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Back to the beams. In an effort to spend as little as possible, I cut up the free D50 beam I got to make the plating for the driverside beam. D50 beams are way thicker than the d44s. Should be plenty stout for this.
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I lied when I said the beams were done. I have been waiting on parts to show up so I ended up doing some more on the beams. Driverside is finish being plated and braced. and the passenger beam I plated below the axleshaft window in preps for trimming the window when I cycle the beams.

The new spindle studs I bought arent the right size for the knurled section, they are larger then the OEM and dont fit in the current holes. I have to evaluate drilling the knuckle holes slightly larger, Im not sure there is enough meat around the holes on the spindle side of things.

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FYI depending on your travel target you may find when you cycle the beams that you need to open up the window in the passenger beam that the shaft passes through. That will likely lead to wanting to plate around it.
 
The plating I have done so far is based on looking at how the "professionals" do it. I am very similar in plate locations to the desolate motorsports stage 2 beams. You can kind of see in the 3rd photo above the silver colored portion around the window in the beam, is what I expect to trim back to. Depending how much I end up trimming will decide if I plate the top of the beam around the window or not, but Im not expecting to be going max effort on travel, since this is more of a crawler oriented setup.
 
I don't have any front suspension but I have a winch. :flipoff2:

Got it for $239+tax. Figured it was good enough deal to grab it now.

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I thought i was done plating the beams, but when I went to paint the driverside beam, I wasn't happy with the thickness of the material for the transition from the center to the C. Some of it is naturally how the beams are made and a bit of it is, being in New England. To start I made a brace for the front like I did for the other side. Im going to do some additional plating on the curve to beef up the thickness as well.

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Worried about warping the 3rd mounting face with all the welding you've been doing?
 
Update, Beams are done new poly bushings installed in both. Knuckles are rebuilt with fresh spindle studs, new Mevotech TTX balljoints (giving them a try, they were super cheap off rockauto).

I decided to give the 2wd Superduty arms a try. They are about 14" longer then the factory arms. I had been trying to get a set of arms for about a month off a guy on market place. What a fucking debacle. Between them not being pulled off the truck when I was told they were to constantly chasing the dude communication wise, I finally gave up and found a set at a local yard. Ended up costing me an extra $70, but I should have just done that originally instead of trying to be cheap. This is a mock up of what I'm thinking for the arms. I didn't want to use the factory mounting style with the bushing. It doesn't give me any adjustability and this way I can modify the length to fit around the transmission crossmember better. I grabbed a free set of 1.25" heims a friend had left over after redoing the suspension on his TJ. I might swap to a set of barnes enduro joints for better streetability, but for now these were free so Ill start there. I'm waiting on some square tube joint inserts and chassis mounts. The plan is to push the beams forward 1", this will help give me some clearance at the heater box, and can be accomplished without moving any frame brackets or coil buckets.


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I ordered the tube inserts on the left first, but wasn't happy with the length and thread engagement. So against my better judgement I ordered from Ballistic, because barnes4wd was out of stock with a 3-4 month lead time on theirs. At least they showed up and they should have some better piece of mind then then original set.
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Through the beams under the truck to start mocking up the arms, plan is to assemble the outers as well so I can see what ride height will be.

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Has anyone installed the poly full replacement bushings #4.3133? the red bushing on the left is a big donut that goes on but its super loose. It is just floating around in there, I dont really understand its purpose other then a "cushion" for the beam if it twists and prevents metal on metal contact between the beam and bracket.

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Anyone with an assembled truck that can give me some measurements.

I'm assuming stock beams sit almost right in line with the factory coil buckets. The arms that came on the truck, I suspect were built to long and pushed the beam way to far forward based on this picture.

Plan is to push the beams forward 1" to accommodate tire to blower motor/heater box clearance, but I need a stock reference point to do that.

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Yes the arms I had were 100% too long.

The traditional wisdom per Race Dezert and Gofastbroncos is to assemble enough shit to put a tire on, let the beam sit at full bump and then pull it fore/aft with ratchet straps until you get it where you want it then mark your radius arm location.

TTMotorsports probably has some good insights for this situation.
 
I cleared out a bay so the truck could get moved in. My motivation to work in the elements during the winter in New England is very low. It only fell off the dollys once. They didn't handle to driveway to garage transition at all.

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I never saw your post about the poly bushings until today. Those are the ones im running in the front of my DD. About 80k on a set of 35s, theyre still good.
 
Whats the deal with the mismatched height coil mounts? Quick googling says its normal, but I didn't keep track of which one goes on which side.
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High goes on pass side since the drivetrain is offset a couple inches to that side and it's also the low side on a normal 2-lane with a crown. Or at least that's what I remember from my Bronco forum days.

I don't think you're a big enough guy to warrant the tall one on the driver's side. :laughing:
 
Can someone with a OBS F150 or Bronco grab me a measurement on each side? The frame hole is a good reference point, but I'm looking for a distance between it and the face of the beam on each side. trying to get a reference point to build off of.

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