front axle mouting brackets?

[coachreed]

Anyone here happen to have a set of front axle housing mounting brackets laying around? I have to drop my front axle to clear the new motor and it would be great if I had brackets that I could get welded so I can swap them quickly. The motor is currently suspended in the bay by hoist... and well, I don't want to remove it from the bay again if I don't have to. IF someone has brackets just laying around, I will pay shipping to get them here and then send mine back as cores once the swap is done... heck, if you have the brackets for an axle drop, I'll get them modified before I send them back... of course at my expense.... basically you don't pay anything and get yours back modified. If you can help, drop me email at rreed17@kc.rr.com or PM me.

TTYL!

[BigMeatVX]

How much drop are you needing?

Mine are 2"

[coachreed]

I figure that 2" will clear the pan... was gonna try to do 2"-3" to get just a little more space... and to maybe help with my front prop shaft clearance to the pan. I got email back from the guys at All Isuzu Recycling (0r whatever they are called)... they want $175 for a set of brackets! Sounds kinda steep to me... but I could be wrong... what did you pay for yours? Or did you just mod your stock brackets? Thanks for the reply.

TTYL!

Coach!

[BigMeatVX]

I bought new-used CV axles at the local wrecking yard for each side (To replace the ones I grenaded)....and they left the brackets on when they gave me the parts.

I do have an extra set that are mounted on an 87 trooper...they appear to be identical.

I just cut a portion out (like a 4x4" section that included the big round hole the axle goes through) of one set and added it to the 2x4" cut out section of the second bracket.....

This added 2" drop
also had to notch out the crossmember for the rear of the diff.



PS do you still have the heads?? how much $$$$

[coachreed]

Allan-
Sorry for not replying on the thread about the heads... I'm not 100% sure, but I think they have been claimed... I will send an email to said person and get the info and let you know... I have a feeling that this weather coming into the midwest over the next 2-3 days might cause a problem as the person was gonna drive to the KC area to get them and a number of other parts... anyway, I'll send you some email later and let you know.

As for the brackets... how much would it cost to get the use of them for a weeks or so... basically... to get you to send them UPS 2nd or 3rd day ground... getting them here by sometimes Wednesday or Thrursday... so I can have them modified... so I can put them onto my VX on Saturday or Sunday... and then ship mine back to you. I can send some money via PayPal ASAP to cover the shipping and then of course ship them back to you... I can give you a small "rental" fee for the use of them for a week or so. Lemme know.

TTYL!

Coach!

[BigMeatVX]

Ill trade you a set strait across for the heads, if that will work.....

let me know

Note new e-mail address




Allan

[coachreed]

Allan.. you have mail. I'll TTYL!

Coach!

[coachreed]

I modified my brackets today... of course I didn't have TWO sets of brackets so I ended up getting a couple of 4" x 6.5" pieces of 3/16" cold rolled steal... drilled the holes for the axle mounting... and then had them grafted into the old bracket... the cost to me... $4.09 for materials... and the help of a REALLY good friend... I'll post pictures of my brackets later on tonight.

TTYL!

Randy!

[autox-racer]

did you normalize or anneal the cold rolled steel after welding? did you use tig or mig to weld?

the reason i ask, is because cold rolled steel will have a brittle heat affected zone after welding... will be worse with tig welding. Would be a good idea to heat up the plate with a torch to the point where it just starts to get orange/brown. Then let it cool down slowly. That way the steel will have the same crystal structure throughout. Just a recommendation… you really don’t want a brittle failure of the parts that holds your axle on

of course im use to welding steel tubing that is .035” thick which becomes very brittle because it cools down so quickly. Only had problems when we did not normalize.

[coachreed]

Uhhh.... we didn't go out of the way to anneal them, but the whole bracket was red hot... and we just let them cool down on their own... sooooo... hopefully that did the job... I can remember in metal shop back highscrewl... we would put metal into a bin of sand so it would slow down REAL slow. The good news is that there isn't a TON of stress on the brackets... Anyway... mounted now... not taking back off! Lets hope they hold out until the SAS!

TTYL!

Coach

[SPAZZ]

heat her up and let her cool down slowly...........;Dp;

Works every time

[coachreed]

Here is a pic of my brackets... I threw a coat of undercoating on them once I was done... didn't want them getting all rusty and all... anyway, the front end is all back together... garage floor cleaned back up... ready to do some wiring tomorrow night...



TTYL!

Coach