Topic: The Macheen rebuild

[redneckcustoms13]

What size socket do you need? I may have one to put on a tq multiplier you could borrow.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

I think its a 54mm.  Its actually the same size as the front wheel bearings on the stock yota solid axles.  My socket is 3/8 drive so i snapped off the ratchet trying to break the bolt lose.  haha

[redneckcustoms13]

I should have a 2 1/8" socket and multiplier. I'll look and let you know

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Sounds good, thanks!

[joeyf]

Nice👍 when doing that do a third of the turn method. We do this at work some times and is a fairly accurate way to torque if you don't have anything.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

That's good to know.  It's honestly very hard to get much more turn on the nut even with the mini sledge hammer.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

First off, Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope everyone is getting to spend time with their families and loved ones for the holidays!

Update:

I finally got around to getting all of the portal boxes replaced.  But in order to make a Veteran's day ride to Morris Mountain, i had to skip the painting of the front caliper mounts.  So, I'm addressing that now.  When it came time to replace the front portal boxes, i discovered that the driver front caliper was leaking around all 4 pistons.  I've never seen a caliper do that and especially not one that was new.



I exchanged the caliper at the local parts store but ran into an issue.  It appears that the casting for the calipers varies slightly between calipers.  Enough so, that i can't use the mounts i already built for the calipers.  This is a problem because i already had to grind the backside of the caliper to clear the wheel as it was before, so this will be even worse if i have to pull the top of the caliper further away from the portal box.  Plus, this will pull the pads away from the rotors and cause them to wear unevenly.

You can see in the below picture, that the banjo bolt hits the portal box before the caliper will bolt will go in.  About a 1/4" off actually.



Here are my thoughts on how to address this for good.  The main point for me to run these calipers was so that if i were to ever have an issue with a caliper while out wheeling, i could exchange one at the local parts store.  But this has proven to not be as easy as i had hoped with the different castings.  Plus, I've had issues getting them to stop leaking at the banjo between the washer and the caliper and/or banjo fitting. 

To resolve this for good, I've talked to a few friends around here and we've all come up with the best way to fix it.  I'm gonna run stock replacement calipers for the same corvette but from Wilwood.  These are definitely more expensive but I'm tired of fighting with the stock calipers and getting them to fit and not leak.  The Wilwood calipers will resolve both of my issues here.  The brake line inlet is no longer near the portal box.  Instead, they are at the bottom of the caliper.  This will allow me to bolt them onto the caliper mounts without any portal box interference.  Secondly, they don't use banjos for the brake fluid inlet.  Instead, they have an 1/8" npt fitting.  This will allow me to get an adapter for 1/8" npt to -3 AN and directly connect my -3 AN lines to the calipers.  No more leaky leaky for the brake lines.  So, I'm gonna replace the front 2 for now then later replace the back 2.

One of the other issues that i wanted to address, was the leaking Dana 300.  Since it's flipped upside down, it tends to leak out of the shift rail seals.  So, i found a guy that makes an aluminum seal retainer since the stock one was missing from my tcase when i bought it.  I then doubled up the shift rail seals.  I'm also adjusting the linkage some, so that the shift levers don't hit the cutting brake levers anymore.  I'm not sure if this has been the reason why the rear output would pop out of low range while descending down some hills.  I'll find out the next time i go wheeling.



When performing a nut and bolt check, i noticed that jamb nuts backed off for the tie rods.  When i got the tie rod kit from PSC, the tub adapters didn't have a hex head on it so that i could put a wrench on it to fully tighten the jam nuts.  I ordered some aluminum tie rods from Wide Open Designs to resolve this.





Now that I've gotten most of the quirks addressed, i wanted to go ahead and recenter my wheels to get rid of the 1.5" wheel spacers.  With the new backspacing, the overall truck width will grow from the 92" currently, to about 96".  I ordered the centers from Stazworks but while i wait for them to arrive, i went ahead and took the spare wheel plus my 2 front wheels apart and brought them to my buddy that has a plasma cutter.  I'll post up some photos of the finished product once i get the wheel centers. 



Here are the PVC inserts that i use from Trail Worthy Fab.



I'll end this update with a few photos a local photographer took while with a few friends while we were out at a local park playing around.

[OVRAROK]

Hats off to the fabulous tube work, this is one of my favorite builds....  oh..., merry xmas to you too..

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Thank you!

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Here is a video of a buddy with his LS powered TJ and i at Morris Mountain on Veteran's day weekend.

https://youtu.be/NdWt_93M4yE

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Update:

A few changes since the last update.

I got tired of fighting the banjo leaking issue along with the fact that the stock corvette calipers were slightly different between one another.  The casting at the banjo fitting wasn't always the same.  One caliper would fit with the mounts that i built, and the next caliper won't since the banjo would hit the portal box before the top bolt would line up.  This was due to the casting at the banjo being slightly taller than the other caliper.  So, i'd have to redo the mounts each time and that wasn't satisfactory.

So i went ahead and pulled the trigger on the wilwood stock replacement calipers for the truck.  Over all, i'm SOOOOO glad that i did and i should have done it from the get go.  With some slight modifications to my mounts, they bolted in.  Because the inlet uses 1/8 NPT, i was able to pull the top of the caliper tight against the brake rotor like it should be.   Now the caliper isn't anywhere near touching the wheel.



One of the things that i had planned when i was building the rig, yet didn't get done yet; was to have a trim ring made around the exhaust.  While i don't race anymore, i wanted to do this to kinda pull that part of my life into the crawling part.  So, i hit up my buddy that does the carbon fiber work and he made me an orange carbon fiber trim ring for the exhaust.  i love how it turned out!



