Intender build

Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
clog away my friend, not a lot happening in it recently anyways.

and ya, get the bushings like rob said. Obviously I havnt put mine in yet, but the play in the idler arm on my truck is pretty ridiculous. its was really interesting driving in the snow when I had to go out yesterday to look at my wife mdx after it got hit in the snow. Normally straight is somewhere between 10 and 2 depending on the way the road leans, but in the snow that became somewhere between 9 and 3, and gobble forbid the and of the road changed rapidly or there was a bump. Lets just say I was a little worn out by the time I got there.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
Well, I am trying to work out a possible big mod for my truck. Trying to raise some funds in the meantime, but if this falls through I will probably end up with some skids plates.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
I dont want to say just yet, still cant say its going to happen for sure. This and skids are on the top of my "need" list, so one of those two will be happening.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
Been cleaning out the old house we are getting ready to sell and kept finding stuff I didnt want, or need anymore which I thought I might sell off, and since then my mind started going crazy with what I could sell so I could start buying more stuff for my truck. I have a 67 mustang that I would hate to let go, but it hasnt moved in more years than I care to admit, and I just dont see me having the cash to fix up, that I am considering getting rid of as well, but that would be above and beyond the cost for what I am planning right now.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
I could only wish to have that kind of money that my wife would let me throw at the truck, but with a 2nd kid on the way and saving to build a new house, that would fall somewhere or the spectrum between divorce and death, both of which would probably happen after my wife burned my truck to the ground in a rage. So no, its no SAS.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
I am very happy with my ifs at this point. Obviously I will be happier once I get my lokka installed, and my steering stuff installed, and send my centerlink back to grassroots and get my core charge back. You and Luke have pretty much turned me off completely from doing the diff drop. To be honest that I dont think I have my front jacked as high as most guys do but I have not had a problem with binding....yet. And other than a little more rake, what am I really going to lose from dropping the front 1/4" or so if it did become an issue. It might cause issues in a few locations on approach angle, but thats not really the end of the world. Of course I would rather raise the front a few more inches than lower it more, but with ifs you take what you get.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
Money has been sourced for the purchase, currently in communications to purchase and working on shipping details. I also think i am going to put my mustang on craigslist today. if I can get rid of it I should have enough money to get a few other things done on the truck.
 
caseycamby

caseycamby

Suspension Lift
Location
Marion, NC
meme-meme-generator-i-don-t-always-leave-people-in-suspense-but-when-i-do-9b897e_zps46c5ed75.jpg
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
I like that Casey. as I was scrolling down and reading it I was like wtf, why did it just stop like that.....OHHHHHH I get it now. I am a little slow sometimes.

I am just leading you guys on. Its really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it will make me happy. All I have to say is if I dont sell my mustang or pick up some side work its going to be a while before I have enough money to buy everything I need, and its probably going to be a while before I get enough money and time to put my lokka in now as well.

Oh well, at least I got most of my steering stuff done today. I have to go tomorrow and pick up a wrench to finish tightening the bolts on the centerlink, but other than that its pretty much done. One of the ball joints, the one that attaches to the pitman arm, was completely siezed up and even hittiting it with a 3 pound sledge I couldnt get it to move. Both sides had no boots left on it, and the plastic bushings in my idler arm came out in pieces. hopefully this gets everthing nice and tight again so I can do a little wheeling before my next kid is born and Im not allowed to go for a few months.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
I was also looking at moving my lower shock mounts up to the axle today, but I am concerned about damaging the shocks from over compressing them. Right now I have about 7 inches between the axle and the bump stop. To get the shock up to the axle I would have to raise it somewhere between 4 and 5 inches. my shock has about 8 inches of compression between its stock location and max compression, not sure its going to work without me lowering my mounting locations.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
Got the truck put back together today and drove it and boy is the steering tight. The combination of the tightness and being completley out of alignment had me all over the road. I started working on trying to get it a little better aligned and noticed my passenger side HD tra is slightly bent. Its so slight that I could probably continue driving around with it that way, but I am going to go ahead an order another set of them from AC I guess. Not too happy about that, but it is probably from my steering being screwed up. I found that on my factory centerlink, neither side had a boot left on the ball joints, and the ball joint on the side that connected to the pitman arm was completely seized up and slightly bent. I even tried beating on it with a hammer and couldnt get it to move.
 
