Been there, done that. Changed the ball joint on my '98 about 4 months before it crapped itself. So I'm just going to swap the entire thing over. I used copious amounts of anti-seize when I assembled it so the bolts should be good to go. I'll just need to get rid of the garbage AllMakes bushings at the frame for the A-arm.

 

Those orange urethane from rovers north I got seem good so far

 

I'll probably end up with those, or genuine.

 

Finally broke down and bought a welder. Originally was planning on a Hobart, but the lure of a Plasma made me go with an Eastwood MIG and Plasma. They're supposed to have great customer service and looked good on the YouTube vids I saw.
MIG175 Welder and Versa Cut Plasma Cutter Kit - Eastwood

 

Ordered two 8" sewer caps for my diffs. $67 shipped for both from Fluid Design Beta - Butt-Weld Cap, Sch-40 (Std.)
They're 3/8" thick and will replace my AT diff guards.
Will end up looking like this.


Also got my welder and Plasma!!! Gotta return the crappy Harbor Freight cart because it's too small, I may just weld up my own cart.

 

how do you put those caps on? cut the old cap off and weld on the new one?

 

That's a damn good idea. Dibs on the old guards!

 

Too slow jk

Fish I ended up having to get the steering dom from your place my local does not carry that size

Any word on our inserts?

 

Yep. Cut out the old fill bung and reuse or install a new one.

I'll let you know when I pull them.

What's your local place? Mine is Metal Supermarkets and only after the fact did they say they could beat RuffStuff's pricing.
I spoke with Julene at Summit Machine just now. She said she's hoping to get them done by weeks end. So I'm hopeful to have them in my hands by the 26th.

 

Things are finally starting to move along on this. Its difficult with 3 kids and commitments M-Th evening, soccer on Saturday, and church on Sunday. I need about 8 uninterrupted hours to just knock out a bunch of stuff. But I usually settle for ~2hrs here and there and most of that is spent getting set up and cleaning up. Oh well.
I managed to get my garaged wired up for 240VAC. I installed a new breaker in the panel and ran conduit and 4 10GA wires from it to the front of the garage where I installed a generator receptacle. When our power goes out it(which it often does due to overhead utilities) I can plug in my generator and backfeed my panel(don't worry I shut off my main breaker). Otherwise I made up an adapter and can run my welder and plasma off the same receptacle. It turned out pretty well.


Front and rear axles and suspension are completely dropped. Front bumper is yanked.


Hopefully tonight I'll drop the exhaust and frame crossmember. Then I'll plasma cut the floor pans. Plasma torch is so flipping sweet, BTW!!

Also got my custom Rover thread tube adapters from Summit Machine.
And placed an order with Ballistic Fab for the remainder of the parts I need for my trailing arms. As of now I have pretty much everything I need parts-wise for the suspension. Time to get crackin!!!