After 4 months, the "car dolly" Nitemare is over !!
I tried to sell it, but not a single call in 4 months !
So 2 weeks ago, I pulled it into my little shop, and completely stripped the 3 inch x 1/4" wall sq tube axle. (I am a metal fabricator by trade)
I cut it at both ends, to where the splices would be centered under the pans,.......added 3" to both ends, then added 6" to the tie rod.
Welded it all back together, then set the "toe in" to 1/16th"
Loaded the Caravan on it, took it on a 20 mile test drive,....towed beeeeautiful. But on a downhill grade. it wouldn't stop for squat !! No surprise there. But at least 1/2 this nitemare was over.
So back in the shop,.....I was going to make that disc brake kit fit, no matter what. I already knew the spindle flanges did not fit the caliper anchor plates, so it was a slow, tedious job to fab new anchor plates, and get them mounted (welded) correctly to the existing flanges. But never having done a disc brake kit install before, it all went reasonably well. After another $90 for all the 3/16 brake lines and 3 brake hoses etc etc, and bleeding the system, it was ready to put the wheels back on, which is when I found out that this nitemare was still not over. The 14" wheels would not fit over the calipers. At this point I could only hope that 15" wheels would fit over the calipers, and still fit under the fenders.
2 trips to the auto dismantlers, I got a pair of a FWD Dodge caravan front wheels w/ 2 newer half tread tires for 30 bucks, and it all fit beeeeautiful.
We just got back from 4 day trip, 230 miles of all mountain driving, and it all worked beautiful. Downhill, dint hardly know it was back there. This "car dolly nitemare" is truly over !
Sorry so long :(
