Lightning Mcjeep

[Willysracer]

We do have a rule book and safety stuff like a helmet and harnesses is required. We have a street and trail class for pretty much what it sounds like more on the stock side of things, but we do have a big number of roll overs so if your pushing it in a stock rig your going to want a cage. We may have a roll cage rule for that class as well.

We do have some jumps but they are mostly big rollers you can catch as much or little air as you want. The kids run the same track as the adults so we don’t do any doubles or anything that could hurt someone not going full tilt. There is one jump that has a 180 degree corner around a tree at the bottom that the faster men and women and older kids will take off the jump already sideways and land in a drift around the tree. Our kid classes are broke down 0-9, 10-12, and 13-15. We have 14 and 15 year olds that make me look like I have never driven before.

 

[Willysracer]

This is a good video from last year, my wife is the end clip.

 

[Pickuptrucker]

Wow that’s awesome 😎 ok I’ll stop derailing your thread, keep up the good work 👍 looks like pretty fast progress, especially for a family man

 

[Willysracer]

Wow that’s awesome 😎 ok I’ll stop derailing your thread, keep up the good work 👍 looks like pretty fast progress, especially for a family man

No sweat man no derailment, thank you! Glad to have the engagement, I was a teen in the hay day of the old forum and have learned so much from forums in general it’s just cool to have something worthy. I have a few other projects up my sleeve for other builds after this one too.

As for the quickness I’m pretty lucky I work for the county 3 13 hour days a week and then I just wake up super fucking early and go out in the shop on my off days before the family wakes up. I’ll sleep when I’m dead, race season is coming up hahahah.

 

[chaplinfj60]

awesome races. very cool

i can see that being very addictive for sure.

 

[Willysracer]

After a brief hiatus from time in the shop, got out there this morning and got some stuff done.

Got motor mounts zapped up and in, the new front frame is supporting an engine again.

Then mocked up a coil over to make templates for the upper mounts, couldn't use one of the bought mounts due to the lean of the shock and the bend of the hoop.

Used some older ruffstuff mounts on the bottom.

With the coil over bolted into place.

I’m too the point where the next bit of progress will be welding up the stuff that is tacked in, then the stuff like cooler mounts and brake lines and the like.

 

[Willysracer]

The saga of McJeep continues, been welding away getting control arms buzzed up and braced and wrapped where applicable. I plan to drive this Jeep like it owes me lunch money so I like to build beefy.

Cheers dudes.

 

[Willysracer]

Been plugging away at this Jeep, it’s been mostly welding and stuff that warrants no pictures or posts.

But this morning I went out and made some progress worthy of the internets.

Redid the rear lower shock mounts, the old ones were too short which caused the shock to contact the axle tube.

Turn some 2x2x1/4 square tube into shock mounts.

Plenty of clearance to the tire but I will have to notch the frame, sort of figured that was gonna happen.

That allowed me to put the tires on this thing and set it back in the ground, December 8th I started this mess, May 4th it is back in its own weight.

At full bump i still have some room under the oil pan for tire give, rather not lose another 6.0 from smashing a pan.

Gonna weigh it and order spring soon.

 

[chaplinfj60]

wide open design has a spring calc video that is legit. at least i think it is. basicly you use a bit a math and figure out how much weight you are supporting at each corner with a set spring like a 150 pound. and measure the how far it compress and then that will tell you what you need next.. give it a watch maybe it will work for you maybe not. cheers

 

[Willysracer]

Worked on the front bumps this morning. Salvaged the mounts off the old frame section, they were help on with a mixture of possibly stick weld and hopes and dreams so that didn’t take much.

Got them cleaned up a bit.

Cleaned up the bodies of the bumps because ADHD.

Made some super simple pads do they don’t twist the frame mounts landing on the axle tube.

Fucking bing bam boom, bumps stops.

May still “cap” the top between the frame and the can mount for because race car and I plan to beat the shit out of this Jeep this summer haha

 

[Willysracer]

This morning was make room for shocks day, I knew the rear frame was too wide to fit these shocks, and since I paid more for the shocks than the chassis 7 years ago, chop the frame it is.

Cut a big ass hole in the frame.

I made the notch boxes yesterday so cleaned up the jagged edges and fit the box.

After I had the drivers side all welded up and pretty I bolted the shock back in and would you look at that, not enough room.

So chop some more and box it all in.

Rinse repeat on passenger side, rock and roll.

 

[Willysracer]

With punching the front axle out roughly 8 inches I had to make the driveshaft longer. But in form to the build, I’ll do that with shit I have laying around instead of paying someone to do it.

Cut the weld out of the old front driveshaft and popped the slip spline out of the tube.

Found a chunk of DOM that fit snuggly inside of the shaft.

Cleaned everything up with a scrubby wheel and tried the tape like to keep things square trick you see all over tv and the inter webs. This shaft will basically never see the street besides the occasional neighborhood shinanigans, so as straight as possible and no weights will be just fine.

