Project Fordzuki

[84projectFORD]

if you didnt change the bolt patter ont eh sami axles i think i stil have mine before teh axle swap i could sell ya?

 

[Loanranger]

if you didnt change the bolt patter ont eh sami axles i think i stil have mine before teh axle swap i could sell ya?

Who is this directed at? Are you talking the wheel spacers or tires and wheels?

 

[Loanranger]

Sale pending on the Iroks...

I got my chromos and lockrite in today, so I went to work installing them. I had to first pull the thirdmember out of a spare rear, that had a leaky pinion seal and bad pinion bearing. So I sacrificed this third for the sidegears, which are 26 spline, as opposed to the front sidegears which are 22 spline. The chromo axles are 26 spline and match the diameter of the rear axleshafts. I needed the sidegears to go with the locker, because the sidegears mesh better than the optional couplers they sell.

So I got the sidegears swapped out, locker installed, and the third back in the housing, and one of the shafts slid in. It's quite an ordeal getting the new birfs into the ball on the housing.

I'll finish the rest up tomorrow night, I want to repack all the bearings, and change out the other seal and felt on the drivers side, the passenger side I just did when I swapped out the last broken birf.

Aside from my near future motor and trans swap, I'll be pretty much done with the mechanical of this rig, and ready to start on the next one.

I still want to add a little more body protection up top, but I don't want to go with a full exo, maybe a couple strategically placed slider bars.....

Then it'll be done.... for now.....

Anyways, enough of my ramblings, I'll reward you with some pics.

This is the start of the new project. 84? Suzuki Sj410 (still pre samurai) with the front half of a tin top grafted on. I'll be enclosing the back wall, and making somewhat of a pickup out of it. Enclosed for winter wheeling.

Birfs: New vs. Old

New vs. old

Swimming for sidegears.

The tiny little sami lockrite.

26 spline sidegear on 26 spline axle

26 spline sidegear on 22 spline axle

Where I left off tonight.

Interesting note* these are the 22 spline sidegears I welded to "spool" the front originally. These have been abused and have seen two broken birfs. I've been running them for about a year.. HARD. As you can see, the spiders have started compressing the welds, but aside from the indents, there is no visible stress or wear on either the spiders or side gears.

OK nuff for tonight.

 

[Loanranger]

Alright, it's finally together. I ended up doing a used part rebuild with spares I've pulled fromt he various front axles I've acquired. The inner wheelbearing on the drivers side was solid with rust and mud. The races had seen better days, so I hammered them out, and sunk some new ones into the hub.

I tried it out a little last night, but it was late and very wet, but the lockrite up front seemed to help tremendously. So this morning, after cleaning up the shop for a couple hours, I decided to go play around a little more in the yard with it.

I played around in the culvert and didn't get any slippage. The lockrite is quiet, I can't even here it ratchet in 4lo, first gear, taking a sharp turn into my driveway on dry asphalt. The turning radius is back to what it was when I was running open diff, so I'm glad about that, and it was $200 well spent on the locker.

Heres a few pics playing around in the yard, the suburban broke the RTI ramp, so I had to improvise.

First the ramp

Then the barrel (35")

Then just the truck (40")

Kindof liked this view

And a quick vid dropping down the barrel.


I also lengthened the lower links out back about 1.25" to roll the pinion down a little, this made my super short drive shaft too short. With the right rear tire hanging, it was still together till I touched it, and the slipjoint came apart. So I took it all apart and cleaned up the slip, and used a TG 1" driveline spacer I had overstocked from a previous job. This made everything work perfectly again.

 

[Sunk]

Nice, that thing is still flexy as hell. I agree on the last shot, that's cool. That's also pretty impressive what it did to the spiders.

 

[Loanranger]

Finally found a motor and trans to swap in, but it's gonna be a little more involved than just a straight swap. I picked up a 97 Mazda 2300 with the 2.3 and mazda 5 speed. The truck had been rolled so the whole body is fawked, but the motor and trans look cleaner than the 2.9 in my ranger, and has comparable miles at 130,000. It runs great, fired right up, and even with the clutch slipping, there was no noise shifting through the gears. He said the clutch is shot, but it still drove onto the trailer no problems.

