Builds PLC build (1 Viewer)

[FF LC FREAK]

I'll check them again. But, these are new cables that I cut to length, crimped and heat shrank myself. I originally did not have the ground cable. After the first couple of poor performance startups, I added the negative thinking that it didn't have enough grounding. Obviously, it didn't help the issue. It's conceivable that I screwed up one of the ends on the positive. I'll swap it out with another and see if anything changes.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I 'upgraded' an inverter on my camping rig, used a wire that worked awesome on a dragster I owned.... couldn't figure out why this new inverter that was twice the machine as what it replaced wasn't working. New wire, problem solved.... You also don't have to pull the starter to do an amp-draw test... and finally, did you clean the motor before you put it in? you may simply need to clean the surface where the bushes ride.

 

[boots4]

Where/What are all your grounds?

 

[pjohnson]

It really won't be that hard to yank the springs out and flip the military wrap.

When you drill the new spring pin hole, use a carbide masonry bit at slow speed with cutting oil.

 

[mr jits]

I'll check them again. But, these are new cables that I cut to length, crimped and heat shrank myself. I originally did not have the ground cable. After the first couple of poor performance startups, I added the negative thinking that it didn't have enough grounding. Obviously, it didn't help the issue. It's conceivable that I screwed up one of the ends on the positive. I'll swap it out with another and see if anything changes.

I have four grounds on the engine (each head, and each side of the block), dedicated ground for the ECM, and a ground for the transmission.
The LS1tech guys are all about the grounds.

 

[mr jits]

When you drill the new spring pin hole, use a carbide masonry bit at slow speed with cutting oil.

Don't buy the cheap bits either. Bosch or dewalt.

 

[FF LC FREAK]

Sorry it took so long to get back to this. Yesterday was my 19th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, we also had to put down our dog. She's been a faithful companion for 13 years. Here she is with my son back when I first started working on my Land Cruiser. My son is now 17.

And a few years later.

She will be missed.



On to the grounds. I have multiple grounds. I've done enough wiring to know the importance of grounds. I have a 3/8" bolt welded to the frame. To that, I have a 2/0 cable to the battery. A 2/0 cable to the engine block and a 2/0 cable to the starter. I have a ground strap from the engine to the body. A have 2 engine harness grounds to the body. And I have a ground cable from the body to the battery. All have clean metal. There are no other weird electrical issues besides the starter struggling to crank that would make me think that I have a grounding issue. I did not, however, swap a different positive lead to the starter. I didn't have one long enough last night to check. I'll get that done in the next few days.

Keep the ideas coming. I appreciate it!


Here's a pic of the front SOA. I used Ruff Stuff perches and Sky Off Road high steer arms.

 

[boots4]

What about getting your battery load tested to see if it's still in good health?

 

[FF LC FREAK]

What about getting your battery load tested to see if it's still in good health?

It's a brand new battery. But I could swap in another and see if it spins over better. I'll try that tomorrow. Thanks for the idea!

 

[FF LC FREAK]

I figured out the starter issue tonight. It was a bad starter.

I've been super busy this week, but I had a couple of hours yesterday to mess with it. I swapped in a different positive cable to the starter. No change. I swapped in a different battery, and the starter quit working. It wouldn't even spin. Today, I pulled out the starter, which turned out to be an aftermarket starter anyway. I tested it on the bench and it wouldn't spin. I ran down to the auto parts store and bought another aftermarket reman unit (it was all they had in stock). I installed it, hit the starter, and... it didn't start. D'oh!

I started tracing wires. I eventually found a bad relay between the battery and the starter solenoid. Why was there a relay there, you ask? Well, as I was trouble shooting the poor performing starter, I added a relay thinking that I wasn't getting good voltage through the stock harness to the starter solenoid. When the starter finally crapped out, it must have toasted the relay. I yanked out the relay and wired it directly. It fired right up after that. The starter spins like it should.

