Dirt Squirrel 3.0 - The 2nd Mortgage

[Boomtacoma01]

Just busting your chops. Looks good so far.

 

[Wuz-A-zuk]

Why does everything have to be so tight, lol. Packaging on this thing has been a fun puzzle.

Can you fit a shaft between that link and the motor mount tube? It may be the picture but it looks worse than just tight.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Can you fit a shaft between that link and the motor mount tube? It may be the picture but it looks worse than just tight.

Yeah. I am using 2-2.25" diamter shafts and there is room to fit.

 

[YJ4Rox]

Why does everything have to be so tight, lol. Packaging on this thing has been a fun puzzle. The WOD 1410 carrier bearing is tacked in place. About 1/4" clearance to all of the things that matter. Had to trim an ear off the 700r4 and still need to clean it up some. Top of the yoke is even with the bottom of the floor. I may swap to 1350 to gain ~0.5" and move it down some. Im still undecided.

I feel your pain. I am finishing up my Hulse chassis buggy and everything is so tight even with a 4cyl. Its not fighting for inches its literally fighting for 1/16" here and 1/32" there. It is a pretty fun puzzle.

Love the build keep up the good work.

 

[the_white_shadow]

I feel your pain. I am finishing up my Hulse chassis buggy and everything is so tight even with a 4cyl. Its not fighting for inches its literally fighting for 1/16" here and 1/32" there. It is a pretty fun puzzle.

Love the build keep up the good work.

Same man. Same. Tolerances are tight, but thats the price we pay.

I love the Hulse engineering stuff. He makes nice quality parts and buggies.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Weekend updates:

I mounted the fuel cell. It utilizes some of the bolts from the lid of the steel can an comes out from the top. I plan on building a small tray to sit above it for tool roll storage. Those tubes coming out will be trimmed flush after welding

Started on the exhaust. Im using a Flowmaster HP2 for a muffler and it fits perfectly between the trans pan and the lower chassis rail. I got the longest one Flowmaster made to keep it as quiet as possible. Its 2.5" in and out.

Tacked on some 2.5" V-Band clamps to the stock manifolds. They are cast steel and the internet said they should be easily weldable.

Started on the skid plate. It will be removable and tie into the motor mounts and maybe the chassis. Not sure yet. I extended it to the mid point of the balance so i can protect the crossover of the exhaust.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Finally, started on some skins for the front to see how it would look. In order to get the radiator to lay below the upper part of the chassis, i redid the front bumper bar and move the winch forward ~2" or so. I like the look of the bent up front bumper and bull bar mo better than the previous version. That shit kept me up at night.

This fender is sliced up to fit as tight to the tube work as possible. The plan is to use a cut up hood to weld onto the fenders to make it one removable unit. I have a cab at the house to cut up for the header panel below the windshield. In my mind it will come out awesome, but i hate sheetmetal work, especially thin toyota sheetmetal. Odds are it will just be the fenders on there. Lol.

Id like to figure out a way to stuff a grill in there but space is tight.

Going to tackle the exhaust piping next then maybe mount some steering and finish out the axles.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Exhausting work last night.

I will get the passenger side v-band in place and will merge the pipes together this evening. I think i have the perfect 180 piece that will work great. All exhaust is 2.5".

 

[the_white_shadow]

I got the merge from the passenger side tacked together last night. Not as fun as i thought it would be but i made it work. Notching the hole for the merge sucked due to limited space to get tools there, but i made it work. Once the buggy is off the table, ill pull it all, finish weld, VHT paint and then wrap it. I still need to add the tip to exit passed the rear of the cab, add a mount to the muffler, and add an O2 Sensor bung.

Ill tie in the engine skid to the motor mounts tonight with some bolt on plates to make it removable. Then its on to the ram mounts.

 

[Sean]

Any concern the belt will get too hot being that close to the exhaust?

 

[the_white_shadow]

Any concern the belt will get too hot being that close to the exhaust?

No concerns. Unless it actually touches it.

 

[Sean]

Sorry for the additional question but, what tubing bender are you using that'll do 2.5" tubing and how do you like it? Mine maxes out (JD2) at 2"....might be time for an upgrade.

 

[Sean]

No concerns. Unless it actually touches it.

Good to know.....to me, routing the exhaust that way is brilliant. Way better packaging.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Sorry for the additional question but, what tubing bender are you using that'll do 2.5" tubing and how do you like it? Mine maxes out (JD2) at 2"....might be time for an upgrade.

No problem. Im not using a tubing bender for the exhaust. I bought some mandrel bent J-Tube bends and 180-bends from Summit and cut them up to make them work.

 

[Sean]

That's what I'd planned to do too....but yours looked (to my untrained eye) like you'd bent some and spliced some too. Good to know.

Another source (not sure if it's price competitive) for the tight radius exhaust doughnuts was Chassis Shop.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Intermediate driveshaft and carrier bearing is installed and tacked up. Runout is around 5-thou.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Steering wheel came in. Its a Grant from Summit. Ill be pairing it with a Joes Splined quick release. That gold metal flake tho...

Revised the shifters a little with some 1" DOM. Had to reorient them in order to move the winters shifter another inch forward. Much better ergonomically now. I then had to shorten and redo the down bars from the dash. I added some tube clamps to make it all removable. Trans comes out from the top if need be.

Started mocking and tacking up the steering rams. They are 3x9 PSC units. Tried to get them as high as possible but still keep correct geometry. ill be running just the two clamps with some end cap plates to keep it from moving. I had to order some 3/4" heims and tube adapters from Ruffstuff so i can make my own tierods out of 1.25".

The front may get redone to be angled down like the rear ram, but we will see.

