Flux on LST shocks w/FLM towers

[Finnster]

teaser pic:

[JThiessen]

Update: I got the outdrive cups from FLM today. Redid the rear diff (I hadn't put grease in that one yet!). And once again started playing the FLM blind puzzle game with the pack of screws they included with the diffs. Would it really kill them to include some kind of instruction sheet....I think they get a kick out us...
Anyway, diff went together ok - had to do a little filing on the shock tower to get the screws to go in - but it was minor.
Tried to install the diff in the rear - no go - only one of the hole lined up. I ovaled out the lower hole a little and still no go. Grabbed the stock TVP and it fit the FLM's perfect. Took a closer comparison of the 1OFFRC TVP and the stock one - it appears she missed on the contour of the rear mount. You can see in the pics how it is different. So I filed down the TVP enough to get the screws in without putting them in at an angle.

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Next step was to mount the lower plate - no go. Looking at the pic, you can see its off by almost half a hole. Looks to me like another symptom of the contour above.



THis is with the plate lined up with the holes, and shows the mismatch.
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I sent an email off to Janeth, and hinted that I would be returning her TVP's - we'll see what she has to say.

I also got the Gigante body painted today - not the best paint job in the world, but in a few months you wont even be able to tell I even tried!

[JThiessen]

Gotta love daylight savings time....or dogs and women....wife got up at 4:30 this morning to do volunteer work at one of the local rest stops (they do coffee and cookies). Well, her new yappy kickin' dog spent the first hour of her being gone wimpering and whinning - so it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to take advantage of the extra hour of sleep.
So I got going early to get the Flux XL (original, huh!) done.

First thing I did was cut up my old TVP so i could clamp it on and see where the differences were. In the pics you can kinda see where the pen is pointing where the majority was. There was also a little mismatch on the upper side and around the upper radius. Spent about an hour or so filing both sides down and tried bolting it up - but it still had about 1/4 hole difference, but with a little leverage I was able to get the screws in.

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I had about 6 #3 screws left from the rear FLM kit.....hmmmmm.....double checked everything, couldnt find anything missing - must be part of their ploy to mess with our heads.
Here's the rear installed:

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BTW, it looks like I should be able to make a plate that will retain the pins since the FLM bulks have some screw holes just to the side of the pins (must be where those screws were supposed to go.



Took the dogs out for a crap, had some breakfast (still only 7:30 or 8:00 now...) and started on the front diff (remember, I had it done already - so it was full of grease). Got it all shimmed and tried to stick it in the diff. Too wide....dang! Had to pull it apart and redo the shimming to move one of the bearings inboard. Voila! it fit. Then for some strange reason....my experience actually kicked in. I decided to double check the diff rotation direction. Of course it was backwards, but I'm soooo happy I remembered to do it - would've been a lot of work after the fact.

By now it was about 10 and I had to take a break and watch some Talledegah. Only took a half hour to figure out that they were going to play follow the leader, and decided to just watch the rest in the garage on the "little" TV.

[JThiessen]

The front fit very well compared to the rear. However, right before I stated the final bolt up, that experience thing hit again (its very weird!) and I looked things over one more time. The steering cross link was riding hard on the bulkhead. I pulled it apart and did some dremeling on both the bulkhead and the link and achieved full articulation without sacrificing too much of either. I'll have to make sure I let FLM know about that riding.

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From there out, it was fairly straightforward assembly. You can see in the pics the brace I made for the rear shocks - hopefully that will keep the shocks from bending inwards. Speaking with FLM, they might be including something like this in their FLM shock mount kit - obviously not something as crude as mine.

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[JThiessen]

So here are the final pics. Just sitting on the bench without tires, this thing looks really long now. At the end, there is a pic of my fleet - shows the size of this Monster now.

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