De Ranged

Looking at that, my first opinion is the welder is up to the job... but you will need to "v" out the work where you intend to weld You need to do a different style of test... "v" out the edge of two pieces butt them up and weld them.... when it is cool clamp one side and using a large adjustable spanner try and snap it on the weld... take a pic if you manage to brake it

Thanks for that I'll have a chat to my Rover wrecker see if he has some thing in.... there is an efi Rangy on our version of ebay i'm guessing thats the one for solid shaft , catch is over here cats arn't required and early ones were expensive to replace so most companies just bin'd them when they replaced the exhaust

I'm saying suspension and the reason I say this is because of confidence, not for the argument of wheels on the ground = traction, this is partially true but fails when you consider ground conditions especially in the case of a coil drop away truck like the D90 in the vid,... the left hand rear was a good example of this the weight of the wheel and half the axle wasn't enough for the ground conditions with out braking loose and spinning up... that aside his suspension wasn't balanced For most people the biggest gain offroad is confidence lol yea I know we are all offroad demons but the reality is when the truck "flops" into something you get nervous especially if you feel the back wheel lift... what is your reaction you take your foot of the throttle... you loose your momentum,. you now have to move off so you require grip this is where the diff lock wins Now nicely balance extended suspension... you roll in the truck rolls gently as the drop of the front axle is shared evenly by the front and rear suspension you have time to "feel" this happening and make the decision for throttle control that keeps the truck rolling through the marginal grip Momentum will get you through that... X axle where you have two wheels in the air., it gets you up that greasy hill,. through the bog all the situations where the locker worked, the catch is you will only use speed when you are confident Good suspension will get you through those bits where everyone with unbalanced suspension is backing off because they are scared of rolling lol Now this opens the whole issue of how to balance suspension LOL and is why in just about ever time I am asked the "suspension vs lockers" question I say lockers

Didn't want to be working on this one (got way to may projects on the list...) but the motor from this has been sold and I pick up a new motor and trans next weekend so I'm going to have to so I can still have a toy to play with lol I have one problem I need some help with (from the kiwi or aussy's mainly) the front drive shaft needs to be a solid shaft, getting past the trans sump is tight so I'd like some suggestions model... vehicle wise that I could source a drive shaft from... don't care about drive flanges or bolt paterns etc I'll be sorting that to fit So far I've come up with a daihatsu rugger front shaft... unfortunately they are getting a bit hard to find

Having done this... climbing to arb The first thing she will have to deal with is in climbing the rope is there as a safety in arb you are on the rope... this wont seem like much to someone who isn't a climber lol but it can be a hard mindset to deal with Now as far as getting on ropes most arb companies are small one chipper and truck affairs with one or two guys that do rope work one of these will more than likely be the boss... because the climber is the one who dictates how fast the job runs This means her odds of walking into a climbing job are minimal, this means she is looking at a job feeding a chipper day after day... it really is a back braking job At her age I'd recommend something else look into industrial ropes... arb techniques can only be used in arb work, the rope skills and equipment used doesn't pass safety reg's for industrial rope use, coming from a climbing background she will have a good headstart gear wise and the systems This is anything from high rise window cleaning, construction rigging, rock face stabilisation etc way more technical, easier, and pay's better

I don't have insurance, did the math yrs ago for the number of claims I'm better off.... I fix all of my mistakes, drive defensively, don't speed lol l sound like an old nana

If we are pulling them for any reason, mainly due to overheating easy fix is to just cut the guts out.... removing the whole thing will create too much flow if the rad is close to the motor this can cause overheating as the coolant isn't in the radiator long enough to loose heat.... done it once on a rear mounted one and the temp never heated up that was on a 350 chev hilux

All I do is when I weld it up if there are any high points I weld a bit of plate ontop of the tube and drill and tap for a bolt, thread seal will seal it If your truck is doing road speeds you are going to want to beef up the fans... at speed you get a vacuum behind the cab, this will steel the air from the fans, I either use either Audi A4 fans, these things are mean if you start them on the floor they will fly... unfortunatly they have a huge draw and we haven't figured out how to get the soft start to work best answer we have found is switch them on the negative with a 60amp relay Another option is add another radiator done this on a mates lexus hilux daily, 2 side by side, T pipe in and same at the bottom and just a couple of cheap fans, this has worked really well... sits at 86C happily on the road Have run setups with and without electric water pumps.... the only one we've used is the Craig Davies one with the controller, a very nice system, set and forget it monitors the temp and increases - decreases the flow from the pump to keep it to the ideal These arn't necessary your water pump will flow enough so long as its good

