Another Tick

You may recall, Ken and I replaced the suspension on the Isuzu. This upgrading it to something more substantial in anticipate of what has now become a delayed remote outback trip.  One foreseen and unwanted aspect of the upgrade was an increase in vehicle body height.  This actually wasn’t the concern.   In increasing the body height the angle of the constant velocity (CV) joints became more acute.  This might lead to a CV breaking leaving the vehicle with just 2WD.  To resolve this I fitted a front differential drop kit which bought the CV angle back to normal.  But of course this also had consequences.  The rear bash could now no longer connect to the middle bash plate.  I’ve been driving the vehicle without the rear bash plate.  That not an issue driving on sealed and unsealed roads.  But there is a potential fire risk when driving off road; particularly in Spinifex.  The Spinifex (dry native grass) can build up under the vehicle and catch fire on the exhaust pipe.  Having all the bash plates fitted reduces this risk.

This morning I completed a simple modification allowing the rear bash plate to be fitted.  When I write ‘simple’, it would be if I was 30 years younger.  Wriggling under a vehicle is getting more difficult.

In this next photo you can see the underside of the Isuzu.  The blue arrows point to the mounting holes on the leading end of the rear bash plate.  As you can see with the new diff drop kit beam there is nothing they can be secured to

A slightly better photo

Rummaging around in all the ‘stuff’ I’m reluctant to discard, I found a short length of angle iron left over from the bench I had dismantled several years ago.  I cut one side off the angle to give me a length of flat plate which I then cut, drilled and painted to make two flat mounting bars. These were used to secure the leading edge of the rear bash plate to the anchor bolts on the middle bash plate. 

I could purchase a new bash plate designed to go with the diff drop kit, but I didn’t want to spend the money.  Time will tell if I made a good decision.