Small update with good news and bad news.
Good news:
The rear axle is not bent as bad as I thought, if it all. The splines were just really tight on the new shafts and I got them started a little crooked and they bound up.
Bad news:
The shiny new CTM 300M shafts I ordered for this axle way back in the build are the wrong lengths. I ordered them based on the measurements of the cut down stock shafts that came with the axle. The cut down shafts were wrong to begin with, and my dumb ass didn't confirm the measurements before I ordered new shafts. The long side was almost 1" too long and the splines go most of the way the way into what should be the gap between the shafts in the spool. The short side is almost 1" too short and only has about 5/8"-3/4" spline engagement in the spool. So now I have a set of really expensive spare shafts that are just barely useable as spares.
The last I heard CTM was at minimum 6 month lead time on shafts. I'm not about to wait that long. So I gave Stan @ Branik Motorsports a call and ordered a set of their 35 spline 300M shafts in the correct lengths. I've heard nothing but good things about their shafts, and he quoted only a 2-3 week lead time. I'll still be able to use the CTM drive flanges that came with the other shafts with the new shafts.
Just add this one to the long list of expensive lessons I've learned on this build. SMDH
I haven't much time, but I got a just little bit of assembly done yesterday.
On the front axle I got the ram mounted and the hard lines back on for the brakes.
On the rear axle I put on the rotors and calipers and the brake lines.
I also mounted the winch and fairleads. The winch mounts inside the chassis directly in front of the seat and the rope will pass through a fairlead at the mount, under the foot well, and through another fairlead up front. You can barely see it hiding behind the track bar in the first pic.
That's all for now. Not much progress, but I wanted to give a little update. I guess the next step will be getting the drivetrain sat in the chassis. Maybe I can get that done in the next couple days.