In continuing with the re-centering of my wheels, while i waited for the new centers to arrive, i went ahead and painted the outer halves of the wheels.  After seeing them painted, i really can't wait to get the new wheel setup on the rig.



Unfortunately not in time for my last ride to Chocco, the wheel centers did finally arrive.  I had to wheel with two different outers on my front wheels since i already cut the stock centers off of my outers in preparation for the new centers.   But the new centers look amazing and it is now time to get them installed.



In order to get the wheels are true as i could, i came up with an interesting solution to do this.  Hopefully this makes sense as i explain it.  I'll take a pic tonight of the adapter setup to help show what i'm referring to here.

I wanted to true the new centers off of the stock centers.  To do this as precisely as i could think of, i used the 1.5" wheel spacers that were on the front of the truck.  I took one spacer and bolted it to the stock wheel center.  I then took the second wheel spacer and bolted it to the front of the new wheel center (bolted it on backwards compared to normal) and then slide the new wheel center down onto the backside of the wheel.  From there, i measured the distance between the 2 wheel spacers and made a spacer/shim to take up the distance since the new centers didn't slide down as far as i had expected.  I pulled it apart and bolted the 2 wheel spacers with the extra spacer/shims in between.  I then measured the overall thickness of this assembly to ensure that it was the same all around.  I then bolt it all back together and i was able to tack weld the new center on and check for the run out.  It was within .010" of the stock center on the wheel so i burnt it in.  The next 2 wheels that I did kept getting better with less and less runout.  One thing that i noticed as i was checking the runout, it appears that most of the runout that i have is from the stock inner wheel halves being slightly tweaked.  Which i could expect since these wheels are from an military H1 and who knows what they were put through in their life before i bought them.  But overall, i love how they turned out.  Now i just need to do 2 more wheels.

Another thing that i noticed, was that i was told the backspacing should be about 3 3/8" but it ended up being closer to 2 1/2".  Since the centers are 8 spoke and not like pressed centers made by other companies, i discovered that the spokes aren't bent the exact same.  If you lay the center down on a perfectly flat surface face down, it wobbles.  I can't set the well center completely flush against the lip of the wheel because it throws the trueness off on the wheel.  So, to keep one of the spokes from hitting the wheel first, i had to add another shim to the spacer pack.





Here is what the wheel looks like mocked up with my painted outer half.



Speaking of the ride, i'll leave off with some photos from the trip.  It was a great time and i only broke a windshield wiper arm.  haha

Here are a few pics from the trail "Hell's Revenge".







Here i'm on the trail called "Backside 1".







What happened here was that my jacket caught my mode switch for the rear steer.  I have been keeping it in the auto mode so that when i'm done with the rear steer, it is supposed to straighten the rear tires, but little did i know or realize, the switch was flipped by my jacket and put into manual mode.  So, when i lined back up to try this rock face, my rear tires were turned and it then caused me to roll over.  Lesson learned and now that jacket is in the dumpster.  I suppose its all part of learning the new rig as well.  I definitely look forward to more seat time.

On a bummer note though, i just realized that the beginning of my build thread all of the pics are lost now.  That'll be time consuming to try and figure out which pic is what and re-upload them.  *facepalm*

[redneckcustoms13]

Is that at Morris mountain where you flopped? Lew forked up the old maytag militia in that same spot.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

No, that was at Choccolocco where i flopped.

[:)bestgen4runner]

Every time I see an update for this truck I smile.
Said it before and I’ll say it again. By far my favorite build thread.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Thanks bud!  i'm glad that you enjoy seeing the updates.

[redneckcustoms13]

Every time I see an update for this truck I smile.
Said it before and I’ll say it again. By far my favorite build thread.

I like that part of it lives on in mine. The 23 spline mc07 doubler adapter and sr5 seats bring back memories of 10 years ago when we first started wheeling together.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

That awesome!  i'm glad that you're getting use out of them and that it brings back those memories.  we definitely need to go wheeling again soon!

[redneckcustoms13]

Jeep jam at boggs is in april. That should be the break in rode foe the brown truck on it's new legs and duals.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

When in April?  If it's the first weekend, i'll be in going to the Green Acres Off Road park in Clayton, OK that weekend.

[redneckcustoms13]

Yep, 5th-7th. Also we are going to boggs March 1st-3rd. But may just be taking the hunting truck.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

I may have to make a trip to boggs that weekend then.  Let me know if ya'll do in fact go.

[redneckcustoms13]

I will be at both rides. Just dont know if the 1st one is going to be in the tacoma or the brown truck.

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Right on!  i'll plan to make it and maybe drag Jon out as well. 

[nwflyoda [OP]]

Quick update:

I was able to get the front wheels finished. 



The truck is definitely wider now.  I'm not sure if you can really tell by this picture, but over all; the front of the truck is now 6" wider than the rear.  You can easily tell when looking at the distance between the high steer arm and the sidewall of the tire.





Here are a couple pics to show the overall look.  I really like the look of the new centers.





Next up is to take care of the rear.  When i do that, i'll take a couple photos without the tire on the wheel to show how much the backspacing has changed.

I'm also about to change the oil and spark plugs in the truck too.  Nothing special there, just some maintenance.  But the plugs have been in the engine for nearly 6 years and the one that i removed yesterday looked good actually.

[OVRAROK]

 This thing is just 

[redneckcustoms13]

I like the new width fo sho!

[nwflyoda [OP]]

it'll just be tight fitting down some trails now.  I think its 98" wide outside of tire to outside of tire.

[OVRAROK]

8ft 2".... 

[nwflyoda [OP]]

the track width of my rig is longer than the wheelbase of 2 door jeeps.  hahaha

[redneckcustoms13]

Just does fit on the wood deck of the gooseneck