Cheers Bill I will do both mods when I get back to the toys transfercase.... I like that double seal that would be good on river runs over summer

I'm a cheap person. to me all I'd do is a cheap thermal switch with the sensor tapped into the transfer case sump a cheap low pressure low flow 12v diesel lift pump that turns on when the oil is warm enough and if you don't want it to wear it out an override switch so if your not using the OD and you don't need it don't use it If the diesel pump can't handle it make up a little sludge pump and power it with a wipper motor because they are cheap to get lol My answer.... with my PTO to oil it I'm going to run open bearings so the oil can pass, I'm clocking the case level, filling some of the open dead space (mainly because good oil is expensive and I don't mind playing in rivers) so the oil level comes up and fill it up so that the oil is through the bearings into the PTO

I was going to say automatic trans's use planetary gear sets and all they do is use a rad cooler to keep oil cool, I have a nice short 2:1-1:1 planetary drive out of an auto I've been saving for either an over drive or under drive, being from an auto box its bigger (major dia about 200mm) since you guys are concerned about heat, bigger less stress, less heat add an aftermarket electric oil pump and a cooler core just working off the oil pan with a temp trigger and bath the lower gear in the sump for lube set this up between gearbox and transfer why not do two one under and one over they are big enough and being planetary plenty strong enough to run as a spliter box the catch is its a big split lol but maybe there is an auto trans out there that has a friendly'er ratio Forget hydraulics you can have power or flow not both well not to a level of a road going vehicle... mate who was a hose doc used to swear about the JCB wheel'd diggers because they would cook them selves when the operators tried drive between jobs and thats in NZ lol nothing like outback Aussy Electric hmmm this has possibility's incredible torque to wait of power source just the issue of fuel..... but as bill said off the point of the thread

My issue with the tracking is the is something that would only be a minor issue, but when your driving between flags and its a case of penalty points for a wheel an inch out In a standard setup you have two mounts each side to hold the axle that is alot of rubber to compress to move the axle, to move one side forward and one side back (change the alignment of your steering axle and where you are going) your cutting that amount of rubber in half I know its not much if you measure the compression available but you are doing the one thing that is most critical for steering... trials You have seen my build right. that back axle I can push it 2" either way I'm 100kg's, I knew this would be there when I built it, there are tradeoff's for building out of the rubbish bin lol and it did "feel" it at times.... if the suspension proves its worth it I"ll throw in some ball joints when I put the new axles under there

I'm with bill on this lowering the roll center is not a good thing for handling I'd be considering lifting the axle side of the panhard to lift the roll centre, lowering the steering box to keep the draglink flat would be all good.... so long at the panhard is parallel with the draglink bump steer will be minimal more than off set by the gain in roll resistance

I don't quite understand is this for the front axle or the rear ? From a trials perspective there is one issue with this idea that concerns me... the rubber bushes on radius arms are designed to flex this will allow movement within the bush that will change your axle tracking this could make it difficult to trust where your wheels will track, you should be able to gain more articulation tho There is a bit more to my ass end than links and funky springs... the links are setup in a particular way that as the suspension extends I loose anti squat the force that makes the rear of the truck lift or sag under acceleration, "normal" setups gain more anti squat as the suspension extends...My theory is that this will make the truck more stable in climbs, I can't say if it works the way I want it to or not yet as its spring here and still wet it seems to work well in the slippery going the test will come in the dry when I've got good traction I haven't tried running the numbers with a 3 link calculator to see if I can create the same effect for the front axle... I could see the same gain in climbing stability.... at a guess to get the same effect you'll need the lower link to be around twice the length of the upper link, while having the lower axle link at the opposite side of axle necessary it seemed to speed up the loss of anti-squat so I'd suggest mounting the same

