OE Cam tab removal

Maybe this will be helpful to someone planning to do a Cam tab upgrade. I tried new drill bits of different sizes to dig into the spot welds of the OE Cam tabs. No go. I ended up taking my pneumatic sheetmetal cutoff saw to carefully grind down the spot welds. What a pain and the first four finally came out in pieces.



Then the spot weld bits came in. Bought 3 thinking they'd wear down relatively quick, but to my surprise; one bit took out all of the rear Cam tab spot welds and is still good. I went slow and used cutting oil. Heres the link to the bit:

Mueller-Kueps Spot Welding Drill Bit HSSE 8x80mm – Ideal for Automotive Applications, Body Panels & Interrupted Cuts, 244 008

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XMMSSE8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I started with a regular bit to remove the rounded head of the spot weld. Then went in with the spot weld bit. After cutting in about 1/16", I used a chisel to pry the Cam tab away far enough to get my chisel in. Hammered and pried till one spot weld remained. Then I grabbed the Cam tab with a pair of vise grips and worked it back and forth to break the Cam tab from the last spot weld.

 

That seems like a lot of work and potentially risky to damage the LCA (with the drill and pry-off of the tab plate).
I recently replaced my stock LCA cam bolts with the SPC kit, so I'm pretty familiar with that whole setup.
What is motivating this change, and what are you going to replace the stock cam tab plates with?
The side bars could be a bit a bit beefier, but the stock bolt / sleeve setup seems to be the real weak point in the design.
What are your plans moving forward with cam tabs and eccentric bolt / washer setup?
Cheers
Bob

 

Hi Bob, Its been a S*** load of work. The cam tabs are getting replaced with Total Chaos Cam tabs and the truck is also getting a full TC makeover in the front.

Checkout how nice the AFT Cam tabs came out with the spot weld drill bit

 

Oh nice! I was gonna say it’s probably still about the same amount of work to just grind them off but looks like you got them off pretty clean. I just went to town with my grinder but it was a major pain in the dick.

 

Thanks @joonbug! Yeah grinder for sure w/o the spot weld bit.

Love your build BTW. Totally following and drooling along the way. Maybe I can follow in the future once my truck gets some new legs....

 

Hell yeah! What you doing to your truck?

 

Awesome Man! Sounds like a plan. Cant wait to check out that rad ride in person.

As far as my truck goes - last year I put on the fiberglass and did a 3rd gen conversion. This year I'm doing the TC LT and gears.

More here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/the-adventures-of-my-rock-warrior.57432/

 

Nice build!! I had to drive around with skinny legs for a few months too. Fricken embarrassing. Lol. Why did you get rid of the offroad bumper and change it back to stock?

 

Thanks! That tube bumper was always kinda temporary till I get a tube bender and plasma table in the new garage. But the new garage keeps getting delayed. Then I kinda fell for that @KevinK look.