69' Series IIA Build

[abosely]

I thought it came out pretty good for such a jury rigged 'lathe'. Lol

This pic is after I used a piece of 1" wide sandpaper and polished the knuckle ball flange a bit. 

Guys, let me know if you want me to keep going on this thread or if I'm boring you to death with to much detail and to many pics. I've never done a build thread before, so not sure what anyone would like, so could use some feed back, as to whether keep going or not. 

 

Cheers, Allen

 

 

 

 

[Soren Frimodt]

There is no such thing as too much tech Allen! I love it, and I'm sure everybody else does as well. However commenting, not only on this Forum, but in general seems to have died out a bit (myself included, not pointing fingers) maybe because we're so used to just sitting back and being entertained? I don't know, but please do keep it up as long as you feel like it, axle swaps is always interesting, even if its not an axle type I would use I love seeing and reading about it anyways, there's always stuff to be learned  

[Peaklander]

I agree with Soren. Keep it coming please. I particularly like the detail of the methods you are using. Many threads talk about doing stuff but not necessarily about how the stuff is done! 

[Bowie69]

Yes, ingenious stuff, and making do with what I have rather than getting stuff laser cut to shape etc is what I do, so this is really great stuff to see, never get bored of it -bit like Soren's threads

Please keep it coming

[Snagger]

You are doing work that few of us have tried - that's the only reason for a lower number of comments!  Great to see some progress.

[Jon W]

Looks great but hope your nephew had some safety specs 😉

[abosely]

6 minutes ago, Jon W said:

Looks great but hope your nephew had some safety specs 😉

He didn't use the angle grinder, he's just the model to show how I used it, so I could take the pic. :-)

Cheers, Allen 

[xychix]

keep it coming for sure. Love all the smart design choices to make things work.

I guess biggest reason not to respond with short responds like 'wow cool' or 'keep up the good work' Is that 9 of these responses would mean there is only 1 (or less) informational post per page, making reading more effort for all the others interested in the project.

Edited August 30, 2017 by xychix

[abosely]

Thanks guys, I just wanted to check and see if I was over doing the tech and pics. I'm not concerned about a lot of comments, just making sure it was at least somewhat interesting. :-)

Using Ford F250 shock towers front and rear, they are 3/16" material, with these I can have 14" of shock travel. The rear ones will be set out from the chassis rail a few inches,  to clear the bottom sides of the tub, so the tub doesn't need to be notched or modified to clear the taller shocks & towers.

 

Welding a doubler plate on the inside and outside of the rails and welding in crush tubes through the rails, then bolt them on with 3/8" grade 8 bolts. Nice thing about them being bolted on, is since they are kinda tall, they can be unbolted if wanted for working on something.

Cheers, Allen

 

 

  

[Bowie69]

Oh now that is a good idea, looking forward to seeing them on the truck

[Soren Frimodt]

Yes that is quite a clever idea indeed, saves you a lot of fabrication Work

I think you're gonna run into clearance problems if you fit them outboard of the inner tub, my 33x12,5s just barely rub the inside when flexing, so no room for a shock. So unless you'll be running very skinny tyres and a lot of backspacing I fear you might get into trouble? Unless those axles are so wide that you'll end up as far out as a Defender anyways, then it won't be a problem of course  Then there's only a lot of cutting in the outer skins to worry about  

[abosely]

Hey Soren, the rear axle is 2.5" wider than stock at 57.5", will be running 255/85-16 tires on 5.5 x 16 rims with 3.5" BS, then combined with the 2" taller 109 1 Ton dumb irons, Australian Military SWB 2" taller rear spring hangers (from Richards Chassis) and corresponding 2" shackles and the Rocky Mountain Spares Parabolic springs  which will add 1" to 1.5" of lift, I think I'll be able to clear the extended shocks and squeak by, with  minimal trimming if any of the wheel arch. 

Will probably need to cut the sides of the rear shock tower, heat & straighten it so the lower part lines up with the upper part, then weld in a little wedge shaped piece to bring tower right close to wall of the tub. So

I know, not real proficient with Paint! lol But you get the idea, hopefully. Getting ready to head out to the machine shop and watch Mike machine one of the axle housings, probably just do one today & the other one tomorrow. I post up some pics of the process and finished results tonight.

Cheers, Allen   

 

[Soren Frimodt]

2,5" in all? that isn't bad at all, but should clear you of those shocktowers on the 255's.

Out of curiosity what is the gearing in those axles? This summer I stumbled upon a front axle from a Daihatsu Rocky, which seemed perfect for a Series! A bit narrower track, so adaptors for LR stud pattern would be perfect, disc brakes, stronger internals, spring perches located at the exact same spot. BUT the gearing on those Things are terribly tall! was something like 3:1 so in the end it wasn't so perfect at all  

[abosely]

I'm using 4.56 gears for my set up, but they can be geared with 3.70,  4.11, 4:57 & 4.88 gear ratios.

i got the axle housings machining finished today. Will post pics later.