A wee update, been a bit busy working on accounts and finishing off a Lada trials truck I did mention that third times the charm... yea well after all the trouble I had with finishing the extension shaft... I went and redesigned it lol found another bearing so I'm doing a dual bearing housing now this should make things alot more stable and torque resistant So decided to do the housing first, welded up first so any warpage can be machined out A bit of luck I'll get this finished today

Same principle as my vapour portal hubs, double up the lay shafts and gears... now if I can find 3 more hilux transfer cases lol I have a bit of a habit of gathering vapour parts Arghh speaking of that.... just for the sake of us not so clued up bill how do we tell the different types of overdrives apart, just I have one now and I it looks like I maybe going for a drive to get another truck tomorrow that has one

My choice of axles depends on what I have available lol I am cheap when it comes to my projects I have a pair of Rangy axles one all shaved and braced with an arb on 10 spline.... thats my main push for the Rangie axles I also have a few Hilux axles but the diff heads to get the right ratio are silly money and I don't have any diffs for them ($600-$800) Then there is the new truck if I get the one I'm looking at it has a Salsbury rear but I'm guessing 10 spline front so throw the arb up front and put disks on front and rear ($400) this has the bonus for me that the axle stays the same including the steering arms so effectively all I have to do geometry wise is match the pitman arm to the passanger steering arm and you'll laugh at this but the Hilux surf pitman is 1mm longer so that close its a shoe in.... the only loss is the width but I've got some offset white spokes so that will help might keep my eyes open for some wheel spacers

Thanks for that Don, yea I know "get modern and get more performance economy etc" lol yea a defender has it all apart form the old school style and there is the fun element of playing with your toys you don't get by buying modern Will sort the Cert stuff then I'll "play" with the suspension a wee bit... adding plastic to the springs made the rear end of the toy so supple I want to try it on a road going toy..... I think I mentioned my views on leaves when you dropped in the shed lol

As a contractor with diesel plant, the only issue I've had is with diesel bug, at one stage I was using 20L oil drums to carry fuel these got the bug from sitting empty in the sun, been told it has to do with the hot and cold and condensation build up in the drums, this provides a good environment for the growth end result it ended up in the fuel tank of the digger and started blocking fuel filters a couple of treatments to kill it and kept the fuel tank full, less air less condensation didn't have any problems from that point on, depending on contracts I've had gear sit idle for up to 2 yrs and run without issue Some advice that I stuck too Buy your fuel from the big truck stops... its cycled quickly and if there are issues like bug it is picked up quickly and delt with Keep your tanks full as said above I found that one out the hard way lol just for the books with petrol its got more to do with the shelf life of the lubricating additives than the fuel, the old lead additive could last a few yrs with out issue the new stuff I've had issues with its performance in high performance motors (chainsaws) when its older than a month My father found a couple of 200L drums of old leaded fuel that my grandfather had bought to run his tractor.... dad found he could run it in an old carb'd car the new car didn't like it at all, but lower compression and carb with a little tune ran with little issue ..... the petrol was 8yrs old! lol

Thanks for the heads up Gazza you saved me wasting the day lol.... looks like I might have to run the series axles and see about disk conversions I spent last night on CAD and the calculator to get the correct ackerman with the Rangy axles is just not worth it I can't get the safety margins in the system to warrant all the trouble and still leaves me with an axle with no free wheeling hubs Often wondered about Ackerman, the radio control boys play with it alot and the drifters use it to gain better steering at lock, I've never thought to adjust it, when ever I've made steering arms I've calculated and machined in correct angle... because its the "done thing" lol just out of interest did you post up yrs ago about running reverse ackerman and good tyre wear, doing research on the power steering I found archive posts from an Aussy who had done it, different name but made me think of you Regardless of how easy it would make things and cool factor for playing with things, I'm dealing with a bunch of mechanics not engineers so I have to keep to the "done thing" lol especially since this has to gain approval for the certifier as well as me Right looks like I'm going to have to do disks for a Slla Another question for you guys is the front axle the same on the Sll and the Slll, if it is I'll sort the disk conversion using the axle under my Slll toy Oh and you'll laugh at this... this is vapour at the moment, I don't have a truck yet lol I will be getting one.... its just when I do I don't want to wait for a couple of months for approval to start, thats why I'm doing the paper work now, the rest of the mods... disk brakes, bigger brake booster and change of master, car seats, 3 point seat belts, engine swop and turbo, modified cabin structure (removing the rear bulkhead so can get from back to the front without climbing) and possibly another fuel tank, they are all easy cert items and within the local certifiers ability.... steering is the tricky one lol