So now I need to find a clutch kit for it, and get all the plumbing and wiring isolated from the truck to get ready to pull. I'll get some pics up of the truck and engine shortly.

 

[Loanranger]

Ok, new plan, as you all have probably seen with the Mazzuki thread. I plan to leave the pinto motor in the LJ, and wheel it till A) catastrophic failure noted by a loud and quick "Kachunk!!?!!" and look for a new donor, or B) wheel it till the mazzuki is finished, and do a complete rebuild. I'm hoping for option B, and quite frankly am surprised option A hasn't become neccesary yet.

So tonight I started fiddling around with an idea that had been floating around in my noggin. I had originally planned on an external loop around the windshield, with the likely addition of a full exo soon after.

Well, after toying around with the idea, I decided I didn't want to disrupt or block anymore of the body than I already have, and leave it exo-less. This posed a new problem of what to do about protection for the windshield frame in the event of a flop, or the everpresent Northwest threat of leaning into trees, banks, rocks, etc....

So I came up with this, it's a "roof slider" of sorts, just an addition to the cage which protrudes out to the outer edge of the windshield frame, and a little beyond.

It also fills the gap between the top of the door and the bikini top, and allows the top to be mounted flat, instead of pulled down in the back corners.

I still have the other side to do, and I will be bracing the corners, I haven't decided between plate gussets, or small diameter tubing....
I figure this way it gives something up top to slide on, but doesn't add the weight that a full exo would, and keeps the overall look of the rig the same.

And for some reason the third pic from the bottom reminds me of the hat John Candy wore in Canadian Bacon...

 

[bobbywalter]

how could one not love that thing?

 

[Loanranger]

I added a couple gussets to the bar, I couldn't decide between plate and tube, so I used plate, tube, and round bar.

The tube one in the rear.

Plate with 3/8ths round stock on the front.

Now I just gotta make the other side look the same.
I'm also going to put some grabhandles on the inside, to keep people from grabbing for tube in a flop.

More to come.........

 

[pickuptrucker]

your truck is sick! that would be like mine flexing 55"! which right now i think it will do six maybe?

 

[93Ranger4x4]

That is an awesome rig you've got there, ever thought of using leafsprings off of an f-450 or f-550 superduty? i know a friend ofmine put both rear stacks off of a f-550 superduty on his f-250 and it made the rear of his truck raise way the hell up, just a thought that maybe an 450 or 550 spring would work better for the rear mono leaf.

 

[Loanranger]

That is an awesome rig you've got there, ever thought of using leafsprings off of an f-450 or f-550 superduty? i know a friend ofmine put both rear stacks off of a f-550 superduty on his f-250 and it made the rear of his truck raise way the hell up, just a thought that maybe an 450 or 550 spring would work better for the rear mono leaf.

I don't need more height, and running the mono leaf was not a good Idea, unless you carry a trail spare. Having to limp out with ratchet straps was less fun than just throwing the broken secondary in the back and wheeling the rest of the day.

I'd actually like to find another set of chevy springs like I used on my dads ranger, for the military wrap. That is the only upgrade I would make to the system, other than rebuildable joints. I've always been happy with the way the rear works on this thing.

 

[84projectFORD]

Who is this directed at? Are you talking the wheel spacers or tires and wheels?

sorry took me so long to get back to ya. i have both, 33x12.50x15 thorbirds on wheels with almost no back spacing and spacers for them also.

 

[dogboy]

I'm not trying to put words in his mouth or anything, but he wouldn't need spacers for the Iroks. My cousin bought them a couple days after he posted the pics, so they are on his Scout now.

And Derek, those Iroks look sick on his Scout too, I'll get you a picture one of these days.

 

[84projectFORD]

i jsut suggested that i do have some as he was talkin about puttin some at the bottom of page 12.