SXOR single seater build

[Hokie_YJ]

Thanks man. That's what I keep telling myself.

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

if you didnt like the basket that high, could possibly mount it sideways behind the rad.

If you need more storage, could always build a package tray under the hood. Be a good spot for cold beverages.

Definately looks like some mirrors are going to be needed though.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

The basket is 33"x24", and the chassis narrows down to probably about 18" behind the radiator. I think it would just stick out the sides too far. I believe it will be ok up high, just a little more vulnerable in a rollover. I'd say I will end up using quite a bit of the space under the hood for stuff too.

And mirrors are on the way. They're supposed to be here Friday. I had some of the ones that just go on with hose clamps, but I ended up selling them and getting a set of the spring loaded Race Mirors from JR on Pirate.

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

The basket is 33"x24", and the chassis narrows down to probably about 18" behind the radiator. I think it would just stick out the sides too far. I believe it will be ok up high, just a little more vulnerable in a rollover. I'd say I will end up using quite a bit of the space under the hood for stuff too.

And mirrors are on the way. They're supposed to be here Friday. I had some of the ones that just go on with hose clamps, but I ended up selling them and getting a set of the spring loaded Race Mirors from JR on Pirate.

Rollover would be what i would be concerned with. But mainly cuz if i was in a single seater it might be often.

The race mirrors look to be well worth the money if you need a side mirror.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

Rollover would be what i would be concerned with. But mainly cuz if i was in a single seater it might be often.

The race mirrors look to be well worth the money if you need a side mirror.

Yeah, this thing might spend a bit of time rubber side up. Lol.

Yeah, some of those mirrors took some serious abuse in KOH. The pic of Tom Wayes car with the crushed tube with the mirror still almost perfect sold me on them.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I haven't had a lot of time in the garage over the last couple weeks, but I've piddled around a got a little bit done when I've had the chance.

The more I looked at the tubing I had added for the interior panels the less I liked it. So I cut it all out and will start over on that. When I originally did it I wasn't thinking ahead and just threw it in there. But I realized that if I didn't make it removable that the only way I could ever pull the tranny or t-case would be to pull the whole drivetrain. So when I re-do it I'll use tube couplers so it can be removed and the tranny or t-case can be pulled from the inside.

I worked on mounting the ECU. This is a BinksFab ECU mount that I modified a little bit to work for me. I added the three bolts on the top to mount my TAC module to, and changed up the mounting bracket a little bit. I just plugged the wiring harness up to make sure everything was going to reach.







I also got the intake sorted out. Just waiting on the filter to show up. The filter I originally ordered was too long so I had to order a smaller one. I just used a 4" short radius 90 and cut each leg as short as I could. The filter will go right on the end of the MAF. I know that's not ideal for the reading, but it will have to work.



After seeing JohnG's post about the Race Mirrors I decided I had to have a pair myself.









One of the next jobs I'm going to try to tackle is setting up the 3rd members. I've never done gears before, but I've been doing a lot of reading and watched a lot of YouTube videos and I'm pretty confident that I can do it myself.

After that's done it will be time to turn this pile of stuff into some driveshafts.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I had a little time today so I re-did the interior tube work. Each piece of tube has a tube coupler on the chassis end so it can be removed if needed. The panels will be .100" aluminum.













And the new air filter came in today so I threw it on to see how it fit. It tucks just inside the chassis.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I started working on the interior panels today. Still have more to do, but I got a decent start on it. All panels are .100" aluminum. Everything is mounted with threaded trick tabs so it can be removed without too much trouble.

Trick tabs all layed out.



Test fitting the first panel. The cutout in the near right corner is for clearance for the intake elbow.



Cutting the hole for the twin sticks. I measured several times for this, laid it out, cut it with the plasma, and still somehow managed to get the angle wrong on it. I have the boot that AA ships with the Atlas on it right now, but the shifters won't travel all the way because the hole is on the wrong angle. I found a boot by JB Fab that has a bigger opening so I went ahead and ordered one. I'll fix that problem when it comes in.







I originally planned to use an Art Carr shifter, but the rear exit cable made it hard to package. So I decided to go with a B&M Pro-Stick instead. The gates will be modified so you can hit neutral or reverse easily. It's mounted on a quick release bracket.







