all the rest of the parts I need should show up Friday or early next week. I ended up getting procomp 9000's front and rear. one set are 15" travel eye/eye mounts and the other are some that were made for a lifted dodge ram that (fingers crossed) will hopefully work with my stock mounts. they are about 10" travel stem/eye mounts. I might end up switching them around and using the dodge ones up front w/ the stock shock mount and fabbing new mounts for the rear if I have to, it all depends on what ends up being easiest to do with the time I have left.

rear driveshaft is supposed to be done tomorrow and I'll pick up my yota yokes for the case end of my front shaft. I got the square stock I need for it too. that reminds me I need to order up some u-joints <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

probably tomorrow I'll bribe Eric into welding some gussets on the front suspension hangers and some other stuff. it's amazing what showing up w/ a 12'er can do for ya <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

once the driveshaft is in the back I can go ahead and drive it up some some stuff to check clearances for bumpstop placement and get those rigged up.

better bleed the brakes first, huh? I'll try to remember <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

I went to go finish up grooving my tires and either I killed the iron or my ext cord is trashed. I hope its just the cord. waiting to see if it heats up as we speak...

the rig moved under its own power today! of course no brakes and no power steering made backyard navigation a lot more fun! got the front shocks done and the rear driveshaft half rigged. fyi the ujoints they sell you at autozone are actually a little bigger than the stock ones. not in good way, but in fact you can only get one circle clip on each side and the other side there is no way! I'm going to tack weld the caps to the ears on the other side for now until I can pony up for some joints from an isuzu dealer.

tomorrow I'm going to pick up some brake pieces to finish up the rear brakes, tack on some front suspension hanger gussets, make some shock mounts for the rear, finish rigging the driveshaft and install the new ubolts in the front. maybe I will have time to bleed the brakes and figure out my bumpstops. then I can tighten everything down, work on the power steering, and start on the front driveshaft.

One week and counting....

Paul, I have been told that gravity does not count as "its own power." <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />

Randii

And Randii is considered a world-renowned expert in these matters.

For awhile there, I felt bad for randii with all of the ribbing he gets. But he sets himself up for it so much, he must like the abuse. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

It's all he has!!

"Thank you sir, may I have another!"

Chip Diller <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

nice burn <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" /> I owe ya one <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

well today turned out to be just plain frustrating. the more I look at my rear driveshaft the more I hate that I rigged the ujoints in there. so, I'm gonna pop the tacks and pull out the crappy joints and just use the stockers from the front shaft that is being replaced. I spent a few hours on the front u-bolts, yes I said hours. talk about a royal PITA. ended up having to grind a little on the housing to make my new ones fit. but at least they are done.

It's looking less and less likely that I'll be able to get the trooper out to uwharrie. at least without ghetto rigging everything else that needs to be done. I don't want to end up on the trail for 5 minutes, breaking something, and then limping it back onto the trailer for the rest of the weekend. I've gotten to the point where if the rig doesn't make it, so be it, but I'm not gonna kill myself trying to get it done. just gonna keep on making progress and maybe things will work out.

I found out that trying to find a metric sized male-male union (come on, no jokes <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) for my rear brake lines is completely hopeless, but I found another way to accomplish the same thing, so hopefully I can get what I need tomorrow and finish up that mess.

and on it goes <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />

Keep at it man. You're not out of time yet.

I wen't through the same thing with the brake line fittings. I ended up just re-flaring the stock lines with the fittings I need. I'm not sure what your situation is that requires a metric male union, but it sounds like you've worked around it.

Hope you can get it together <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />Andre

made a tiny bit of progress today. nothing major, unfortunately. However, I did have a little fun at least and I got the rig up the yard RTI ramp:



I could probably go up a little higher without pulling a tire off the ground.

as it sits, and guestimating for when the 36's go on and I unload all the crap that has piled up inside, the wheelbase is at about 110" and the belly height (to the tcase skid) should be about 20-21".