.......I haven't posted because I didn't want to say anything until I had HARD FACTS with detailed measurments. I may have been wrong... I may have been right, but there is no use for me to say anything else I until I can prove it.
But... I did do some measuring on the housing that I had built, and it seems I MIGHT have taken the 1/4" into account when I built the housing, but I do so much around here that I forget what I did to be honest......
Before I reply on the insult issue, you really shouldn't be taking measurements like these with a tape measure and getting "1/4" it should be something your getting in thousandths which is how the bearings needed to be measured too, anyways, how on earth could you "account" for a 1/4 difference in the knuckle by changing the housing? Unless your a blacksmith and you reforged the WJ knuckle outwards the distance of the spacer? The spacer accounts for the difference between the knuckle and the stub/bearing measurement, the Ujoint and ball joints have to be in the same plane regardless of the housing if your using an axle of this design. the stub shaft, and the knuckle, have no idea what housing they are on as long as they are in the same plane. You could put them in a dana 80 housing, but if your using WJ knuckles with XJ stubs, your going to need the spacer to keep the U joint in plane with the ball joints. Your story STILL doesn't add up.
THINK, you need a Ujoint or CV because the knuckle has to turn for steering, hence the ball joints. so WHY would you bend the shaft at the ball joint plane, but put the flex joint in the shaft somewhere else? If the ujoint was 4 inches off, of course thats wrong, but then why would being off 1/4" be okay? It isn't, and its going to catch up to you eventually. The spacer keeps the u joint in plane with the ball joints. You yourself even admitted the bearings were all the same, so the spacer corrects for XJ stubs and WJ knuckles being different.
The reason this concerned me to such a degree was because it is grossly unsafe. I promise you if a professional shop did something like this, they would be completely legally liable for the deaths/damages that could occur from the mayhem a broken shaft can let loose at high speed. I worded my post strongly, even a little dramatically, because people needed to understand that you don't get to make mistake in your front end when your out on the open roads. Anyone who's had a steering shaft snap, or even a front tire blow out on the highway knows what I'm talking about.
The reason I attacked you personally, was that you defended yourself personally. You were called on a technical point, and instead of saying, "oops, I get it now, post modified" or even arguing it, you hid behind "golly gee I do so much work (hopefully not front axle work) and my engine swaps are so good looking and I'm a vendor so I can't be wrong", you made it personal when you weighed in with your reputation over facts. You could do the best LS2 swap on the planet, your front end is still unsound and that LS2 isn't going to magically hold your front wheel on if the shaft snaps and binds against the ball joint (guys pop them crawling, wanna roll the dice at 70mph?) I insulted you because you are being irresponsible, because by now you KNOW you were wrong, and you've left the same unmodified "CORRECT way" title up with the same bad info because you obviously feel your reputation is at stake, when if you had just dealt with it and fixed the info, it wouldn't have been a big deal.
I'm not very impressed that the mods here are willing to step in and delete or edit my posts because I'm not a paying member, but a vendor is allowed to put up a DANGEROUSLY wrong how to guide, and he gets the green light and handed this made up moral high ground because he politely told someone to do something so stupid and I rudely told them how to do it right, I guess its manners over safety here. Yeah, I'm one guy, and even if I did put down the cash to be a paying member, its probably a lot less than you, but that doesn't make you right, and it doesn't mean this forum is run right. This is exactly why this forum gets bashed in a lot of the other forums, which is a shame.