I drove around a bit tonight. I'm absolutely loving the power. I am hoping to get the exhaust done next week. And I better get the trac bar installed. I keep mashing the skinny pedal cuz it's so much fun. But the way things are going, I'm going to snap a pinion if I keep it up.

I also need to get a skid plate made so I can wheel this. Daryl, do you have any pics of your skid plate? I'm really curious how you have it all integrated.

 

[mr jits]

I figured out the starter issue tonight. It was a bad starter.

I've been super busy this week, but I had a couple of hours yesterday to mess with it. I swapped in a different positive cable to the starter. No change. I swapped in a different battery, and the starter quit working. It wouldn't even spin. Today, I pulled out the starter, which turned out to be an aftermarket starter anyway. I tested it on the bench and it wouldn't spin. I ran down to the auto parts store and bought another aftermarket reman unit (it was all they had in stock). I installed it, hit the starter, and... it didn't start. D'oh!

I started tracing wires. I eventually found a bad relay between the battery and the starter solenoid. Why was there a relay there, you ask? Well, as I was trouble shooting the poor performing starter, I added a relay thinking that I wasn't getting good voltage through the stock harness to the starter solenoid. When the starter finally crapped out, it must have toasted the relay. I yanked out the relay and wired it directly. It fired right up after that. The starter spins like it should.

I drove around a bit tonight. I'm absolutely loving the power. I am hoping to get the exhaust done next week. And I better get the trac bar installed. I keep mashing the skinny pedal cuz it's so much fun. But the way things are going, I'm going to snap a pinion if I keep it up.

I also need to get a skid plate made so I can wheel this. Daryl, do you have any pics of your skid plate? I'm really curious how you have it all integrated.

I don't think I have any pictures of it on the truck. If you look at IPOR's FJ40 skid, imagine a piece of 1/4" plate sticking off the front of it like a tongue, then you'll have an idea of what mine looks like.

 

[FF LC FREAK]

I've had very little time lately to work on this, but I had a couple of hours yesterday and mocked up my anti wrap bar. Everything is just tacked in at this point. I have a question for y'all. It's a Ruff Stuff anti wrap kit. All the pictures I've seen have the shackle hanger hanging straight down from the cross member. If I did this, I would sacrifice ground clearance due to where my frame cross brace is located. So, I tacked the shackle hanger in pointing straight back (rearwards). I realize this will put some torsional load on the cross member, but it shouldn't cause a problem, right? The shackle still swings freely. Does anyone see a problem with how I did it?

Obviously, I still need to make the top tube. And I also need to shorten the bottom tube about 3/4".

In other news, the exhaust is getting done on Thursday. I'm looking forward to that.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

*SNIP* And it seems our club forum has become defunct, which is where this build previously resided. *SNIP*

Just in case you haven't seen this yet: OR- Cascade Cruisers

 

[S4Cruiser]

I've had very little time lately to work on this, but I had a couple of hours yesterday and mocked up my anti wrap bar. Everything is just tacked in at this point. I have a question for y'all. It's a Ruff Stuff anti wrap kit. All the pictures I've seen have the shackle hanger hanging straight down from the cross member. If I did this, I would sacrifice ground clearance due to where my frame cross brace is located. So, I tacked the shackle hanger in pointing straight back (rearwards). I realize this will put some torsional load on the cross member, but it shouldn't cause a problem, right? The shackle still swings freely. Does anyone see a problem with how I did it?

Obviously, I still need to make the top tube. And I also need to shorten the bottom tube about 3/4".

In other news, the exhaust is getting done on Thursday. I'm looking forward to that.

I did mine with the shackle above the mount. My mount is lower then yours (built it off the back of the IPOR skid plate.



From the thread linked below...either up or down is fine for the shackle. Shoot for the shackle to be as close to vertical as possible and the bar be as close to horizontal as you can.

Anti-Wrap Traction Bar

 

[FF LC FREAK]

I got the exhaust done yesterday. The guy did a great job. I'm very happy with it.

