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80-series axles onto RRC


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  • 3 weeks later...

Got the arms finished, look strong enough but I guess time will tell. I traced the outline and important bits onto cardboard (I mean scanned into CAD ;) ) incase I need to remake. I fitted all new bushes too but they're really stiff, I think they're going to cost a lot of flex over the old worn out ones. I guess it's motivation for a later project if nothing else!

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Loads of clearance for the front cylinder :)

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Had more short bits of time than long lately so just worked through some of the little jobs;

Managed to scrounge enough fittings together to connect up the air tank;

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Ran the pipes and wires from the back axle to the dash, routed them the same way as the breather so fingers crossed will survive.

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Ordered the flexi brake pipes so I can fit that up when they come.

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Got the back steering bar on and had a look at the front. It turns out that the land rover steering bar is only about 2mm off going inside the Toyota one so if I skim the inside of the Toyota bar it should fit in ok and do the job.

Not sure what to do with the damper though? It would be pretty easy to take a bracket off the front cross member but would that cause a problem with articulation? I think it would be ok but thought I would get another opinion :)

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Finished piping and wiring. Controls are a little rough and ready but there's no point wasting time as so is the rest of the car :D

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Well the general concensus seems to be don't bother with the steering damper. I wasn't keen on this at first as I broke my finger on my sj with no steering damper, however thinking back I solved it by fitting power steering so I guess I lost that argument. :)

I can't finish the steering until I can get on the lathe and I can't do the brakes until the pipes come so I thought I would air up the tank off my home compressor and check the diffs work. All seems ok so I guess all I can do now is wait and see what problems are thrown up in service.

I've also picked up an engine hoist to help with the bodywork once the above is done :)

Anyway a little tarty video...

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Made the steering bar. Took the clamp off and just managed to squeeze it in the lathe without taking the track rod end joint off... which was nice :)

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Had to bore 2mm out the Toyota arm and went as deep as the boring bar would allow, around 70 mm. I made it a tap fit and drilled a hole near the base to put a little puddle of weld in. I got everything as straight as I could then tacked it on car so it should be accurate enough for what I do.

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Obviously I've created a bit of a weak spot but we'll see how it goes :)

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I was worried about the step down in the bar where I bored the inside, i thought it might be a weak point and kink. I managed to scrounge a bit of tube the right size to go over the Toyota bar then cold worked it to bell the end down to match the land rover bar. I then slit it so I could make it a tight fit. The theory is it reinforces the joint and is a second contact between the two bars.

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Got all the brake pipes altered and tried to bleed it up. After a lot of head scratching it turns out I'd nicked a seal putting a piston in and the brake fluid was now on my newly painted floor :( i put them together in the press as i thought it wohld keep everything square but sometimes you dont realise how much pressure yoyr putting on, one did go with a bang! got to wait for new seals and try again!

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It's not the wrecked look that bothers me as it gets abused but the tyres don't have enough clearance at the moment. I've started on the back, I don't know exactly how the width of my axle / wheel / tyre combo compares to stock land rover but it's significantly wider on the inside edge of the tyre which has helped me. I've cut away enough of the inner arch to allow the tyre to get upto the bottom of the c-pillar where it meets the inner arch and theres about 1/2" left on the shock. I don't really want to hack this away as apart from the strength concerns it would also mean moving the rear door catches and losing the door seal so my plan is to call the 1/2" of shock a safety margin and alter the bump stops to suit. I will fill all the holes on the arch and door with bits of 1mm steel. The ali skins can be hacked.

I don't know how to finish the arches yet. I think I will have cut away too much metal for the plastic bolt on ones - I'm certainly not confident enough to buy a set to try! In the past I've just bought the rubber panel edging to cover the sharp edge, the thing that's putting me off that is the tyres are so wide I think they're going to sling mud all over the car which although it makes you look 'hardcore' makes seeing out the glass somewhat difficult :unsure: Any better ideas?

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the aftermarket arches can go really high, basically the top of the arche can be the same height as the top of the front wing, along that line.

Otherwise conveyor belting/D4x4 have flexi arches, or was it Flatdog arches that did some good ones?

Ah yes, here they are, you can see how far they fit up in the pics:

http://www.flatdoguk.com/rr-classic-5dr-75mm~111

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Looking good Al, almost ready to abuse!

