So let's see this finished 44 with the cover off

 

Working on pics. Been a busy weekend. Picked up the 44 from ECGS Friday, got called back to my parents to help with some work so I was tied up all day yesterday, and today I was able to press out the old ball joints. I've got the knuckles outside cleaned and painted and just waiting for that paint to dry. Once the paint dries, I'll be pressing in the new ball joints and then assembling the axle shafts. The chromo inners are already set up for full circle clips so I have taken a grinder to the stock Chevy outers to accept the clip. I'm hoping that these stock outers last me long enough for me to get the funds together for chomo stubs but we shall see.

 

YOU SOB! I almost bought that 60! and then procrastinated, aha. I know you get a hell of a deal on that.

 

Haha, well it's barely worth what I paid. I'll have just as much in it to rebuild it where corners were cut by the previous owner as I paid upfront for it.

 

Whats wrong with it

 

Hubs needed to be rebuilt. The tubes had a ton of dirt in them, new brake pads and rotors and other small things.

 

Went to ure Friday and Saturday. Let's just say I had a very short wheeling trip. 5 minutes into the trip I snapped the long side inner shaft on the D30 when I get a little bouncy on the front side of Daniel. I wasn't carrying a spare. We shoved rags in the axle tube after pulling the shaft to try to keep as much fluid in as we could. Drove it off the trail and it was parked until I left Saturday. Drove it the hour back to Greensboro and I know there are some bearings in the pumpkin that aren't too happy about that. But, I've only got a few things left to do before the 44 is ready to go in so I'm not too worried.

Working on getting pics uploaded

 

I've got more but they all keep uploading sideways. Anyone know how to correct this? When I open them on my computer they are in the correct orientation.

 

Here we go. I'll grab more of the shaft and joint on my lunch break

 

How bouncy did you get?

 

I bounced on 2 attempts. Both hopped about 3 times.

 

He got very bouncy...

I saw it from the outside.
Coming up a steep rutted out ledge his passenger tire lifted and all the momentum went to the lifted tire. Same thing happened twice, he broke it on the second attempt.

 

Ok, maybe I left out some of the bouncing haha. I like that pic. It shows what I wheeled the rest of the day until both RC crawlers snapped ujoints as well.

 

Little update:

44 Is fully built
60 is built minus hard lines and diff cover
Jeep is going to a fab shop for the radius arms and steering. It will stay there until it's finished or I find a trailer to tow it back to my place on.

I mounted up 2 of the 38s on the 44 to get an idea of the track width and it's gonna be wide! Rough measure was 84" from outside tire to outside tire. The rear will be 4" narrower at 80". It's also going to be fairly tall. I may do some searching for 3" coils to use instead of the 4.5" I have now. Ground clearance up front is right at 12" to the bottom of the pumpkin so I'm pretty stoked about that. Holding off on pics until next week when I drop it off so I can get good full shots

 

In prep for dropping the rig off to have the steering and radius arms made, I ordered some HD offroad stiffeners, Barnes 4wd radius arm brackets, and some 7* bushings for the radius arms with the hopes of bringing the arms up high enough so that I can gain some more turning radius. As of now and how I mocked up the arms, my turning is going to suffer greatly from the 5" back spaced wheels and 38's.