any tips?
I'm likely going to tie the tabs all together on both sides, I haven't yet decided. Breaking them off the differential is definitely not happening. I took that picture before I welded the front tab (not sure if you can see that or not) and since then I've run an additional pass on every one of them. All of them have at least three passes on each side, and I really don't think that there will be a problem, but if I have extra steel leftover or I get bored, I will likely tie all the tabs together on the sides. I don't want to inhibit the movent of this bar as far to the sides as possible though so I may run it as-is and see if I can rip those tabs off. I really doubt they'll come off the axle though, I think I'd be more likely to rip the tabs themselves apart first.
They're 1/4" thick so I think they would probably hold, but the space is there to tie them together so I probably will.
I finished putting in the crossmember, so all I have to do yet is fab the mount for the bushing at the crossmember end, and the one at the axle end, also I'll need to make a bushing holder for the rear bushing and figure out a way to tie the front and rear bushings together with a piece of pipe.
I really need a chop saw, my grinder isn't the most accurate instrument in the world for cutting or notching pipe. I'm going to see tomorrow if I can get a cutting disk of some kind to go in my miter saw.
As to the .035" tips with .030" wire, I was only kidding. I think my feeding problems were more related to the gun's feed lead being bent at angles it didn't like. Once I straightened it out some, I had far less feeding problems.
Damn, 3 am, job interview at 10 tomorrow, I sure would love to continue this project, it's a lot of fun (and it'd be done right now if I had the correct tools to do it) but it's turning out quite well.
For the crossmember I used two small pieces of angle iron, and welded it to the tab on either side of the frame that once held the emergency brake cables, directly behind the front spring eye. I welded the bejesus out of that thing so that crossmember is pretty stout.
I think this is going to turn out pretty cool when it's done. Quite a bit of work, but it should be worth it. Without a front driveshaft just trying to back up to the garage was a chore with all the stupid bouncing and axlewrap, I bet this will help quite a bit. (and of course I can inboard my shocks now without worry more axlewrap, because this should take care of it)
