Topic: The Macheen rebuild

[nwflyoda]

I redrilled the doubler adapter and mocked up the dana 300.  I also made a temp support bar so that i can lift the truck up and start building the cradle.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

So, i put the truck on stilts tonight.  This is roughly ride height.  ugh its tall.



Then decided to mock the axles in place.  I only messed with the front since thats the axle that will dictate the over height of the truck.  The front axle will end up being about 3" higher off the ground.  Which means about 19" of ground clearance under the diffs. 





This is why i can't go any lower.  Right now, there is about 4" of clearance between the oil pan and the upper link tabs.  I'm thinking about changing the link mount setup on the front axle to allow me to get her to sit lower.  I don't want to stretch the wheelbase much more than what its sitting at with the axle in this current position.  Should be close to 120" right now.

[Dingman.]

3 link instead of 4link?

[nwflyoda [OP]]

3 link instead of 4link?

Thinking about it.  I like the triangulated 4 link that's already setup on these axles but getting the ole girl as low as i can is the priority.  So i may end up switching to a 3 link.  I may pull the oil pan off and clearance it.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

In a effort to get the truck to sit lower and find out the clearance issues ahead of time, I decided to start looking at the suspension in full compression.



This is only about 1/4" of clearance between the upper link mounts and the pan. 




The upper links appear that they will still clear the oil pan but the truck is still too tall for my liking and this still isn't enough clearance between the pan and the upper link tabs.  I'm thinking about spreading the upper link mounts to the outer portion of the truss as well as use 7/8" heims instead of the 1 1/4" heims that the upper links are currently built for.  This should allow me to lower the frame another 3-4".

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Last night, i cut the upper link tabs off and lowered the frame (planning on building new tabs farther apart from one another). I was able to lower the frame just over 4" by doing this. I can't go any lower now without doing something about the motor since the pinion is now about 1/2" away from the oil pan. I even cut part of the factory skid plate on the bottom of the sump to make room. I need to figure out what the caster needs to be at now before i move any further. That could pull the pinion away from the pan more so then i can get even lower. *insert evil grin*

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Here are the pics that I missed earlier.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Made some great progress.  Granted, it may not look like much but its helped me gain a lot of room.  I moved the engine over about 3" to the passenger side as well as back about 1 1/2".  This has allowed me to get better drive line angles as well as more room to get the truck to sit lower.

New motor mounts.



The axle before raising it.


And now since i have more room, i was able to raise it about 2".


I've got a couple things to cut off of the axle then I can get it another 1 or so lower.  All said and done, i'm hoping to get the truck to a 30" belly height at ride height on the 43s.  Granted, thats still a little tall compared to other rigs but it should be pretty close to what i was at before on the 40s.

[jangelfire]

I like the motor mounts! Nice job man!

[redneckcustoms13]

I've been wondering what was happening with it. Glad to see your getting her done. The whorerunner needs to stretch it's legs 2hen you get this one done we should take a trip to boggs.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

I like the motor mounts! Nice job man!

Thanks!!!

I've been wondering what was happening with it. Glad to see your getting her done. The whorerunner needs to stretch it's legs 2hen you get this one done we should take a trip to boggs.

Sounds like a plan.  We should actually go to Morris Mountain instead!!!

[redneckcustoms13]

+1 longer drive but much better wheeling. I should have the new bling d80 done for the towrig by then as well.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

+1 longer drive but much better wheeling. I should have the new bling d80 done for the towrig by then as well.

Exactly.  Other than spending time w/ friends...boggs is pretty boring for rock crawling.  only a couple trails to play on.

Hopefully it won't be much longer till you get the 80 installed.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

I finally got the front axle to the height that i'm happy with.  This should give me a 30" belly height when the truck is at ride height.

This is the front axle at full compression.  I just need to move the alternator to build the upper link mount.








The front driveline is a lot better now.


The rough front suspension setup in the 3 link calculator.

[Dingman.]

Looking like you are making good progress! 

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Thanks bud, its seems likes its been a slow process (which i knew it would be).  lol

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Well, i haven't really made any real progress in the past few days.  Its been more getting rough figures of where to place the link tabs as well as see what i can do about a trackbar.  Since the frame comes down in from of the axle, i'll have to cut that off and rebuild that to clear the steering linkages as well as the trackbar.  I made a mockup hydro steering ram out of cardboard.  I made to to get the overall measurement of the ram....yes, i know it looks nothing like a real ram. haha



Here you can really see how much the frame is going to be in the way.  Sawzaw here i come!!!  *insert evil grin*


Upper link bracket mocked up with a fancy zip tie.  lol  I'm gonna build links that are 48" long instead of 44".  No real reason other then its a more "even" number and it makes my OCD happy.  lmao

[redneckcustoms13]

You didn't put any of the pictures on here of after you cut the frame off lol

[nwflyoda [OP]]

i suppose i forgot to update this thread as well.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Update:

I ordered some goodies from ruff stuff (tube adapters and 3/4 misalignment washers), and now that it has arrived, i was able to play around with the front links. 

I mocked them up to see where the frame mounts would land.  I'm still setting everything up off of full stuff and i'm just using some tubing that i have around tacked to the tube adapters.  I couldn't tack the frame side lower links mounts due to my temp cross member being in the way but it gives me a good visual.

The lower links will end up being sleeved but i'm debating on sleeving the upper since there is only one to handle the stress of the portal axle.  Thoughts???





Once i pick up some 1/4" plate, i'll be able to plate the inside of the frame rail so that i can use something a little more sturdy than a zip tie to hold the upper link tab to the frame rail. 