Cut a chunk of said found of floor DOM, cut it long, smashed it all together and tacked it up and sling it in the Jeep and it had the slip at max compression so I popped another inch off. Never ran into that problem before…

No lathe in my arsenal so tacked it in four spots and then welded between the tacks.

We fly out for Hawaii tomorrow morning so no updates next week but when we get home it’s super crunch time.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

I'm looking forward to the racing.

 

[Willysracer]

We won’t make the first race this year but hopefully the second race. The whole family is itching to drive this thing.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

The whole family is itching to drive this thing.

I don't know you at all and I want to drive that thing.


I wish we had racing like this in Texas. The short course UTV racing thing here has become completely unaffordable for us normal people.

 

[Willysracer]

That is one of the best parts about our organization, a main focus is seat time for the kids, and trying to keep it affordable.

Everyone in a family races the same rig, my kids are small enough the steer while I run the gas and brake and help keep them on the track. My son will get a booster seat and pedal extensions for next season at five years old. I and going to instal a drift hand brake on the passenger side as a “safety” for if things get a little crazy.

And generally the cost of registration and camping have been roughly the same since I was in elementary school. It’s sort of up to each family to decide how much money to invest in the hobby, there are toter home with stacker trailers that haul a race jeep and a flatty as a golf cart, and there are old beat up trucks with a tent in the trailer all racing in the same class.

We also don’t race for any money, we have a point group that you can pay in and win money but on a regular weekend there is no pay out, the adult don’t even get trophies anymore, we announce who placed and do trophies for the kids.

I think there are some other smaller short course associations out east and in Canada but none that are close enough for us to justify trailering to them.

It is sort of hard we do all this work and spend all this money for 7-10 weekends in the summer, but we look forward to it all year and the people are like a huge family. You can ask anyone for a spare part or a beer and they will gladly help you out.

 

[Willysracer]

Hawaii was a blast, swam a bunch with the kids, drank cool drinks and even got a tattoo at old iron side (formerly sailor Jerry’s shop) in Honolulu.

It was an awesome vacation now it’s crunch time to go racing.

 

[chaplinfj60]

hell ya bud. racing.

 

[Willysracer]

Back to the Jeep. The exhaust was gonna get into the drivers side upper link so I cut and bent the inlet to zig and zag away from it.

Then it was onto steering, nabbed the brackets off of the old front cage set up.

Orbital mount, res mount, and the breather thing.

Mounted the orbital and made a new steering shaft with a support in it.

I kept the orbital low and out front to be able to reuse my hoses I already have from last year, I should be able to only need make the pressure feed longer.

Then made a new mount for the res now with the bottom mounting holes being used. Also tied the breather deal into it.

More tomorrow.

 

[chaplinfj60]

this thing here piss me off every day i wheeled. mine leaked like a champ. hated it. removed it and mine now just goes to a catch can basically.

 

[Willysracer]

Yeah mine leaks too, but with how we grenade pumps everything gets covered in hydro fluid anyways. I’ll probably do a catch can type thing who it this will work for now. Last season I went through five pumps I think.

 

[chaplinfj60]

jesus 5 pumps is the sustained rpms? or what kills them

 

[Willysracer]

Well for starters when we order the kits from PSE we call and order a specific orbital that they don’t list on the site that gets us roughly 1 3/4 turns lock to lock.
We need it to be that fast otherwise you are just sawing back and forth at the wheel the whole lap, with the fast orbital I can one hand on the wheel and one on the turning brake a whole lap. That is rough on pumps.
We are playing with check valves and under drive pulleys so the pumps aren’t whacked with as much pressure but we sort of all carry them.
The TC style pumps seems to work a bit better. At the last race last year I broke the shaft out of the front of the pump with the pulley still on it.
I’m also a budget racer so I get the good Napa pump and make friends with the counter guy and as long as there aren’t too many inside pieces on the outside of the pump they warranty them haha.

 

[Willysracer]

 

[Willysracer]

This one of my buddies this gives you a look at how technical our courses are.

 

[chaplinfj60]

This one of my buddies this gives you a look at how technical our courses are.

that was pretty cool...

 

[Willysracer]

Checking stuff of the list for this Jeep.

Mounted the steering cooler and the tans cooler. Trans cooler used to be with the rad but since that is in the back I’ll stack these together and used the steering coolers fan.

Got ghetto and used some zip ties instead of the push lock deals that come with a cooler because I didn’t have any. Have done this a few times and it works good.

Made some simple angle iron brackets, notched them a little so they wrap around the tubes a bit and zapped it on.

Next was make the hood close again. Like most people, I strongly dislike fiber glass work. I had a ton of work into the hood to get the bobcat scoop on so I did quite a bit of measuring and layout before cutting into this thing.

Once I started cutting and grinding on it I didn’t take too many pictures because it’s a mess. I laid the hood on a utility cart outside the shop to help keep the mess out, had to do some final touches once it was bolted back up.

And on and closed.

 

[gt1guy]

That looks like a ton of fun.

 

[HRDROKN]

I think that your headlight angle is suspect......

 

[Willysracer]

I will admit to stealing the angled grill from the European formula offroad guys, they are all super low with angled grills.