Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

[MtnGoat]

Oh nice, that's pretty detailed. Thanks, i'm sure that will help.

[MtnGoat]

Today is the day for the rest of the steering stuff. What toe in should I have them adjust to? Should it differ from stock since I have oversized tires? They're 27x8.5R14

[bertvorgon]

I would just go with 1/16" toe IN, you should be just fine.

[MtnGoat]

It's there now, can hardly wait to get it back!

[MtnGoat]

Apparently the fittings were all 14mm as suggested, everything went on without a hitch. they showed me one of the old ball joints...crazy bad is too simple. the ball would come partway out of the socket without much effort.

Needless to say I am thrilled with how it handled on the way home. It's like an entirely different car now, so much clunking and rattling gone between doing all the shocks and then the steering gear. The wheel is far more responsive. The car doesn't wander in the pavement ruts on the highway nearly at all. Now of course I'm fixated on the sorta dead zone near the center, steering box I bet. I think I'll mess with that tightening nut a bit. And install the steering brace.

[MtnGoat]

Mostly done, it went pretty quick. I read up on adjusting the box, and did as suggested with wheels in the air and testing full travel. Tightened it up about 3/4 turn, I don't know if thats good or bad. I went a little farther but could feel it beginning to bind when I turned the wheel, so I backed off a bit.

Then the steering brace installation went fine. I cleaned the top of the box off, topped off the oil, then installed it on the box, then drilled the holes through the bracket. My makita drill was too big to fit down in there, but a cheap sears one was shorter and I got two of three holes that way. Then after installing the backing plate, I used it as a template to drill the third hole from the wheel well in, luckily it *just* barely had access space around the strut.

Steering brace

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Backing plate

steering brace backing plate sm.jpg (130.45 KiB) Viewed 4248 times

Shiny new idler arm, ball joints and rod ends!

right side and new idler arm sm.jpg (131.94 KiB) Viewed 4248 times

The other side

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Backing plate for the idler arm.

idler arm plate sm.jpg (123.98 KiB) Viewed 4248 times

[Byron510]

Jeez, going from worn out to new with upgrades is going to make a huge difference.

Money well spent on your old machine.

Byron

[MtnGoat]

All the work and $$ has definitely been worth it. Drives like a totally different car. What I didn't expect was it is also much quieter, a bunch of small rattles and shakes are gone as well.

[MtnGoat]

Put 500 miles on the ride this last weekend. I am LOVING the fixed suspension/steering.

Our favorite camp, same starting point as last year, but I got the prime site this time...

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Sunday we went to the north face and flew there, quite a view..

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[Byron510]

Your 6 eyed beast still makes me giggle every time you post a frontal shot... love it, and love vicariously living through your many trips.

Byron

[510rob]

How are those headlights setup to run anyway?

[MtnGoat]

The extra two on the inside are high beams, with their own fuses and relay. I designed and installed a simple arming system which ties them to the hi/low switch on the turn signal stalk.

With the switch in the off position, only the stock 4 lights turn on, using the usual scheme. With the switch in the armed position, the hi/low control switches between the standard two low beams, and all 6 on at once. This way I can run them on the highway at night and get standard operation of the hi/low control while running all 6 at high, and only needing to hit the usual switch to go to low. Otherwise highway usage is a pain because you wind up flipping two switches to go to low every time a car comes.

[James]

Your 6 eyed beast still makes me giggle every time you post a frontal shot... love it, and love vicariously living through your many trips.

Byron

I agree - Although I think you have room for more lights on the bumper……

[MtnGoat]

I had bumper lights at one time, rally cibie's. All they ever did was shake themselves out of alignment in short order.

[Byron510]

I'd have to find the photos, but my dad's 10" CBA Super Oscars were on the roof for years on his 2 dr when I was a kid. Then we moved to a different area, and the cops told him to take them down, citing the height regulations, even though they too were wired only to operate with the high beams....

Damn, I have to dig through dad's place and find those pictures. A good "one day" project.

Byron