Well, I've been working on the front axle mostly. I already had well placed concerns after reading about the Ford Kingpin knuckles being weaker than their Chevy or Dodge counterparts an cracking or failing. I had been planning on either welding on reinforcements(they have a nice kit for that now) or getting some stronger aftermarket knuckles. Well, after seeing this:
I decided I was sold on fixing the problem before it got started. I probably am not running big enough tires to damage a stock knuckle, but in the spirit of the build I went with the maximum overkill option
Behold, the Kingpin Dana 60 SOLID Knuckle:
I also got forged dana 70 style inner C's to hang the knuckles on:
Then come the keyed highsteer arms with ARP studs:
I am also thinking about some of these heavier duty kingpin bushings vs. the stock nylon bushings:
And, since I was a good little boy this year, I had a special visit from hotrod santa
who brought me a set of aluminum AN wrenches and this:
and this(except blue):
I have also been successful cutting off only one bracket so far, but I have all weekend to work on it too. Hopefully the tax return will be good this year, and/or some lucky soul finally buys my engine so I can at least complete the steering($$$) and start working up the suspension(also $$$, but more so). For the front axle I am also considering drive slugs, but I do like the idea of being able to disconnect the hubs since it cuts out the parasitic drag of the axles themselves along with the ring/pinion and front driveshaft. With slugs, they are much stronger, but you are always lugging around the front drivetrain. I am also on the fence between some CTM axles or the RCV 60 CV axles. I just really don't like the idea of going back to a CV boot no matter how well it's designed.
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