Builds Reconstruction after rollover - building The Champ 2. (1 Viewer)

[GW Nugget]

Nice DIY
So watch out for the driver rear tire poking out a bit more at full stuff.

 

[baldilocks]

Nice DIY
So watch out for the driver rear tire poking out a bit more at full stuff.

I already tuned it Gary.

 

[baldilocks]

Sand Lake Rec Area - Cloverdale, OR. It’s actually the Pacific Ocean in the photos.

 

[baldilocks]

In a continued effort to improve the White Rhino’s road manners, I modified my MT rear control arms by ditching the always loose, quick to wear out, poly bushings and replacing with OEM rubber bushings which are at the axle end.

The frame end uses Currie Johnny Joints. Mine are three years old with about 20k miles and a good deal of wheeling on them and even though the originals were still ok, I bought 4 new ones for a completely fresh start.

I worked with a local machine shop about thirty minutes away in northern Vancouver, WA called Quality Machine. The owner, and pretty much the only employee, is a very cool older guy who knows his business.

We had to cut the poly bush eyes off all four control arms and weld on custom machined bush eyes that would accept the oem bushings. This involved a little trial and error but it worked out. The new bush eyes were Tig welded onto the links and bushings pressed in. For good measure, I had the machinist run a tap into the Johnny Joint end of the tube to clean it up.

The MT lower arms are pretty darn stout being made of 1.75”x .290” wall DOM. This is the main reason I chose to mod them rather than buy a different brand or build my own from scratch.

Today’s test drive impressed me with what felt like a smoother ride and improved predictability. She still isn’t a slot car but improved enough to feel. Coupled with the track bar riser bracket I built not long ago my rig drives down the highway more predictably and I’m more relaxed.

The pics show how worn the old poly bushings were after only 2 years, these being my second set. The main problem, I believe, with the poly bushings MT used is that over all width is too narrow causing a laterally loose fit in the brackets.

 

[baldilocks]

Rubicon bound and thinking Barrett lake trail too beginning Thursday morning. If interested hit me up.

 

[GW Nugget]

Going for broke... got the trailer this time... have fun.

 

[Qball]

Looks like we got some rain today and possibly tomorrow. Might a little we up there but might not have dust, should be really fun weekend!

 

[baldilocks]

Looks like we got some rain today and possibly tomorrow. Might a little we up there but might not have dust, should be really fun weekend!

Are you ready to hit the trail?? Nothing but good times up in them there hills of granite.

 

[Broski]

Baldilocks
Was planning on hitting Rubicon tomorrow afternoon with a couple of friends for the weekend. Trying to sort out a transmission issue that came up yesterday. If I can get fixed be nice to meet you on the trail. NoahRob from mud is in our group and is going.
Hope to see you

 

[baldilocks]

Baldilocks
Was planning on hitting Rubicon tomorrow afternoon with a couple of friends for the weekend. Trying to sort out a transmission issue that came up yesterday. If I can get fixed be nice to meet you on the trail. NoahRob from mud is in our group and is going.
Hope to see you

7075921578. Hope to see you guys. Which end would be starting from? Doesn’t matter to me.

 

[Broski]

Loon lake side. Plan is to get to Loon by around 3pm wheel in as far as we can to camp for the nite.

 

[baldilocks]

Loon lake side. Plan is to get to Loon by around 3pm wheel in as far as we can to camp for the nite.

3pm Thursday? Perhaps I will be bivouac at Spider Lake. You plan to go all the way through to Tahoe?

 

[Broski]

no most of the guys tow, in and out Loon.

 

[baldilocks]

no most of the guys tow, in and out Loon.

Info noted... if you go, we will see you. Let me know.

 

[baldilocks]

The trip to Rubicon went well. My buddy who lives in CA road shotgun and we solo’d the Rubicon in a little under 8 hours with a lunch stop and a couple minor hang ups. Things were going well so we decided to motor past the springs and get a motel in S. Lake Tahoe and I’m glad we did because it rained that night.

Next morning we headed to Barrett Lake Trail which is an approx. 4.5 mile, one way in/out trail that is of Rubiconesque caliber but has a lot of very tight turns and near misses with boulders and trees that are right beside the trail. The trip in, lunch, and the trip out was about 8 hours.