I told him I wanted it as quiet as possible, so he tucked as big a Magnaflow as he could up high between the frame rails. It has a nice rumble, but it isn't obnoxious. He put the tip out the back tucked in next to the shackle out of the way. Overall, I'm very happy with the work. Now I can build a skid plate to keep everything protected.

I also burned in the antiwrap bar. I might redo it though. After reading through the link S4 posted, the bar has more of an upward angle than I'd like. I did lower the shackle mount from the previous post, but it is still not coming off the bottom of the cross member. I think I might need to drop it to the bottom to get the link horizontal. Driving it around, I can definitely feel that it tightened up the rear suspension.

 

[boots4]

I think the lower wrap bar link looks fine. I would however use a top link that goes all the way to the end of the lower link and then put a support between the two near the axle side. I've had a problem with mine cracking by not running the two links to the end. I've put in a "rib" and it's been solid since.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Here is how I would build it, based on someone who knows a lot more than I do:

Most of your suspension movement will not be "straight up and down" unless the vehicle is strictly street driven. And on the road it'll only travel 1-2" each way unless you jump the vehicle.
When you're dealing with an off road application, you need to worry about a traction device that can deal with suspension compression and droop as well as articulation.

The pic the OP posted is exactly what you want/need. We've been building them that way for years. It's a design perfected by FC187 and has been tried and tested on numerous cruisers. Including mine .......

Hth

Georg @ valley hybrids

Fwiw.....

1) you do want the top bar to be as close to horizontal as possible or you could run into issues with "dive" or "lift" under acceleration or braking.

2) you want the length of the bar to be as long as the rear driveline or slightly longer for the same reason.

3) the travel of the rear axle ( linear or elliptical ) depends on the arch of the springs and length of the rear shackles.

I know what this stuff looks like on paper. I did go to college for mechanical engineering. Who cares! Real world experience has taught me a lot more about things like traction bars ........


Georg

We use 3/4"x3/4" heims on all three ends of the bar and bushings at the fixed end of the shackle.

Georg

 

[FF LC FREAK]

That's my plan Chad. I'm going to redo it with the 2"" dom on top. That should give me a horizontal top bar and a vertical shackle. I originally thought I had to put the larger tube on the bottom. After a lot more research, I've realized how wrong I was (not surprisingly).I thought I had enough tube still, but I'm a little short. Once I get more, I'll cut out the old and start over.

All my time lately has been spent on house projects. Painting the entire interior and putting down all new flooring takes a little while. However, I did pick up some steel the other day to start on a skid plate. It's still sitting on the floor under my Land Cruiser.

 

[FF LC FREAK]

I took the 40 out last night for a little drive up to the mountains with my wife and dogs. I did this instead of working on it. I still have lots of projects to finish up (and more that I've found since I did this trip), but driving it and enjoying the mountains took precedent last night.

Overall, it did great. I love the power when I'm heading up the hills. This was by far the longest drive I've done since everything has been completed - about 40 miles total.

They put in a couple of simple trails here, so I decided to go over the filter just to see how the suspension does. I had my wife film it. It really isn't much of a filter, but at least I could bounce my suspension over some rocks and see how it feels.



When I got home last night, I could smell my brakes. I jacked up the front end, and both front brakes were locked up too tight to turn by hand. This is odd since they have been working fine for a couple of years, and I haven't touched them during this whole project. It was late when I got back last night, so I didn't get much of a chance to play with it. But I'll add it to the list of things I need to figure out. I also found that the rear tires will rub the quarters. I figured at the beginning this would be a problem, but I was crossing my fingers I wouldn't have to do any more body work. Nope.

I had it up on a lift the other day at work. I found that the rear driveshaft binds at full droop. I'm going to have to get that figured out. Again, this was something I had considered, but I was hoping it would be okay. Something I already knew was that my shocks are too short. I'll have to order some longer ones.

I keep adding things to my list to figure out, but I'm still happy with how things are performing.

 

[boots4]

I was wondering if the 35s would look small on your SOA but I think the whole stance and proportions look great. How do you like the control you get from the auto when doing that filter? How's the tranny temps doing with your cooler placement?