g741.org

Josh,

No problem, just wanted you to be aware. You can always add some spacers to the rear axle bump stops to limit the travel and prevent any damage.

I think my damage came from dropping the back end off a ledge and the entire rear of the truck coming down hard on the tires/axles (at the bad lands), rather than side to side articulation.

Will

I had a local spring specialist add a few leaves and re bend to give me 2.5" or so of lift. I mounted one shock yesterday, with no /winch/engine/tranny/body on the frame and the shock just fit fully extended so that's just about right. I noticed you had one of the front spring perch mounts upside down? What's up with that?

upside down?

Which one?

Why am I beginning to envision lots of broken axles?

WOW!!! NOT ONLY YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, BUT YOU ARE DOING IT VERY WELL TOO. I GUESS WE ALL WAIT TO SEE THAT MONSTER MOVE ON ITS OWN ON AN UPCOMING VIDEO. GREAT WORK

Lifer,

yes, I think busted U joints and snapped and twisted axle shafts will be a frequent occurence...

Sotven,

Thank you for the kind words. I try to do my very best work, no matter what it is Im doing, and, if it's worth me doing, its worth me doing right!

well, we reached a milestone last night:







4 wheel discs... No calipers yet, waiting till I need them, so, I can spend the cash on stuff I need now:







got the brake and clutch pedals done:



plenty of space for the clutch and starter:



speaking of clutches... this one is rated to 800 ft-lb...



fits just like I mocked it up:



even the tourque limiter lined back up:



thats a mean lookin big block:

.got the tank lined, and painted, and in the frame:



Walbro pump mounted:





still have to plumb in the return line...

Pump or the far right is the converted saginaw steering pump for driving the winch. I retrofitted it with an A/C electric clutch so it's not turning unless Im using the winch



String shows the belt routing. Alternator isn't in the picture here, so, the one string would go to the left, around the pulley for it.



still need to finish the adjuster bracket for the belt tension...

finished the adjuster for the winch pump. I dont like the old slotted pinch bolt type brackets, so, I cooked this up. Might make one like it for the alternator and power steering pump adjustment as well:







Fully in:



Fully out:



And a NICE weld I laid on the bracket... on the back side of course... haha





Then, I moved on to some body work, since, Im out of cash for the time being. I worked on fixing the bed floor. I was going to use the AZ body bed floor, but, it had more dents, holes, and tears in it than I remembered, so I decided to use it for patch panels to fix the original floor:

Original floor:







after bumping most of the dents out:



And, first patch panel:

Original:




New:


































and the repairs from the top side. I gotta weld them in from teh top, then take the flapper wheel to them.

Did some more "Free" work today... My parents brought the new cab down from their place, so, now I officially have all the parts at my place. The new body is rust free, except for the battery box. Someone must have spilt a whole lotta acid at one point in time, cause there is absolutely nothing left of the floor under the box, so, I spent this evening stripping the new tub, and fixing that mess:





I've got plans for this, and they involve leaving it just as it is:



Stripped:







And, on with the NASTY:



looked bad, but, the further I got, the more and more a realized, it was BAD!!!!!!















Man, what a hole:





and, the fix:





















Next stop, bumping up the doghouse for the new T case:

well, she's put away for the winter, but, that doesnt mean the work stops, it just means it evolves... I decided to go EFI. I was going to do carb, but, I couldnt justify the $1200 price tag for a custom built carb when I can do EFI with distributorless ignition mapping and boost retard control for a grand more...

http://sdsefi.com/

Comes with everything but throttle bodies, fuel rails, and injectors, (all of the sensors, harness, interface tool, etc, just plug it in, hook it up to power, and start tuning). I got two F*rd 65mm 4.6L throttle bodies at the junkyard last weekend for $10 each. 65mm is 2.55 inches, which is the same size as the turbocharger discharges, so that works out nice. to get the air into the intake, I drew up an intake manifold design:













the runners are tall because they integrate an air to water intercooler core into each side. I plan on adding a pair of balance tubes between the grey plenum boxes, as well as cutting it down in height. It measures out at 15 inches on the model in height from the deck of the bock, but, I only have 13" of hood clearance. I'm pretty confident I can find the extra 2" needed, as my runners are pretty tall. I might go back and model it with the port shape transition and 45* curve mapped into one piece of tube... that would give me the 2" I need, but, be a real bear to draw, and form in real life... I'd like to find the 2" elsewhere, but, there isnt a whole lot of other places to get it. If all else fails, I dont run intercooled plenums, but, it sure would be nice. would be really sweet to connect the turbo discharges to the plenum intakes with a set of carbon fiber hard pipes... I might give it a shot and see how it goes. I played with carbon fiber at school, and, when done right, its gorgeous.

Man this is great to watch!! Great job Josh

Decided since I have read some horror stories of the stock steering arms not holdng up under the load of bigger tires and power steering, I would add hydraulic ram assist. Cost me just under $100 to do this.

Parts list:

1) 2" bore X 8" stroke Lion double acting cylinder

1) 6"X12"X.25" plate of steel

2) 3/16"X2" cotter pins

2) 1" bore washers

2" 1" bore spherical bearings for tractor implement arms


The pictures are pretty self explanatory, but, the part not shown, or complete yet s the tap into the steering box. I'm going to rebuild the box, my kit will be here on wednesday, so, later this week I'll upload some of the rebuild and modifications to the box to run the ram. The ram should take between 60-75% of the load off of the steering box and related lnkages, so, this setup should have lower load on the factory link arms than the original manual steering.

Some more work done.

I rebuilt the steering box. was in desperate need of it. I also tapped the box for the power assist cylinder lines.

Also:

Redesigned my intake manifold, after reading this:

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=127863

I plan on adding the fins through the slot, as he did, but, modeling them would have been a beast. I still haven't figured out how he did it, exactly!

I also have a trick up my sleeve on how I'm going to make them, but, I'm not going to spill the beans quite yet.

One last addition is this, as well:

http://www.opcon.se/index.asp?sPage=1&langID=2&cID=15

They are VERY unique in how they function. A typical intercooler core relies on turbulent flow to get the most heat transfer, whereas with all the fins, a Laminova core is much, much more efficient due to the laminar flow of the air over the fins. I havent nailed down completely yet how I'm going to make them fit, but I've got a few ideas. Anyway, here are some pictures:

really very interesting