 

[Sean]

What wall thickness are your bash bars for the rams? Looks like 1.75" OD, right?

 

[the_white_shadow]

What wall thickness are your bash bars for the rams? Looks like 1.75" OD, right?

Yeah. 1.75” OD 0.21 thick. Same as the belly tube and sliders.

 

[Sean]

Yeah. 1.75” OD 0.21 thick. Same as the belly tube and sliders.

Hmmm...oddball size. I used .188 for mine and my bender did not like it, lol. Held up okay so far....

 

[Sean]

Out of the blue question on your axle housing to knuckle fit up.....I notice you haven't welded them on yet and I don't see tacks in the last picture, so I'm assuming that's b/c you haven't landed on your caster : pinion angles just yet. What caster are you planning f/r?

Did the knuckles just tap onto the housing? I'm assuming there's an interference fit, but not so tight that it requires heating up the knuckle or packing the tube ends in dry ice. Is that correct? I have TG housings and am wondering how much of a bitch it's going to be to get the JHF ends on and if I'm actually going to need to take it to someone with a lathe to do fit up.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Out of the blue question on your axle housing to knuckle fit up.....I notice you haven't welded them on yet and I don't see tacks in the last picture, so I'm assuming that's b/c you haven't landed on your caster : pinion angles just yet. What caster are you planning f/r?

Did the knuckles just tap onto the housing? I'm assuming there's an interference fit, but not so tight that it requires heating up the knuckle or packing the tube ends in dry ice. Is that correct? I have TG housings and am wondering how much of a bitch it's going to be to get the JHF ends on and if I'm actually going to need to take it to someone with a lathe to do fit up.

Good eye. They are press fit on there for the most part. Some oven work for 2 hours at 500* to get them to slide over the bushings. The OD of the tube is 3.5". The ID of the knuckles is around 3.7" or something like that. it required some bushings which i also put in the oven and slid them on.

Currently its set at like 4.5* up front and zero in the rear. Ill get it off the table and at ride height to see if i need to change it or not. Im shooting for something close to as it sits.

 

[Sean]

Gotcha. My OD on the tubes is also 3.5". Guessing the ID on the knuckles is going to be a 'heat it up and tap it on' affair, but I'm hoping it's not more involved :fingerscrossed: .

I think Jesse Haines recommended like 2 degrees caster in the rear on the portals....but I'm not exactly sure why.

Thanks for all your help and this thread; super informative and inspirational. Keep up the great work!

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Hmmm...oddball size. I used .188 for mine and my bender did not like it, lol. Held up okay so far....

Probably 120 with 090 inside.



Most valid argument I've heard on rear caster is to get the knuckle closer to verticle when the rig is climbing. No idea if that would be negative or positive, but upperball joint further forward than bottom.

Bonus is it lofts the steering up a hair.

Although 2* doesn't seem like it would do much, maybe different with portals....

 

[the_white_shadow]

Probably 120 with 090 inside.



Most valid argument I've heard on rear caster is to get the knuckle closer to verticle when the rig is climbing. No idea if that would be negative or positive, but upperball joint further forward than bottom.

Bonus is it lofts the steering up a hair.

Although 2* doesn't seem like it would do much, maybe different with portals....

its not sleeved. I was looking for .188 and the DOM place didnt have it but did have some 0.21-ish size in 1.75" OD. its a weird size for sure.

The rear caster is still undetermined. Ive read where guys matched the front but it didnt work out very well. I think at 0* it will be fine for a crawler. This isnt hitting the streets.

 

[the_white_shadow]

I had a buddy do me a solid and weld on some Wide Open Design aluminum mounting pucks to my radiator and mounted it up. lower mounts will have some 1/4" neoprene between the mount and radiator. Probably not needed with everything solid mounted in a stiff chassis.

Plenty of clearance now to cobra head intake elbow.

I then focused on the last couple of things that i need to figure out a place for, brake pedals. I originally had planned to mount one of those huge dildo-handled cutting brake levers for the rear, but changed up the plan to have dual brake pedals with individual masters (7/8" for now). i bought two reverse swing single pedal assemblies from Busted Knuckle and trimmed them up to make them a single assembly with dual pedals. The plan is to have the left pedal for the rear driveline brake and the right for the front calipers. We will see if it works out or not.

 

[chaplinfj60]

looks like a bunch of fj40 bezels....

great work so far... we were just talking about mounting a rad at that angle and i did not think it would work that far leaned over. i have no reason to think that at. just never saw one that far that i can remember is all.

 

[the_white_shadow]

looks like a bunch of fj40 bezels....

great work so far... we were just talking about mounting a rad at that angle and i did not think it would work that far leaned over. i have no reason to think that at. just never saw one that far that i can remember is all.

Ha. youre right. it does look like a bunch of 40 bezels. now i cant unsee it. A happy coincidence.

As for the radiator, ive seen and wheeled with plenty of guys that mount them as this angle or even more extreme. i dont think the radiator cares what angle its at for it to work. Ive seen them horizontal in other applications.

 

[chaplinfj60]

i guess as long as the trapped air has a place to go it does not matter. it will pull air where ever,

now the real question.... is the bezel upside down?

 

[YotaAtieToo]

its not sleeved. I was looking for .188 and the DOM place didnt have it but did have some 0.21-ish size in 1.75" OD. its a weird size for sure.

The rear caster is still undetermined. Ive read where guys matched the front but it didnt work out very well. I think at 0* it will be fine for a crawler. This isnt hitting the streets.

Did you not read my post?

The positive? Caster is for crawler stuff. So when you're climbing a waterfall, you might actually be able to steer the rear vs the tires just pivoting in the dirt.

Although I think to make a difference, you'd need more that 2*