Timmay
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Marlton, NJ
I know some of you all here have done this and done writeups for it, but I figured I'd post this anyway.
A New Years Eve trail ride ended with one of my lower shock mounts tearing off the axle. I knew my bumpstops needed to be extended, and it only took one unexpected dip in the trail to prove it. Since it was a time to upgrade, I figured i'd do some high clearance shock mounts, and just for ****s and giggles, I took lots of pics to write this here writeup.
Whoops...
Cool pic of the torn off bracket...
Since my Heckethorn shock was destroyed...
I picked up a set of stock length shocks - had to put that PepBoys gift card to good use
How I started the day...
To remove the old brackets, you have to grind the weld off, and break the bracket free.
Once you grind most of the way through the weld, it is time to break the bracket free. This is the setup I used. It is a 14" pipe wrench with a length of 1.5x1.5 tubing. A little twisting action and the bracket fell to the floor.
A shot of what the bracket should look like once you get it off...
And a pic of the axle tube. You can grind whats left of the weld down if you want, but I chose to leave it as is.
Up next you need to find something that has the same diameter (or very close) as the axle tube. The Mountain Dew bottle I was drinking from happened to be pretty damn close.
I cut the bottom off the dew and traced the circumfrence onto the corner where the shock stud is welded.
You should end up with something like this. I traced my line with the dremel to make cutting easier.
Repeat that step for the other side...
And connect the lines across the top...
Then you want to cut along your lines using an angle grinder, jigsaw, or like myself, bandsaw.
:greensmok
A little touch up with the 4.5"er...
And you should end up with something along these lines. You can see how I had to grind some of the back of the stud away for it to fit flush on the axletube.
Next you want to prep the axle tub for welding. I started out using a dremel to try and keep the sparks down, but ended up finishing it up with the 4.5". Here's the dremel work...
Then, weld em on.
I chose to mount mine next to the U bolt. This was inline with the origional mounting, so the shock angle is still the same.
MMmmm splatter. I need some Argon/CO2.
Add your favorite color paint (I chose textured black, but you can choose whatever color your little heart desires) and bolt the new shocks up.
Halfway there...
Repeat on other side...
You can see in this pic that I retained the typical barpin system, I'll explain in a bit.
Here's what it looks like all bolted up and ready to go.
'Nuff said.
And the reason for retaining the barpins, I welded 5/16 bolts in to act as studs. They are 1.5" long, so worse comes to worse I make some BPEs and bolt them to the studs. Here's pics just because.
That's all I got for right now. Thoughts/suggestions? :cheers:
A New Years Eve trail ride ended with one of my lower shock mounts tearing off the axle. I knew my bumpstops needed to be extended, and it only took one unexpected dip in the trail to prove it. Since it was a time to upgrade, I figured i'd do some high clearance shock mounts, and just for ****s and giggles, I took lots of pics to write this here writeup.
Whoops...
Cool pic of the torn off bracket...
Since my Heckethorn shock was destroyed...
I picked up a set of stock length shocks - had to put that PepBoys gift card to good use
How I started the day...
To remove the old brackets, you have to grind the weld off, and break the bracket free.
Once you grind most of the way through the weld, it is time to break the bracket free. This is the setup I used. It is a 14" pipe wrench with a length of 1.5x1.5 tubing. A little twisting action and the bracket fell to the floor.
A shot of what the bracket should look like once you get it off...
And a pic of the axle tube. You can grind whats left of the weld down if you want, but I chose to leave it as is.
Up next you need to find something that has the same diameter (or very close) as the axle tube. The Mountain Dew bottle I was drinking from happened to be pretty damn close.
I cut the bottom off the dew and traced the circumfrence onto the corner where the shock stud is welded.
You should end up with something like this. I traced my line with the dremel to make cutting easier.
Repeat that step for the other side...
And connect the lines across the top...
Then you want to cut along your lines using an angle grinder, jigsaw, or like myself, bandsaw.
:greensmok
A little touch up with the 4.5"er...
And you should end up with something along these lines. You can see how I had to grind some of the back of the stud away for it to fit flush on the axletube.
Next you want to prep the axle tub for welding. I started out using a dremel to try and keep the sparks down, but ended up finishing it up with the 4.5". Here's the dremel work...
Then, weld em on.
I chose to mount mine next to the U bolt. This was inline with the origional mounting, so the shock angle is still the same.
MMmmm splatter. I need some Argon/CO2.
Add your favorite color paint (I chose textured black, but you can choose whatever color your little heart desires) and bolt the new shocks up.
Halfway there...
Repeat on other side...
You can see in this pic that I retained the typical barpin system, I'll explain in a bit.
Here's what it looks like all bolted up and ready to go.
'Nuff said.
And the reason for retaining the barpins, I welded 5/16 bolts in to act as studs. They are 1.5" long, so worse comes to worse I make some BPEs and bolt them to the studs. Here's pics just because.
That's all I got for right now. Thoughts/suggestions? :cheers: