Going for the "pre-christmas park it for sale finish" glimmer of hope of getting her done ...
The last twelve days (or so) of the Sunlzuki book continues ....
Front end has been a real finicky SOB, with the frame tubing installed unequally side-to-side, taking measurements to keep the front and rear square is down to only using the rear swingarm mount tube i added, the centerline marks down the frame, and the quad a-arm frames.
Worse yet, when i add things, they actually have to go in a tad crooked in relation to the original frame here and there to keep the front and rear square ... bit of a headache.
understatement...
Anywho, went to prep the left a-arms and the last ball joint proved to be the typical cussing and BFH match. The arm had already been bent/twisted and the lowers needed the ball joint tubes re-angled for the heim bungs to avoid bind at the droop I'm putting them at, so the 5-pound sledge came out, as did the ball joint, but not without more damage to the arm.
So I rebuilt the things. With one new lower made up, i went ahead and futzed around long enough to get the rack in position.
I'm using leftover heims that i had from the first yerf steering rack/tie rod design, some free-but-for-$0.08-shipping hi-misaligment spacers and some close-but-not-quite-right threaded tube to temporarily put the front spindle and hub on the a-arms. Sort of a 6-handed deal to do. Nothings welded and nothing threads in... yet ... Waiting for my buddy to finish the heim bungs. With the spindle and hubs together and loosely hanging on the arms, i got the rack set and came up with a plan for the steering column.
Going to make it length adjustable using 1" tube, the original steering shaft, and a golf cart tie rod. The 1" and tie rod get small holes through both and a pair of grade 8 thru bolts. It will be height adjustable by having a tube through the mounting block with nuts welded in the ends. By slightly rotating the rack, the height can be set with the thru tube hung between a pair of plates with holes drilled on a matching arc.
I needed tires and rims, so when a local used atv shop failed to have a match for the quad's 9" 4 x 130 pattern rim (real oddball) I grabbed a royally abused pair of rims with decent tires for $20. plus the front plastic from the '85 trailboss. The cleaned-up rim was the worst of the pair, nice light aluminum ones, but it took about 3 hours of hammer and dolly work to make it presentable. if it proves to be noticeably wobbly, i may have to redrill the polaris trailboss rims with the jig i made to do these.
Seat mounts are in, 5 point harness mounts are in, rear shock mounts are in. I gotta do battery tray, steering and finish up the other a-arm and heim adapters. After that it's front shock mounts, maybe lights, wiring and paint time.
Ohhhhhh and brakes ...
