A cold beer Marathon with loads of

[abertx]

I forgot to mention the big problem that reared its ugly head.

The fact that this cart was abused and neglected for many years, led to the frame taco'ing. Between rust and abuse, the middle of the cart developed quite a sag. Well, many beers and about a spool of MIG wire later, it's mostly straight again. I added 2 pieces of 1/8" steel on both frame rails and it is now strong like bull.

I also burned the hell out of my ankle with hot welding slag. That took about 2 months to finally heal over. When they say to wear proper gear to weld, they're right. I shouldn't have been wearing shorts but, manly things.

I've also piddled about with a Mother's polishing ball on the aluminum bed. The parts I've hit with the polish don't look too bad. There's hope that it could look good but, at the end of the day, it's still a $200 work cart that I plan to use for work. I'm not sure how much I want to doll it up. If you put lipstick on a pig, I've still got a POS golf cart.

[cgtech]

Originally Posted by abertx

......When they say to wear proper gear to weld, they're right. I shouldn't have been wearing shorts but, manly things......

I learned the first time I attempted Tig, it is to be respected... it "sun burns" your skin FAR faster than Mig. My arms were fried.

I know... Safety, Safety, yada yada, safety police gonna haul me away.

I thought I'd be fine just welding one little thing with only gloves, bad idea & lesson learned.

[abertx]

Well, guess who skipped leg day? This guy.

If you're not familiar with that meme, it's the one where some dude lifted his truck but kept the stock wheels and tires. Perhaps he got his federal refund but was still waiting on the state refund to come back. Who knows. On to the real reason for this post.

1987 Marathon is getting a lift. It's the $100 Economy 4" lift. I'm posting some thoughts as I go here.

- Be prepared. Jack stands, WD-40, TWO jacks. The reason for the 2 jacks is you may need to make an adjustment somewhere and if your jack stands are occupied and the jack is holding the axle, guess who gets to try to dead lift the back of a golf cart for a precarious adjustment. I don't recommend that.

- Be sure your wires are long enough. At this moment, mine are tight as a drum and will need to be replaced.

- The U-bolts that come with the lift don't like to fit through the plates on the leaf spring. The original ones are the ones I am referring to right now. I'm burning up a 1/2" drill bit to open the holes a little bit.

- Nitrile gloves are nice but nearly useless here. I've ripped through a couple pair now. With this pandemic thing going on, replacement might not be too easy. And I need them for other unsanitary tasks. I highly doubt my Marathon is going to give me anything but tetanus and high blood pressure.

- When drilling, use some sort of cutting fluid to save your drill bit. I'm using WD-40. It seems to be working. It's certainly working better than nothing.


More to come....

[abertx]

Working on the front lift now. I'm in the classic position of having extra hardware and no clue of where it goes. Typical.

Thoughts...

- I think I am going to go with the longer shocks I've seen other people use. I'm not loving the brackets. Also, due to prior "use", I think there is some stuff in the front that is out of alignment, bent.

- Also of concern, the lift blocks are turned inboard. This doesn't look right to me. Any thoughts in this or is it normal or due to prior users' careful concern for the cart?

- The instructions for this lift could use some improvement. 7 images with ink jet quality and the written instructions crammed into one page just makes it appear the writer was more interested in saving pennies by using less paper. I may be wrong but this is my opinion. Perhaps a link to more thorough online instructions would be beneficial. With as many of these as have been installed, I would almost think someone would be happy to make such a webpage available.

- Have a spare cotter pin on hand. Maybe two in case you get stupid and pull the pin from the castle nut on the steering bar. You know, like I did.

- I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my previous post but, this is a good time to replace bushings and/or fix that sloppy steering you most likely have. I'll be leaving the front cover off to do that ASAP.

- I'm inventing new cuss words today trying to break the jam nut loose on the steering rod. F it. I'm buying a new one.

[Corey_W]

Did you run into any issues after installing the lift dealing with the turning radius. I can’t turn right fully after doing mine on 84 Marathon.

[abertx]

Corey, no steering issues that I've noticed yet. I wound up having to replace the steering tie rod between the steering arm and the rack, so I haven't done a whole lot of riding. What I have done so far, mainly maneuvering in and out of the garage, has been fine. I'll try to remember to post back and update if I find any issues.

Did you move the tie rod from the bottom of the arm to the top? I ran it around the yard a bit before I swapped the arm out and did notice a little odd steering. Seemed like it was binding a touch. If you swapped that around, I don't know what to tell you other than check for bad bushings or the steering rack.

[Corey_W]

So my lift didn’t come with instructions and I did try to move that tie rod to the top but didn’t fit.

Had I had the instructions I would’ve known that I needed to drill out that hole at the top so the tie rod will fit.

Planning on that tonight. Thanks for the reply.


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