Carwash Crawler - Build Thread... again.

[94Dodge Truggy]

That is what I had done. That is a FHCS used there. Flat head cap screw. These screws fill in with debris and are a pain in the woods to work with. Gonna have pics this weekend of weekend progress? If so I am looking forward to seein em!

[carwash]

i am not using Flat Head Cap Screws, if so, i wouldnt have shaved the wheels studs down. i am using standard hex head grade 8 bolts. may have to take a tiny bit off of those as well.

may not get too much done on it this weekend. i did get my nitrogen bottle refilled today to be ready for my air shocks. Need to get some more shock oil as well.

[94Dodge Truggy]

My buddy did the bolt method on the knuckle and had to shave a dangerous amount off the wheel studs and still had to take some off of his bolts. Hopefully you will not run into that problem. If you change your mind and want the holes countersunk let me know and I can do em for ya fast!

[carwash]

i have seen tons of people do this method. i must admit, i hate shaving that much off the wheels studs, but i haven't heard of a failure of this kind yet. Hoping to not have to shave too much off the bolts as well.

but i agree with you, with the conditions and terrain around here, i can only imagine how packed up those allen heads get with mud sand, etc. would make a trail repair axle change difinitely suck the balls.

[Nuts]

This thing is awesome! I'm redoing my buggy,its a smaller scale than yours, 4.3 V6,39s,toyota axles and 16" air shocks. Are you going to use bump stops,or let the shock stop its self? And what about a limiting strap up front,and sway bar in the rear?I've been lurking,and studying for a while and it seems like thats how most people set up Air shocks,except,and this might just be for comp buggies,they only have 4" of up travel.Once again your buggy is bad ass,and i'm not trying to tell you how to build it,I'm just getting all the info I can for mine.

[carwash]

there will be bumpstops, in the form of Timbren bumps or air bumps. either way i will utilize an air bump can incase i want to upgrade from timbrens to air later on. DO NOT use your air shock as the bump.

I only have 4-6 inches of uptravel becuase thats all the room i have to travel up with the toploader chunk on there. also, with this little bit of shaft sticking out of the shock, the sway of the rig will be kept way lower. Fox recommends a max 70/30 split for best performance. Meaning on a 16 inch travel, you want 10" in and 6" out max. On 16's i'd rather have only 4-5" out.

I kept mine where they are due to wanting to have more droop instead of compression. Also, any more sticking out would have made me higher off the ground or required that i put my shocks thru the hood. (didnt want to do that).

I am going to run winches front and rear for center limiting and manual suspension compression. I will also run limit straps at the outsides to keep the shocks from fully extending... to much money to pull one apart. 44" inch tired and a rockwell is a lot of weight to hang on a shock.

good luck, would love to see pics of your build.

[Nuts]

I'm setting mine up with 5" of up,and cheap poly bump stops,then like you said limit straps,a winch up front and maybe a small one in the back and I'll wait on the sway bar to see if it really needs one.
We have a 6 month old baby girl and momma works nights,so I only get 1 night during the week and then sometimes all weekend to be in the garage.So as soon as I can get back out there and get going on it I'll take some pictures and maybe start a build thread here. Thanks for the help!

[carwash]

my time on it is limited as well between working my day job, and working on customer's rigs at the shop... i'm really motivated to get it done tho, now that it is sitting on its rear wheels and front axle is some bushing reaming away from going together.

looking forward to seeing your build.

[carwash]

OK, put in a bunch of time yesterday and today.... got a LOT done.

Finally got all my kingpin bushings honed down. Ended up using a wheel cylinder hone, with new stones. Took them down nicely, and didn't take too long. I took out enough material until i could tap them on easily with a small hammer and block of wood. Once on and greased, they turned nicely. Not too hard, not too easy, just right.

Random shots of axle build / boot guards, etc...



Putting the boots on can be a *****. would have been nice to have 4 hands. on the first one, i had to use some mini clamps to hold it in place. The inner small clamp is a piece of cake, it's the outer that is the issue. Once on and tight, it really is cool how it seals it all up.







The USA6x6 boot guards are pretty sweet. They protect the boot very well, it is a well thought out design. Aside from them being put together crappy, i'm pretty happy with them. One of them had the plate welded to the guard crooked, but it didn't affect the mounting too bad, just made the gap bigger on one side than the other. On both of them, i had to grind a bit off the top of the inside plate. It was hitting the inner knuckle housing and causing drag on turning (scared me, thought i had messed up my kingpin bushings)



This shot from the top really shows how well it tucks the boot into that guard. It will be tough damage this boot on anything.



Shots of the spindle, with the studs replaced with the 3/8 bolts for clearance with the hub flip.





Got the air shocks all charged up, took minimal air just to hold the weight. Only 70 pounds in the fronts and 50 pounds in the rear. That is assuming that my gauge is accurate at readings that low (doubt it is). Here is a shot with no stands under the chassis at all anymore (yes, still stands under the axle, but the rig is holding itself up)

[carwash]

Brad came over today to help, and it was really nice to have an extra set of hands there today.





Got the driver side all put together today. Birfield style axle in this one... will be interested to see which one breaks first. Brad served as the extra hands to help put the boots on... ha.





Passenger knuckle cleared the 3/8 bolts with the closest one being a little less than a 1/16th away. Not sure how much this assembly will flex, but i figure if it does, they will self clearance before they break... hopefully.

The driver side didn't clear once i seated the bearings. Was scraping on one pretty bad. So we pulled it off, and brad grinded them all down a little more. I must have gotten lazy on this one when i did them the first time around.

[carwash]

Low and behold, front axle all together, wheels mounted, all stands out from under it, and it is a ROLLER. Brad and i rolled it forward and back a couple feet quite few times. Was nice to hear that rubber squeaking on the floor.

[carwash]

Put on the pinion brakes, for muckup of bumpstops and steering ram mounts, etc. Uptravel will be right about 5" in the front before shock bottoms out or rotor contacts chassis.











These brake parts are truly a work of art... almost hate to get them dirty or banged up. Honestly, i cant wait.

This was a good weekend, big milestones. Also got the cowl mounted solid, which locates the hood solid. It's coming together slowly. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter, but man there is a lot of work left to do.

[sarge]

Bling , Bling ...... nice Mike !

[carwash]

and $1.00 to anyone that can tell me what the hell this is. if somehow found its way onto my rockwell parts table, but i don't think it belongs to my axles at all. I think someone is messing with me...

[94Dodge Truggy]

It is a bronze bushing with a tab on it and slots cut into it!

Hope it is nothing important!