rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[Trapps]

Fill the gap between the trim and the A-Pillar? A simple test with tape will tell you if its a possible solution.

Could also be the leading edge of the door or those mirrors...

 

[rattle_snake]

JUSTIN.....
....HOLY COW!!!....
That sums it all up right there!.....
beautiful job on ALL fronts!

Thanks!

 

[rattle_snake]

Thanks! Deafening wind noise in a cross-wind is one of the CTD's issues. Sounds like I'd be trading one set of wind noises for another.

I assume, that CTD means Ram pickup, aka diamond wrapped in a turd.

Fill the gap between the trim and the A-Pillar? A simple test with tape will tell you if its a possible solution.

Could also be the leading edge of the door or those mirrors...

Damn Trapps now I have to try you excellent suggestions. Mirrors are part of it. Though of filling A pillar with expanding foam.

Guessing this is why modern pickups have raked windshield, smooth glass.

 

[ntsqd]

I assume, that CTD means Ram pickup, aka diamond wrapped in a turd.

It's a nice engine (6BT), and the chassis is fairly good too, but the rest of the Dodge parts not so much. It's clear to me that Mopar was well behind the design/durability curve in '94 when our body style was intro'd and hadn't caught up yet when they built our truck.
"Nice engine, too bad it comes wrapped in a Dodge." is a frequently heard thing.

Damn Trapps now I have to try you excellent suggestions. Mirrors are part of it. Though of filling A pillar with expanding foam.

Guessing this is why modern pickups have raked windshield, smooth glass.

I'm told by MISF that the 3M foam made for exactly that sort of thing isn't cheap, but that it's really, really good and won't cause rust like a lot of those foams apparently can. He used some in his S-10 DD project truck to fill some of the areas where he couldn't get heat & noise insulation into. It is truly Cadillac Quiet now. Well, except for the stereo being set on 'ear-bleed' blasting metal.....

I think the raked windshields and general smoothness of modern trucks is more about aero than noise. I've noticed that some very slippery vehicles positively punish you with barely sub-audible resonance for daring to drive with a window open.

 

[rattle_snake]

Helped my BIL finish out some repairs on his recently purchased toy hauler. One drum had cracked so bought new back plate assembly. This was a good idea as the shoes and hardware were completely shot. Looked like they had been dropped in a blender. The magnet was worn through, and the wiring all melted


Also un-f'd the trailer plug wiring. Tossed the metal j-box and put in a barrier strip box. No wire nuts...

 

[rattle_snake]

Started on sway bar install on the '72 Ford. Before even mock-up Had to remove frame side track bar bracket and shock reservoir mounts. Track bar bracket had a lot of weld so pain to remove. Wasn't going to fall off though.


TK1 racing 1.25" splined shaft, med heat treat.


Put the lower link mounts on the existing axle brackets instead of axle tube.

 

[WoodsTruck]

What does your sway bar use for lube inside that sleeve?

 

[ntsqd]

I'd use a heavy equipment grease like Red-i, but that's me.

 

[rattle_snake]

It came with some type of grease. Finish welded the tube and painted, so it can go together for the last time and get greased.

 

[Monza Harry]

Marine waterproof grease(s) are popular (in the magazines I used to read) and seem sensible. Harry
EDIT: should have an EP additive as well for high articulation sway bar mounts.

 

[ntsqd]

My experience with marine waterproof grease hasn't been good. The Red-i outperformed it by quite a margin. I was maintaining a Dispensing Optician's lens making lab. The lens' are held against a mandrel with the appropriate two curves cut into it that is mounted on the end of a wobble head. An abrasive filled cutting fluid is pumped into where the lens meets the mandrel. There is a rubber seal between all of this and the wobble head bearings. (It's all a bit more complicated than that, but not pertinent.)
The bearings in marine bearing grease were good for about a week.
The bearings in Red-i would last a month. Sometimes two months, but those were way past done when they came out.