My supervisor seems to be enjoying the progress almost as much as i am.


I still need to build the new front frame rail section.  Then i'll be able to build a trackbar and cycle the suspension to see if there will be other clearance issues.  lol

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Progress has been a bit slow lately.  I recently picked up some 1/4" plate as well as 2x3 .125" wall rectangle tubing to build the front frame section.

With the extra load/stress the upper link places on the frame (even more so with the portal axles), plus the fact that the inner frame rail on the yota isn't very thick...i've decided to build a plate to add a lot more strength/structure to the frame. 

Here was the template.


The plate cut out and ready to installed on the truck.  The one hole in the plate was offset so that i can get the upper ink mount to the top portion of the frame rail for more separation.


I installed the plate after the lower side was bent.  I clamped it to the frame rail to get it to contour to the frame then I welded the center hole.  Then i drilled the other 2 holes through the frame.  The 2 holes through the frame will get a 1 5/8" piece tubing along with some more 1/4" plate on the outside of the frame rail.  I still need to heat the portion of the plate that sticks above the frame so that i can bend that down and weld that as well.  For now, the upper link mount is just tacked on.  I will be adding some more plate diagonally from the upper link mount back to the end of the plate to fully gusset the upper link mount.  This way it will transfer any forces/load from the upper link along the inside of the frame rail.


View from the outside of the frame rail.  Don't worry, the factory transfer case frame side mount will get cut off once i build a crossmember.  That is currently serving to hold the drivetrain.


The lower links are still not attached to the frame at the moment.  I'm currently debating on how attach them to the frame.  I have the mounts in the picture below but i'm not happy with how big they are.  I keep picturing them reaching out and crabbing the rocks below.  haha  My original logic with purchasing those mounts was that i was going to mount the lower links directly under the frame rails.  The downside with doing that is the geometry would have a lot of roll over steer. 

So i'm thinking about building a crossmember to go under the transfer cases.  I will make tabs to capture the heims inside the frame to give a better roll steer geometry.  Also, i will build a transfer case mount off of that crossmember. 

I'm just not sure how thick of tubing that i need to use for the crossmember or whether to use square or round tube.  I'm open to suggestions or ideas???

[redneckcustoms13]

Ugh... phone a friend?

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Ugh... phone a friend?

That could work...lol  I suppose the debate on round vs square tube really just comes down to preference.  But the thickness is another story.

[redneckcustoms13]

I would think an absolute minimum of 3/16. Square is easiest in this instance in my opinion.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

I would think an absolute minimum of 3/16. Square is easiest in this instance in my opinion.

I figured i'd go ahead and use 1/4" wall tubing.  I'd rather go a little thicker than needed since i don't plan to be easy on the truck.  I had some 2" 1/4" wall DOM left over from when i built the traction bars for the drag truck so i decided to use that.

I just tacked it into place for now but i'm pretty happy with how its turned out.


The passenger side of the lower link mount.  I still need to heat the plate and bend it under the frame rail.  I couldn't pour the heat to the frame side because its a lot thinner than the 1/4" plate that i'm adding.


Now that the lower link mount is tacked into place, i was able to get rid of that temp brace/crossmember.  So, while i build the frame side tabs for the lower links, i busted out the handy big ole zip tie to get the lower link close enough for measurements.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Update:

I worked on the front suspension a bit more this weekend.  I built the frame side link tabs for the lower links then tacked them into place.  I angled the lower links to get most of the roll over steer out.  I didn't want to go much more inward due to the angle of the heim at the axle side link mount.  The cells in red are still not figured out yet till i can build the frame rail and track bar.  Which i hope to be able to do next weekend.



View from above.  You can get a good idea how much better the front driveline angle is now that the drivetrain has been moved over.  Once i know the suspension is good and there are no clearance issues, i'll make gussets and box in the link tabs to add more strength to them.



The lower link mounts don't hang too far below the belly either.





Small victor...the front axle no longer needs 3 jack stands!

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Tinkered with the ole gal a bit more.  Not too much to show but here is the latest.

I welded the brace to the outside of the frame.  With this plus the gussets/bracing that i will add to the upper link mount, it should make it really sturdy and if it were to fail, it would have to rip the frame in 2.



I put the cage back on it so that i could mock up the front frame rail plus the added windshield braces mocked up in the blue tape.



This weekend we bent the new frame rail section out of 1 3/4" tubing instead of the 2x3 rectangle tubing i was going to go with at first.  I failed to get in progress pictures of the bending of the tubing but here is what it looks like now tacked into place.

You can see from the picture below, that the stinger is a bit higher and closer to the engine than the old one.  This will give me a great approach angle.  The front tires should grab the rocks before the front of the truck even touches...unless its a really tall rock...then it'll just be more fun.  With the suspension at full stuff, i wanted to make sure that the frame was 5" above my mock up steering ram.



This was my contraption of sorts so that i could mock it into position by myself.  Actually worked pretty well surprisingly.  lol

[81fRaNkEnToY83]

Wow.

[redneckcustoms13]

Come on dan, get that junk burnt in so we can do some wheelin!

[nwflyoda [OP]]

I'm trying.  The current struggle is coming up with a trackbar.  Someone had to go and make the truck sit "low" and that right now is making things difficult.  Its either gonna have to be really far in front of the axle center line which will require a lot of extra bracing on the axle bracket or the track bar will have to have a bend or two in it to clear the crank pulley and hydro steering.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  haha