A wee update on this.... Hilux steering column is going to fit nicely and give me an adjustable steering wheel, steering shaft UJ's all with in angle limits steering box will fit in pretty much the same place as the relay bell crank just looking at options today hey anyone know if its possible to fit the longer inner D/S's from the Rangy into the S3 swivel housings.... what I'm looking at is fitting the S3 swivels and steering onto the wider Rangy housing, I know I'll loose the disk brakes.... the reason I'm looking at this option is to get the correct ackerman angle on the Rangy swivels is going to take alot of work doing a disk brake conversion might be easier

Yep your right and I'm not going coils. The swivel housing has a forward pointing mount for the drag link.... it doesn't have the correct placement for ackerman but they have a good pin mount and a good mounting point where the bump stop screws in... a bit of carving on the mill and I should be able to make an overlay with the correct ackerman and lift the tie-rod and drag link up a bit

Our system is a bit different to yours Bill there are no engineers involved (that would be the obvious answer lol).... we have mechanics that have lots of mechanic'ing experience that can apply to a special authority that if they can show a personal passion for vehicles eg 5 yrs of motor sport club membership, they are then deemed good enough to assess engine swops, brake, gear/drive train upgrades after a bit of this (no set time) they can apply for other add on such as steering, suspension, disability etc because of this our system at times gets stupidly limiting and steering is the worst no welds to any moving component you have to have a collaspeable steering column etc some of it yes but other restrictions... lol this is turning into a rant about our system sorry... Worked out part of the system still going to use the Hilux solid axle power steer box, turned 90degrees, it will go down the inside of the chassis rail with the pitman arm facing forward.... it will take a bit to mount but there is plenty of room and it gets it away from the wheel so I don't loose any steering.... got to run some geometry on CAD to work out if I can fit the range rover axle under there, then I just have to sort the steering column

Just off the phone with the certifier I laid out all the options and the warning from bill (backed up with research from other sites) about the bellcrank relay and I'm going to submit on a full steering and column change.... so depending on how it fits with the Range Rover steering arms, I'll probably go with a 60 series cruiser box and a steering column off a early hilux I also have a Rover 600 more commonly known as a honda accord I might look at that.... see which one adapts better... being a cheap person for me its what i got more than whats best lol Will have the Ute deck as well Don lol love old sheds like that guess it brings out the horder in me lol Oh and since this is a test example for my certifier this will be on record with Justin the chairman for LVVTA Don so if you want to copy all good I'll give you the rego of the truck and they will be able to pull up the details

lol Don't panic Bill I do steering conversions on hilux's all the time, to be honest I'd replace most of the balljoint links with 80 series cruiser stuff especially that low hanging tie-rod, beefing up the current system is nothing on our system the issue is geometry, so the relay box in the corner of the chassis needs strengthening? Thanks Don, I'll be down your way in a couple of weekends hopefully to pick up the truck, Roy wants me to come see it first before we talk coin but I'll have the trailer there so if we hit a deal lol I'll be talking with the certifier this afternoon about options will mention the ram setup Snagger the electric system isn't an option legally we can't use that here or full hydro, the ram setup of Don's maybe an option My problem isn't how to do this lol its how to get it simple enough that my local certifier who is going through the process of getting accepted for doing steering that he can process it The most obvious is replacing the worm gear box on the firewall with a hilux power steer box, this is going to be alot of work as the box will be upside down so I'm going to have to tap a bleed point into it, then I have to mount it to the column, the firewall will require some form of reinforcing... then the fun job I'll have to make a new steering arm to bolt on, our rules state no welds to any active steering components... that means I have to carve this out of a solid piece right down to the tapered spline to fit to the steering box ..... for those that know little about machining this is a real challenge I could come up with so many easier options with the junk parts I have in the shed, the defender option would be nice but would be beyound my pocket, post series stuff over here is silly money also it would be too many parts replaced to allow my certifier to do it