 

[WoodsTruck]

My line of thinking was to add a zerk at each end...

 

[rattle_snake]

The included grease was something I have not worked with before. Black, feels like RTV, but dries quickly then can be rubbed off. Graphite? TK1 also make aircraft landing gear so I assume it was chosen for a reason.

The tubing wall and shim thickness don't lend well to a zerk.

 

[rattle_snake]

Going backwards on the sway bar job. Cycled suspension and arm/link geometry is poor at droop. Axle moves away from bar as it goes down. Wasn't going to invert but didn't like it. Longer link helps, but needed fix was to move the bar back 1-1/2 to get link more vertical. Had already cut up link DOM, but had enough to make some longer links also. But now more interference with limit straps.

Front has 10" of vertical travel from a 14" shock. Flexed is different but will ignore that for simplicity. General rule is arm and link should be longer than travel. I have a 16" arm and a 12-1/2 link.

Effective torsion diameter is 1-1/16, 36.5" long. with 16" arm length spring rate is 150 lb/in, and 200 in 14" hole. If flexed 10" from one side to the other, resulting force is 1500-2000 lbs. Front of truck is about 3200#

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks good Justin. That fine tuning of the suspension uptravel/downtravel, shocks, limiting straps and sway bars is tedious isn't it? But very rewarding when it all comes together and all of the components work well together.

 

[rattle_snake]

Thanks Mike. Yes, it seems I have to move three things to add one. Almost done.

 

[rattle_snake]

Whipped up a new frame side track bar mount that will clear the sway bar arm.


CNC process removed the effort from complicated shapes, so added cutouts for flush mount/weld troughs, radii.


Positioned back an inch or two from the previous as the steering box bolts no longer dictate location. Welded both sides of bracket before boxing in the assembly.


Frame was already significantly triangulated to engine cross member, so made new bracket to fit. Small box piece needed slight bend in press to fit the different shapes.


Moving the mount inboard made track bar too long by an inch or so. It has been reworked a few times now, so retired and built a new one with stuff I had on hand.


Used old heims in the inserts while welding, to keep boogers out. Worked fine, came out easy enough.


Installed and adjusted. I moved the holes down a bit, since bar would be shortened. Test drive confirmed not enough, have some bump steer. Not bad but will have to rework the bracket with overlay plates at some point.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finished out the sway bar install. Tightened down the fasteners and reworked the belly pan to fit around the mounts.


Left about 3/4 clearance between the arm and new bar mount.


Tested articulation with the new sway bar. Doesn't seem to hinder it much, but truck is more stable flexed out.


Road test results are great, as expected. Way more stable in all conditions. Lean reduced significantly. Can jerk wheel and no more swerve, just a controlled turn.

 

[rattle_snake]

knocked out traction bar reinforcement. Cut plate out on CNC, too easy.


Welded in and done. Some have broken off this mount so being proactive.

 

[Boosted1]

Nicely done again.

 

[86turbodsl]

I assume, that CTD means Ram pickup, aka diamond wrapped in a turd.

Lol. I had a buddy at work once, we used to talk about how great the 5.9 Cummins was. He drove one. Did this about 6 months,
then one day i said "its too bad it's got a crappy truck wrapped around it." The demeanor change on his face was immediate. It became clear in 1 second he loved the whole truck, not just the engine... we didn't talk much after that....

Beautiful work as usual.

 

[rattle_snake]

Thanks '86.

Some get very attached to whatever kind of vehicle.
Like one of the car hoarder shows where the guy had a **** load of Corvairs.

 

[ntsqd]

If I could I'd replace the Dodge sheet metal with a mid 70's Ford SuperCab and build a sort-of utility bed on the chassis, but I've way too many big projects as it is now and at times I make molassass looks like a speed demon.

 

[rattle_snake]

In an attempt to 'finish' the '72 suspension (as in done) I moved the limit straps and started rework on the axle side track bar bracket. The new frame side bracket being moved incurred bump-steer, but it is already as low as it can go to tie rod.

