That's probably a good thing. I severly lack driveway space.

Yah, I'll look up Drip's guy again.. hes way out on the west side, but will do the knuckle for $50.

Hmm... $50?? That sounds kinda sketchy... If the holes are off by even a little bit, then the force on the arm will break the studs. It happened to a Jeep friend in Sierra Vista.

I think partsmike only charges $60...?

Yeah, parts mike does them for $60:

http://www.partsmikeparts.com/knuckle_machine.htm

That includes return shipping too.

$60 sounds a lot more reasonable. And PMP does a lot of them.

FWIW, I got shocks mounted on the pathfinder.. and hopefully will get some more welding done on it this weekeend to finish it up (needs bolt-in front crossmember and some more gusseting on the trac bar mount.. Then I'll just need steering, driveshaft, and brake lines to make it driveable.

I removed the rear Rancho 9116s and found that the shock eyes were stretched! The 9116s I had are too short for the pathfinder rear suspension. I hammered the eyes round again and got the 9116s mounted up front.

I have a set of RSX9112s ready to go in the rear, which I might do this afternoon.

With 9116s shocks mounted, the frontend of the pathy is STIFF!! On setting 5, you have to bounce on it pretty hard to get it to move. On setting 1, you can bounce it pretty easily. It looks like the spring rate is pretty close to what it needs to be on the frontend. I may swap the 9116s out for some RSX9116s soon for more adjustability, but these will work great until then.

Got all 4 shocks mounted. In the stiffest setting, the suspension hardly moves at all. In the softest setting, the thing is like a marshmallow!

I've got some work ahead of me tommorrow, fabricating an engine crossmember, but it'll be worth it.

Yeah I noticed the same thing when I pulled the 9116s off my truck. That size definatly limits the flex. The 13in shocks I have on it now are alot better.

I definatly need to get better shocks though, I have doschetechs in the rear and rs5000s in the front. I get alot of body roll around turns, a set of bilsteins would be nice.

Oh yeah... More pics!

MMMmmm... Marshmallow...

SWEEET Post pics when you get time...

I've spent a few hours on the truck today so far, and managed to get a lot of little loose ends done.

Got the Oil changed (or added; it was bone dry), put in a new K&N oil filter, installed the starter and starter wiring. I also installed the new replacement intake boot thats been sitting in the truck since I parked it.

So, I fired it up.. no exhaust after the Y pipe.. it was noisy, but it fired first try! The other good news is that the modified oil pan holds 3.5qt no problem and with no leaks.

I dont know if I'll get the crossmember done today, as I dont have enough steel, but this is a good start at least.

I'll be boxing up the knuckle to send it off to Parts Mike tommorrow to be machined. SHould have it back, with hi-steer arm and hardware kit by the end of the week next week, at which time I can get the passenger side of the axle assembled and measured for steering.

The rest of today will be spent R&Ring the 297x/760x U-joint to mate the Chevy outer axle to the new Ford HD inner axle. I'll also fill up the axle with oil and see if I can get a vent line hooked up. I'll also try to get some of the frame gussetting welded to the trac bar mount tonight.

Nice,Very Nice

Well, good news and bad news..

Good news, I got two 297x U joints and managed to get the passenger side axle put together (Ford inner/Chevy outer).

Bad news.. Come to find out that the new HD Ford inner shaft I bought has a pinched yoke. We measured it out and the inner part of the yoke is a couple thousandths wider than the outer part of the yoke. So, when we pressed the U joint in, it entered the other side of the yoke crooked and galled up the U joint cap to yoke surfaces. I'm thinking this shaft was dropped or damaged somehow during shipping, since theres no way that a yoke could get like this otherwise. Not much I can do about it though. We managed to get the clips installed on the U joint after lots of prying and pressing with the 6 ton hydraulic press. It'll at least get me on the trail, but now I can plan on having to replace that longside inner shaft in the future unless Bronco Graveyard will send me a replacement shaft.

Man, I just sat on the couch all day, I'm tired just reading that....

But soon the Pirate ship will sail!