Cutting the gauge/switch panel. Plasma with a standoff /drag tip made cutting this stuff a breeze.



Gauge/switch panel installed. Tomorrow I'll cut the holes and mount the 12voltguy switch panel and the Autometer dash pack in it. And I also have to find somewhere to mount the Blue Sea battery selector/kill switch.







I think I'll end up either painting or doing some kind of coating on these panels. With a copper chassis and black skins I think having the panels black would look a lot better than plain aluminum.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I got a little more done on the interior today. I cut the holes for the switch panel and gauge cluster and got them mounted. The switch panel is from 12VoltGuy, and the cluster is a Autometer Pro-Comp Pro Dash.

















I made this piece just to fill the hole that was there.



And I also decided on a spot for the battery switch and cut the hole, but I didn't have long enough bolts to mount it. I'll pick some up tomorrow when I'm out so I can get all that back together.



I'm also going to cut a piece of aluminum to try and fill the hole beside the seat the best I can. The front driveshaft will be just a few inches away so I at least want a little something between it and me in case something flies apart.

 

[Tacoma747]

Love it, I always liked those chassis' when they first started coming out, by far one of my favorites.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

Thanks man. It's always been my favorite too.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I've been doing a few things here and there over the last few days. I got some longer bolts and mounted the battery disconnect. I also got the new shifter boot in. I enlarged the hole in the panel and made some adjustments on the linkages and got the shifters working smoothly.

I also cut a panel to fill the hole beside the seat.



I also got the radiator shroud cut and mounted the Volvo fan.















And here's the start of building the driveshafts. The yokes are Spicers, part# 3-28-777. They're 1350 yokes for 2"x.120" tubing. The four on the right are welded to short pieces of 2"x.120" to fit into the main shaft which will be 2.5"x.250" tubing. The two on the left are welded to 2.25"x.250" tubing to match the O.D. of the WOD carrier bearing stub. The mid shafts will be 2.5"x.120" tubing. I cut the tubing at work on our big vertical bandsaw to get the squarest cut I could. I heated the tubing in the oven to about 275* and pressed the yokes in then welded them up. I know they won't be perfect, but I think they'll be close enough. They're probably going to have some vibrations with the angles they'll be running at anyway.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I worked on the midship shafts today and got both of them tacked together and the carrier bearing mounts tacked in place. The carrier bearings are WOD's single ended bearings. The weld yoke is a Spicer 3-28-777 welded into a short piece of 2.25"x.250" DOM to sleeve into the 2.5"x.120" tubing. And the end yoke is a forged 32 spline 1350 yoke from Northern Drivetrain.

Starting on the rear shaft.





Here's my redneck fixture I set up to get them as square as possible and the joints in phase. I'm sure there are much better ways of doing this, but it's what I came up with and it worked pretty well for me.



All tacked together.



And tacked in place.



This picture makes it look a little closer than it really is, but it should clear the shifter linkage just fine.



Looking back from where the pinion yoke will be. As you can see this thing will see some pretty crazy angles.



Putting together the front shaft.



Mounted in place.



And looking back from the pinion again. The front shaft won't have near the angle that the rear does.



I originally planned to put short slips in these shafts hoping that would help with vibration. I already had all the parts to make the shortest slip I could find. But I mentioned it in another thread and Ryan from He-Man Machine recommend that I not put a slip in them. And since he designed and builds the bearings I figured I should definitely take his advice.

 

[Black Bear]

What was the reasoning behind not having slip on that shaft?

 

[BRUISER]

if transfer case and engine are hard mounted it should be fine

 

[karatejosh]

Mine dosent have any slip and the baring and transfer case and engine are all mounted on with very stiff poly

 

[paradisePWoffrd]

What was the reasoning behind not having slip on that shaft?

Here is what Ryan said on Hardline for not using a slip with the single ended carrier:

when you land on the drive shaft it twists the bearing race because there is no support on the other side of the shaft these little bearings cant take it on the ultra bearing the bearings are a lot beefier and can take it but you need a slip on both sides so you can get it out easier and it will put no side load on it even on a solid mount setup the frame will still move and cause premature wear

 

[Hokie_YJ]

Here is what Ryan said on Hardline for not using a slip with the single ended carrier:

I just went to that thread and copied that to post it here. Lol. Thanks.