I had previously made the 3 hole bracket into a 5 holer, then cut off the top hole due to clearance issues with frame. Since then I raised ride height and again have room to raise axle bracket. This will flatten out the track bar and hopefully correct the bump steer. Only one way to find out if 7/8" is enough....

I cut the bracket off in same place as last time, effectively undoing what I'm redoing.


Cut some extension pieces on the CNC and tacked in. Such a better way than by hand.


Since none of the original holes are going to be used, adding a plate to box in the bracket. Then overlay plates on outside, and a new brace back to radium arm brackets.

 

[WoodsTruck]

Could you have used or made a C-channel to slide inside of your tower and plug weld the holes shut from the outside and then burn the edges in?

 

[rattle_snake]

I thought about sleeving the inside with 2x2 square, but it is belt and suspenders To overlap the seam, the sleeve would have to come closer to the heim than I wanted. Single overlay on outside also reinforces the bolt hole.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finished welded the bracket and smoothed it out for overlay plates. Before I put them on I think it is stout enough to test drive and see how it handles. Then a new brace on the back side.


Ironically I moved the limit straps back to the radius arm bolts


Frame side got a new hole drilled to mount behind the brake line and reservoir.

 

[rattle_snake]

Continuing to 'finish out' the '72 suspension. Test drive with an extra inch added to axle side improved the bump steer enough to move forward. Just a hint when hitting BIG intersection crowns at 55+. No right pull on accel, but brakes still pull left like before (new caliper too).
Was going abandon-in-place the old limit strap mounts, but one side of each was causing problems. So cut off the double shear axle side mounts (for brace) and the threaded DOM frame side mounts (to clear bracket itself). Trying to make it look like I knew what I was doing the first time, not the third time, haha


With tabs gone I reworked the track bar bracing for the third time, back to something similar to what it was. Used my CNC to make fancy looking and perfect little braces. Yes a simple triangle would work, 2 cuts, BUT given this is 'last time' I wanted to do my best. Why not use radii and chamfers everywhere?


Added the 3/16 overlays and burned everything in. Welds not that pretty, but not horrific enough to grind.


Hard to access the outer and lower back side of overlays.


rattle can and done


full droop


At ride


So that should complete the suspension on the truck.



but I'm not completely happy with lower strap mounts for two reasons. #1 the extension to clear bump pads increase leverage on the single shear setup. and #2, possible strap pinch by bump. This is at ride height.


Plan to get the strap off the existing link bolt and add a tab a bit farther back.

 

[ntsqd]

Bungy or spring to pull the strap out of the way?

 

[Bodj Built]

Pull the strap off and bend it in the opposite direction with a kink. Then reinstall with the bend going towards the center of the vehicle. The memory in the strap will keep it pulled in. Shouldn't be an issue. Trucks with big travel often use rubber bungees looped around both limit straps to pull them inboard, but those are with 20+" straps. Heck, I even have 19" straps on the back of mine and no bungees with no issues.

You can see them on the rear here

 

[rattle_snake]

But if the straps aren't popped out/proudly displayed then my off road cred is diminished.

Perhaps I just need to create more projects so it can be most best-est. I had them curved inward and that works fine, but still not happy with aspect #1.

Man that looks fun...

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

My office for the week.....

You're good dude, run it!

 

[zmotorsports]

Pull the strap off and bend it in the opposite direction with a kink. Then reinstall with the bend going towards the center of the vehicle. The memory in the strap will keep it pulled in. Shouldn't be an issue. Trucks with big travel often use rubber bungees looped around both limit straps to pull them inboard, but those are with 20+" straps. Heck, I even have 19" straps on the back of mine and no bungees with no issues.

That's pretty much how I did mine, although I only have about 15+ inch long limiting straps. But pre-bending the brackets slightly does force them to go inward. I have a lot of miles on mine and they still seem to be going inward each time when pulled taught and then slacked (droop then ride height). Although my Jeep doesn't catch air it does full droop out quite often.

