WAH, the wrong way

[73stallion]

just wanted to show what some idiot did. they cut off the C wedges on the passenger side, then they welded a piece of metal strip on the back and front of the axle tube. they welded metal in the end of the radius arm and cut a piece of tubing to match the axle radius, and put a thin rubber bushing between it and the axle. so the radius arm would actually twist on the axle housing. then they bent the arms to clear the tires to turn, and extended the ends of them about 2".

what some people do, and why I DON"T KNOW..................

 

[.94 OR]

Wow! I can only imagine the carnage if you were in 4Lo and goosed it, or hit the brakes real hard...

 

[Kurt]

When the wristed axle idea first came out, I recall there were many different ideas thrown around for it on EBML. This is definitely an interesting one.

 

[Master Chief]

Scary! Some people don't think "what could go wrong if I do this"!

 

[73stallion]

it was pretty bad that's for sure! we got the axle out from under it and ground down all the PO BS, then welded new C wedges back on it. got new tom's extended arms going back under it next week when the rest of the parts arrive.

 

[69for5]

Very closely related to "hey ya'll...watch this!" I've run into a handfull of that with the po on mine too. All thread bent like a U bolt with 20 washers to hold the crooked seat down.......I mean comon, really haha

 

[polarman]

whoa.

 

[Prizefighter]

That's a lot of work on their part for a little bit of articulation gain, if any.

 

[SteveL]

Thats sweet Ben. How was the articulation with that set-up. Got any pics on the ramp?

 

[73stallion]

no steve, we removed it before we even tried to flex it. bad enough it only had about 1.25" of lift with that setup. combine that with a 2" BL and 35's, well i'm glad i never drove it....

he's still got the arms if YOU wanna put it on YOUR rig, i may even still have the rubber strips.

 

[SteveL]

Damn! and to think I spent all that money on the WAH for her 66. I can see if steve wants to run em.

 

[cracker]

Can't imagine the amount of stress that was on the track bar. Have you checked the track bar and the mounts for damage?

 

[73stallion]

i've looked at them, no visible weakness. it has some kind of riser bracket on it, not like any i've seen from a vendor. but it's strong, so we'll leave it.

when i do the rear suspension i'll post pics of the soda cans sanwiched between the U bolts and axle housing....

 

[Rustytruck]

If they only did one side with a bushing then it isn't any different than what people do with a wristed arm. Probably slightly less flexible. They sure did a boat load of work to get there.

 

[73stallion]

New porn

Thought I'd show off what we're replacing the old crap with. Tom's extended arms, Tom's 3.5" coils, Bilstein 7100 RR's on F-250 mounts, BC adj track bar, and Tom's adj drag link.

 

[bmc69]

That's a lot of work on their part for a little bit of articulation gain, if any.

Indeed..but a fascinating bit of backyard engineering IMO. The workmanship is not bad..the goal of increased articulation might not have been reached but the attempt was creative and reasonably well executed too. I've seen plenty of very scary mods and that one really does not go on my list of those.

 

[73stallion]

here's what they did with the rear U bolts.it was 3 sheets of aluminum or sheet metal, apparently because the U bolts had been digging into the axle housing. what exactly did they think this was gonna help? both sides were like this.

 

[bmc69]

here's what they did with the rear U bolts.it was 3 sheets of aluminum or sheet metal, apparently because the U bolts had been digging into the axle housing. what exactly did they think this was gonna help? both sides were like this.

OK..now that IS ugly. WTF?

Bet the spring perches are arched over..

 

[73stallion]

spring perches were crunched in, had a HELL of a time getting the new spring bushings in place because it was too narrow. think if i ever find out who did this i'll beat him stupid, or STUPIDER!!!

 

[chuck]

Before I figured out the WAH I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to use a bearing to replace the wedge and C-bushing on the right side. Something like a big babbit bearing? Or 2 part roller bearing? About the same idea as this guy but he got further, thinkfully