I got to work a little on the truck today. Let's go back a few steps - one of the first instructions says to make sure that the top and bottom of the frame are 90 degrees to the sides in the areas where the crossmember fits up. Well when I started putting this together I took a quick look at the frame rails and thought, "yeah, they're about 90 degrees to each other." Well, I found out today why that's not good enough.

The top of the CE crossmember is a flat plate that sits flush against the bottom of the framerail. The upper spring pockets sit on top of the frame the same way. If either the top or bottom of the framerails are tweaked then the crossmember/upper spring pockets don't interlock and bolt together the way they are supposed to.

Here's an example of how mine were bent:


http://www.lowbucktruck.com/gallery2/d/359-2/CIMG0025.JPG

Not much - but enough to keep the IFS pieces from interlocking. To straighten them out I used a crescent wrench and pipe to bend the frame and a little hammer work to make everything as close to 90 degrees as possible:

http://www.lowbucktruck.com/gallery2/d/356-2/CIMG0026.JPG

Once that was done I clamped the crossmember in place and measured 16-9/16" from the center of the front leaf spring hanger hole to the front plate of the crossmember. The top bend of the crossmember plate naturally fits the curve of the frame:

http://www.lowbucktruck.com/gallery2/d/371-2/CIMG0021.JPG

I don't think it's possible to move this setup forward on the framerail (like someone suggested above) because of this built-in curvature. I tried sliding the crossmember forward a little to see if it would be possible but it would change the angle of the suspension, as you can see here:

http://www.lowbucktruck.com/gallery2/d/368-2/CIMG0022.JPG

The upper spring pockets also have the curve of the framerail built into them so they naturally "self-align" in about the place they want to sit.

I double-checked my measurements and then drilled two holes on each side up though the bottom of the frame and bolted the crossmember in place:

http://www.lowbucktruck.com/gallery2/d/435-1/CIMG0004.JPG

That's about all I got done today. More to come.