Zuk powered Lizard buggy build

[Tumbleweed13]

I thought I’d do a thread on my build. This is a bit different, because my build is about 90% done. I registered, here on Irate less than a week ago. So I’ll just add a little more, when I have time, until I’m caught up to where I am In the build. Hopefully the buggy will be running when I get to the end. LOL.

I started this build, by picking up my OG 2.0 Lizard chassis from Thomas at KOH 2021. The chassis had a few extras with it. Shock mounts, as well as link mounts were already welded on. I also got a set of steel suspension links, with FK heims, set up for 110” WB.

I should say that my goal with the rig is to be able to wheel the hardest trails out there, and not worry about being able to keep up with the elite level rigs ( at least equipment wise), at half the cost.

First thing I did was figure out where to mount the drivetrain. I wanted the engine, as far back, and as low as possible. I bolted up the drivetrain and slid it into the chassis. With the help of a friend we found the best placement for everything, and made the engine mounts and the t-case mount. I only have 3 mounts for the entire drivetrain. This creates a triangle, and reduces binding.

At this point I’m sure you’re wondering what the drivetrain is. The engine is a 1.6L 8v, with a DWR turbo kit, and runs on a Got Propane?, propane kit. It has a th180 automatic transmission. Behind the trans is a custom made doubler, from the original sidekick transfer case that came from the factory, bolted behind the trans. The front output was cut off,and now works as a doubler. An adapter was made to mount the doubler to a D300 t-case.

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

Sweet build. I am jelly......................

 

[Tumbleweed13]

Sweet build. I am jelly......................

Thanks. It took a long time before I was able to build the buggy I really wanted.

 

[Tumbleweed13]

So after I put the drivetrain in the chassis, and I was figuring out the next move for the build. I was looking at the drivetrain in the chassis, and it bothered me how low the transfer case hung down. Because of that, the engine had to sit higher than I wanted. At this point I had to make a decision. Either leave it and never think about it again, or change it now. I knew it would irritate me forever, so I went on eBay and ordered a Clocking ring. After I got the clocking ring in my hands, and I was messing around with everything seeing how it all was going to go together. I didn’t like the idea of two adapters bolting together. I stared at it for a while I came up with the idea of drilling a second set of mounting holes in the aluminum adapter plate I already had. So I used the clocking ring, as a template, and drilled another set of holes. I was limited on how much I could clock the Dana 300. The mount for the transfer case shifters, would hit where the doubler shifter is. I went over everything again, and realized I only needed to rotate the Dana 300, up about 10°. The bottom of the doubler hangs a little bit lower than the bottom of the transmission. so, rotating the Dana 300 up, 10°, and notching the shifter mount on the transfer case was all I was able to do. But it was enough to lower the entire drivetrain 3 inches. I was much happier with the final drivetrain placement. The last two pics are before and after where you can see the difference it made. if you look at the distributor on the back of the engine, it’s a good indicator of how much everything was lowered.

 

[chaplinfj60]

will this give you a stupid short drive shaft in the rear?

 

[Tumbleweed13]

will this give you a stupid short drive shaft in the rear?

Negative. I was actually able to reuse the front shaft, from my old buggy, in the rear. Its 28 -30". It worked out perfect. the U-joint at the case is inline with the link joints at the chassis. So, everything pivots at the same point. No Binding!

 

[chaplinfj60]

Negative. I was actually able to reuse the front shaft, from my old buggy, in the rear. Its 28 -30". It worked out perfect. the U-joint at the case is inline with the link joints at the chassis. So, everything pivots at the same point. No Binding!

way cool you cant get much better than that

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

the U-joint at the case is inline with the link joints at the chassis. So, everything pivots at the same point. No Binding!

I've always built link suspensions like that and thought it was just the normal thing to do. Works out perfectly every single time.

 

[Tumbleweed13]

So now that I have the location of the drivetrain finalized. I needed to get the chassis up off the ground and on jackstands. The next logical step was to get the axles figured out. Prior to the build, I had purchased a 9 inch rear axle. The front axle was going to be a custom unit built by myself. I got a Trail-Gear fabricated housing, but the knuckles were going to come off of a dodge Dana 60. I got my hands on the front axle that I needed. I had decided to use the Dodge factory inner C’s and knuckles as well as the unit bearing and brakes set up. I was good with this decision because a friend of mine is running this exact same set up on a buggy that has proven itself time and time again. The biggest bonus, was that because it was all factory parts, they are cheaper and easy to get. so I went about the hard work of removing the inner C’s, from the Dana 60. This was one of the hardest jobs I’ve had to do on the entire buggy. I was pretty impressed with how thick the dana 60 housing tube was. It was so thick, but I was able to use sections of the axle tube and make custom slugs to mate the inner C’s to the Trail-Gear fabricated housing.

 

[chaplinfj60]

very nice work by the way, good idea on factory parts :)

 

[Tumbleweed13]

I’ve seen a lot of buggies that have been wheeled very hard, with crushed rocker tubes. I didn’t want this to be an issue with my rig. At this point my rocker tubes were open at the tail end. So I went down to my local metal supply yard, and picked up some solid aluminum bars. I pounded the hell out of that aluminum bar to get it to slide into the rocker tubes. Because the chassis had already been welded completely, those tubes weren’t exactly round. It was a pain in the ass, but I am very happy that my rocker tubes are basically solid at this point.

 

[chaplinfj60]

i used a piece of drill steel for the inside of one of my tubes also. works like a champ...

