part-time4wd.com
  • Home
  • Blog
  • The Builds
  • tech
  • contact

Junkyard Gems!

1/11/2012

 
At the junkyard; check out this awesome bucket van we found!
Picture
​...and a p/u with a pretty cool rattle can paint job
Picture
Picture

The new D60 is in!

9/9/2009

 
So it tooks some time but its finally done. It goes like this:
Called my buddy Eric from EMS Offroad about getting a new axle. (for those that dont know why i needed a new D60, read this) He said he'd hook me up, and wed build something that shouldnt break. So thats what we did.

Its a brand new Currie Rock Jock center section. Ya know the one, with the diff cover rotated back, which coincidentally adds 3/4" of ground clearance, even with the little bolt-on skid plate. It uses two large pinion bearings instead of the smaller outer bearing, along with a bigger pinion seal.
The tubes are 3.5" DOM machined to fit the Superduty diff seals. Stock inner Cs & knuckles, with some plating in key spots. Cage's weld-on brackets, and of course a truss to help keep everything together. We kept the same caster angle i had, while rotating the pinion up 5º for a better dshaft angle.
I had to get a new long-side inner shaft, as well as the ring-side half of the ARB case, since that bent when the housing broke, altho everything else survived.

So now, onto the Pics!
....some of which suck, but hey, i think i did pretty good for a digicam with a broken lcd screen!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Lower coil mounts going back together
Picture
Picture
radius arms. Check that pinion angle! But the truss is closer to the xmember than it looks
Picture
​new lower tracbar mount
Picture
axle is in! working on steering:
Picture
​...and finally done!
Picture
Picture
​check that awesome pinion angle
Picture
parked in the yard, ready to go wheelin!
Picture
Picture

Rausch Creek Carnage!

6/9/2009

 
 This was a rough day of wheelin for me & ox.
Pretty early on, Ox broke an upper link mount on a hill climb.  Later in the day, i broke my D60 completely in half!
So here's what happened.
I had just gone thru Smoothie & Milkshake, RC's nastiest mud holes, when i spotted the housing was cracked. There arent any rocks in those pits, so it must have been coincidence that i decided to look at the front, and see the tube sticking out about an inch. Well, i had a ratchet strap around both radius arms, but it didnt last long....about 1000' later the front-end just fell apart. Probably a good thing i was only idling along in 1st when it happened. A bunch of Toyota guys from Right Coast 4x4 (whom me & ox wheeled with the previous day) helped to get it back together so i could drive it out and get it on the trailer.
As you can see, the passenger inner axleshaft is bent.  So is the ring-side trunion on the ARB as well, so we're going to have to replace some parts on that too. 

Rausch Creek!

3/23/2009

 
Hadnt been out in a while, so me & ox decided to take a trip to Rausch Creek
Picture
Pizza Rock!  This area isnt what it used to be, since it got logged.
Picture
Picture
Picture
I only took a few pics during the day as we were pretty mobile, but Ox got some more, which you can see over on FSB.

anti-wrap 101

3/4/2009

 
​Ok so lets go into some theory. Keep in mind, this is just that; im no expert on the subject, just that ive spent a good amount of reading on the subject prior to building mine, and as it turns out, it works well.
The anti-wrap bar acts as a lever for your trucks rear suspension. Since the springs cannot wrap under load, the force is directed along the anti-wrap bar. Under load the pinion wants to deflect up, but it cant due to the bar being mounted to the frame. So, when the bar swings up, it pulls up on the frame, which lifts the rear of the truck up. At the same time, an equal and opposite force is pushing down on the rear tires. So as the truck lifts up, you gain a lot of down-pressure on the rear tires. They squat down a bit, dig into the ground harder, and off you go. This is referred to as anti-squat (AS), and is usually measured in %'s. There is no right % for it to work perfectly as its all in driver preference, but you dont want too much, or youll end up with a vehicle that has a lot of rear wheel hop, which IMO is just as bad as spring wrap. So id shoot to minimize it best you can, since youll never get it to 0% on a lifted vehicle. No matter what, youre gonna pick up AS, and its gonna lift up. Get used to it.