Cheers, Allen 

[abosely]

What was theory, is now fact! :-) The reason I say this is, that up until yesterday I wasn't completely sure if what I  had  figured on doing would actually work, or if there would be some issue that I hadn't considered would make this not doable, but it was successful.

We did the front housing first, it was a little bit more involved than the rear. We needed to shorten the housing on both ends and deepen the machined section where the knuckle ball flange sets.

  

The LC housings are made of two main pieces, a top and bottom that is pressed into shape and then welded together to make a somewhat round tube. So we centered it in the lathe and cut a round section on the outside of the housing to mount a steady rest so could use boring bar and deepen the inside machined section. .

Centering up the steady rest. 

 

[abosely]

Then these go together like this, and will get welded when I get the pinion and set. The machined area where the steady rest was, will get a piece of tube machined the OD of that section and a wee bit larger OD of the housing, so will end up even stronger than original. angles figured and

The reason I had to cut some of the short side off even though was adding a sleeve extension is, that without the extension it was to short and with the extension it was too long. So just shortened the sort side and deepened the machined recess.  

The long side looks like this.

 

[abosely]

The rear housing was a bit simpler because it just needed th have the outside of the tube machined section extended and shortened. 

Which ended up looking like this.

A sleeve machined to fit tight over the machined section and have an OD of 3.5" welded on both ends, for the Ruff Stuff FF/Disc Flange to weld to.

This is the FF/Disc flange with a front spindle that bolts to it sitting in position, though the sleeve will be fitted under the FF/disc flange. :-) 

Then a front hub, goes on it like the front for the axle and drive flange to mount, won't know the exact position of the FF/Disc flange till the pinion angle is set, after the engine, gearbox, TC & springs are in place.

The hub in the is is a junk one, the Postal Service was rough with the box that was transporting the hubs to me and they fell out somewhere along the way! So waiting them to take care of that issue and I'll be getting some new (used) ones shortly. 

Cheers, Allen

[abosely]

The inside of the front spindles used for the rear axle look like this. There is a deep recess machined in it for brass bushings that the CV joint comes up against and there is a seal in the inside of the knuckle ball. 

You can see the seal recess here.

Here I just sat the seal lightly in place for the pic, but it goes like this, to keep the gear oil in and water out of the housing & diff. 

But since the rear axle doesn't have a knuckle ball to put a seal in for the rear....

 

 

[abosely]

The area where the brass bushing normally sits got opened up a bit...

This is the new enlarged, but shallow pocket for the seal to set in. The seal in the pic is sitting upside down.

So now the rear axle oil stays where it's supposed to be and the wheel bearings are run greased like the front ones are.

This took a bit over 2 hrs to machine. I thought that was pretty darn good. I say 'we' but I really mean Mike the machinist! :-)

There are places on the housings that have nicks and spots ground in them, but they will all be welded up before they are finished. The 'paint' is just some primer I sprayed on them to reduce the rusting, but a good bit has been ground off. The housing will get sand blasted once all the welding is finished, and then get coated in BuzzWeld 2K Armor and top coated with CIO.

The knuckle balls will get sand blasted & coated with 2K Armor & CIO also. The 2K Armor likes a slightly rough surface to bite into. 

Cheers, Allen

 

 

 

[Soren Frimodt]

Wow, great tech Allen! Regarding oil seals on the rear axle, is is really an upgrade to have? many people pry them out of the newer Coiler axles to allow oil into the bearings, which drastiacally extends their lifespan. I do of course see the benefit of less chance of oil on the brakedisc, but if you keep your car serviced it shouldn't really happen anyways

[abosely]

Soren,

 Thanks! The way the LC hubs and bearings are set up they won't seal completely, so they weep, they were designed to have a seal and not run wet bearings. This is the same seal that's used on the front axles in the knuckle ball. I'm just putting it on the inside of the spindle. 

The Marlin Crawler Eco Seals are a pretty cool design, they really work great, better than most other axle seals. 

Cheers, Allen

[Soren Frimodt]

Ahh okay, thanks for clearing that up  

Regarding that 'Mike the machinist' guy, its incredible what can be done on an old manual lathe with the right operator, no Wonder people can geek totally out on that stuff  

[abosely]

The lathe is from 1920s or so, it was originally on a boat of some kind, Mike turns 70 in a few months, he looks like he's barely 60.

Talk about 'old School' eh? :-)

Cheers, Allen

[Soren Frimodt]

Great stuff!!

[abosely]

Well the high steering arms arrived today. They didn't get put in the box when the 25mm steering upgrade kit and steering arms got here.

I assembled the driver side steering assembly with the Rock Rings, wiper, backing plate eliminator,  grade 8 spindle studs & nuts, ARP 2000 knuckle studs, to see how everything looks together. 

The cone washers & nuts haven't got here yet so I put a couple of the grade 12.9 cap bolts that go in the bottom caps to hold the steering arm in place temporarily. 

The hub is a junk one for mock up only. Have 'new ones coming, but haven't got here yet. 

 

This is the RH side steering arm. 

 

Of course they will look a whole lot better when they are on the axle though! Lol

Cheers, Allen