More beam work

Today found me in the garage with a few hours to work, a good day for sure. I started out by cutting the torsion springs to length. 1 1/2" off each end so I could keep the center dimple in the center!

Next I drilled a small pilot hole .35" from the end of the springs for the end dimples. One on the same side as the center dimple, and the other on the opposite side. After the pilot hole was drilled, I formed the dimple using a standard counter sink. I opened the dimple to match the originals. The trick it to go nice and slow and use a fair amount of TapMagic. The springs will drill easily. Note the bevel ground on the end of the springs. This is to ease the insertion through the center tube block.

After the springs were done, I assembled the beam and installed the swing arms. Lots more grease. I inserted the springs into one of the swing arms. I tightened the set screw to hold everything in place. On the end that I inserted into the beam, I wrapped the spring leaves with a zip tie about 1" from the end. This held the leaves in place while I slid the springs in. Once the spring passed through the center block, I continued to push and the zip tie just slid down the springs. Worked great.

On to the sway bar. I cut the sway bar in the middle and installed the two ends onto the swing arms. I then clamped them in the middle and marked my cut. I cut the ends and ground a pretty steep bevel onto the ends for the weld.

I welded the sway bar in the center and peened the weld joint many times to relieve any heat induced stresses. I mounted the bar in the vice and stuck a piece of pipe on the end of the sway bar and twisted the sway bar back and forth, I made sure I was swinging it past the farthest twist it would see in use. No problem, the weld was fine. I then cleaned the weld up, primed and painted the sway bar. Enough for one day. I am waiting for my drop spindles now. They should be here next week.