Springover Update

[Curt Cleavinger <rcleavin@domain.elided>]

Hello Binders!

It stands on it's own 4 wheels!
I got the axles under the Scout over the weekend, and promptly removed them
again. I had the rear axle under the truck, with the weight of the vehicle on it. I
set the pinion angle and tack welded the spring perches. Then I noticed that 
the front sagged on the driver's side by about an inch. So I removed the front
axle, swapped the springs side-for-side (I hadn't kept track of which spring
came from which side, so this may have been how they started out), and 
reinstalled the front axle. The two sides are now within 1/4 inch of each other in
height. Last night I pulled the rear axle off and finished welding the spring perches
on. Then I reinstalled the rear axle, installed the axle shafts, and put the tires on. 
It looks pretty good. It's tall, but not excessively so. There's about 9" clearance 
between the tops of the tires and the fender wells. The bottom of the frame is 
about 21" off the ground - that's with springs that are almost completely flat.
  Still waiting on the rear disk brake kit from TSM. Jim Maulis was backordered
on the braided stainless brake hoses from his supplier, so I'm waiting for those
too. 
Left to do:
  - take measurements and order drive shafts (I'm leaning toward Six States for the
     rear, and Gloeco for the front - Gloeco has tons of travel, but the slip joint tends
     to have too much play for a rear driveshaft that'll be used at higher speeds). Both
     driveshafts will have a CV joint on the transfer case side (I lucked out, and the 
     dana 300 I got had CV yokes on both outputs, so that'll save me a few bucks).
  - do some grinding on the front brake caliper brackets (and possibly on the calipers
     as well - I noticed that they scrape the wheels just a bit.
  - build a 'Z' draglink.
  - build a heavy duty tie rod
  - finish dana 300 rebuild/4:1 gear installation
  - install the rear disk brakes
  - install brake lines
  - measure how much uptravel there is before the tires rub - this will tell me how long the
    bump stops need to be, and where the shock mounts need to be. I'll trim anything 
    trimmable before deciding what the maximum uptravel will be, and I'm considering
    a 1" body lift as well.
  - fabricate/install hoops for front upper shock mounts
  - fabricate/install rear lower shock mounts to weld onto the axle tubes
  - fabricate/install bump stops
  - test it out!!

Later,
  Curt