New guy, new project: 1988 BII wheeler

[86freebie]

you are a god.... good job. like the fact you are doing it all. keep it up, and us posted.

 

[leumas12]

Thanks for the good word! appreciate the appreciation

The truss is all welded in! Certainly was a pain to weld on the inside edges of both sides though. Limited clearance had me touching the tip of the MIG to the sides and sticking. The truss also moved just a little bit from welding (maybe 1/16") but its not a problem, i will just compensate for it with the plate that bolts to it and welds to the cover. Either way, i did get it done! Pics will be coming ASAP. Im also heading to the junkyard friday morning to take advantage of the 50% off sale. Im gonna pull a rear axle for this thing. I will be looking for a FF 14 bolt rear from the GM trucks (and maybe a steering box? and whatever else i can find). Have to work quick though, im leaving for Winnemucca, NV at noon on friday and not gonna get back until monday afternoon. So, needless to say, the project will not have any progress made this weekend.

I also got the material to make my steering arms and the one-piece intermediate shaft for the doubler. Im going to cut out the arms with the Ox/Ace torch today hopefully and then next weekend i will machine them and the doubler shaft. anyway, thanks for checking it out guys! I will try to post pics before i go to NV.

Sam

 

[leumas12]

Hey guys, snapped some pictures of the welded-in truss this evening. Here they are!

I know the welds arent beautiful but they are definitely going to hold. Theres 3 passes at each joint and they are definitely all the way through the 1/4" walls of the truss tube (i know because i beveled em pretty good then burned it together nice and hot ). Thats it for now, im off to Nevada!

Sam

 

[leumas12]

Picked up a 14 bolt rear today (dang those things are heavy!) That will get a few little upgrades once the front is done (truss and welded diff) I will put up a pic or 2 when i get the chance. Thanks guys!

Sam

 

[leumas12]

Hey guys! Finally updating this thread.

Ive gotten a few things done. I made my high-steer arms. They aren’t pretty but they will do the job. Here they are before paint:

The hard part was the 2” hole for the kingpin spring. After about an hour of trying to do it with the hole saw and mill (and only getting ¼” into the part) I got impatient and tried pushing a little harder. Didn’t work out to well, ended up snapping a bunch of teeth off the saw when it grabbed. After that my dad threw it on the CNC lathe and put a perfect hole in it for me in about 2 minutes.

Got the axle rebuilt after that. Heres what it looks like now:

And heres how I gusseted the axle ears. It was hard to get a good picture, came out kind of funny but this is it:

The axle still need a diff cover, brakes, hubs, tie rod, and ram mounted. I figure once I get the tie rod on I will wheel it in place under the truck because once I install the hubs the tires are going to be 100% locked.

In order to make wheeling that axle under easy, as well as making the removal of the old one easy, I decided to cut the fenders. The fenders on this truck were already trashed and I figure they will just get in the way so I took em off. After that I decided to get the core support out of the way as well. I cut the bottom corners off then “massaged” the rest of it up until I had a good curve to give a lot of space to the new 39.5” IROKS. Here’s what the new “fenders” look like:

I will probably weld some angle iron it to give the core support some of its rigidity back, but overall I think it worked out well for being just an angle grinder and sledgehammer job. I still need to do the other fender as well as some final trimming, I will post pictures of the whole frontend when I do so that you can see what this thing will look like.

Next will be taking out the front suspension and putting the new front in place, as well as diving into the 14 bolt a little bit (welded diff, truss, and disc brakes). Thanks guys!

Sam

 

[leumas12]

Ordered my differential covers last night from Great Lake Offroad. Hopefully they'll arrive this week. We'll see. Also my girlfriend came over last night and I watched her tear down one side of the 14 bolt to the spindle. She loved that impact wrench haha. She wants to do the other side now so that will be done tomorrow.

For tonight im hoping to get the other "fender" shaped and then i will trim them down. im also going to make sure there arent any sharp edges hanging around to cut my tires. After that the front axle/suspension comes out!

Anybody want to buy a complete bronco II front axle? Or the original wheels and tires with good tread? Let me know!

Sam

 

[leumas12]

Hey guys ive gotten some work to show from these past weeks.

First thing is I turned the steering arms around. I figure that since Im running full hydraulic steering I might as well make the ram as protected and out of the way as possible. Heres what they look like now.

Also, I went a different route for the ram. Scored a 2.25” bore 1.5” rod 8” stroke double ended cylinder for $26 (NOT a typo)! 2.5” bore would have been better but for the price its hard to argue. The position of the ports also isn’t perfect, but again you cant beat it for the price.

And looking through the thread I realized I never posted a picture of the tires for this thing. They’ve been sitting in the back of the truck almost since I got it. Heres one approximately where it will be sitting on the truck (after front axle is moved forward about 12”)

That’s all ive got for now. The 14 bolt is torn down but its nothing exciting so I left out pics of that. Im also in the process of cutting the rear fenders out so I can slide out the rear axle and get the new one in place. Thanks guys.

Sam

 

[dburton07]

this thing is killer, keep up the awesome posts

 

[leumas12]

Thanks

Got the rear fenders cut today Heres what they look like now:

Im gonna use some sheetmetal and make new wheel wells. Thats all! thanks for looking

Sam

 

[leumas12]

I got differential covers

 

[BlackBII]

Press Breaks are nice huh

Lost some fingers to one a few years ago...

Your diff cover looks great!

 

[leumas12]

Yeah these things are awesome. They're from Great Lake Offroad, even have a trick little drain plug at the bottom (i will post a pic of one soon)

 

[redneckracerx]

It's nice to see you're not cobbling it together. It looks like a good idea, but not like this!

 

[leumas12]

Nope, definitely wont be like that!! Side loading a trailer ball is a bad idea especially when your entire axle depends on it haha. Im actually getting these joints for it: http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/XM-16-125-w-10-ball-CrMo-rod-end-w-kevlar-liner_p_82-1425.html# They are 1.25" shank and use a 1" bolt. I will post pics whenever i get them I also plan on putting some kind of safety chain or strap onto the tubes so that if the bolt or rod end happens to break, the axle wont fall out.

 

[leumas12]

Got 2 of the beadlocks assembled today. Man it takes a long time to get those things torqued down evenly! The beads are seated and everything and doesnt look like we have any leaks as of yet. Heres the pic (with the best dogs in the world )

My dad and i also got it up on the jack stands but i was too lazy to go get the camera for the pic. I will get it up soon. Thanks guys!

Sam