Tin Can Rebuild V2.0

Looks like tire smoke if those squirrels can run fast enough! :D

That’s what I thought too but when I backed off it was smoking from the tail pipe until the oil burnt off...
A couple blips of the throttle

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So I’ve decided to keep the rear leafs for the next few years of wheelin’. In order to make this happen I need a traction bar. Now that I’ve got links in the front, it has no issue spinning without wheel hop, but as soon as the rear gets introduced to some traction the axle wraps, and I have to let out of my rev limit session. So I’m trying to figure out what the geometry of this should be without loosing clearance. Also, I’d like to keep it near the center of the axle to help protect my drive shaft.
The construction is going to be pretty much all Jonny joints for minimal binding (and it’s what’s on hand).

From my limited research traction bars/ anti wrap bars need to be setup similar to links. As flat and as parallel as possible. A bit of confusion comes to the upper bar. Does the angle of this arm actually matter? For some reason I don’t see why this would need to be parallel if it is being fully attached with no pivot point. I totally understand why a separated upper in a 4 link needs to be parallel, but not necessarily this application. Little more research and I’ll be putting this into action.

I’m currently swapping in a new TG transfer case mount and then I’m going to hop on this. Pics to come.


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Little by little I’m getting it done...
Braced a few items today.


I tied the shock towers in together and one day this will be removable. I have the tabs to bolt these together but I’ll wait until I need to actually pull something out of there to put those on... lazyness and procrastination will be the death of me, I know...
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Created a support for my panhard mount at the frame. There was not a whole lot of engineering behind this one I just wanted something to make it a bit more rigid. I’m not sure if the tube will shear right off under a heavy load or if the bend will fail, but I think it will provide some support and help with some of the load this panhard takes.
I think a gusset between this tube and the shock tower would help with some of the lever effect that would be created by the force on the panhard mount.

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Last but not least, the fairlead mount.

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Do yourself a favor and instead of buying 3 johnny joints, pick up 8 7/8" heims for close to the same money. Then put an add on here or go to your local "lift kit" offroad shop and pick up a set of jeep jk springs. Go ahead and link the rear of that thing. It shouldn't take longer or be much more expensive than the traction bar and you'll thank me later.....

P.S You can even reuse your current rear shocks until you find something better...
 
Do yourself a favor and instead of buying 3 johnny joints, pick up 8 7/8" heims for close to the same money. Then put an add on here or go to your local "lift kit" offroad shop and pick up a set of jeep jk springs. Go ahead and link the rear of that thing. It shouldn't take longer or be much more expensive than the traction bar and you'll thank me later.....

P.S You can even reuse your current rear shocks until you find something better...

I would do this, but @ProbablyBroke hooked me up with a antiwrap bar with the 3 Jonny joints a while back. The 4th joint that will hold the shackle to the frame comes from a buy on ballistic joints that I’ve had laying around for some time now. Basically the cash I have in it now is about 45 bucks. It’s fairly easy to set up. I have everything I need to link the rear besides the correct rate coil over springs, but I don’t have time to get a 4link done and done right in the next week and a half before a Harlan. I’ll get around to linking the rear, but for now I want to wheel it.
Jk springs would be budget but nowhere near the spring rate I need for the rear. There is not a whole lot of weight back there.
 
Traction bar and loading up for Harlan.

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Loaded up last night. You meeting in Hickory in the morning?
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Loaded up last night. You meeting in Hickory in the morning?
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Yessir, think I’ve got all my spares. Including the axle.

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Finally getting around to a Harlan update.

Well first off my front output nut on the tcase came loose and my drive shaft fell out. On the way to the trails... WTF?? I wouldn’t have thought of checking it in a million years, but I will now torque check each time I see it...

Someone in my wheeling group said “you only break in the strangest ways.”

Next, The steering is tight, insanely tight. I deal with it for the extent of the day. Worrying that some hydraulic steering component is broken or unhappy.
Well I find out that it isn’t the pump, ram, or orbital when I rip my steering off at the bottom of upper rock garden. Whoops!

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If you look closely the truss material the mount was welded to was 1/8th if not smaller. Trailgear... for some reason I didn’t bother to check before burning it in. The mount ripped the metal right off. I beat myself up over that one for a while. Luckily with some of @RQ ‘s 1/4” C channel from his trailer and a flux core welder and generator I was back in business for some Saturday wheeling.

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Saturday went well. I didn’t destroy my steering again, but only stabbed myself trying to cut a ziptie. Through my thumb the knife went.

Cut away not toward yourself.... lol

Ran a few trails, had a good day and the went back to the cabin.

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Finally getting around to a Harlan update.

Well first off my front output nut on the tcase came loose and my drive shaft fell out. On the way to the trails... WTF?? I wouldn’t have thought of checking it in a million years, but I will now torque check each time I see it...

Someone in my wheeling group said “you only break in the strangest ways.”

Next, The steering is tight, insanely tight. I deal with it for the extent of the day. Worrying that some hydraulic steering component is broken or unhappy.
Well I find out that it isn’t the pump, ram, or orbital when I rip my steering off at the bottom of upper rock garden. Whoops!

d63ac90bed2e2765ccf0f4e1c8403033.jpg


If you look closely the truss material the mount was welded to was 1/8th if not smaller. Trailgear... for some reason I didn’t bother to check before burning it in. The mount ripped the metal right off. I beat myself up over that one for a while. Luckily with some of @RQ ‘s 1/4” C channel from his trailer and a flux core welder and generator I was back in business for some Saturday wheeling.

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Saturday went well. I didn’t destroy my steering again, but only stabbed myself trying to cut a ziptie. Through my thumb the knife went.

Ran a few trails, had a good day and the went back to the cabin.