There may be some vibration from not having a slip, but if you look at the angles these driveshafts will be running at vibration is just going to be a fact of life anyway.

 

[ol'Jeeps]

Just a thought to add here...We just finished a buggy, using the single ended carrier. We felt that engine torque was possibly pressing the carrier into misalignment was contributing to vibration. We mounted the bearing in a pair of 1 1/4" poly bushings, (same stuff as the motor/trans were mounted in!). This should allow the carrier to move slightly to maintain alignment.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I started working on the 3rd members but didn't get very far. When I laid everything out I discovered that Currie shipped me the wrong outer pinion bearing. The bearing they shipped is for a 35 spline pinion but I'm using a stick 28 spline pinion. I called them up and the order sheet had the right bearing on it, somebody just grabbed the wrong one when they packed the order. The correct bearings are on the way, but won't be here until next week.

This is my first attempt at any kind of gear work, so this will be a big learning experience for me. Everybody says 9" gears are about the easiest to do though so I have that going for me. I've been reading a lot of how to articles and watching a lot of YouTube videos trying to learn.

Here's the parts list for the 3rds:

Yukon HD nodular 3.25" cases
35 spline spools
Yukon 5.13 gears
Ring gear bolt locks from ZukIzzy on Pirate
Currie big bearing "upside down" pinion supports
Trail Gear "upside down" pinion guards
Billet 1350 yokes

While I'm waiting on the bearings I went ahead and did a few things that I could get done.

I started off cleaning up the cases with acetone and got a couple good coats of paint on them.



I threw one of my spare shafts in the chain vise and used it to hold the spool while I mounted and torqued the ring gear.



Here you can see the ring gear bolt locks.



And here with the tabs bent up to keep the bolts from backing out. The bolts are also torqued with red loctite.



Went ahead and pressed the inner pinion bearing race in.



And pressed the inner bearing on the pinion.



And here's my high dollar spanner wrench for the side adjuster nuts. Lol.



That's about all I got done. I could have started on the other 3rd but I didn't want to get parts mixed up between the two so I figured it would be best to just wait.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I finished up one 3rd member today. It took a few hours and several attempts but I ended up with a pattern that I'm pleased with. When I started the build I planned to just pay someone else to set up the gears, but I'm glad now that I took the time to learn and do it myself. It's really not that bad at all.

Here's the final gear pattern. The backlash is at just over .010" with a pinion shim height of .019".





And the completed 3rd member.





I still have one more to do. Hopefully I can get at least started on it before I have to go in to work tomorrow night.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

The fact that the backlash was a little out of spec was bugging me so I made some adjustments today and got the backlash down to .009".



But a few of the ring gear teeth just barely drag on the pinion pilot bearing housing now. Here you can see where it's dragging on the toe of the ring gear.



I checked the backlash in several spots and it's consistent so I don't think runout is an issue. It doesn't lock it down and I can still easily turn the yoke by hand. You can just feel it barely drag as the teeth rub. As bad as I hate to I'm going to tear it back apart.

I've been doing some reading and I guess this is a pretty common problem. Wish I would have found that information before I started, oh well I guess I'll just chalk this up as a learning experience. I think rather than grind more on the pilot bearing housing I'm just going to pull the ring gear back out and grind the toe down just a little. From everything I've read that seems like the best solution.

One step forward, two steps back... Oh well.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

I didn't really take many pics but I tore the 3rd back apart today and ground the ring gear toe down just a bit. I went ahead and did the ring gear for the other 3rd as well.



I got the first one put back together. The ring gear clears good now, and the backlash and pattern both look good. I also got the other 3rd set up today but I didn't take any pics of it. It looks identical to the first one though.

 

[ORV design and fab]

Good info. Gives me confidence in doing my gear setups,

 

[Hokie_YJ]

It's really not the secret voodoo magic I once thought it was. Lol. Just do your research and make sure you have everything you need. I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and reading online tech articles. That helped me a lot. Just be patient and expect it to take a few attempts to get right.