My caster mod (with pictures)

[jjzepplin]

I am sorry? WHY did you do this? I would not run those even with bracing and plating. Seems to have defeated the purpose and created a dangerous situation. Please explain.

[ranger2339]

Lol what purpose was defeated here? Little dramatic aye?
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[jjzepplin]

Originally Posted by ranger2339

Lol what purpose was defeated here? Little dramatic aye?
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Just trying to save a life here. Sorry I was dramatic. I meant no harm. Just doesn't look safe. If you moved the arm forward by the mod method, and then moved the ball joint mounting then didn't you basically just move the place where the spring sits? I just don't follow what you've done here. I am a little slow today. Again, I mean no harm just trying to figure this out. As I understand the MOD it moves the whole arm and that is what it is intended to do. Or did you move the ball joint in the same direction creating even more caster?

[ranger2339]

Thanks. I have two more sets of arms so if these don't work
I'll try a different method.
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[gringoloco]

Definitely plate top/bottom. Don't want that breaking off while driving!

[solidaxel]

Have you installed "skid plates" on the lower parts of your front end

[ranger2339]

Ok bad idea, I get it. As soon as I did it I wasn't very confident, not sure if bracing will be enough??

Ill just do the way Rob did it with moving the BJ hole over with another set of arms I have.

[solidaxel]

I have had a experience with skid plates and lower suspension parts!

[jjzepplin]

OH my! Are you ok? Do tell the story.

[solidaxel]

Long story !
Very interesting ride, until we got the truck off the road!
All fixed and gaining more confidence every day

[crakarjax]

I don't see any problem with modding the arms the way ranger has, as long as he ties in the sides and welds a plate across the bottom. He's just moving the balljoint over to improve caster while leaving the spring pocket in the correctly aligned location.

@solidaxel, how did you manage to drag your lower balljoint on the ground? Did your wheel fall off?

[tinydb84]

I did my first set of arms in a similar way.

The plating is more important on the sides than top and bottom. You lost the strength of the arms when you cut through the sides. Think of bending a ruler when it is flat vs standing on its side.

[ranger2339]

Originally Posted by jjzepplin

Just trying to save a life here. Sorry I was dramatic. I meant no harm. Just doesn't look safe. If you moved the arm forward by the mod method, and then moved the ball joint mounting then didn't you basically just move the place where the spring sits? I just don't follow what you've done here. I am a little slow today. Again, I mean no harm just trying to figure this out. As I understand the MOD it moves the whole arm and that is what it is intended to do. Or did you move the ball joint in the same direction creating even more caster?

Yea no worries, I didn't mod the cross shaft, just the ball joint mounting location so the spring pocket stays the same.

Originally Posted by tinydb84

I did my first set of arms in a similar way.

The plating is more important on the sides than top and bottom. You lost the strength of the arms when you cut through the sides. Think of bending a ruler when it is flat vs standing on its side.

I totally missed that you shortened the arm a bit in order to keep it alignment with one of the sides there, ah damn. Any pics of the final outcome of your arms?

Might just do the cross shaft mod on another set of arms if I messed these up too much.


I do appreciate all the feedback, as Im not the best at this.

[tinydb84]

I dont have any pics of them done. You could easily weld a piece of steel to connect the sides.

Here is a pic of how I did a second set

[crakarjax]

Originally Posted by tinydb84

I dont have any pics of them done. You could easily weld a piece of steel to connect the sides.

Here is a pic of how I did a second set

You've got that album set to private

[ranger2339]

I will probably do my next set like that, just tight on funds and wanted to take a stab at it with the resources I had. Will be a long winter so I have time.

Still would have to figure out the other side with some bracing.

[crakarjax]

It'll be really hard to get your camber right unless you also take in the upper arm, and then you'll need to think about wheel backspacing (which you'd already have to do anyway most likely.

