I like the tan diff cover! Also my favorite brand of cover. Only critique I have is the calipers should have been tan too. 
Awesome work as usual.
Awesome work as usual.
CK5
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One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban
- Thread starter AgDieseler
- Start date
Whodathunk a television shoot would yield such good technical information?
Nice milestone.
That fancy powder coat will be fixed, eventually.
And only because our friend, Stephen, snapped some key photos.
David
Because there’s a bunch of welding to do.
I finally snagged the torch cooler for my everlast. Now I can weld at the duty cycle.
David
I finally snagged the torch cooler for my everlast. Now I can weld at the duty cycle.
David
I've spent a good bit of time testing a fitting the axle locating brackets.
The panhard mount is really tight to the pitman arm, and I'm pretty settled on carving out a clearance pocket for it.
The panhard bar definitely needs a small bend to clear the diff. Some covers clear, and some don't.
The front cab mounts have to be hogged out a little bit, but not too much. I may still pull these and additionally reinforce.
Links are tacked and ready for fitment. Uppers are 33-7/8 and the lowers are 33. That's with a lot of thread left to push out, and I anticipate each of them will push a bit longer through the process of cycling.
David
The panhard mount is really tight to the pitman arm, and I'm pretty settled on carving out a clearance pocket for it.
The panhard bar definitely needs a small bend to clear the diff. Some covers clear, and some don't.
The front cab mounts have to be hogged out a little bit, but not too much. I may still pull these and additionally reinforce.
Links are tacked and ready for fitment. Uppers are 33-7/8 and the lowers are 33. That's with a lot of thread left to push out, and I anticipate each of them will push a bit longer through the process of cycling.
David
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David,
The PHB one has me a bit concerned. Whenever you put a bend in a link, the concern is how do you keep it from flopping around since it's got heims at both ends.... maybe some "wobble stoppers" on either side of the heim?
Anyway, I'm sure you've thought of that already... but maybe putting the clearance in the CRANE cover is an option instead?
Notch the frame and re-inforce... I have a few of those on my truck already. Long PHB needed one, and my swingset steering setup needed one also. Personally, when I see notches like that in a frame I know that the guy who built it was going for every-last-fraction of bump/droop and steering angle possible. I can respect that.
-G
The PHB one has me a bit concerned. Whenever you put a bend in a link, the concern is how do you keep it from flopping around since it's got heims at both ends.... maybe some "wobble stoppers" on either side of the heim?
Anyway, I'm sure you've thought of that already... but maybe putting the clearance in the CRANE cover is an option instead?Notch the frame and re-inforce... I have a few of those on my truck already. Long PHB needed one, and my swingset steering setup needed one also. Personally, when I see notches like that in a frame I know that the guy who built it was going for every-last-fraction of bump/droop and steering angle possible. I can respect that.
-G
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Basic build rules say you should never have bends in steering linkages or suspension/ track bars.
I would try to the best of my ability not to bend that panhard bar.
Of course rules are made to be broken. So proceed.
I would try to the best of my ability not to bend that panhard bar.
Of course rules are made to be broken. So proceed.
That's how I look at it, if I have to bend it, I didn't put enough effort trying to make it work straight
I can tell you, I scraped every tenth to keep my phb straight. I’m running a ruffstuff diff cover, but I removed the top bolt that touched. I also put a washer between the phb and axle bracket. It JUST makes it.
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Thats the super frustrating part of building cars, right?
You spend your hard earned money, on trick parts. Have a vision in your head. And then only to find that they don't work.
What do you do?
If this was my problem, I would side with my 4 thousand dollar suspension over my 200 dollar cover.
The extent of my thinking about it relates to what I can see with the axle at it's current position, which is close to final, but not quite. It still has about 1/2" of bump left to go, so my thinking will evolve. The plan has been to locate with the links, elevate that final fraction of an inch, locate the panhard bracket with the pitman clearance pocket, and assess what the panhard looks like from there. The pitman arm gets a pocket in the panhard mount as well as the frame, and hopefully the former gives enough space to clear the cover. There's enough in the cover to accommodate something close to 1/4 relief, so if it just barely makes contact at full stuff, that should be sufficient.
It will evolve over the next few days.
This would only be "bending" a rule, if at all.
I get the argument, but remain grounded in the fact that it's a single design built to suit a decently wide range of axle placements and suspension heights, and being tailored to fit one specific truck and its application. Thus, it's all maximum effort.
That's a great tip. Thank you. I'm trying to get the whole axle up as high and as tight as your setup. I'm close, and might end up machining a similar spacer.
David
I only got a little bit of time this morning to tack in the frame mounts.
Thursday night cocktails.
David
Thursday night cocktails.
David
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Early AM link install.
David
David
Done yet?
For the record.... this is my PHB. LOL
I bent the rules (and my PHB) a little.
-G
I bent the rules (and my PHB) a little.
-G
Stephens phb is bent on the convertible K30. And we all know how well that thing works...
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Does that thing see 1,000 mile rd trips from Dallas to moab?
David's truck has to be muti-talented.
Its not all about how well it wheels or not.
And if it works for some it doesn't make it right.
In the end we have all made compromises here and there but we should always remember to strive for perfection even if we don't always succeed
beags86
Eastbound and Down
If we weren't here to offer constructive criticism/ feedback. Right or wrong. Whats the point of doing a build thread?
I am opinionated. But it's not malicious.
It may seem like that over the internet and that's hard to control. But its not.
Of course many people are hard headed and Don't take advice anyway. Lol.
Not sure how many miles @Stephen has driven the convertible K30 on the Ultimate Adventure trips, but I know that last year was to Alaska, and I don't believe that whichever truck used this year wasn't hauled at all. I believe that the convertible was used last year, for sure. I don't have Motortrend subscription to view it all.