As usual, the 80 delivered with undisputable performance. It’s funny how many fellow wheelers look on in amazement while the 80 mashes through the obstacle that there (insert type of rig here) had heeps (pun intended) of trouble getting through.

I have only a couple screen shots from a video my friend made on Barrett Lake Trail. I don’t take pics so much anymore.

 

[baldilocks]

Just a couple lines of tech related info on some recent work I’ve done; I am very happy with the improved drivability and predictability that the track bar riser and Metal Tech rear arm bushing mod to OEM bushings rendered.

At the same time, I went from an all metal CSF 2517 radiator that I installed two years ago to an oem TRAD radiator. The difference in cooling capacity of the new radiator while the engine is under heavier loads is very significant. I paid more for the CSF than I did for the TRAD at on online part distributor site.

There has been quite a bit written about this lately. Many of us who installed a CSF had the same sort of issue where the water temp was ok under light load but would climb past 200 and even 215 easily under heavier engine loading.

I did some steep mountain roads In the sierra’s a couple days ago and it was hard to push the water temp past 190. Take into account that ambient temps were 50’s - 60’s so I haven’t put the new radiator to a serious test yet but I know that with the CSF water temp would have gone over 200.

Not bashing the CSF, there are members who it seems to work for. I got tired of watching my water temp gauge at 207 while cruising a flat highway at 70mph, mid 90’sF and AC on. And 215-220F in ambient temps over 100F in the same scenario.

It’s nice when the paragraphs you just wrote about money and time you spent on your rig puts a smile in your face.

 

[baldilocks]

The 1993 “white rhino” I picked up nearly three years ago to replace the super clean, Silicon Valley “green machine” was a good find for a decent price in eastern Oregon but it was well used, dirty and and apparently the dash had been disassembled by a gorilla because the black panels and hvac registers were busted up and hacked on.

The entire interior from the green machine has made its way into the white rhino except the head liner and now, finally, the dash panels and switches.

This job was something I was putting off because I would rather do a HG than deal with fragile plastic parts but I’m happy to report that I managed to finish without breaking anything.

I know this is long but bear with me, I think my words are better than my sorryass iPhone 5 pics.

Things I learned:
-the middle black dash panel is independent of the upper and lower and will come off giving access to most switches and the stereo.
-after you pop the mid panel off and it’s free, pull it to you maybe two inches, then, from below, through the stereo opening you can reach and release some of the switches loose and pull them through the panel making it easier to remove the electrical connectors.
-A headlight resto kit works wonders to clear up the scratches on your gauge cluster plastic cover/lens.
-DO NOT cut off that portion of the wire harness that feeds the cig lighter and ash tray light! I replaced the cig lighter with a blue sea power outlet that I wired myself to be hot key off so I figured what the hell, I don’t need these wires in my way. All of the ground wires for the switches and cig stuff are white with a black tracer and they all culminate to the right of the radio exactly where I cut the harness. Ended up with an antenna that would not respond to input and defrost engaged light inop. Back tracking and a few minutes in the wiring diagrams not to mention the dreaded disassembly of my dash one one more time and all is well.
-Those green wires and white with green tracer are for night illumination only. Green is power.

I installed a CB. Yeah, I know, everyone is going to HAM. I have a handheld ham but think the cb will be cool on the highway and for wheeling with those who may still be living in the 90’s.

While it was open I figured it wouldn’t hurt to install a new ignition switch. Kinda funny how the single retention screw works. The head of the screw faces forward and is difficult to access but the bottom end faces you and is fixed with a small metric Allen socket. Maybe 3mm, I don’t remember. So, you can back the screw out from it’s bottom, the end facing you. My s***ty pictures will illustrate this awesome bit of engineering.

Cheers

 

[baldilocks]

The screw I wanted to show is not pictured. It at the 12 O’clock position.

 

[baldilocks]

The glassy looking cube at the bottom of the fixture is the ignition interlock solenoid which is now unavailble.

 

[baldilocks]

Got kinda frosty a couple mornings ago. The pics don’t do justice to the difference that the 3m headlight resto kit did to my combo meter lens. It took a lot of time and patience but well worth it.