I suspect the 40x40x4 will be a little weak for the arms. If you have them in cad, cut out of 20mm plate would be a nice solution.

And daft question, but if you had lathe access why not make a new steering bar from scratch?

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I sketched the outline on card so I could easily draw in cad and get laser cut in 20mm. I could also vastly improve the strength by having the steering bar going through a hole in the radius arm. Let's see how we go?

I didn't make out of solid purely as I didn't have any solid so i wouldve had to have bought a full length then trip over the left overs for the next 20 years. I also don't have the correct taps for the Toyota / lr ends (although I'm told someone does...)

Both the above are very easily changed so I don't mind taking the risk at this stage, it's not like I compete and would be annoyed if I couldn't finish a day.

The below photos show how far I've got with the wheel arch. It's not practical to go any higher by cutting in my opinion. I could body lift it to get that extra bit out the shock but that means altering cage and bumpers etc. I could drop the shock mounts so I have a bit extra droop or I could leave it as is and know that I'm not going to bust a shock if I drop off something.

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The door I can just chop out level and plate the underside. Same with the inner arch. The outer wing can just be hacked too. There's about 18" under the tyre and the other side will drop more so I think in reality there's enough flex. Or is there ever enough flex :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

So this is the finished wheel arch at ride height. The rock slider had to be shortened, the inner arch had to be enlarged and flared backwards, the bit that's hidden by the door when it's closed had to be cut back to the seal and the arch of the door had to be cut away and plated. I think this is pretty much as far as you can go without a lot of work as to go any more would require chopping the c pillar, altering the window runners in the door, moving the door catch mechanism and altering the rear bench seat. :S

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I don't think it looks too out of place. I've also made a good start on the other side as it's always much quicker to do the second :) I've had another go at sticking the bobtail bodywork together but I'm not going to the effort of making it look nice until it's stood the test of time.

Thought i would also see what sort of droop it could do now it didn't have the load leveller thingy on, I ran out of height in the garage before the tyres lifted but I think the shocks were pretty much fully extended, the tyres certainly didn't look to have much weight on them. makes a big difference, hopefully it will be less inclined to get stuck when it bellies out without it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've had a bit of a brake problem but I think I've traced it to a bleed nipple that's not sealing. It seems toyota use the world's longest brake nipple so I've had to order some, fingers crossed it's not the caliper!

Both the rear arches are done, i had to turn it around to look at tge front and it feeld flipping huge, gets through the door nicely :)

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The front is really stiff, hardly any flex compared to the back, I think it must be the new bushes so I'm going to run it as is and see how it beds in. One day I'd like to try a one link. .. but not today :)

Following on I raided the scrap pile to have a go at extending the bump stops, its a little odd looking but fingers crossed it'll work. I'll try it before I make another.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So its done ... until I drive it and find out all the things that need changing. :)

There's a charity punch hut at kirton this weekend which would've been a good make or break but unfortunately the Mrs is working :(

Anyway bump stops;

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Badges :)

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Let's see if it works :s

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  • 4 weeks later...

Had a few other jobs to do on the land rover but finally took it for its first try at the KORC bank holiday camping weekend. Taking the load leveller off has made the back end really bouncy but apart from that it's transformed. It climbs like a gazel and the extra ground clearance makes a huge difference. It worked really well when you had to make a 90 degree turn at the bottom of the hill. The rear locker helped with the cross axle then drop the front in and floor it and the v8 & auto box sorted everything else for you. I have been foot to the floor with the lockers in several times and nothing has gone pop yet :D

The front was pretty stiff to start with, this was maximum flex at the front at the beginning of the day...

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And the state of the wings shows how much extra it had by the end of the weekend...

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Didn't stop me getting stuck in the crusty slop near the edge of the lake though...

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It also stopped when you belly both axles...

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Bit more bodywork to do but really happy with it :)

They're putting a new rock crawl in, this is it so far :)

https://youtu.be/58oDkHv7pqM

It also made light work of this hill which a disco on special tracks tried and tried but couldn't get up. Think that was tanks to the lockers as it was a bit cross axled at the top where people had been scratting

https://youtu.be/t63HamrDI30

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