BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”

With the rear ride height sensors installed and wired up, I wanted to address the issue of the E-brake bracket on the passenger side rubbing the framerail at full drop.

First tho, I tackled the surface rust that had accumulated on the framerail. The fibre wheel on the die grinder made short work of that without removing any additional material.
Then I cleaned up and reinstalled the rotor, caliper, and caliper bracket.

IMG_2294.JPG


Next I turned my attention to the E-brake bracket itself. After carefully measuring the distance of the driver's side bracket to the frame at full drop, I found that I had 1/4" on that side.
Time to make the passenger's side match.

Rather than remove material from the bracket "stand-offs" and have the bracket possibly sit too close to the rotor, I determined that I actually had enough room on the bracket itself to simply move the hole for the cable further outwards.

Just to confirm this for my own piece of mind, I mocked up the cable in the bracket. You can see how much further outwards (or inwards on the bracket) I could go before I ran into interference with the side of the bracket. I could easily achieve my 1/4" by doing so.

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The procedure for modifying the bracket went as such:

First the old coating was removed, and lines were drawn out at the edge of the hole, a 1/4" outwards, and the location of the new hole.

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Using a straight shank burr on the die grinder, the new hole was opened up...

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... and the majority of the old hole was welded shut.

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Once the weld was ground flush, new lines were laid out to mark where the cable relief needed to be added back in, as well as where the necessary 1/4" would be removed from the outer edge of the bracket, complete with radiussing the corners again.

IMG_2289.JPG


After the necessary material was removed, a little chamfer was done on the hole with my countersink, the edges were dressed up with a file, and the whole assembly was given a quick sand with 120 grit on the DA.
Here's the result:

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After another mock up and test fit with the cable, I had to trim an edge of the inner washer to avoid it curling up on the side of the bracket once the nut was tightened. Other than that, all was good!

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Satisfied with my "fix", I removed the cable and hung the bracket up for a couple light coats of satin black. Looks as if nothing has been done.
:twisted:

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Once the paint had a chance to dry a bit, the bracket was reinstalled on the brake assembly and snugged back down.

Jacking the axel back up to its full drop position provided the assurance that I now had all the clearance to the frame I needed!

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So that's it. Problem addressed, and solved quite effectively, I'd say. Best part is, visually it doesn't look any different than the driver's side, and it in no way affects operation of the E-brake actuation.

Next, I'll have a look at the bumpstops issue, and see if I can't come up with an effective solution there too before moving onto the front height sensors.

Thanks for checking back on the SECOND update today!

D.
 
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Hey all

I've been working feverishly on installing the front ride height sensors (and a few other things) as of late.

I'm currently still working on the first front sensor install on the passenger's side, but found due to it's placement on the outside of the frame in the area near the brake line to brake hose transition, the caliper would come into contact with the sensor arm at almost full lock:

IMG_2336.JPG


Not by much mind you, but any contact is unacceptable. I really only needed to buy myself about a 1/4" of clearance, so it was quickly determined that I needed to design and install some sort of adjustable steering stop to prevent unwanted occupation of two components in the same real estate.
😱

Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn't be an issue as there is a cast part of the stock spindle designed to contact the lower control arm at full lock to limit steering travel. However with the F body spindles I am using, this cast part severely limited travel to even less than a factory G body spindle would have.

In order to gain back my steering travel, I cut the cast stops off the bottoms of the spindles. Well that worked amazingly well, but now it seems I actually have a bit too much travel!
Not only would the calipers hit the sensors, but the tires would rub the outer # 7&8 header tubes at full lock as well.

So that's what this update is about, steering stops.

It's a bit out of order as I started with the sensor install, but because that part is still ongoing and I'm not ready to cover that just yet, I'm going to quickly cover what I did for the steering stops.

Thanks go out to Steve (PontiacGP) for the initial idea, and the simplicity of it.

I started with a bracket (tab?) that I made out of 1/4" angle steel. I drilled and tapped a hole to accept a 1/4"x20 bolt in the upper corner:
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It's location is to go here:
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I set it up for welding with the LCA in the vise...
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Burned it in...
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and metal finished it out.
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I gave it a shot of VHT satin black to keep the "rust bugs" (as Scott would say 😛) away till I can get the LCA's re-powder coated, and installed the stop (aka bolt) with jam nuts.
It's a stainless button head of course, to match the rest of my hardware.
🙂
IMG_2348.JPG


The head of the bolt contacts the lower inside edge of the spindle at full lock preventing it from rotating any further. A bit hard to tell in the pic but with the stop adjusted, now I've got plenty of clearance to the sensor at ride height and throughout the rest of the travel.
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As an added bonus, it keeps the tire off the header tube, so I'll never have to worry about burning the side of the tire, or leaving rub marks on the tube.
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And finally a close up of it with the nuts tightened to keep it locked down:
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That's it. The bolt can be sacrificial, if I bend, break or marr it up, just yank it out and replace it.
Works like a charm, and now I'll never have to worry about destroying a sensor or rubbing a header tube.
🙂

Thanks for checking back everyone,
I'll update again once the front sensor installs are complete and functional.

D.
 
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About the last 10 pics aren't loading for me. Anyone else having this trouble?

That may be due to how I posted Jared. I basically cut and pasted from a PM I had.
I can see them on my end, but if others have the same issue, let me know and I'll delete and reload the pics.
 
Ok. Thanks for the feedback guys. Standby and I'll get it fixed up.
 
Sorry about that guys, my bad.
How about now? Fixed?
 
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Pics fixed? Anyone??

Bueller.... Bueller...
😕
 
Pics fixed? Anyone??

Bueller.... Bueller...
😕
I can see them fine D! Another simple mod out of the box 'o' tricks.

Gotta keep them rust bugs at bay, they are mean little creatures no doubt 😀!!! My cutlass has started to show some of em since it was put outside(albeit covered) since just after turkey day...more sanding time in the future before paint yay :doh:!
 

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