SuicideTireZJ
05-02-2006, 10:15 PM
Honestly, I searched multiple forums as well as google for this, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. My question is how thick are the axle tubes on a D35c?
I was thinking about an axle swap and the obvious pain is what to do about brackets. I, being the budding bootyfabber, came up with the idea of cutting the whole axle tube in half and just welding the part of the tube with all the brackets on it to the new axle. This probably won't work for the LCA brackets, but the UCA's, coil perches, shock mounts, hell, even the brake line attachments will all be MUCH easier to line up than cutting off each bracket individually and figuring out how to line everything back up.
Obviously I will gain about an inch of lift depending on how I cut the tube, but that's no biggie. I just thought this might be a decent way to save on time, money, etc. I'd imagine I'd just tack the two pieces together after adjusting the caster and making sure everything was lined up, and having a welding shop (or someone with more skillz than me) stitch the two pieces together, and weld whatever other tabs not on the cut to the axle as well. Is this a horrible idea, or one of sheer brilliance?
Here's an amazing MSPaint interpretation of what I'm trying to do (everything is pretty much approximate):
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b179/ZJBuilder/swapidea.jpg
I was thinking about an axle swap and the obvious pain is what to do about brackets. I, being the budding bootyfabber, came up with the idea of cutting the whole axle tube in half and just welding the part of the tube with all the brackets on it to the new axle. This probably won't work for the LCA brackets, but the UCA's, coil perches, shock mounts, hell, even the brake line attachments will all be MUCH easier to line up than cutting off each bracket individually and figuring out how to line everything back up.
Obviously I will gain about an inch of lift depending on how I cut the tube, but that's no biggie. I just thought this might be a decent way to save on time, money, etc. I'd imagine I'd just tack the two pieces together after adjusting the caster and making sure everything was lined up, and having a welding shop (or someone with more skillz than me) stitch the two pieces together, and weld whatever other tabs not on the cut to the axle as well. Is this a horrible idea, or one of sheer brilliance?
Here's an amazing MSPaint interpretation of what I'm trying to do (everything is pretty much approximate):
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b179/ZJBuilder/swapidea.jpg