I bought my 94' Cruiser almost a year ago and have done many upgrades to it over the course of the last year. It came time to do another round of PM and upgrades and being it is my daily driver I HAD to get it all done in one weekend. I called up Cruiser Dan and Cruiser Outfitters to get am all the parts and seals I would need to complete the job. My goal was to completely rebuild the axles, install 4:88's, new brakes and brake fluid all the way around, new steering ends and do a cut & turn on the knuckles. Ambitious, yes I know but I like punishment.
I have done several C&T's over the years and on my particular Cruiser I did not have any driveline vibrations, so all I really needed to do was correct my castor. I had some yellow bushings for it, but since I was tearing the axle completely apart I decided to fix the castor the right way.
I am not here to say bushings are bad or plates are a Band-Aid, that has been discussed numerous times in many threads. This is how I choose to fix the castor. The Cruiser drove just fine before, but I knew it could always be better.
So here we go, I started by jacking up the Cruiser and making sure the front and rear ends were level, I did the 4:88's in the back too so I had to pull the tires and everything to get to the back. I cannot stress enough that this step is very critical to get the center of the hubs the same elevation off the ground, if they are not the castor measurements will change. Spend as much time as you need here.
Next strip the axle down all the way to the bare knuckles, again I was doing the gears too so the differential came out, but is not necessary to pull out.
I then took some good measurements of where everything was at stock, pretty much what I figured it was sitting about .5*.
So with all my measurements written down it time to start cutting! Clean the area around the factory weld very good with a wire wheel. I like to make my cut just to the inside of the factory weld. You only need to cut in about 1/8" all the way around. I was able to use a cut off wheel on my grinder for 90%.
The top of the knuckle is a little more difficult to get to with the coil bucket there. I had to use my SawZall to get in there. This is where a good blade makes quick work!
I like to take a chisel and make a horizontal mark across the cut so when I rotate the knuckle I can see how much I am moving it and I can compare to the other side.
Next take a BFH and beat the knuckle back. I like to leave the trunion bearing races in so you don't damage the knuckle itself. I was replacing all the bearings so I was not worried about damaging the bearing race. I know the FSM says castor should be 2*-4* but with the bigger tires I was aiming for 5*. Plus 5* was as much as I could get without the steering hitting the control arms. I put the steering knuckle back on and put the tie-rod back in to check clearance and have something flat to measure off of. You can see how little you move the actual ball to achieve the proper castor.
So it is time to fire up the welder and dial in your heat and speed. Then burn the weld into where you made the cut. I like to weld the ball in quarters doing two welds on each side at a time with a beer in between to let it cool down.
That is pretty much all there is too it. I took me an additional 3 hours once I made the first cut on the first knuckle. A lot of that time was spent taping it back and forth and comparing it to the other side and making sure it was perfectly vertical and matched both sides.
So final thoughts? Well worth it, it drives like my Yukon now and does not wander at all. The gears are great and the breaks kick *** now. Nothing was in bad shape, I just like to know that it will be good for the next 100k miles. It was a **** load of work to get done in a weekend and I am tired and sore, but that will all go away...
