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Day 9 - "Oh..My..God..What is THAT?"
OK! Here it is! Nine days after my quest to lift Gumby, I have finished. Now what? Tires, of course. I wasn't sure what brand I wanted, but I knew I wanted 31x10.50x15 tires. I looked all over and priced tires. Discount Tire was willing to sell me BFG AT's for $490 out the door (including mounting, balancing, lifetime rotation, and road hazard). I got that quote and then went to all the other shops and challenged them to beat it. Evan's tire could, by more than $50, but they couldn't get the tires until Monday (NO!!!!! No more waiting!). I say fine, I'll go to Discount Tire. Did I mention that Evan's tire was right next to Suspension Plus? Woulda been convenient. Ah well.
As I'm waiting for the suspension guys to finish the alignment, the Evans Tire guy walks up and says that he'll sell me a set of Pirelli Scorpion AT's for $480 out the door, including the road hazard warranty (he dropped the original price of $110/tire down to $85/tire to make the offer). Deal! So, then the truck came off the alignment machine (the guy said it was perfect, didn't need a single adjustment, and that I had put the front end together right). I got in and drove it the 20 feet to the tire shop and dropped it off. One hour later, and Gumby was DONE! As I picked it up, the tire guy told me there was a really loud CLANK coming from the truck, and he thought it was U-Joints...uh oh.. I got in, and sure enough, there was a *new*, very loud CLANK. It sure did sound like U-Joints, but it hadn't been making that sound before I dropped it off...hmm...Well, I figure I'll take it home, and if the noise continues, I'll park Gumby and get it fixed on my next paycheck. And now, what you've been waiting for!
Here's what Gumby looks like now!!
Day 10 - "And on the 10th day, Pete played."
I found out what the *CLANK* is. When I bought the lift kit, I also bought a drop-down Pitman Arm to bring the steering back into alignment after the lift. The Pitman arm drops too low, and the connection rod that connects the Pitman arm with the Tie Rod is rubbing against the Tie Rod. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if I didn't have a steering stabilizer. What's happening is that there is a clamp on the connection rod that is hanging on one of the clamps for the steering stabilizer. When it becomes un-hung, it CLANKS. I took a look, and It doesn't seem to be chewing anything up, and it only happens sometimes when making hard right turns, so I try not to make full-over right turns.
By the way, I can't make full over left turns, either. The left tire rubs against the leaf spring when pulled hard over. I think offset wheels will solve this problem. One other thing. The right-front tire rubs the corner of the fender at full (or close to full) articulation. There is a picture of this on the next page. It actually cut the tread, but didn't touch the sidewall, or even go all the way through the tread, thank God!
So, I took it out today! I wanted to see how it would do. Gumby did EXCEPTIONALLY well. I found one mud hole, drove right into the middle of it and stopped, then chugged right back out of it. Forgot to take pics of the mudhole, but got 'em for just about everything else, including my own (unofficial) RTI test. I didn't have a ramp, so I used a rock. I don't know what the measurements signify, so I don't have any of those, either. But, it sure does look like one of those pics you see in the magazines :-)
Click NEXT to see Gumby in action!
