ZOMBIE RAMCHARGER (it LIVES!!!)!!! pt.1

[The War Wagon]

Peanut butter shimmin' time!!! Got 'er done Friday afternoon/evening!


With MUCH thanks to Pozman (buddy of mine here in Steeltown Offroaders), the Ramcharger is FINALLY daily driveable (should it ever come to that), as we got the leaf pack shimmed in good order.

Thanks to school traffic, I got to his place about 3:30 Friday afternoon. We decided to work on it there, since he has all the cool tools.




Safety first, of course. After chocking, and before the jackstands, we had to 'anchor' it.



Strapped it to his hitch and my pintle. Don't let the Chebby throw you - he's ALMOST a Pentastar guy, since he owns three Jeeps. Here's HIS mid-life crisis on wheel.




Time to UN-bolt everything!





Peekaboo...




After extensive eyeballing, and some actual measuring of the driveshaft and pinion angles, I THOUGHT about erring on the side of caution, and going with 6 degrees shims... but a nagging instinct, led me to get 8 degree instead... We'll see how this plays out...

Of course the hole's not big enough, so it's off to the drill press. NEXT thought is, weld a little bar stock into the BOTTOM side, so it'll drop into the spring back, and the pin in the axle tube will drop in the top half, thereby solidly anchoring it into the pack. And yes, they are STEEL shims.



Did I mention Ted has COOL tools?



A little drilling, welding, and grinding later, we have a GOOD shim!

Of course, night arrives at 7pm now - earlier, when it's cloudy... JUST in time for re-assembly.





If you remember these sorts of scenes from your Saturday morning cartoon youth...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B12eVCBb...r_embedded

...then the pic ABOVE this ^^^ is the Poz, cursing the birth of the Dodge Brothers...

By 8:30 though, we had 'er buttoned up. Sure enough, the 8 degree shims proved to be the right call!



Other than running over a chock on the way up the driveway, which scared the CRAP out of me, the drive home was FLAWLESS!!! No more grinding of U-joints into a fine powder - and the new double-cardon driveshaft can finally perform as it ought!!! :headbang:

Doesn't solve ALL the problems yet, but it solved the BIGGEST one to even making it DRIVEABLE in RWD!!! Thanks Poz!!!