Welded these plates on







As you can probably envision (its actually on the saw horses in the background) there’s a piece that bolts in between these 2 plates. It’s probably not as strong as the factory crossmember but I don’t think it needs to be since it doesn’t support the weight of the vehicle via the TTB arms. I’ll look at adding some triangulation to the main plates by running some gussets perpendicular to the main plates. I also have an additional crossmember welded in at the front of the frame behind the bumper so that helps with front frame strength too.

no one cares

What’s that saying about one step forward and 2 steps back…



Yes, that’s the 205 and doubler adapter back in the garage. Needed to happen for 2 reasons. First I’ll need space to weld on the frame for the upper link mount and second I’m gonna clock the 205 up as much as I can using this guy



I put the ring on the 205

And checked at how bad the clearance situation is on the shift fork. It’s not good but it’s not hopeless…





Flat with the bottom of the 203 is definitely an improvement over what I was running but its still below the frame rails. Though there isn't a ton to be done to change that, the 203 is kinda bulky and I situated the whole mess as close the floorboard as possible without rubbing. The good news is these are cast iron cases, I want to build a skid around them and if the skid runs into them it should be fine. My factory skid plate took a good hit at some point and was touching the 1356 so the 1356 presumably took a bit of a hit. If it lived the 203 and 205 should too.

Parts, cutting, welding and shit

Bolted in my new engine crossmember




Left a little clearance for the oil pan, hopefully this isn’t too close.



Much cleaner than that huge TTB thing!

After some head scratching I came up with a plan for the lower link mounts that I like. I re-used a bunch of holes in the frame from the Cage mounts. The driver side has 4 bolts into the side of the frame and 3 in the bottom. The link mount shares one bolt so I can get the angle perfect and then weld it to the angle iron. I’m also planning to build the trans crossmember off this mount too.





The passenger side bolt pattern is a little crazy, I re-used the holes from the Cage mounts and those holes were crazy, hence these are crazy.

I think this big piece goes roughly here

I cut out the top of the stock coil buckets and welded them into the ballistic adjustable buckets that I’m using.



With the axle in the right place I built some PVC links to figure out the right length. Note in the pictures I’ve got a rubber bushing on both ends, this was just for mock up, when it’s done, I’ll be running a bushing and a ballistic joint.

It’s kinda starting to feel like something…

Ordered 7075 aluminum links from ballistic fab. I think (hope) I'm about done buying stuff!

The aluminum links are 2" solid bar stock that they machine threads into. They are supposedly about the same weight as DOM but they will deflect up to 15% and retain their shape. I talked at length to Chris at offroaddesign about them, they do a ton of full size chevy builds and he say's they're running a lot of alum links now with great results. They've bent many 1/4 and even 3/8 DOM and never an alum link. If they're everything they're supposed to be, I think it'll work out well. If not, I'll be cursing and ordering some 3/8 DOM. We'll see.

I was a little worried about things moving around when I cut out the engine crossmember but decided it should be ok because I have a crossmember I've added at the front of the frame and at the time the trans crossmember was still in. No noticeable shifting...

Even with this compact crossmember I'm a little worried I'll end up with too much lift to get the 6" of suspension up travel I'm after.

Nice welds.
We're probably the only 2 on here with a kingpin 60, and I also heard the horror stories.
Where did you get the Allen key?
Did you flap disc the axle? Seems to work better than a grinding disc IMO.
I still hve to cleanup paint and rebuilt both my 60's ugh..