happy, regardless of what anybody says, this truck shoudl drive absolutely outstanding now. I feel 99.8% sure of this because my buddy Krazytoy did this same thing to his 80 and I got to drive it right after that. It was one of the most amazing trucks I have ever driven. That is why I did all this, that and because we did it to my 60 and that truck was also superb to drive.
Y-link dramas
RHS full lock
LHS full lock
As you can see not going to work. So I ordered up this morning from RuffStuff offset GM tres as well as their y-link adapter for the offset tres. This will move the tre 3/4" forward. In addition to this I am going to move the panhard 2" up on the axle end. This will greatly help clearance as well as help roll center a lot.
I realize all if not most of this is way beyond what most people on this forum are willing to do or are capable of doing. However folks, I am learning as I go too, only set up one front axle before with a c&t and it was under the wing of a guy who has done upwards of a dozen c&ts. I also realize most people freak out about cutting their axle and will question the strength and safety. Yet even a guy like me who doesn't have a ton of experience welding can tell when a weld is good. Going into this I certainly had this concern but now after cutting and welding, I am way sure and confident my welds are good and their are no strength issues whatsoever in the axle housing. I used my big 212 machine to weld it, had very clean welds and it burned it very nicely so I have no worries. That is big statement for me to make because I worry about these kinds of things a lot. Imagine the knuckle coming off at 80mph!!
On Mud some guys have asked about keeping it all square. I did my best at that and it is very hard to get the perfect reading on the knuckle ball when you rotate. This because there is not a lot to use for a good reference, meaning making sure your angle reading is square with the frame, ect ect. I did it as best as I could taking readings and measurements many times before welding. From what I can tell, my caster may vary slightly from side to side, like .2-.4 of a degree. Thing is from factory caster is not the same side to side because Toyota makes this axle with a slight difference to handle the crown in the road. So I actually may be perfect with slightly less caster on one side. An alignment will tell for sure. And speaking of which I had it aligned before all this and am really interest to compare the sheets side by side after I get it aligned again. It was way off before. I also checked camber which of course is not adjustable. What I got is LHS at 88.5* and RHS at 88.7*. I do not know what factory specs are on camber but if it was 90* it would have no camber which is not right. Also there should be slightly less camber on one side then the other because of the crown in the road. What my readings do tell me is I am pretty friggin square which is awesome.
A guy and most people can just slap caster correction items in there to fix it up. That is what most people do. All along though I have not been interested in doing that. Look back int the thread, I had MAF drop brackets on my radius arms and the truck drove ok with them in there but I removed them and will not run them, don't like them. I looked long and hard at Slee radius arms or even Superior Engineering radius arms. $1000 a pop for a set though and not guaranteed to fix all the issues when you lift the truck 4". Cutting and turning I feel guarantees it is set up just right and really doesn't cost very much at all. The way I liked my trucks is to lift them but put them back to factory specs. That has been my goal all along wit this 80, 4" lift yet perfect caster and no caster correction items. I think I have achieved that.
By the way, factory caster is 3*, I set mine at 4.5* because with larger than stock tires you want slightly more caster. I am running 35's and the general consensus is 4-5* when running 35+" rubber. The increased caster helps it handle better with the larger tires.
Unfortunately I won't be test driving it until next week. I wold have to put my battery back in and am not doing that. I also am going to have next to no test time before bailing and heading to Baja. Yes that is brave of me but I feel confident in my work and feel good that I am getting it right first time which means no dramas on my trip. Time will tell.
Cheers
