Went out wheeling this morning and I learnt a few things about my truck.

Let me start off by saying aluminum axel housings suck.

I was doing a hill climb when my front end started to hop. I hit the loud pedal a little harder to climb over this hump half way up the hill.  The next thing I know I'm hearing this bad thumping noise so I roll the truck back down the hill to inspect the front end.   When I got out to examine the damage I noticed that the "ear" on the third member that connects to the center link sheared off.  


Easy enough to replace I suppose but I want to replace it with a steel third, and hopefully sooner than later I'll invest in an Anvil when I got the cash to do so.

There was a write up posted not too long ago about placing a brace over the third to stop your front end from hopping (if I read it right) is this simple to do?


Secondly I direly want to make my rear end flex more.  

I was lifting tires today and got my truck teetering in a few spots. Its hard to get your truck moving again when both a front and rear tire are off the ground. (I can't wait to install my locker) The two tires that were left on the ground weren’t budging while the ones in the air were spinning away. (A lot of good that does me)

I'm thinking of doing the F150 shocks with TJ coils.  If I do this mod will the rear end sit higher than the front? If so do I have to bring up the front too somehow?

What’s involved in doing this mod? Anyone have the write up handy?  


Anyhow here’s some pics from today...












 

Kreg,  let me say that I love your Tracker.   I think lifted Trackers look awesome.  Is it an 8v or 16v?  Is it your daily driver?  

It’s a 1992 8-Valve.

Yup it’s my daily driver.  I love it!

Thanks for the complements bro.  

Kreg, how much power do you think that NOS decal on the fuel door gave you?  

To fit the F 150 shocks you will need to overrotate the rearend or put a limmiter on the center or the driveshaft will bind. TJ coils? Dont you have a Calmini 3 inch? Those coils are huge. Have you seen the articals in the archive section? Look in the grey shadded area on the right about halfway down the page. Their is some good info on what your looking for there.

Mike

The strap past is at the end of the front axle upgrade artical.

Kreg, how much power do you think that NOS decal on the fuel door gave you?  

I recon I'm sucking at least 5 ponies out of that puppy.  

To fit the F 150 shocks you will need to overrotate the rearend or put a limmiter on the center or the driveshaft will bind. TJ coils? Dont you have a Calmini 3 inch? Those coils are huge. Have you seen the articals in the archive section? Look in the grey shadded area on the right about halfway down the page. Their is some good info on what your looking for there.

Mike

The strap past is at the end of the front axle upgrade artical.

Ok cool thanks for the info Mike.

For some reason I thought someone said they were running TJ coils in the rear end to achieve better flex.  Guess I must have read it wrong.

Thanks again

I was just wonderin what lifts you have on your tracker....PEACE.....

I'm running the Calmini 3+3 combo right now.  With 31x10.5 tires.

Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I'll get those f150 shocks installed so my rear end doesn’t lift as often.

Makes me wonder why Calmini doesn’t send longer shocks in their kit to fully utilize the length of their coils?

That's EXACTLY what happened to mine, before I went to the Anvil & Steel carrier - and then, to make it more interesting, when the front axle pivoted back & up, the U-joint carved a hole in the bell housing.  You might want to check this!

Ok cool thanks for the info Mike.

For some reason I thought someone said they were running TJ coils in the rear end to achieve better flex.  Guess I must have read it wrong.

Thanks again

THIS WAS HEATHER BEFORE THE WENT STRAIGHT   CAUSE SHE WAS USING THE 2" CALMINI LIFT 1ST I THINK AND STARTED MODDING FROM THERE        MATTY D.  

I'm running the Calmini 3+3 combo right now.  With 31x10.5 tires.

Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I'll get those f150 shocks installed so my rear end doesn’t lift as often.

Makes me wonder why Calmini doesn’t send longer shocks in their kit to fully utilize the length of their coils?

ARE YOU ALSO GONNA ROTATE THE AXEL    MATTY D.  

OH YEA KREG  BY THE WAY LOOKS LIKE YOU GOT A BRAKE LIGHT OUT      ALSO LIKE THE WAY YOU PUT YOUR PIRATE FLAG OVER YOUR TRACK PICTURE...LOOKS COOL NOT SURE IF ITS BEEN THAT WAY FOR A LONG TIME OR IF ITS NEW BUT I JUST NOTICED IT         MATTY D.  

Ya I plan on rotating the axel too.

I suppose thats probably the main reason for the shorntess of the calmini shocks, eh.


Heh I dint even notice I had a tail light out until one of the guys I was wheeling with pointed it out to me yesterday.  He said its been like that for at least a week because he noticed it last week too but failed to mention it

Edit:  Oh ya thanks for the compliment on the pic.

I'm running the Calmini 3+3 combo right now.  With 31x10.5 tires.

Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I'll get those f150 shocks installed so my rear end doesn’t lift as often.

Makes me wonder why Calmini doesn’t send longer shocks in their kit to fully utilize the length of their coils?

I run Rancho 9017s which are longer then the ones provided by Calmini.  The reason why Calmin probably doesn't provide shocks this long is that with the longer shocks they are really close to bottoming out when the suspension is fully compressed.  I haven't had any problems with this yet, but if I try hard enough I'm sure they will bottom out.