Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

Every time that I have to get between my down-pipe engine, I get assaulted by the fiberglass. It's like I disturbed a fire ant bed.

 

Ditching the line locks for something a bit more mischievous.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNY9Jk6hbqC/?igsh=MWhncDZlcHpib2Eycw==

 

Ok. That will be cool!!! Very creative.

 

Oof, it just hit me how much work I have ahead of me as I was buying all the fittings/hoses/tubing to rig this up.

Essentially rerouting the rear lines from the master cylinder back to where the hard lines switch to braided stainless at the rear suspension. With ABS gone, and the line locks (where ABS used to be under the hood) being removed, there's no more need for the hard lines to travel across the engine bay and back.

So after removing that excess tubing, im planning to bring hard lines into 3AN bulkhead fittings that will penetrate the cab, where the factory parking brake cables come through under the center console. Looking forward to tearing out the entire cable brake system, pedal included. Will switch to braided lines from the penetrations, up to the hand brake cylinders......then it all goes back out the same way.

 

There's a funny gif for this. I'm sure.

 

When the scale of what ive gotten myself into sets in.

https://media1.tenor.com/m/cZJmImm4T5IAAAAd/jason-bateman-oh-shit.gif

 

Yeah, that

 

Had a head scratcher the other day. Thanks @Torspd for putting another brain into what seems like a missed step in manufacturing.

The master cylinders i ordered for the hand brakes came in. Theyre made to be a standalone control fornthe rear brakes on a drift car, meaning the "in" port is designed to mount a universal fluid reservoir, and the out port of course goes to the rear brakes. For my use, these are actually going to be in-line hand brakes, so the in port will come from the boosted master cylinder under the hood, and flow through the hand brake uninterrupted when not in use. Anyhow, because im not mounting a fluid reservoir, i had to get an adaptor for the inlet side. 7/16-20 into the master cylinder, 3AN coming out. My thread checker went into the master cylinder just fine, and the adapter went into the thread checker just fine, but the adapter would not thread into the master cylinder.

There's still a little bit of speculation here, as im not 100% certain about this, but it appears that the threads on the master cylinder are cast in as part of the mold. Cast threads should be chased afterwards, and it appeared that these were not, meaning that the threads were in spec enough for the thread checker to go in, but the zinc coating on the adaptor put thr threads at the opposite side ofnthe spectrum. Sonwhile.bothnwere in tolerance per the thread checker, they didntnget along with one another.

The solution was to make a bottom-out tap, since I couldn't find one locally. Which essentially just means cut the tapered end off of a regular tap, and de-bur the tip. Now you can chase threads all of the way down to the bottom of a blind hole.



The presumably cast threads. Hard tonsee with the shadow, but notice the surface finish of the threads matching the rest of the master cylinder


The chased threads. Now shiny, where the tap cut them further into spec. Subtle.difference in the pictures, but quite clear in person. The pile.of aluminum shavings on the workbench also confirmed improper threads.


Home made bottom-out tap

 

Despite nearly two feet of rain in the last three weeks, I was able to get some outside work done.

-new axleshafts
-new wheel bearings and hubs, seals, etc
-straighten axle housing (oops) and add horizontal truss so i dont do it again
-instal rear disc brakes
-remake axle mounted brake lines for disc calipers
-remove cabled e-brake lines

I knew since the design phase that I needed a horizontal truss on the axle. Designed it into the overall layout too, but didnt prioritize finishing it. Guess inshould have prioritized it, buecauss it appears we went a little too hard last time I went wheeling, and threw it out by about a half inch.

Its a sketchy activity with the hydraulic ram, but ultimately pretty simple to get the axle straightened back out. Did the bulk of ot with TMR toe gauges, and final conformation with a laser. Within a 32nd of an inch now, which is probably better than from the factory. Additional truss should keep it there now.

 

Man. You must have hot something really hard on that off roading adventure. Got any videos of that action?

Got to be the strongest and most reinforced OEM axle now.

 

Quit stealing all our rain. Only gotten a half inch in the month of august. Its so weird wheeling in the dry/dust.

 

Bought an insta 360 camera about a month ago to get some future videos. Pretty sure it happened the same time I tweaked the crossmember (also beefed up now). Bending the axle horizontally is actually a lot easier than you might think. When your going faster with the engine at higher RPM, the axle constantly loads and unloads with everything woop or bump you go over. Instead of big flowing sandy woops, we have washout woops, where rain runoff has crossed the trail. It makes for very sharp/abrupt dips. Each dip is essentially an impact where the axle briefly uploads, and then has a ton of downforce/traction immediately after that wants to pull the tires ahead of the diff. Do that a hundred times a mile. With no forward/backward give compared tomthensuspemsion the works vertically, and those shocknloads are much more likely to bend an axle horizontally than a jump is to do it vertically.

Also why I only use heavy shockproof. You told me to use it 12 years ago, and I haven't use anything else since

Take it, we've had enough. Gonna have to put swampers and a winch on my mower if we get any more.

 

Ive considered a winch on the mower....

 

i have the same tires on my zero-turn. morning dew renders them useless....

 

This gave me a good laugh.

 

Little bit of progress laying the center console out. Still have to put in the front winch controls, front light actuator, and maybe work in some storage. Kind of liked the pen holder in the factory console.

 

If only you had a 3D printer........


Good fitting choice on the banjo fitting.

 

I really like raw aluminum, but I starting to think ill exercise my sewing muscles and try to upholster this thing with the ostrich to match the seats.