68 baja build

[bikesndbugs]

The rush is on for new years.
Picked up those combo spindles for later use and got the bent one swapped for a good one.

For a temporary steering fix I'm going to u bolt my column to the dash for a little bit of added strength in it.

I need to drop the rear a spline and finish my motor.


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[dustymojave]

WOW. Those are VERY Early Wright Combo Spindles. The "Combo Link" is a large bolt. I don't think they're nearly as strong as the later ones that we all know and love. They'd be kinda cool on an older race buggy like mine in a historical sense. Not that I think that's what you're after Travis. But they should work fine on your car until you turn it into something bigger and faster and more powerful as you seem to be headed.

Those spindle steering arms probably have Ford tie rod end holes, maybe International. You might need some tie rods for a while.

[bikesndbugs]

I'm not going strictly old school style but I have been leaning towards that type of stuff as it's still strong and can be found pretty cheap at times.
They are international the rods.
As far as your comment on where my car is going.
This one will never get that far.
I'm kinda going old school 5 car 5/1600 style with it. No 3x3s or long travel. The price on those is too high and when I decide I want one it will most likely be selling this and buying one or just buying one.

I did drive it yesterday though. It hasn't driven that well in a while. And I'm on a non bent stock drivers spindle now

The rear torsions just got reindexed. Bit of preload on 26mm torsions. Set a bit past the droop stops car rides with the wheels almost straight but very slight positive camber.
With that being said I may need a bit more preload but this seems to be a good starting point.
Rear also got some billstiens

The front needs to have a few shims taken out of compression and rebound. More so rebound as it doesn't go back to ride height when jumped on for about a second. Nitrogen charge should help that as they have none right now. 2.0 x 12 foxes. Those are also steel shaft with welded eyes rather than the new machined so this old school race style fits most of the car honestly.

Next on the list is too add a few 1 inch supports and harness hoops off the bar because my bar is just a bit too far away.
Might also add a cross brace from the passenger rear where it meets the motor cage to the top of the driver's b pillar.

A chop saw has been added to my tool list. Trying to get a minor can shop in my garage so I can start doing some side jobs. Already have a few people interested in cages and a few in just some supports here and there for a drift car.

[dustymojave]

Don't expect jumping on the bumper to work the suspension the way it works when driving. They are vastly different situations. Especially for the front. What seems stiff as holy hell in the front in the garage works nice offroad at speed. So many wannabes get that all wrong.

[bikesndbugs]

Good to know i hope it works based off a few of my round the house tests we are good on suspension.
I've hit dips a 40 plus and no issue
Starts getting close to bottoming out the rear

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[bikesndbugs]

Took the bug out for new years.
Plaster city/ocotillo

It did great did around 200 miles off-road.

First ride was from the plant to wheeler road.
Did great took everything great light whoops at 45 to 50. Occasionally I'd hit a big one and bottom out rear kicks up lands rear into another one pops out of third and bounced a few more times untill I'm on smaller stuff then back In it. Stopped and found my rear shock bolt half out and the nut gone. Found a nut that sorta fit at a friend's camp an backed it with electrical tape. Held all weekend.

Rest of the weekend went without a hitch untill out last ride Monday at around noon. We went west towards the base of the mountain did good untill there was some crawling up a hill.

2 steep uphills with the tops rutted bad from tires spinning and one that was pretty dipped that had some open diff jeeps flexed out and spinning tires.

I went for the steep uphill high centered myself. On the way down I was backing up fought the rut and bent the tie rod into a u.

That tie rod was previously bent so not a big surprise.
Pulled it out bent it back and welded a crowbar with an Underwood welder to the bend to get it back.


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[Ol'fogasaurus]

Nice pix. If you don't break something you didn't have fun... or so I have been told .

Lee

[bikesndbugs]

Car got hosed down and there's my temp tie rod fix

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[dustymojave]

Glad you're having fun with it Travis.

[CentralWAbaja]

Looks like a good time. good to see you out enjoying it.

[bikesndbugs]

So far it's been doing really good.
Only a few issues
Motor still bounces a lot
Exhaust always comes loose
And my trans is on it's way out

Gonna try to keep this trans untill I can go irs.

I am leaning towards the vintage racer idea not for the cool factor thats just a plus but because it worked good and isn't micro stub pricey.

So I've never even gotten close to reaching my front limits.

What irs setup would get me equal to the front. I've seen like 10 inches of travel with stock arms and 100mm CVS.

I'm thinking i want around 12.
An inch or 2 longer on the arms.
Inch might be easier to get axles because of 5/1600 rules but 2 would be better.

Think I'm gonna make a stock arm jig then move part an inch back and fab some tubular arms myself.

That moves us to CVS what's the best bang for my buck? Can I use type 2 or do I need type 4?

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[dustymojave]

+1 rear arms would be fine for your car with a stock width beam and stock front arms. Makes it kinda like a 5-1600. Race 5-16s typically have 12-17" of rear travel to go with 9" of front travel.

Making your own rear arms isn't as simple as it seems. That's why a lot of crappy arms have been on the market for the last 20 years. Left and right arms need to be mirror images, not the same. Set your jigs to include some camber at the hub. I build rear arms so that at ride height there is 0 camber. Some build arms so that at max droop there is 0 camber. If you build arms on one jig for right and left, you will have a lot of camber at ride height on both sides.

Re CVs, Type 2s generally sell for the same price as Type 4s, but I've been hearing people say that they are having trouble finding Type 4 CVs. Go for Porsche 924-944. They're the same as T4.

[bikesndbugs]

I was talking to a guy I bought some parts off of and he said he didn't use a jig for his irs mounts he bolted the tabs on and then set the wheel how he wanted. If I were to do that the arms might be easier.

My plan with the arms previously was to bolt some tabs to the arms then tack those tabs to a table.
Then move the tab one inch down making it stock geometry but one inch longer.

Maybe if the plate I tacked had 2 mounting holes one for stock and one built an inch past it it would work better

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[dustymojave]

Way back when, I used to fabricate IRS arms by starting with the IRS pivot brackets tacked on the torsion housing. Then I installed a sleeve for the pivot, then mocked up the bearing housings for both sides where I wanted them - distance back from the torsion housing / distance apart. Connected them with a piece of tubing that spanned through both bearing housings so there would be zero toe and zero camber. THEN I fit the tubes to connect the pivots to the bearing housings. THEN I added the brackets to connect the spring plates to the arm tubes. Each car was custom. No jigs.

[bikesndbugs]

So you built them on the car and howd you mock up the carriers just on some jack stands. I was more leaning to building them on a table but on the car might also be a good idea

Car was popping out of gear any time I tried to take off up hill or any type of harder launch. Went down for an Inspection and found the front mount on my trans snapped on the trans side.
My trans strap was also not installed correctly so that might have been an issue.

For a quick fix I used a tie down to get the trans to sit tight to the lower trans strap and it has worked so far.

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