front end bag mounts and control arms/ball joint questions

ok guys if anyone wants look at these pics in my webshots of my truck i need to know a few things http://community.webshots.com/user/tenagator2

i already knwo i need to have the upper bag mounts parallel with the lower control arm. i am ordering new mounts and cutting out the old ones.and welding the new ones inin pic 114 can i jus cut the metal out that the hose is going thru? is it really necessary? and what else will i need to do to get those arms to go up more? i think the shock is holding them up right now from going up more. is there anything i should cut out so the arms move up more? pics would help!also can i cut some off that stop mount for the steering? pic 116 shows how the bag rubs it. i can cut half out.but leave enough for it to bump against.im getting 18x7.5's with 215-35-18 rubber. also spindles are on the way. i jsu want ot knwo what else to cut out to lay lower. ohhh and ball joints, which ones should i flip??? both top and bottom or jsu bottom??thasnk for anyone who helps!! i will be paying back everyone with help when i get thru all this.

Okay, for that little tab the hose goes through, you can cut it out. Thats the stock shock mount, so you no longer need it. On that steering tab thing, you can cut part of it away. As long as something is still stopping your steering. If you mount the shock sright, you'll still be able to turn full lock.

My arms are a little different, because my ball joints are different, but it's the same idea. I only flipped my lower ball joints, because the uppers are already on the top of the arm. I will probably make a 1/2" spacer for them though, to help correct steering geometry a little more. Definitely flip the lower though.

Here you can see how much I cut out of my arms.Also shows how much I cut out of the center. You don't need to cut that much out. You onl yneed to cut until about 3/4 or 1" away from the holes where the bump stop was mounted.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and pie cut your upper arms to correct the balljoint angle.I pie cut them 1/2". Worked out fine, balljoints are 1/4" from bottoming out with 215/40/18s. But, I'm not running drop spindles.

Edited: 2/1/2006 9:22:04 PM by tenagator



u didnt cut anything out of where the ball joint goes did you? jus in the center where the bushing goes right where it would hit the frame mount?and for these the piece u cut out for the ball joint and rewelded is that still welded straight back on? or is it angled up? or pushed back 1/2 form where its stock?i cant tell.not sure if im gettn what u did there

On the lowers, I cut a lot out for the balljoint to fit. And I also cut out in the center of the arm.

On the uppers, I pie cut them until the balljoint surface was straight with the area before it. I cut it and wedged it, the filled the area where it made the gap, because I didn't want to shorten my uppers.

Edited: 2/1/2006 9:41:35 PM by tenagator

so what im goin for is to have the balljoints be almost identical to each other upper and lower by doin what u said to the uppers will allow for the ball joint to have some extra play so it wont be binding? or extended to its fullest? oh and since im doing spindles will i have to cut like u did? any idea?

Since you will have drop spindles, and a little bit shorter tires, you probably wont have to cut as much out as I did. But mine do not bind when laid out. They can go up another 1/2" at the center of the wheel before binding. I haven't set it on the ground yet, this is all by careful measurements.

And, to answer your IM question here too, the pie cut leveled the ball joint surface out with the rest of the arm. If you look at the top surface of the arm, the balljoint actually points down. And, a pie cut is when you take out 1/2" or whatever amount on one end, and none on the other end of the cut, then attatch those two pieces.

Originally posted by blazedbowtie82



On the lowers, I cut a lot out for the balljoint to fit. And I also cut out in the center of the arm.

well if u cut out for the ball joint to fit didnt it jsu stay in the stock location due to the mounting holes not being moved? didnt it jsu bolt back up to where it was??

Yes, I bolted it back up, on the top side of the arm, not the bottom where it was stock. The balljoint is larger in diameter on the bottom than on the top, so I had ot cut out that circular area to make it fit. There was a metal hole, with a lump in it before, I had to cut that out, and grind away some material.

ohhh i get ya now. sorry man i didnt get mine apart yet. sorry for so many questions. ordered the new brackets today!
thanks for the info