The Cream Pie - A 2005 4wd/LS/5-Speed/SAS Conversion

A few parts came in over the weekend. Ruffstuff always has the beef heim joints. My new unit bearings also came in. Waiting on my Artec stuff to ship.

 

Shits about to get real. All of my brackets, links, steering, and truss came in from Artec. Hope to get it a roller by the end of the week.

 

Looking forward to seeing more progress, brotatoe chip.

 

I Still have that 4.0.....

 

HA! Thanks for mentioning it but I blew my Christmas bonus on a tube bender and toys for my daughter. I almost didn’t make the mortgage this month. Aside from that I blew the rear ring and pinion a couple weeks back. 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

 

Awesome! I need to make an appointment to come to your shop in February. I can't wait to see it in person.

 

Started to put it all together. I welded up the artec 3-link brackets and did a mockup of the passenger side lower. Some clearance was needed so i notched out where the lower links is going to go. Links are going to be around 40" long. Going to plate the thin frame before i weld everything up.

These are full bump. I think i can shove my axle forward 1" more to get an additional 1" of uptravel. Going to have to see what the tire looks like in reference to the headlight.






Ride Height: Shooting for 4-5" of uptravel.

 

EFF YES!!! I see welding and grind marks. BUILDING STUFF!!!!

 

Starting to take some shape. The tundra is now 3-linked. Still need to install the panhard.

Upper link.


Artec weld on crossover steering arms tacked on the knuckles. Tie-rod made.




Now for the upper link. I ran into a slight problem. At full bump (actually 2.5-3" into the uptravel), the upper link hits the motor mount tube. Going to have to raise it up some with a bend, but shouldnt be too bad. Its getting closer to being a roller.

 

Panhard tacked in and checked at full bump. I cut off the passenger motor mount and raised it up to clear the link. Panhard is just lightly tacked in at the moment as i wait on my new flat steering arms to come in from Sky's Offroad. Once its in, i will set the angles of the drag link to match the panhard to eliminate bump steer. Steering clears the bracket on the axle lock to lock. Also have plenty of room for the hydro assist ram.

 

Impressive!

 

Some more progress last night. New Skys Offroad flat pitman arm installed on the box. This let me build the drag link and get it in place. I then moved the panhard bar mounts to match the angle of the drag link. Both are about 44" long and are parallel to each other. This is important to reduce bump steer.







I also won a waffle on facebook and picked up these slick ball joint eliminators for the Ford axle. They are slick.

 

That's some serious beef

 

If you don't like this build, you need to be banned from this site.

 

Full droop checks out

 

Off the lift for the first time since october. The rear settled more than i thought, but these are the stock springs still. Front will need a few inches trimmed under the lights. This is 5" of uptravel. Its going to sit super low which i like. Going to take it mostly apart and start welding it all up.

 

Killing me I cant see the pics....but could be because I'm at work and our server sucks.

 

maybe refresh your cookies? Work servers be weird sometimes.

 

Especially Government servers....I thought the Army was bad, but after retiring and now working for the Navy as a contractor, there stuff is worse than old dial up

 

Nah, the last post with pictures isn't working for me either.

 

Once you free up your lift, you wanna help me fix my cross member? Preferably on a Sunday

 

Not sure when, as i have customers truck thats going on there next to remove the body.

 

Shit. Let me try again.

 

Haysus that looks beefy.

 

No clue why they didnt work in the first post. I can see them fine, but that doesnt always mean shit.

 

That's cool. I can wait if I must. One of these weekends I need to swap a CV so I can wheel without worrying about it missing the inner boot at Hidden Falls at the end of the month. Having the cross member straight so I can throw on my skids would be a plus. But I might take my chances. YOLO
Or i might just ride along with someone else til I can fix my shit lol. You plan on going to that event?

 

doubt it. I hate hidden falls.