We leave for the expo in 2 days so I left the radius rods in the front and flopped the spindles and calipers for the time being. The high clearance lower arms make getting the radius rods in there a complete whore. When I get back from the expo I'll strip it back down and address those issues in full.
Drive shaft wise I have a brand new one here as I need to get all my measurements nailed down for production. As of now I cut my stock one in the lathe, got it as close as I could, timed the U joints and burned it in. That's something that will get properly addressed when I get back as well.
A lathe. Mmmm, sounds good! One of the many tools that I live without. If I recall, the stock driveshaft was made out of some odd sized metric tubing, I want to say it was a 1.345" o.d. and the i.d. was a funky size also. I believe that when we cut the drive shaft, we cut it long leaving 3 or 4 inches of the stock shaft past the yoke. If you separated the weld-in yoke/stub from the stock drive shaft tube, the plug diameter of the weld-in yoke would be too small to fit into a 1 1/2" x .090" wall replacement tube, and you couldn't get an accurate weld. So, we had to leave the outer factory tube attatched to the yolk and turn down the facxtory tube o.d. to slide into 1 1/2" x .090" wall CDS tube. When it was all said and done, there wasnt much material, or wall thickness left on that factory shaft we turned down, but it is supported by the i.d. of the new drive shaft tube, so we went with it.
What are you going to do with the sway bar? I found that adding 3" to the length of the lever arm, and moving the point where the links bolt to the arm by the same amount, softened up the stock swaybar just about right. Other wise, it would have limited the suspensions ability to independently drop into holes quickly, or maybe even not at all with the additional 5"of wheel travel. It's my guess that your objective when designing the kit was front/rear weight bias more than it was wheel travel.
Your new arms sure take on a different look by not widening the track. Mine still resembles the stock outline 'cause they swept back 4 1/2", but also out 5 1/2". I assume that you are displaying at the expo to expose and market your kit. Have you given much thought as to how much the kit will cost, and what it will include? I really want to offer a desert racing LT kit similar to what we run on the race Maverick. The carrier box for the rear diff is a good idea. It makes it so the driveway fabricator can install the kit, and get good results. Mine would have to come with a total weld-on rear clip that I would have to jig up for. The complexity of plating and cutting the existing rear end of the frame to facilitate sliding the diff back was difficult at best, and way above the skills of a weekend warrior. But a novice to intermediate level fab man could easily cut off the 6 rear tubes where they attach to the transverse motor mount and sway bar square tubes, and weld in a complete new rear clip.
$hit
, another manifesto! I get on a roll, and blab out all of the details that I feel are relevant.
You're smart enough. You'll figure it out! If you feel that you want to brainstorm, drop me a note, and I'll help however I can. I gotta get back to work!