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TCase output nut mishap...fully equip w/ Croc's top of the line off-road series kicks

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Loss of full hydro = navigating trails with brake steering

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Then onto getting steering back welded up with some of the c-channel from @R Q trailer

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TCase output nut mishap...fully equip w/ Croc's top of the line off-road series kicks

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Loss of full hydro = navigating trails with brake steering

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Then onto getting steering back welded up with some of the c-channel from @R Q trailer

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I recommend them for trail riding. But they aren’t quite built for welding.

Thanks for the added pics of events! Lol


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I like your choice of footwear. It shows your level of sophistication is on par with my own.

However, did you get new tires yet? :flipoff2:

I have not. I think it would make everything too easy.


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I’ve been in that rig with stretch through Harlan and it was a blast.

About the stab with the knife...
I took a razor knife across the leg opening a cat litter box the other day and was waiting in the ER till 3am. Then started work out of town at 6:30am. Cut away for sure!!
 
Wheeled at windrock Saturday. It was not quite as eventful as Harlan, since I was only there for one day of wheeling. Per usual, WR was slicker than shit. Not sure I’ve ever been there when it even resembled being dry, but we still had fun running a few trails. Only issue this weekend was the front main seal was leaking on my 22re at a rate of roughly a quart every 3 hours or so. Just kept it topped off and wheeled all day.

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We did get to see something quite different as they were installing a cell tower on the windrock property and had the air crane on site to install some of the final pieces. Very cool sight, but they had some of our favorite trails closed for no good reason...

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The todo list is refilling quickly as I am learning more and more of what needs to be fixed. As well as, a couple of items I neglected to work on because I wanted to go wheeling rather than my rig be perfect.

Engineering courses have fired back up so wrenching time has severely decreased. Hopefully, I’ll have a few updates this weekend.
 
I started another thread of a buggy build, called Steel Can. That parts collection started at the beginning of 2020 and has been slow going. With a movement in plans, that project is being put on the back burner for a period of time, but it will be bigger and better when the time comes for the full build.

This years wheeling season hasn’t been the best, either a breakage or an issue has been in the way all year. I needed to pull the 4runner apart, put a hand on every single component, service it, clean it, and make all necessary repairs. I don’t like things that simple apparently.

I decided to pull it apart and begin building a tube chassis. I sold off the Toyota axle parts and put some cash into the Dana 60s that I had for the miller chassis build.

So the rebuild of a rebuild begins! Sadly I don’t have a chassis table yet, so I made do with shims, the floor, angle finder, a tape measure, and a level. After a few different design decisions, I built the chassis in following pics around my 22re and dana 60s. Still a lot of tube to go but the general shape is there.

My overarching goal of this buggy is:
<3500lbs (before water)
16” of useable travel
Easyish to get in and out of.
LOW Cog
Good medium between a trail rider and a competition crawler.
Not a lot of power but a lot of reliability.

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Hate to see the shit missile finally come to an end but the buggy should be sweet!

It has been a good one for sure. Didn’t want to take it apart but also wanted to make it simpler and shed some of that sheet metal weight.


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I was able to complete a few things on the todo list this weekend. I finish welded about 2/3 of the current tubes, put the chassis on a small table to get ready for axles and link tabs, plasma cut lower link tabs and added weld washers, cleaned factory brackets off of the Dana 60, and finally added my link tabs and truss onto the front axle.

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The chassis will sit about 3-4 inches lower at ride height. I built the front with a lot of clearance, so I could run a low belly height and COG. The plan on the belly height is 18 inches, with only 4-6” inches of up travel. The overall wheel base should be between 106-108”.

The lowers in the picture are 7075 aluminum bar that I turned and tapped myself. I got a smoking deal on the material at 3.25” OD, tossed them in the CNC lathe and turned them down to 2.25” and tapped the ends for 7/8 heims. The OD is overkill for the rig but I shouldn’t have to worry about bending one.

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The Dana 60 is geared 5.38 with a spool. I’ve got stock inners and chromo outers. I’ll probably end up going all Yukon in the future. But until I break these shafts with the 22re power, I’ll let them ride.

Hoping to pick up the pace after thanksgiving. I’d like to be at 90% and wheelable by February.
 
Small update.

After setting up my axle and lower link mounts. I was able to get my upper mounts on and true yesterday.
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Normally at work I’m running wire EDM or setting up/ running mills, but I do like to run a lathe occasionally. Today, I squeezed out the time between work and writing a lab report to knock out my front upper links.

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The materials came from a friend who buys and sells metals at obscenely good prices. They’re are only 1.5OD solid bar 6061. With my rig hopefully coming in under 3500lbs, and them being on the shorter side at 28.375”, I think they will be enough.

I hope to have this axle location at roughly ride height and possibly about 3 more inches of up travel. I roughly ran my suspension numbers late last week but I need to run them again since the links are tacked in.
 
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I try to accomplish a little bit each day.

I tacked the truss on to the rear axle with upper and lower mounts and tacked the lower mounts on the frame.

The truss was something I built earlier in the year. It’s similar to the Artec mount but all cut on my table.
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Welded up my modified 22re motor mounts.

To cut the round in these, parallel to the mounting surface, I used wire EDM. Since there is no machining force with WEDM it makes fitxturing things like this simple.

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Trying to get the motor in the chassis by Thursday, so I can use my time off to set up the rear uppers and shock mounts.
 
Not at the amount progress I’d like, but it’s slowly coming along. The motor is in and mounted, axles are back under it, and the rear upper link mounts are going on tomorrow.

Ignore the tubes sticking out. I need to cut them off and cap them. Also the subframe still needs some structure added before I completely finish weld.

The second pic is roughly ride height and axle height. The wheel base came out to 109”. Only an inch over, which is decent for using links that I built for another rig.

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