 

[Tumbleweed13]

There were a lot of things going on with the build at this point. I picked up some parts that I had ordered. A set of seats from PRP and some 14“ x 2 1/2“ air shocks from rad flow, just name a couple

One of the things I wanted to do, was get the chassis up on jackstands, and figure out the location of the axles. I decided to build the buggy with the suspension at full bump. I was limited with belly height because of the jackstands I was using, so I set the belly at 13 1/2 inches off the ground, and the center line of the axle housings were set at 20 inches off the ground. For trail wheeling, I plan to have about 4 inches of shock shaft showing. This should give me a belly height of about 17 1/2 inches. I was also constantly thinking and rethinking about how I wanted to build this buggy, and what is going to make it the best it can be. So before I got the axles in position, I made the call to go ahead and do rear steer. So I put the 9 inch rear axle that I had, up for sale, ordered another Trail-Gear housing to match the front and started shopping for a dodge Dana 60 to get another set of knuckles

One of the things that really helped me build my axles myself, was this tool that a friend of mine showed me. It gives you all the important locations and information you need to build a custom 9 inch, right the first time.

 

[WoodburyZuk]

Very nice. I like the lizard. I think it’s a good value for what it is.

 

[WaterH]

I’m not sure how much a benefit rear steer really is, but it’s so cool. And probably a real learning experience to drive.

 

[Tumbleweed13]

I’m not sure how much a benefit rear steer really is, but it’s so cool. And probably a real learning experience to drive.

Rear steer isn’t just a benefit, it’s a game changer. I have a few friends running it. It helps you line up your rig better, helps you stay on a line, when driving thru an obstacle, and allows you to get to a line, that a drag axle can’t. One of the biggest benefits people usually don’t think about. It saves ware and tear on your rig. A drag axle my have to try an obstacle many times before making, said obstacle, thus beating up your rig. RS will help you find that little bit of traction that will get you up and crawl over.

 

[Tumbleweed13]

I had the housings and all the parts for the C’s and knuckles. So I went about the work of getting the C’s welded on to the housing, after I figured out the final pinion angle And caster. Then I figured out where they would sit for the wheelbase I wanted, and started working on the link mounts. I got a little bit of help from Bent Fab Racing for the rear upper link mount. His bracket is nice and simple and looks better than anything I could’ve made myself. After the axles were located and all the link mounts were done front and rear, it was time to mount up the shocks. Figuring out the mounts for the front shocks was a bit of a pain in the ass. I only had 14 inch shocks, but they were sitting up much higher than the chassis ”fender tubes”. So I had to lean them back, much more than I wanted. To get them to sit right. all this work took me a couple of weeks, but I was very happy to see the build coming along and starting to look like a buggy.

 

[WaterH]

While that link mount looks nice, I can’t say I like welding inside tabs across their logo. Or am not seeing that right?

 

[Tumbleweed13]

While that link mount looks nice, I can’t say I like welding inside tabs across their logo. Or am not seeing that right?

The inside tabs are full length, and go all the way down to the housing. After final welding. I was not worried about their strength.

 

[Tumbleweed13]

While working on getting the axles located and the suspension all set up, I was also working on the seat mounts, and I picked up a twin stick kit, for my Dana 300.

As I was working on the link mounts, I was very unhappy with the front, driver side Upper link tower. It just seemed way too tall, and it looked real bad. I did some research and talked to some people with experience, setting up link geometry. I found out I had way too much separation, and I could lower my upper link mounts a bit. I got a little help from Bent Fabrications Racing again. He made me a very nice upper link tower, that looked way better than what I was building.

 

[WaterH]

Is the drivers side a different height than the pax?

 

[Tumbleweed13]

Is the drivers side a different height than the pax?

No. That pic was probably taken while I was in the middle of lowering both mounts.

 

[Tumbleweed13]

With the inner C’s heavily tacked on to the axle housings, the shocks mounted and the links done. This thing is basically a roller. So I decided to bolt on the knuckles and the unit bearings, throw the wheels and tires on it, and roll it out in front of the garage, Flex this thing out and see how it all works together.

I was really impressed with how much this thing flexed. Unfortunately, the tires hit the shocks at full lock, on all four corners. This was a major setback. I had to think about what I wanted/had to do to solve this problem.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Is it as simple as just moving the mounts closer to the center on the chassis?

 

[chaplinfj60]

like the yota said, you could even make a removable shock mount bar from side to side

 

[chaplinfj60]

you do have a bar in the way so that could be a challenge, but going toward the center might be your only option. these angles are extreme just a mock up

 

[WaterH]

Could you gain enough by tilting the front shocks forward and the rear back?

 

['84 Bronco II]

Is it as simple as just moving the mounts closer to the center on the chassis?

like the yota said, you could even make a removable shock mount bar from side to side

you do have a bar in the way so that could be a challenge, but going toward the center might be your only option. these angles are extreme just a mock up

Could you gain enough by tilting the front shocks forward and the rear back?

Spoiler alert guys, this isn't a real time thread and it looks like he already figured out the shock mounting issue based on this post

I’m a Zuk powered buggy guy. Below is a pic of my old Sami buggy, and the 1.6L powered tube chassis rig I’m currently building.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Spoiler alert guys, this isn't a real time thread and it looks like he already figured out the shock mounting issue based on this post

Hey hey, hey

Just let us kids believe in Santa a little longer OK?

 

[chaplinfj60]

hahahahahaha lollolololo but we solved it hahahah