ok today i started on my suspension lift from skyjacker, its a 6" lift class two so it comes with new radius arms, my question is how in the bloody hell are you supposed to take off the drop bracket for the passenger side i-beam? and also how in the hell are you supposed to unbolt the radius arms at the i-beam? the bracket on the right is the one im talking about, how are you supposed to remove it with limited space?

 

i for the life of me cant figure out where that bracket on the right goes... dang it.. can you go out and take a pic of it on the truck the one your removing...

 

ok here ya go, its the greatest but you get an idea of what and where it is, i drilled on of the rivets but an angle so i prolly drilled thru the crossmember a bit.

 

if it were me, id pull everything out from under there. radius arms, ibeams, everything. give yourself some room to work.

 

my only problem is removing the beams, not too sure how to cuz of the axles there, how do i remove em?

 

after you do that, then take a angle grinder to the rivit heads.....then punch them out with a hammer and punch........or you can take a plasma cutter and cut them through completely but you have to make sure that you get it lined up correctly with the hole in the crossmember.......

there are 2 bolts on the radius arm on the axle beam.....one on top, one on the bottom............heat them up good and use a good impact wrench........the top bolts is under the spring mount on the beam.....

 

take the driveshaft loose and just drop everything down to the ground together......then leave it laying on the ground......then all you have to do is go straigh back up with it.....

 

are you ttb or i-beam

 

he has a TTB....he was talking about the axle shafts....

besides, both the TTB and the TIB mount in the same locations and use the same brackets....

 

ok so can i fit a wrench in there to take the top bolt out? cuz i dont want to do anything that i dont have to..

 

are you talking about on the radius arm? if you are lifting it, then you have to remove the springs anyway to swap them out with the lift springs..................

 

whoa ok whats TTB? and TIB? i thought i have i-beams under there????

 

i know they mount the same, but he kept saying i-beam and i thought he had 4wd...

 

TTB=Twin Traction Beam......that is the '97 and older Ranger 4x4 suspension setup.....

TIB=Twin "I" Beam.....that is the '97 and older Ranger 4x2 suspension setup....

if you have 4x4, then you dont have "I" beams....you thave the Twin Traction beams......i can tell by your pic and when you said axle that you dont have a 2 wheel drive, so you have the TTB.....

 

yea im talkin bout the radius arms, ok lets start over.....im replacing the rad arms and springs, but when i tried loosining the top bolt it just kept spinning, so is there a nut in the beam the have to get a grip on??? or what?

 

oh ok, then yea its a TTB

 

nope.......just the bolt that goes down through there.......there is also the same type on the bottom of the radius arm...

while you have the radius arms off....on the driver side of the hog head(the part with the gears in it) there is a bolt that goes throught it horizontal and then through the axle beam.....remove that bolt......it isn't doing anything and will make your life (or whoever does the gears later down the road) 10000 TIMES EASIER when you decide to re-gear the truck......if you take it out now, you wont have to take the radius arms off again when you re-gear later....

 

ok so are you talking about this bolt?

 

yes..........please remove it when you have the radius arms off! it will cause you some grief later if you dont.........when we changed my gears we had to take my radius arm off to get that fu**er out! it was a pain....

 

lol ok, if it serves no purpose there then why is it there to begin with?

 

it is there to hold the carrier after all the bolts are taken out.....but when you do gears it is better to have 2 people there so one can hold the carrier on the last few bolts.....the carrier isn't all that heavy.......

when we were trying to take mine loose, the mount broke off the carrier anyways......it really isn't a good design...

 

ohhhhh ok, lol honestly the whole TTB design isnt that good at all, its a bitc* and half to work around it. so ok to take the rivets off all i need is a torch, for some reason i didnt think of that, can i use a butane/propane torch? or oxy/acety? and i know what to do for the rad arms :D thanks..

 

i didn't use a torch on mine....i used an angle grinder and then punched out the heads......it was more work than a torch, but with a torch there is a lot more chance of messing up.........

really the TTB design is great! think about it....when one wheel is flexed, the other is still pretty much flat on the ground......off road the TTB is far superior to any other style of suspension (even a solid axle)....it just doesn't have the aftermarket following that the solid axle Dana's have.......

now on road, it isn't that great of a desing because it is a pain to keep aligned (and there isnt' many places who have employees who know how to align a TTB suspension properly) so it wears tires faster....

 

wow i never really thought of that i just dont like how the carrier is setup thats all, x2 on the tire wear, well i dont know whether my tire wear is cuz of old suspension or bad alignment but i have really bad toe in wear, its almost friggin blad on the inside of the tire, my guess is suspension cuz the shocks are shot, they both pissed fluid after some pretty bad *** wheelin, i went thru a section of whoops (mogules) and both shocks were leakin fluid, but also the whole truck rocks like a crib when you push it. and what aftermarket stuff are you talkin about?

 

yea.....

there are severl items in the front end that could cause bad tire wear......let me list them for you that way you can check them out...

-ball joints: if they are bad they will allow your tire to have play in the and can cause them to look like one of these situtations /\ or \/....the top could be tilted in or out....

-tie rod ends: that will give play in the steering wheel....so there will be "slop" in it......meaning it takes more turns to complete and you can wiggle the steering wheel without turning the tires........

good front end parts, good shocks, and a good alignment and a TTB setup is a dream to drive...on or off road......

if i were you i would change out the ball joints and tie rod ends while you are working on the front end.............and if you do use GOOD parts(remember you get what you pay for) like Dana/Spicer parts and if you can't get them, get MOOG......and remember to get ball joints that are greasable....the factory ball joints are sealed so you can't grease them.......