Building Rolling Chassis

[Cat_J]

Hi,

Well I've been having fun and games. After many trips to the barn and back (can only go once a week at the moment if I'm lucky) I've slowly been building a rolling chassis. All was going well, rear axle, radius arms and supports all went in fine. Unfortunately the front axle is a different story. I put the shocks and springs together thinking i'll just pop the radius arms on afterwards (using polybushes). There is no engine or gearbox in this chassis BTW. Turns out after lots of anger and pulling about the radius arm will not go through the bush as the chassis end while attached to the axle.

'Fair enough' I thought. I'll do it the other way round, try to attach it to the chassis THEN the axle. Even worse. Turns out with the springs and shocks mounted you just cant get the angle to get all the holes lined up, jack trickery doesn't work as the chassis is to light (lol) and just lifts up. After ejecting the ratchet to the other end of the barn I finally came to the conclusion that I have to do the radius arms first. So off come the shocks, mounts, springs, retainers, and dislocation cones and I get the radius arms on with ease.

So, back on with the shocks, mounts, springs, retainers, and dislocation cones. Then '!@%$#%@ !@%@ %#$@' nothing lines up. Springs are stuck sticking forward if bolted down to the axle. So, I think, due to the tension in the new bushes and lack of weight, the chassis is sitting too high, radius arm angle is too wide, and therefore the axle is angled forward.

My Plan

Its basically all in. I have the springs in the dislocation cones. But the axle is still sitting forward, so I have only put one bolt through the spring retainers and seats at the bottom to allow there to be a gap at the front and keep the springs vertical. My [in]sane idea is to lower the engine and gearbox back onto the chassis, in thoery the weight will push the chassis down, correct the radius arms angle, rolling the axle level to I can finish the front suspension.

How mad am I?

Also it might be useful to know the front springs are the standard rear springs. That is they are both HD rear springs front and back. This was recommended my Gwyn Lewis as I am mounting a front winch.

So yeah. Any thoughts or just a plain 'you're mad you were supposed to do it like this' would be appreciated as at the moment I'm just wasting the little time I actually get to do it.

Cheers. Sorry its a bit of a long one.

[landy V8]

i think i put my axle underneath(complete with arms attached ),bolted it all up then lifted the front up and slipped the springs in.drop it back down and bolt up shocks/turrets.

simples.

[Frax]

I also put my one on complete with arms attached, used bags of grit blast on top of the chassis (about 3 per side) to give it a bit of weight while doing the job.

Used a garage creeper to slide the axial under and then bolted the shocks in place.

Frax

[Disco-Ron]

Indeed, you'd struggle getting the axle on and arms bolted up with the springs in place...... much simpler to remove them,

The strange thing is with regards to the axle angle, and spring alignment, you'd think that with the arm being further away from the chassis that the spring base would be further back, however its the angle that the spring plate sits at that causes the top of the spring to be so far forward....

[steve b]

You're getting on with it then J

You'll find it easy to put the whole lot under without the springs in , if you leave them out til the winch and body is on the working hieght will be mucho easier too .

Put the springs in before you fit flexi brake pipes and the panhard rod then you'll have plenty of drop

Keep at it

cheers

Steveb

[landrover598]

The springs normaly lean a bit forward, due to land rovers build tollerance!

I fitted a front axle last night, arms attached to the axle, slide it in, jack up the chassis, drop the springs in, dampers down through the chassis and all bolted up, 15 minutes max.