2000 Turbo Taco - Race Truck Edition, to include wannabe fabricator and machinist stuff(PIC HEAVY!!)

IMO since your playing around with delrin I would get a boring bar and play around with it. It's a good opportunity to learn what you and your machine are capable of.

 

I think that'll be the plan, boring bars are really expensive from what I've been able to find so far.

 

don't buy a "true" boring bar until you know you're going to use it.

https://www.mcmaster.com/3301A91/

something like this will get you turning but might not last long in harder materials.

 

Oh I'm sticking with cheap eBay stuff for now. Lol. I'm not trying to invest thousands into that hobby since I currently have a small hobbyist grade lathe that was less than 500 bucks on eBay just to learn some basics.

 

I tacked up some rockers for the cantilever system today. Not quite sure I like how they turned out. I'd like them a bit shorter, and maybe a wider angle. Gunna cut the rod ends off tomorrow and shorten them and see how I like that before scrapping them for a new design.




Update: I chopped em by around 2 inches.

 

I've gotta make some mount tabs for the bottom of the shocks because I screwed up and didn't order enough. But here is the vision so far. The push rods on the axle will be a short piece of dom tube with threaded rod ends on either end(1 left hand and 1 right hand threads), just like the 4-link links. That way you can adjust ride height with either the coilovers or the push rod from the axle to rocker arm.

 

I'd almost think you might want more of 1.5:1 or 2:1 ratio out of the cantilever to take advantage of more of the shock travel since you're probably don't need much suspension travel. I could be wrong since I don't actually know how much suspension travel you use, the spring rates or event he shock length. So basically spit balling here.

Absolutely great work on everything though.

 

The rocker ratio was a factor in determining the right shock length. I tried to keep it simple since I'm still learning this. But, I'm now wishing I would have gotten the longest ones they made in this type. Then a different ratio would have been beneficial. This particular shock length is 14 inches fully extended and 10 inches compressed and a recommended ride height of 12 inches +/-. I highly doubt I'll ever see 2 inches of suspension droop unless it's being jacked up or something. Even with the leaf springs I don't think the suspension dropped more than an inch and a half or so, but I never really measured it.

I am thinking about making the rockers with adjustable holes in them, so you can move either the push rod and\or the shock to a different hole which would change the ratio. But who knows, this may dial in and work well for my needs. The good news is I have plenty of 3\16 steel sheet and can whip these up in basically any shape I want as long as I want to do the labor. This may evolve and change as time goes, much like any other project I guess. Lol


One thing I'm trying very hard stay conscious of is the max shock travel in either direction. I believe that my front shocks failed prematurely (even though they are 11+ years old) because anytime I jacked the truck up they would be the limiting factor when the front tires were hanging by their own weight. This was a recently learned thing with the QA1 conversion in the front. So I intend on steeling an idea out of the off-road\pre-runner book and putting a limit strap of sorts on the rear axle, or maybe some sort of bump stop on the rocker that would rest on the frame in order to keep the shock from ever fully extending when the truck is lifted by the frame. And of course do some measuring and coming up with a better limiter in the front as well. The previous owner put slim bumps on the front control arms and while that's good for up travel (I don't think I ever bottom them out on compression) it isn't good for down travel, mainly when the truck is suspended in the air, especially with the wheels and tires installed.

 

Sounds like how you have it set up will work quite well. And like you said it's just a matter of fabricating new brackets if you do feel it needs changing.

 

I'm not sure how much droop you would achieve, but I know with my truck I experience a good amount of droop in the turns. I know it's hard to really tell for certain, but sitting static, these tires are flush/barely tucking inside the fenders.

 

I've got some GoPro footage somewhere that shows my rear wheel-wells during an autocross event. The amount of body roll I have is very little. It seemed that my suspension would compress a decent amount, but would not extend all that much. I'll have to watch the vids again and see just how much it's moving. It's been a while. Lol

But I also have a rear sway bar, I don't think you do yet do you @BananaMan ?

 

I'll have to try and do that same shot this year. I just got offered an entire 350z rear subframe assembly for a couple hundred bucks, the struts, diff, axles, everything. I'm now toying with the idea of 350z swapping my rear suspension to go IRS.

 

Hell yeah! That'd be pretty dope.

 

It would, but I'm really digging your cantilever setup. Lots of fab work either way.

 

Tell me you've seen the Aussie Hilux drift ute? He's running pretty much all Nissan suspension\drivetrain from a 240 I think? Or maybe there's an Aussie version that's different, idk. Sad that it's not at least *mostly* Toyota, but it's not even a truck in any way other than basic shape anymore. Lol

 

Yeah I've seen it, it's rowdy! I like that mine is mostly Toyota, but anyone trying to be competitive in track/autocross knows that a watts link for mustangs, or IRS swap is the way to go for most rwd vehicles.

 

Yeah, I can agree with that. Just wish he could've found some Toyota running gear, and the engine that was in the Hilux is perfectly capable of creating great power, just like the SR20

 

Did some late night fab work today. Got all of the cantilever stuff tacked in to see how it would all work together...aaaaaaaaaaaand I have to redesign the rockers. They're too short. When the suspension is compressed it's on the teetering edge of knuckling over on itself. I think I'm also going to play around with an offset ratio, not real sure yet. There is definitely more learning to do, but I ain't even mad, I'm lovin' it!

 

This is really coming along, great work!!

 

Wow, it's been over a month since I've worked on this thing.

Had another project pop up that the wife really wanted to get started on. We have 11 chickens, with 4 of them being chicks that we just got about 2 weeks ago. Our old chicken coop was basically falling apart, but it was part of the deal when I got the original set of chickens from a friend, so we used it until we finally committed to building a better one for them. I wont go too in depth on this thing, but just so you can see what my time has been going toward recently. Lol













Now, back to what we're really all here for!
I did some boxing of the open ends in the crossmember today. I've been thinking a lot about the rockers for the cantilevers and I've really gotta calculate some stuff to make a better attempt. Gotta remember that I'm learning this as I go, so it's A LOT of trial and error.