Well, I finally bit the bullet and cut the crossmember.
But first, I needed to pre-drill the 1/2″ holes in the passenger side of the frame for the radius arm bracket.
It was slow going drilling out those holes. Used the same acrylic paint in the holes of the bracket to find the location, however, it was crowded in there. The step down for the side-door of the van made it hard to get a drill and bits in there. So I had to use a 90-degree drill adapter to get it done. Just barely fit, and the top hole was actually at a slight 10-degree angle.
The bracket didn’t want to fit. It was kind of warped. I had to install the rear bolts thru the frame first, then torque the front bolts into place. It was off by at least 3/4″. I had to arrange the front bolts so that the top bolt+nut was oriented toward the down pipe, but with not a lot of threads to obstruct the pipe, if I ever needed to remove it in the future.
Back to the crossmember….
I aligned the axle as best as I could under the van, and tried to draw out a portion that I’d like to cut out.
Also, I drew the same thing for the rear side of the crossmember.
I really didn’t want to cut this up, but I’m running out of time. Next morning, it had to come off.
I wanted to keep the cut clean and straight, so I can bend a piece of 3/16″ thick plate steel to weld in with my new stick welder. For now, I’m going to leave it without the weld, so I can test out the axle with the radius arms, coils, and shocks installed.
I’d like to see EXACTLY where the axle sits in the crossmember valley before cutting the rear flange. I’d had to cut that piece up and find out it was unnecessary.
I slid the axle back under the van and it fit pretty spot on.
However, this could be an illusion. The radius arm might pull it back toward the rear of the van. Or forward more. Also, I can’t tell if my axle is centered or not. I need to install the coils first to get an idea if the coil mounts align vertically. I can’t use a plumb bob because my van is jacked up at a crazy angle. I’m sure I’m only off by a quarter or half inch, but it’ll be worth installing the axle first (test fitting), and then determining if I need to cut more and weld more.
I only had a limited amount of time, but I did get the passenger side radius arm installed, then wasted a bunch of time hoisting up my axle off the jig to get it moving around enough. I still need to get the driver’s side rad arm installed before I can make anything definitive, but I’m already seeing some differences. Notably, the rad arms link to the axle in a way that makes the pumpkin not droop down so much, which I didn’t think of. This lifted the yoke up a lot, and put it closer to the crossmember in the rear… see here:
The axle sits up a lot at the yoke, which is unexpected. I’m glad I got part of it test fitted. Hoping to get some time tomorrow to finish the drivers side and get it close to installed.