So, there are ways to tune this to your advantage. #1 is bar length. The longer the bar is, the less AS you gain. The angle at which the bar meets the frame is also important. The steeper it is, the more it will lift the frame. Unfortunately with a lifted truck, theres not a whole lot you can do about this part, as youre gonna get lift out of it. Remember you measure the bar angle by drawing an imaginary line down the middle of it, dead center between the two fixed points at the axle. I have read to make this match the driveshaft angle, but there is no theory behind why. It seems more like, thats the way most end up, so thats the way people do it.

The shackle angle plays a small part too. At 90º, it has no effect. But, put the frame-side mount further forward, and it helps to decrease the lift gained from the bar. Angle it backwards towards the axle and it will lift more. My recommendation, set it 90º, or slightly forward (say, plus/minus 5-10º?). Keep in mind, this is assuming you have the shackle in tension (like i do), which means the anti-wrap bar goes above the shackle, not below. If you have the bar go below the fixed point for the shackle, then reverse the above info. Either way, dont go too far, as you need to make sure the shackle will not go into a bind when you cycle your suspension. A stock-height truck, the bar will be flatter and have less AS, but under a lifted truck you could only accomplish this by lowering the frame mount way down, potentially into harm's way offroad. Id rather have it lift a bit, then get it caught on rocks all the time.

As for which side of the vehicle to put it on, the theory is that, under load, the rear driver plants harder than the passenger. This is because of the rotational force of the pinion, creating a lifting effect on the passenger tire. Ive read many places that putting the bar on the passenger side theoretically combats this, but in regards to controlling spring wrap, it makes no difference which side of the diff it is on. So since it does its job equally effective on both side, i put it where i had room, which was the d.side. On the pass side most of us have an exhaust system that would be quite difficult to get to fit back under there once an anti-wrap bar is installed.

There is one other thing i want to add. This is that an anti-wrap bar puts a big load on the axle tube, so it is highly recommended to weld your tubes to the diff, or you could potentially bust the plug welds and spin a tube. Read about it & seen the pics, so i welded mine. So far so good.

anti-wrap bar

3/3/2009

 
So i took some time last month designing and building an anti-wrap bar for the 88.  Here's the final result:
Picture
On the axle tube, im using brackets from Blue Torch Fab.
The bar/shackle is using 3/4" rod-ends from Aurora, which i got at a local bearing house. The bushings at the axle end i bought from Poly Performance.
Picture
The bar is made of 1 1/4", .120 wall tubing, which the weld-in bungs fit perfectly. In order to make the lower tube more dent-resistant, i got a piece of 1" barstock and cut it down to fit inside the tube. I doubt that sucker is gonna bend!
Picture
I built a shackle for the frame-side end to use shackles at both ends, so i dont have binding issues:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
For the frame side, i made a crossmember that spans the frame
Picture
The shackle connects to it via a bracket i made out of a scrap piece of 2x4 box tube:
Picture
Picture
The final result is tucked up in there pretty tight and out of harm's way, but its also built beffy enough that it can take some abuse w/o concern of any damage:
Picture
Picture
The bar ended up ~40" long. The shackle is ~6", and there is 6" of vertical separation on the axle mounts. The shackle is pretty close to 90º, and while i could probably make some adjustments to the two heims to get it there, i dont think i will bother. There is some lift to the nose, but its minor.  The big difference is now when you get on the throttle, she digs in and goes!  No more spring wrap or axle hop at all.

extended shackles

7/30/2008

 
Earlier in the month i built a set of extended shackles for the rear of the bronco.
Im extending them 2", so i cut some flat stock 6 1/4" long, by 1 5/8" wide. 
Picture
Picture
Spaced out 2" from the OEM hole, welded it to the flat 'ear', and then hammer the other end over till it touches the body of the shackle. Then just clamp it and weld it up.
I tacked the plate to the shackle via the original bolt hole to hold it in place, and then once the sides were fully welded, plug welded the original bolt hole and ground smooth.
Picture
Small tabs made to fill in the gaps so the shackle still has the same ID, and its nice and beefy
Picture
After all that was welded & ground, i added in a brace in the middle to keep the ears from bending:
Picture
...and the finished product!
Picture
Picture
With the longer shackle i moved to the rear hole on the hangar, and now weve got a good shackle angle again:
Picture
So i did this in conjunction with moving the front spring hangar 3" backwards, installing new non-bent mainleafs, and removing my 2" AAL to get back to stock-ish springs.  The end result was a success, as the rear suspension definitely works a lot better now.

Rauch Creek!

7/28/2008

 
Decided to go to Rausch Creek over the weekend with a few buddies.  It was a day full or carnage!

