Build Yet another 80 build...

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Knuckle gussets added and painted inside and out.

Front half of the exhaust has been removed and have a small plan to relocate brake lines. From master cylinder down to frame will follow the firewall, then rear will use factory line. Front will run alongside inside the frame and loop back just above front crossmember then down the drivers side lower link. Front axle vent and ARB line will run up the upper link on the passenger side.

Debating on how I am going to run the exhaust still, for now it will run inside the drivers side frame and over the tcase and out the rear. Will try to find time and motivation to actually add some heat shields, but most likely not..

 

[AgentOrange]

This is looking great! I was wondering what you would change on the rear of this. I'm slowly building parts to do something very similar as it turns out

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

This is looking great! I was wondering what you would change on the rear of this. I'm slowly building parts to do something very similar as it turns out

There isn't anything pressing that I would change, would be nice to have longer upper's but fuel tank and it sure is nice to just use the factory upper crossmember.

Only thing to watch out for is the rear upper mount. I am using about 60% of the joint, and not symmetrically. I just missed the angle on it when gluing it together(didn't cycle anything). Originally I was using a rebuildable joint and with the larger body it was loosening the jam nut when flexing, nothing big really, other than finding out after many hours driving south.

Do it, it changes the whole rig for the better.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Well small tasks done tonight. Got the rear brake plumbing done and mostly finished under the rig. Ended up running the line down in front of the booster and down the firewall. Front line is also ran from the junction to above the lower drivers line. Also got the unused LSPV line removed which I realized I should have used for the rear breather, but oh well.. Here are some more boring pictures until it got dark, missing about half of the progress.

With the three link I have the exhaust running under the drivers floor inside the frame. This caused me to hap- hazzardly just push all the lines off the frame and as far away from the exhaust as I could, then wrap them in heat wrap. This has been working fine, but needed to tie the lines down again and possibly move the exhaust outside the passenger frame. Really don't want to, but also don't like the fact that the floor gets so hot it is reflowing the undercoating! Will try some heat shields first.

 

[GW Nugget]

I see in post #8 how you have rerouted the exhaust. That's real tight all in there.
Lots of exotic work has been done.
I hope the thing wheels smooth & stable for you or is it a sloppy mess that feels like you're on top of a slippery round ball?

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

I see in post #8 how you have rerouted the exhaust. That's real tight all in there.
Lots of exotic work has been done.
I hope the thing wheels smooth & stable for you or is it a sloppy mess that feels like you're on top of a slippery round ball?

Short version;
Rig is much more predictable and stable on and off road, enough so the wife loves driving it more with 37's and 40's than with the factory setup and 315's.

Longer version;
Until the coil overs this thing has performed very well, on road it drives better than it ever did with the radius arms/rear link setup and offroad there is no comparison to the factory stuff. I only have three days of driving with the rear coil overs, and they function extremely well and will take to some tuning very nicely.

Much more stable, predictable and flexy. One of the biggest thing to learn was how little feed back you get through the front suspension. The chassis has very little upset when cycling the suspension now, and you get less thrust in the rear with the roll center and rear oversteer fixed.

It probably seems backwards to make the suspension more flexy and have a more stable rig, but with the correct geometry it seems to be working very well.

I am hoping to control body swap with the LSC side of the coil overs along with them mounted as far outboard and vertical as I could within reason, but feel with the much longer travel I will be ending up with some sort of sway bar. But at first will play with limiting down travel with the winches.

Hellfires are supposed to be shipping this week, so I will have the coil overs buttoned up in the next couple of weeks and add hydro bumps shortly after. At least I will be able to get some miles on it again!

Would I do this all again, yes! Mostly as a project and I also love playing around and trying things that are out of the ordinary.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Last pictures of where it stands Thursday Morning before leaving town. Rear brakes are all re-plumbed.

I ended up putting marine heat shrink outside of the brake line for protection, support and dampen whatever vibrations. Will this help? No idea, but does hide the line better.

