That post was in this Forum. It wasn't in the Vendor Forum.
"Excuse me if I have some place in my mind, where I go time to time"
Jim
RaceMagnum
What a dumb ass...
"Excuse me if I have some place in my mind, where I go time to time"
Went to the local bone yard and picked up 2 upper control arms from a 1998 Dakota and the passenger's side from a 2000 Dakota. What a PITA with no power tools. Took about 4 hours with lots of cursing. This is probably the reason the alignment guys in the past could only get so close with the alignment specs and called what I got "good enough". LOL
They're even more of a pain when you've got shorties that hang over the nuts on the passenger side lol...
Jim
RaceMagnum
Yeah, the last time I had the R/T aligned the guy said he couldn't get to a bolt because the header was in the way. Now that I have it apart, I can see that the bushings are so bad that the control arm is cocked at a funky angle. No wonder he couldn't get the alignment better. (I'm a little surprised he didn't notice the bushings were so bad since he was fighting with it. )They're even more of a pain when you've got shorties that hang over the nuts on the passenger side lol...
I figured out I could get a socket on it by undoing the motor mount bolt on that side and raising the engine up a touch. Alignment shops aren't big fans of doing that though for some reason.
Jim
RaceMagnum
Found a problem area with the 00-04 passenger’s side offset pivot shaft. It won’t fit through the sleeve needed for the Energy Suspension OEM replacement polyurethane bushings. I’d rather not mess around with custom bushings and inner sleeves for limited sales potential if I can help it. I also like the idea of having available easy replacements if necessary. I do have an idea that may work so its off to the steel yard to pick up some supplies for further R&D.
This is about Plan F that I’m giving some thought to now. lol For the passenger’s side, the pivot shaft will fit through the outer sleeve at one end that is welded to the A-arm. Then a smaller sleeve that holds the bushing will fit through that once the shaft is in place. I’ll probably have to pin it with a set screw or two to keep it from turning at that point so it pivots at the actual bushing and bushing inner sleeve. If the fit is tighter it probably won’t need pinning but I have to figure that out yet.
Inner and outer sleeves is how Mitsubishi did the lowers on the 3G Eclipse, though they were pressed in. I know because when doing poly bushings you have to burn the bushing out then cut the inner sleeve before the polys can go in.
Jim
RaceMagnum
:grouphug
Jim
RaceMagnum
Surprised at how quickly I am getting some price quotes. However, the tooling charges and minimum quantity is more than I can recoup on potential sales so that is probably not going to happen.Contacting various companies to see about casting a poly bushing to my own specs. I'm a little worried that they will want an initial order that is too expensive and optimistic of sales potential but I'll see what they say.
Your efforts are appreciated, and you can't say you didn't try!
DRTC #1176
2000 Bright White CC (1/553)
Dyno'ed 07/05/13 (126,000 Miles) 230 Hp / 308 Tq
14.6 @ 93 mph (2.18 60 ft.), 4130 lbs.(1/2 tank gas)
Truck Pictures --> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v9...Clough/Dakota/
1985 Kawasaki GPz550
2003 SV650S (Race)
1973 W100 Powerwagon
Mater: I don’t need to know where I’m goin’, I just need to know where I been!
I'll dig through my receipts but I rebuilt my tubular upper control arms with new ball joints and bushings like in 2010 and they were a readily available urethane bushing.
This signature has been deleted thanks to photobucket!