We went to "O" Trail first, where Keith immediately blew both beads:
Picture
​Ox playing on a rocky hill climb on "O", this is right at the section where i bet Ox to run it from the passenger seat last time
Picture
Picture
​These were some big rocks
Picture
Picture
​The view from the new Green rated trail J1
Picture
Ox:
Picture
Keith:
Picture
Steve:
Picture
Jim:
Picture
​One of the few pics i have of mine
Picture
​couple turns later, keith is stuck
Picture
Picture
​quick tug from steve and keith is free to continue on
Picture
Picture
​RIP steve's transmission
Picture
​Ox was in the lead, so he got to pull steve the rest of the way outta the trail.
Picture
Picture
Oh no!
Picture
Picture
​Fortunately only the outer bead popped so it was relatively easy to re-seat.
Picture
​After much winching & pulling to get steve off the trail, and then after we loaded steves back on the trailer, we headed back in.

Ox playing on a hill right near 'The Gauntlet', one of the comp courses
Picture
...and stop
Picture
​Probably coulda got free if the dshaft wasnt sitting on that boulder
Picture
​Keith to the rescue!
Picture
​Me coming up on the climb to the right, while Ox gets free
Picture
Picture
​...and back onto the trails
Picture
Picture
Picture
​sidehilling, but its lost in the pic, other than the way the tire is rolling under the wheel
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Thats pretty much all i got. We got in some decent trail time, just didnt have the usual photographer (my brother) runnin around snappin pics.
There is a thread over on FSB that has more pics from of the trip.

Carnage Pics!

4/27/2008

 
My drivetrain held up, but the body wasnt so lucky.

The half door. You can see i hit the cab corner too
Picture
Picture
Picture
Couldnt get the door open cuz it bent around the striker. Put the full door on and couldnt get it to close- to make a long story short i bent the corner of the cab to the point that the striker bolt moved in a full inch! I was only able to get the bolt adjusted out 3/4", so you have to slam the door to get it to close.
The a-pillar:
Picture
...and finally, the trans pan:
Picture
Picture
Bent so far up that this happened:
Picture
Picture
it would slip when shifting from 1 to R, when on an incline. I wonder why!  Fixed the pan, threw a new filter on, and she is good to go again!

FSB NE Chapter Ride P.6

4/26/2008

 
​Got some free time, so heres some more pics!
At that point it was 4pm, so we said screw it and headed back to camp. Unfortunately, the next morning my radiator sprung a leak, so that ends our wheelin pics! There is still a ton i didnt post, so if youre interested, here are the galleries: Friday // Saturday.

<<Previous
Forward>>

    Categories

    All
    203/205 Doubler
    3/4 Ton Conversion
    3g Alternator
    460
    5spd Swap
    88 Bronco
    90 Bronco
    96 Bronco
    96 F250
    Amp Research Steps
    Anti Wrap Bar
    AOAA
    Bed Liner
    Big Dogs Offroad
    Bilstein
    BW1356
    C6
    Dana 60
    Dump Bed
    E4OD
    East Coast Bronco Roundup
    ECBR
    Electric
    Electric Fan
    Electric Fuel
    Exhaust
    Explorer Seat Swap
    Fab Work
    Fender/carrier Repair
    Floor Vents
    Front Bumper
    Garage
    Gauges
    Gmrs
    Half Cab Conversion
    High Steer
    Home Depot Bed
    Junkyard
    Junkyard Gems
    Kid Trax Bronco
    Leaf Sas
    Massey 3165
    Off Road
    On Board Air
    Pickup Cab Swap
    Pmgr Starter
    Rausch Creek
    Rear Bumper
    Recovery
    Rock Light
    Saginaw Swap
    SD Bumper Swap
    SD Spring Swap
    Shackle Reversal
    Sliders
    Sliding Windows
    Soft Top
    Solid Axle Swap
    Steering Column
    Sterling 10.25
    Tire Carrier Repair
    TTB TRE Flip
    Video
    Water Injection
    ZF S5-42

    Archives

    February 2026
    January 2026
    December 2025
    November 2025
    October 2025
    September 2025
    August 2025
    July 2025
    June 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    June 2015
    February 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    February 2014
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    September 2009
    June 2009
    March 2009
    July 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008

  • Home
  • Blog
  • The Builds
  • tech
  • contact