I will add a mounting tab or two to the body once I get the front line in, which hopefully will take less time than the rear.

Also, this is the general area that the reservoirs will live. Debating on adding some sort of simple tube front clip under the factory fender skins...

I also forgot to mention that I moved the battery to the passenger side years ago. Became much more apparent in this picture!

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

So with all the rain and going to and coming home for work in the dark there are not any pictures, but the dumb thing is back and driving!! Without the assist cylinder installed there is a shimmy at 55mph, which is annoying. Got some new wheels and will actually balance the tires after I modify and get the tires mounted.

Found these on sale, and figured that I didn't completely hate the design so for $900 for a set of aluminum bead locks I ordered them up

Dirty Life Mesa Race-9312 17X9 6X139.7 -12Et 106Cb Machined Beadlock - Walmart.com

Buy Dirty Life Mesa Race-9312 17X9 6X139.7 -12Et 106Cb Machined Beadlock at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

Everything looks fine other than the center bore. It fits fine, but has a reduced bore where the center cap goes. Next week I will get them machined out and mounted so no real gripe, especially for the price. I was pleasantly surprised that they double drilled and tapped for the rings, so that saves me the trouble there.

Will be nice having wheels that are the correct width.

Also got the overhead console printed, mounted and wired. Need to finish writing code and actually wire the relay, gps and 9dof module for compass and inclinometer. Also need to replace the 5v regulator, but that is no big deal.

Need to get;
wiring
skid plate remounted
some sort of trans engine skid plated made. Thinking of mounting them between the transfercase mount/lower bellhousing bolts/some random hardware on the engine.
air tank mounted
rear winch/battery at the same time
rear bumps mounted
suspension tuned
simple rear platform/rear coilover mount covers
Hellfire knuckles whenever Ruffstuff gets their next batch.

All this along with testing before Cruise Moab if I get lucky and get tickets


Big progress was front bumps, simplifying brake lines. Single rear down the frame rail, and single front across the front to the upper link on the passenger side. ARB line/vent/brake line now run down the upper link and is actually attached to the axle!

Will get some pictures tomorrow, possibly...

 

[baldilocks]

I’m holding my thumbs back on this comment…. You sprung for fuzzy balls and a high dollar battery but went questionable on the wheels that will take a beating?

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Haha! I have a connection on 'takeout' Odysseys, otherwise it'd still be running the 15year old FLA battery. Now the fuzzy balls, you have to have something to watch blow around driving around town.

Questionable? Not sure yet. After chatting with a couple folk that beat on them I would put them in the inexpensive category, but we will see how they fair. I figure most of my wheeling is snow and dirt trail, not nearly as much rock as I'd like. Will be reporting back as I use them.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Well, after a successful trip last weekend here is what has been happening.

Drove 300 miles over mountain passes and averaged almost 13mpg, at 60-70mph. Very pleased with that.

Ended up in this mess, anyone that knows me knows that as you add lanes, things get exponentially more dumb.

Drove up this, to end up here. Only one to make it.

Then did a thing, very stable and much nicer for climbing obstacles

And ended up near a puddle. Wasn't the only 80, yet was one of the lowest rigs there.

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Finally drove across a populated mess to end up in a land cruisers natural habitat, shopping center.

Got home and after four days, decides to start finishing my rear winch/hitch mount.

Should be done with it, exhaust and most of a 2/3 sleeping platform this weekend. Then onto maintenence checks for a couple snow trips and a family trip to Moab.

 

[EWheeler]

Looks great. Are you happy with how it feels with the changes to the geometry?

 

[ThreeEyedBandit]

Yes, very happy with it. Feels really stable, chassis doesn't get upset with suspension inputs and doesn't get jacked around when climbing ledges or ruts.

Over very happy with it! Just need to get some bump steer sorted, which I caused when re-attaching the panhard to the axle.