Twisting front axle, etc

["David Willmon" <dwillmo@domain.elided>]

My thanks to Bill Thebert for his instructions (Binder FAQ) on twisting the
front axle.  I had decided it would be good practice to go ahead and twist
the axle on this 800 even though it was a Dana 27 and probably wouldn't last
long.  About half way through all the grinding, I decided I should have
bought a Dana 44 and put all that work into it so I would be through with
it. I took a torch and burned a pretty good trench all around, but there was
still an enormous amount of grinding and beating, once you get the knuckle
cut loose. I marked the shafts carefully, figured out how much rotation I
wanted to put on them.  Then stuck one in the freezer for an hour, heated
the shaft up and it slid right back in, only problem it was at least 5
degrees off the mark, so I had to beat it off again.  Next time I'll be more
careful.

I'm working up to the question here, or a couple of questions.  First of
all, Bill's instructions mention 12-14 degrees of rotation on the knuckles
to achieve best possible angle on the pinion and restore ideal castor. 
Problem is, I can't put the weight of the engine, body, etc back on the
springs, don't even have the engine mounted. I'm just guessing at the
location of the transfer case, based on the crossmember.  So I'm working
pretty blind.  I would like to take this shaft and have it re-welded before
I put it back under the vehicle.  What I'm asking is 12-14 degrees about
ballpark?  I will probably put a front shaft with a CV at the transfer case
anyway, so I figure I can have some adjustment by twisting the whole axle
before finally welding down the spring perches.  Does this sound reasonable?

Second question, I am not happy with the spring bushings I got from
LightLine of Louisiana.  They are supposed to be for a Scout 800, but the
flange part of the bushing (which the stock bushings did not have) makes the
total width, wider than the inner metal sleeve is long.  So you cannot
tighted the bolts down against the sleeve.  You are only tightening the
shackle against the flange and so you cannot really tighten the bolt down. 
It seems to me the bushing flanges should be trimmed off.  Anybody do this?


David Willmon
Voice 409/875-3140  Fax 409/8875-3100
dwillmo@domain.elided