I have a few things to add. I put the front axle in and my panhard/track bar angle was really steep. Too steep. You can see a bit of the Panhard bracket down level with the axle tube. I am not sure where I came up with this but I ended up cutting it off. Here is the old.
11_2014 021 by
barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
I did some figuring and ended up taking the knuckle off again and adding another pile of stuff up above and relocated the Panhard rod mount and changed the axis as well.
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
since is was all low carbon steel no preheat or BS required. I decided to never get near a school bus with this thing. :explosion
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
Once I did that most of the stuff looked like it was going to work. Back when I rebuilt my Durango box I removed the spacer and turned down the end cap for a full 90 degrees of rotation. since I had to source a pitman arm that would work out I went backwards and started at the the suggested limit to spicer u joints. I forget now but I think I chose 45 degrees as my objective.
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
I made some more assumptions and fabbed up a Pitman arm.
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
I took note of all the angles and after my headache went away I drew some flat pieces on manilla folders and made a few bend samples in a really crappy 3 way sheet metal press thing. Once I had the angles, I used one of those 55 ton presses you buy off the back of the pick up trucks down in industrial zones to bend the plate. To start I cut the hub out of the stock Pitman arm and turned it round. I made a 1/4" thick "washer" with an ID that matched the hub diameter. This was my back-up strip and spacer. I attach it to the hub with Full-penetration (ground out so the front welds touch the back welds) welds that I nail with an industrial size needle gun when the welds are still hot to confuse the molycuties on the surface.
I then welded on the actual important parts. I turn a spacer that is .030 longer than the width of the bearing so when it's welded it fits perfectly. For the record, I ream and chamfer all the holes to the bolt size +.002. and don't use undersize bolts.
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
I think the offset was pretty moderate for the length. It comes really darn close to the tie rod but doesn't touch anywhere in the cycle. The rods lined up properly and are the same length also.
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
The next thing was to set the bumps and mark the fenders for cutting. I don't think I showed images of the inner fenders so I tossed some in with some tube to support the fender. and radiator.
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barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
Untitled by
barnstormerbikes, on Flickr