Hey all!
The project has come a long way since my last thread on getting the highway speed vibrations out of the way, and I was able to ride out the 9 hour drive to Death Valley in comfort to take on Goler Pass and a few other 4WD trails + back country camping.
That was all well and good, but on the trail I ended up busting out the axle-side shock mount, tearing the other one in half, and damaging both of the rear shocks in the process.
Things got worse when that little break-up sliced through both the fuel send and return lines on the driver-rear side; not what I was looking for on the trail! Some quick fixes later I was able to complete the pass trail but I have some investigation to do to figure out what happened.
1) The previous owner installed a 4" ProComp lift that I've been going through and replacing with adjustable parts and getting things dialed in. I think the culprit here for the shocks were these little lower shock mount perch extenders that moved the mounting location of the shocks 2" backwards away from the axle. I've since removed these and welded the shock mounts back onto the axle. In my testing, a fully compressed shock was as shorter than the bump-stop distance, so I'm confused as to why the shock was axle to break the mount.
2) looking under the body I'm noticing that the rear axle is contacting a few things; there are scuffs on the exhaust manifold and there are scuffs where the track bar adjustment collar is contacting the underside of the tub. I rotated the adjustment collar to clear thing but I'll need to do a swing test to make sure. I have adjustable RLCAs and RUCAs and I'm guessing that during the rear axle positioning that the axle is set too far backward. the tires are also rubbing the back end of the fenderwells like crazy while on the trail.
I'll use this post to track the progress of the hunt, and if you have any suggestions on solid ways to test for the above I'd be happy to hear them!
The project has come a long way since my last thread on getting the highway speed vibrations out of the way, and I was able to ride out the 9 hour drive to Death Valley in comfort to take on Goler Pass and a few other 4WD trails + back country camping.
That was all well and good, but on the trail I ended up busting out the axle-side shock mount, tearing the other one in half, and damaging both of the rear shocks in the process.
Things got worse when that little break-up sliced through both the fuel send and return lines on the driver-rear side; not what I was looking for on the trail! Some quick fixes later I was able to complete the pass trail but I have some investigation to do to figure out what happened.
1) The previous owner installed a 4" ProComp lift that I've been going through and replacing with adjustable parts and getting things dialed in. I think the culprit here for the shocks were these little lower shock mount perch extenders that moved the mounting location of the shocks 2" backwards away from the axle. I've since removed these and welded the shock mounts back onto the axle. In my testing, a fully compressed shock was as shorter than the bump-stop distance, so I'm confused as to why the shock was axle to break the mount.
2) looking under the body I'm noticing that the rear axle is contacting a few things; there are scuffs on the exhaust manifold and there are scuffs where the track bar adjustment collar is contacting the underside of the tub. I rotated the adjustment collar to clear thing but I'll need to do a swing test to make sure. I have adjustable RLCAs and RUCAs and I'm guessing that during the rear axle positioning that the axle is set too far backward. the tires are also rubbing the back end of the fenderwells like crazy while on the trail.
I'll use this post to track the progress of the hunt, and if you have any suggestions on solid ways to test for the above I'd be happy to hear them!