xterror04

xterror04

Site sponsor
Founding Member
Location
Carlisle, Iowa
The pitman arm mount on the centerlink shouldn't move at all... If it is completely stiff that means it's good... If it has even the tiniest bit of play it's bad
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
xterror04 said:
The pitman arm mount on the centerlink shouldn't move at all... If it is completely stiff that means it's good... If it has even the tiniest bit of play it's bad
Click to expand...

what about the idler arm side. it was wobbling all over like a ball joint. I imagine that it shouldnt move either now that you have said that. It makes a lot more sense that they should be solid. Either way with the grassroots neither one are going to move. Although I really think the steering is too tight now. not sure if its the bandit bushings or the centerlink, but its really hard to turn out of the center position. I am driving it too much right now since its so bad out of alignment, but it just seems like it shouldnt be this bad.
 
robcarync

robcarync

Sliders
Location
Raleigh, NC
after I installed the idler arm bushings, the steering was very tight. After I drove the around a bit, they seem to have broken in. They are a bit easier on turning the wheel.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
ok thats good to know. Again I think part of the tightness is probably from the alignment being towed out. I know one person on here said they sanded down the shaft on the idler arm because it was so tight, but I dont think its that tight. I think the more surpising thing is that the new centerlink threw my alignment so far off. I had the alignment checked a few months ago and it was good, and it really hasnt moved much since then. After the centerlink it was visibly out of alignment. I had a freind help me measure the width between the front and back of the front tires and we measured the distance off the frame and both sides were towed out really bad with passengers side being severely worse.
 
xterror04

xterror04

Site sponsor
Founding Member
Location
Carlisle, Iowa
caseycamby said:
If it has play does that mean the centerlink or pitman arm is bad?
Click to expand...

Centerlink

Intender said:
what about the idler arm side. it was wobbling all over like a ball joint. I imagine that it shouldnt move either now that you have said that. It makes a lot more sense that they should be solid. Either way with the grassroots neither one are going to move. Although I really think the steering is too tight now. not sure if its the bandit bushings or the centerlink, but its really hard to turn out of the center position. I am driving it too much right now since its so bad out of alignment, but it just seems like it shouldnt be this bad.
Click to expand...

The idler arm side should move but be tight, It seems like a pretty silly design, i suppose that way it would absorb a small amount of bump steer, I love my grassroots, Mine has overly surpassed my expectations, I would ever go as far as saying i bet you could run 35's with it
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
I went to harbor freight yesterday to swap out my winch and noticed the ones that they have now are a different design from the one I had. They have a new remote switch, the winch spool has some kind of spring loaded mechanism on it that is supposed to keep the cable from bunching up. I have another two year warranty so we will see how it goes with this one. If this one dies on me I will probably sell the next one I get and pick up a better brand.

Also if you guys havnt figured it out yet, my secret mod was I was going to pick up a 3rd member from a guy with an arb already installed with 4.9 gears, but it kind of fell apart and the guy quit responding to me after sending several emails and texts back and forth initally. but all good things work out in the end, and I have another one lined up for less money and its close enough that I am going to go pick it up in a few weeks on my way to windrock. Also I am going to be getting a whole front axle with 4.9's from a guy locally that is getting ready to start his SAS. Waiting to get that front before i bother installing the lokka up front so I dont have to tear into the thing again. I also may have a guy ready to buy my old 67 mustang that I have been passively trying to sell for about 5 years, but just recently accepted that I need to get rid of it since I wont have the money for working on the xterra and restoring it. if that works out I will have enough money for some skids and probably to build my rear bumper.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
No, No SAS for me. However I will end up with a spare h233 out of this if I ever decide to go that route. One of the guys that was with us at the Noas run at URE has his SAS parts all gathered and he is going to sell me his stock front with the 4.9's to match the rear. That way I dont have to mess with setting up any gears. Just gonna slap the third in my current axle for the rear, and then drop my lokka in the front I am gettting from him. so once I get all the parts I should be locked front and rear in about a day or so depending on how long it takes me to get get the air lines hooked up for the arb.
 
Intender

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
Got my new winch installed today. I like the redesign of the harbor freight quite a bit. the new spring loaded mechanism actually works really well at keeping the cable from unloading like a spring when there is no tension on it. I pulled about 15ft of cable out winched it back in and looks as nice and tight as it did when I pulled it out of the box. It also has a new remote that came with it. the buttons have a more firm click to it when pushed.

I also got my new tie rod adjusters on. When i was putting the new one on the side that was bent I realized that my outer tie rod end had the slightest bend to it as well. So I went to get new ends and ended up replacing both outers with moogs. they didnt have any inners in stock so I kept the inners I already have since they still look really good.
 
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