New guy, new project: 1988 BII wheeler

[spaz1879]

that is a pretty good idea for the E brake but why would you want the front and back brakes to work speratly? how would that help you on the trail like what kind of situation would you use it in?

 

[leumas12]

It helps in front digs mostly. Since my transfer case has seperate shifters for the front and back I can unlock the rear axle, lock the rear brakes, turn the wheel and give it gas. This will make the truck turn on the rear axle and therefore make tight turns easier. It also makes it easier to get the front tires in a different position if necessary. I also could do this with the rear axle but since i dont have rear steer it isnt as useful there.

Im actualy changing that setup a bit, those ball valves are only rated for 600PSI so im going to get some other ones rated for 7250PSI .

 

[leumas12]

Finally got some updates to post! here we go:

First off, I redid the line locks with some slightly bigger valves haha here they are:

Rated for 7250 PSI!

and installed (to fit them I had to turn the back one on its side but its actually better, no mixing up which one im using now!)

Made myself some steps too. Just took some rope, hooks, thimbles, cable clamps, and pieces of a 2x4 and I have a removable, cheap and effective step! Here are the materials:

Hooks bolt up using the seat bolts:

Slide the rope through the wood (its 3/8” rope through 1/2" holes):

Make the ends with the thimbles and cable clamps:

Loop the ends on the hooks:

And you have a step!

Stores away too so it wont get hung up on rocks, etc

 

[leumas12]

And for my last update, I cut off the top of the truck and dovetailed it. It looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself haha. Heres the view from the back now:

And heres are some other shots of it dovetailed and the top chopped:

Heres what I did for the dovetail…

Welded some sheet metal to cover the gap created by the cutting of the fender and roof then ground it all down smooth:

added some supports to the floor:

and riveted them together

and finally rewelded the cuts I made to the support where I wanted it to bend:

Thats it!! thanks for looking guys

 

[jaymegriffiths]

looks great! excellent work! very beefy, what did you use for brake lines? could you go into a little more detail here, id love to run a similair front setup on my 2wd to make a cheap front line lock!

 

[leumas12]

the line locks were really easy. For the fronts i just separated the T at the frame, rerouted the line to the valve then back to the the T. For the rears I split the line at a coupler under the drivers door, up to the valve, and back. The valves are steel ball valves from mcmaster-carr and cost about $35 a piece. I used the 1/8"NPT inlet/outlets. They had an SAE 4 inlet outlet model but i dont think it had the inverted flare seat. As for brake line i just used kragens 3/16 line with 3/8-24 fittings on either end, with 3/8-24 inverted flare to 1/8"NPT adapters, also from Kragens. Whole deal cost me about $100, half that if you only do the front and a little less if you make your own brake lines rather than buying pre-made ones. Let me know if you have any other questions! I would be gald to supply pics if theres any more info you need

Thanks for the good words!

Sam

 

[jaymegriffiths]

the line locks were really easy. For the fronts i just separated the T at the frame, rerouted the line to the valve then back to the the T. For the rears I split the line at a coupler under the drivers door, up to the valve, and back. The valves are steel ball valves from mcmaster-carr and cost about $35 a piece. I used the 1/8"NPT inlet/outlets. They had an SAE 4 inlet outlet model but i dont think it had the inverted flare seat. As for brake line i just used kragens 3/16 line with 3/8-24 fittings on either end, with 3/8-24 inverted flare to 1/8"NPT adapters, also from Kragens. Whole deal cost me about $100, half that if you only do the front and a little less if you make your own brake lines rather than buying pre-made ones. Let me know if you have any other questions! I would be gald to supply pics if theres any more info you need

Thanks for the good words!

Sam

im gonna do a little more research and maybe try my hand at it later, for now i need something to try out the new tools(socket set and rotary tool+pieces) with went shopping after gettin free parts from a wrecker so i felt obliged to spoil myself a little! haha but ya def. lookin into gettin some sort of line lock rigged...

 

[leumas12]

Hey guys Ive finally gotten enough work done to justify an update haha. First things first: I got the door panels and “dashboard” built, painted, and installed. They are stainless steel painted with bedliner (I learned the hard way that you should always use a FOAM roller for bedliner, not cheap paint rollers. They kinda fall apart…) The dash is a frame of ¾” square tube and then skinned with stainless steel sheet. The switches that are on there now were in the original dash, just relocated obviously. Heres how they all came out:

And just today I finished up the bumper. Just a reminder the back and top of the bumper is a piece of 4x3/8” angle iron and the front face is 3/8” plate. The cutouts for the front winch bolts are pieces of the original front axle tie rod welded to the angle iron and the front plate then ground down smooth. It actually turned out really well, here are a few shots I got of it:

My little access holes for the front winch bolts, they fit a 9/16 socket perfectly.

Close but not too close

¼” steel rear mounts, scraps I had from some ruffstuff frame brackets

four ½” bolts per side, should hold on fine

I still need to paint it. Im thinking I will just use the rustoleum spray paint bedliner because its easy and I actually like it as far as texture. I will post pics of that too when its done.

Now im working on a new intermediate shaft for the doubler instead of the one thats welded. This time im gonna try out a little shear pin idea I got from a buddy. We’ll see how it turns out, I’ll post that up eventually. Thanks for looking!

 

[88_Eddie]

i'm gonna need you to delete this thread, you're makin mine look like girl....lmao....this thing is gonna be a beast, cant wait to see it finished

 

[leumas12]

hahaha thanks man.

Havent been on in a long time, ive been busy with a new job and school but ive still been making progress!

The doubler is mounted and in which is really exciting. Also the bumper is painted. Made some drive flanges for the dana 60 too. I will get the pics up as soon as i can! Thanks for hanging around to see whats been going on!

 

[leumas12]

The doubler is in! here are the pics of it mounted:

From the rear axle. The black tube is running into the cab to make filling it a little easier.

From the ground

¼” steel mounts welded to the original transmission crossmember. With the bushings at the frame, this setup should work good.

Side view, ground clearance is still great.

Still need shifters and driveshafts but those should be relatively easy. Im pretty stoked, we’ll see how it works out!

Sam

 

[leumas12]

Got the driveshafts done yesterday. Nothing fancy, just some square tube ones. Larger tube is 2.5”x.25” wall and smaller is 2”. Yokes were from Driveshaft Superstore. I just used a 1/8” grinding/cutting wheel in my 4.5” angle grinder to grind the groove into the smaller tube for the weld seam. Need paint still but here are the pics of them welded and together:

Thanks for checking it out!

Sam

 

[marky mark]

SOO SICK!! wish i had you around for my build!!

 

[leumas12]

Hey guys. Just a small update here. I tried to reroute the exhaust using the original components and it didn’t work at all. Im pulling it back out and putting in a new small diameter muffler and upgrading to 2.5” pipe after the y connector. Pics of that when it happens

I also finished up the shifter. This was just a fun little project that I ended up really liking. Heres what I did:

But theres a surprise:

It works as a hand throttle when you grab the handle. It will come in handy when I need one foot on the clutch and one on the brake but need to rev up at the same time. Im stoked about it haha.

And here is a view of all the shifters (plus the brake handles are between the seats)

That’s it for now, thanks for looking

 

[88_Eddie]

are you gonna use the original y-pipe? i'm tryin to figure out the same exhaust situation you are (i think), i went and got a universal highflow cat from a website that has 2.5" openings at each end and i gotta figure out how to attach them. i'm thinking i'm just gonna weld a bunch of scrap metal pieces to it until it's all closed up lol