 

[rattle_snake]

Although the suspension is more or less done, I turd polished the last aspect, lower strap mounts. So I made a simple link and spacer to move strap away from bump pad. The spacer is needed to work with the existing bump pad. Could have made the spacer a 'key' with very tight fit.


Rotate/Indexing makes the strap limit somewhat adjustable. Using strap arc, found angle and welded spacers to links.


Ground down the inside of the bump pad flush with bracket. The link/spacer was aligned and welded to the radius arm bracket such that it can be cut off without too much trouble.


Arms angle in so the spacer also helped make some more room for bolt head.


Suspension complete. Or something like that.

 

[rattle_snake]

Have had some intermittent problems with EFI running rich or lean and AFR reporting opposite. Working on trying to capture the event with a datalog. Data transfer method is SD card. Log can be started on handheld and viewed on PC. It is possible to overlay tune and datalog to get an idea where changes need to be made. Had to upgrade ECU and handheld firmware to work with latest PC SW.
Have not observed the issue since having log capability (Murphy's law, haha) so farting with some idle load change tuning. Don't really know what I am doing and haven't really improved anything yet. But at least I understand the system and software.

Also did some more tuning on transmission parameters. Small tweaks. Drove the beast to work today.

 

[rattle_snake]

Unrelated to suspension I was forced to weld up some unused holes leftover from fuel and trans lines that were moved to other side.


And I took a grinder to both of the bottoms of the diffs. More of a round-off than a shave.


Now that I have some miles on the sway bar, I quite happy with how it came out. It is still soft but stability improvement is huge. Moved links to center holes, +18%. Now it just seems normal, but it was a leany ***** before.

 

[rattle_snake]

Moab trip with yota peeps. Rode along with my neighbor in his 05 Taco expedition machine. Four other yotas on 34-ish tires and lockers, plus one dog.

Started trip off main highway at Monticello and went up into the snow on 'twin peaks east' and dropped into bear ears national park. Camped first night of Lock Hart road.


Lots of rocks to play with the crawlers.


Then did 40 miles on dirt into Moab on Lock Hart.


Lock Hart was beautiful and had an obstacle every mile or 2 to keep it interesting.




Trail drops into Colorado river. Muddy and moving fast.


Stopped at the catacombs cave area




Camping around Moab trails is only allowed in 'designated' areas. So I designate a spot after deciding that a few big ledges on Kokopelli were a bit much in the dark. Broke camp and hit top of the world.


Stacked rocks as needed to get our little trucks through.


Amazing views


Then entered sand flats but drove until BLM land and set camp at 7500' on Mt Waas. Evidently the spot was home to a turkey who had a lot to say about it. Next day did Hells revenge and Fins'.


Took the 7500 lb overweight Taco up hells gate, roof top tent and all.




Winched a jeep out of staircase. No spark, no run. typical Jeep electrical issues.


Drove south out of town to camp last night near La Sal on a ridge with a nice view on both sides.




Detoured through 'View of The Valley of the Gods' off 261 on the way back.


..and back through monument valley. Long drive, 500 miles.


No real damage other than scrapes on armor/bumpers/skids of all trucks. Good times BS'n around the fire.

 

[ntsqd]

That there is great country!

Good friend's JK had a similar spark problem. Don't recall what the cure was, but finding it about drove him batshat.
Wish I'd taken a pic, saw a JL with a sticker on the back that said "It's a Jeep, Go around!"

 

[larry4406]

Beautiful scenery there!

Some of those cliff pictures give me the heebie jeebies

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks like an amazing trip Justin. Several of my favorite places through Moab area and Monument Valley.

Lockhart Basin has been on my to-do list for a while but it's quite a lengthy day trip and I've been unable to find people to go with us while we've been in Moab and it's a trail I'd rather not do alone. Although the wife and I may not have a choice as our last trip to the Swell was all driven alone as the others backed out last minute.