[ranger2339]

Yea I did not shorten the arm much so camber should be ok. Just made some relief cuts and bent the arms u bend side supports in and welded them up. In the end should work, seems strong, but will probably be doing the BJ cup replacement mod as it seems the strongest and leaves the spring pocket and integrity of the arm in place?!

Sorry to hijack the thread, I just value the opinions here. I'm done now.

[tinydb84]

I don't have my album set to private. Im not logged in and can see the pics. Maybe photobucket was down for a bit.

Anyway. The relief cut should work. I put ball joint cuts in my first set of arms and welded a tab to the airbag cup. Probably overkill.

I shortened the lowers 7/8'' and the uppers 1/2''. Camber was fine with one shim. I know it would reduce camber gain but I was more concerned with fender clearance.

[69gmcc10]

ranger2339,

No apologies needed this is not high-jacking. You brought a new idea to the table and with some adjustments to your idea we all learned something and that is what we are here for.

I like your modifications especially with the recent adjustments. I would plate both the inside and outside of both the leading side and trailing side with some rosette welds and a good perimeter weld all around. also run a "skid plate across the bottom that strattles the welded joint to prevent any outward deflection of the sides.

Let us know how it ends up!

[HO455]

I thought I would add some additional information to this thread. I went this route on my Burban by obtaining an extra set of used control arms and rebuilding them. By the time I was done I had four used control arm shafts off of three trucks. The measurements I show in the photos below. All of the used ones were 3" plus or minus a 1/16". The two new Moogs (K6147) I used were at 2 15/16". The measurements are from the end of the shaft to the center of the index hole. I did this to avoid the differences in the machined areas for the seals between old and new shafts as previously discussed. (Second photo) After much measuring and double checking I milled a 3/4" index hole (and finished it off with an 5/8 drill bit just in case the rivet was taller than I expected) at 3 3/4" from the end of the shaft.
I haven't got the truck on the alignment rack yet. (Still waiting for a tie rod end). But I will post the spec's when I get them. A couple of things I noticed when doing this. One is as the lower control arm moves forward it changes how the brake hoses flex and I had to tweek the brackets on the cross member to keep the hoses from rubbing when the wheels are hard over. In addition I had to move my sway bar frame mounts forward 3/4" to keep the ends of the factory sway bar from rubbing on the airbags.
The factory index holes measured 11/16" and the Moogs were 23/32". The index rivets were 19/32" in diameter. That means with the replacement shafts there is 1/8" of slop forward and back. As both of my shafts had been knocked back and had damaged the rivets, I had to drill them out and replace them with 1/2" socket head cap screws as the OP did. The old rivet holes had to be drilled out to half inch. As I didn't machine the index holes deep enough I had to grind a 1/16" off the top of the cap screws to keep them from holding the shaft away from the saddles.

[HO455]

Also when doing this modification on a bagged truck you will have an additional shock issue. The shock will contact the brake line bracket or the cross member at full drop. To solve the problem I removed the stock shock mounts and made new ones that hold the shock away from the control arm farther and about an inch closer to the frame. I apologize for the poor photos.

[HO455]

[QUOTE=HO455;7998948 In addition I had to move my sway bar frame mounts forward 3/4" to keep the ends of the factory sway bar from rubbing on the airbags.
.[/QUOTE]

Just a note on this quote. If you need to reposition the sway mounts for clearance try to keep the bar as close as possible to the control arm. The theory is the shorter the distance between the mount on the arm and the front of the bar the stiffer the bar will be. As little as 1/2 " either way will be noticeable.
In the photo the shiny spots near the ends of the bar shows the location of the end mounts as the factory installed them. If the bar is repositioned in the direction of the arrow the mounts can now ride where the blue line is. Basically instead of 1/2" of bar sticking past the mount there will be one inch sticking past.

Cheap sway bar upgrade!

[crakarjax]

Thanks for the heads up on that, nice to know what I'll be running into

[HO455]

You're welcome. I posted some more photos of the shock mount project and a little more information on "The WMB" thread on page 11 (I think its page 11)