2011 AMG G55 Build

[speedkills]

I named my truck Grrr, so this is just perfect.

[speedkills]

NSFW











Plus some CTIS parts

[speedkills]

My hand isn't strong enough yet to even pick these up. My neighbor Nick swung by to unload these into my garage for me. If anyone has some free time and wants to turn some wrenches this weekend I would be grateful for some help with installation. I can offer pizza, whiskey, sarcasm, and a chance to drive a G-Wagon on portals in exchange

[open_circuit]

Sold

[FINOCJ]

Damn...leaving town on Thurs for a week ...if the project persists beyond a weekend I am in to help.

[speedkills]

I have a feeling it will. No one step is super technical, but it's just a lot of parts to swap/install. Down to steering knuckles, plus front and rear brake systems, lines, and bleeding them. I have some 38" Toyo Open Country M/T tires on their way to complement the lift.

[speedkills]

Today was the first time I have ever bought tires so large I couldn’t fit them in the back. Will make another run to town tomorrow to get the other two.

[speedkills]

Trent, Nick, and Ty all showed up to help me work on getting ready to install the portals today. I am very grateful to all of you really couldn't have gotten anywhere close to this far along without your work. This wasn't a one man job, and it sure as hell wasn't a one armed man job. The biggest headache by far was the brakes, the rear parking brake lines are being difficult, I'll take a look at them tomorrow with fresh eyes to see if I can find a way to remove them, if not I'll cut the little arm off of the end instead of cutting the brake line as that is an easier to replace part and cheaper. But the rears are a walk in the park compared to the front, I don't think any of us have ever encountered rotors so hard to remove. They had rust welded (is that a thing?) themselves to the hubs so hard that at one point I tried to use a puller on them and it just cracked part of the rotor body off and left the rest stuck on the hub. This is after Trent, Nick, and Thor had picked up various sledgehammers and wailed on the rotors like you wouldn't believe. We kept scaling up until at one point Nick was doing full swings with an 8lb splitting maul and they still wouldn't budge. Plenty of heat, and the combination of a puller used to pre-load the rotor, then topped off with Thor's mighty hammer and we finally got the two rotors off. Also, you are all allowed to call Ty Thor now. We had been suspicious of his alternate identity previously, especially as his long hair was growing out, but watching that man go to work with a sledgehammer removed all doubt.

I didn't take as many pictures as I could have liked as I was busy being tool gopher for everyone while they worked their asses off removing parts to prepare my rig for having the portals installed but here is where we left it when everyone ran out of steam and time.

[TDash]

Those 38s?

That's awesome everyone came over to help out 😀


When does the welding come into play for the portals?

[Jim]

Nice to see it moving closer!

[Java]

Nice work! Really nice of all you guys to do that.

[open_circuit]

Shane cut slots into his rotors so we could put these puller arms on to try to remove the brake rotor. The center of the puller is pushing on the axle.




Portal going on the front passenger side


Ty about to swing his mighty hammer to try to remove the front driver side brake rotor

[open_circuit]

[speedkills]

After a night of sleep I woke up realizing I just needed to punch the pin out that was being a pain on the rear brakes, a light tap and the emergency brake cable came right out. It seemed obvious in the morning but by the time we got to it yesterday I think we were all too tired and maybe the pizza and whiskey was slowing our mental faculties down.

Nick came over again today to help me out for a couple of hours with the heavy lifting, he finished installing the new steering knuckles and then split the portals open for me as that was something I didn't have enough strength in my hand to do. With Nick, Thor, and Trent taking care of the disassembly for me and Nick helping prep the portals I spent the rest of the day working on the rear

I got the drivers side rear assembled up to putting the hub on and the passenger partially assembled. Called it quits before I finished the passenger side as my hand was done, can't wait until it's a bit stronger. I'll keep plinking away at it through the week. Once it is finished I will have some triangulation braces that need to be welded on but they are strong enough for street use so I will be able to bolt them on, drive down to town and have someone weld it at their shop before taking it off-road.














One thing I am not sure if matters, but the stock axle has some splines going into the rear diff, then a gap of about an inch with no splines, then more splines. This axle doesn't have the gap in the splines.

[Jim]

That's the money shot I was looking for! Nice.

[jayson44]

so freaking cool!

J.

[The StRanger]

Damn... that things gonna be a beast ....

[speedkills]

I got the other rear portal installed today. Ran into a snag with the fronts, I'm new to king pins and it turns out that I am supposed to do a procedure with the new housing over the kingpin to center the housing/bearings with some shims. I'll try to see if I can find some in town Thursday.

[speedkills]

Got the rear brakes on. They are a fair bit larger than the original rear brakes and don't use drums for the parking brake, although the parking brake is still mechanical which is neat. One front portal is installed, at this rate I might just get the wheels on over the weekend. I was able to locate the seals for the front knuckle I needed, but still wasn't able to locate any shims so I will need to deal with the shimming of the knuckle bearings later, hopefully I won't damage them too much in that time but if so I don't mind replacing a couple of sets of 10 year old bearings.

[speedkills]

Got the portal braces welded on and took Grrr out for a shakedown run today, even with the speed sensor issue unsolved I wanted to make sure everything else felt good offroad. Zero issues so far, feels pretty much like it did before, just now I can take absurd lines that I would never have attempted before.


I wanted to check for any clearance issues so went to my local flexing rock I use a couple of miles from my house, I usually drive up it until I feel a wheel starting to lift but this time, no wheel lifted. I wasn't expecting that. Not sure if I am getting more flex, as in the axle is turning at a sharper angle due to the extra width increasing leverage, or if I am just getting a wheel up higher because the track width is longer now. Here it is with 35" tires on, I'll put the 38" wheels on next weekend hopefully.