Dave's perpetual project

Post by **Leatherneck** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:09 am

Take a look on ebay, will check later if I got it there. Time for PT.

petew · Post by **petew** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:15 pm

$100 for an EJ25 is great. I'd go the belhousing if you can. the guys in the UK rate them and it has to be better than all the adator plate options.

rickosuave1987 · Post by **rickosuave1987** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:47 pm

Here are Dave's Pics:

Sorry I didnt get them up earlier, was out at the Poker run with baja5 and the gang!

Post by **Leatherneck** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:29 am

Well, somebody is showing off a little. I am jealous. Nice score Dave.

ntsqd · Post by **ntsqd** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:03 am

A friend put one of those 2.5 NA Sube's in the old Robertson C1 beam car. He told me about testing it at Cal City. Said that you could flog the car as hard as you wanted to and the engine was happy. Pull into camp and it would just idle like it had been out on a lazy drive.

It may not have the zowie factor of a turbo motor, but I think that it'll move a Baja around with more than enough authority. If I didn't already have a complete 4A-GE donor car I'd be looking for one of those for myself.

Big Dave · Post by **Big Dave** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:23 pm

Got a little progress made the last few days.
Got the brake kits installed which was a lot more work than expected

I guess that my spindle snouts weren't set as deep into the spindle as stockers, so it took some creative work to make things work, but you'd be hard pressed to figures out what I did to make them work.

The rear rotors needed to be shimmed to make center the rotor so the parking brakes would work. Then I found that they had .009" runout

Some more work there to get them trued up and now its all good.

Mounting the tires was a project too. I did find it much easier to force the rim INTO the tire versus shoving the tire onto the rim. Soapy water made it much easier.

Fronts are Yokohama Geolander radials 30x9.50 and the rears are MT Baja claw radials 33x12.50 15

Post by **david58** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:49 pm

I am calling Shotgun before herbie does.

Nice work car should be awesome.

Big Dave · Post by **Big Dave** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:03 pm

More progress

Today started out looking like this

Finished looking like this

Got the 10* trans mount installed and welded up the frame horns

I am also fabbing a mid mount since I don't like the idea of the front of the trans only hanging on by two bolts. I am planning on getting some more urethane and securing that mount to the horns, but I haven't figured out how exactly yet

When we pulled everything out, I found that the stock front trans mount had broken the welds where it was welded to the torsion housing

That probably explains the clunking I was hearing when I drove it last

The last thing we did today was to try to align the rear end to start setting up suspension geometry. This is what we came up with to set the toe:

Made one for each side and measured at set points until the toe was 3/16" measured at two points 15" apart with the arms set at what I think is pretty close to what will be ride height. We also measured in an X from fixed points on the front suspension to the rear rotors. Is that an acceptable way to set the toe? I think I remember people saying that 1/8" toe on the rear helps keep the car from wandering.
I plan to use the same pieces to set the caster and toe on the front end.
Does this seem acceptable to get this thing rolling straight down the road?

To get the rear toe to a more acceptable 3/16" we had to back the heims out several turns from where I had them when I assembled the rear arms. Problem is, there is only about 5/8" of threads left screwed into the adapter. Is that enough to prevent problems?

It seems to me that most of the load on those threads would be compression until the tire hits a bump and pulls on the heim. I figure I can get a couple more hardened jamb nuts to help distribute the compression loads onto the threads, but that wouldn't help when the tire hits a rock. Am I being paranoid here?

takotruckin · Post by **takotruckin** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:33 pm

Skidmark wrote:Once you have at least the major diameter of the bolt in thread engagement, you have met the fastener's maximum strength. Any further length of engagement will provide no benefit, other than allowing something to be sandwiched in between the bolt head and threaded hole. FYI

Thanks Skid

Lotrat · Post by **Lotrat** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:37 pm

Big Dave wrote:

Is that 21"?! Nice. I'm only at 14"

DesertGuy · Post by **DesertGuy** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:47 pm

Dave, the stated load capacities of a rod end are what a rod end will fail at with a one time load applied, it does not reflect operating loads that result in stress and fatigue. I have always followed the rule of 1.5 times the diameter of the shank needs to be threaded into the bung without considering the jam nut. The most stress that will be applied to the rod end is at the area of the inner thread and bung, not the outside of the jam nut. Stacking multiple jam nuts along the shank will not "relocate" the maximum stress point, FWIW. Others may have a different view but that is what I was skooled on some time ago.

That being said.... The baja is loooooookin' BADA$$!!!!

Ol'fogasaurus · Post by **Ol'fogasaurus** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:10 pm

For what it is worth (I have posted this several times before and this should be the last time) the minimum accepted (by engineering) as “full purchase” of a nut on a bolt, including washers is three “full threads” showing. The reason for “three full threads showing” is to accommodate the "easy on" taper most bolts have. Since they are not full sized threads, it is considered that the nut does not have full purchase on the bolt until you are past the shortened threads.

One and a half times the (bolt) diameter showing is a good rule to follow but many racing associations use the two and one-half bolt diameter figure.

If you have an up and down situation; unless there is a clearance situation, the nut is usually to be put on the bottom. This is incase the nut loosens up, you still have the bolt in place.

If I have a situation of the threaded part of a bolt pointing towards the passenger compartment, I try to put a vacuum cap over the threads. Just a precaution to avoid injury..

Again, threads should not be in shear, that is what the “grip” or “shank” is for. I hope this helps someone.

GDRBORETIRED · Post by **GDRBORETIRED** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:51 pm

Toe, are you refuring to in or out? We allways set our racecar at 1/8" toe out. Driving wheels (powered) then to drive in toward the center of the vehicle. Fronts are toed out because of the drag, except FWD cars.

ntsqd · Post by **ntsqd** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:10 am

I also go by the 1.5X Thread Diameter RoT.

Dynamic toe-out would promote instability.
Hibbard:
"The ideal toe-in setting on a VW off-road race car, regardless of suspension type, is 1/4 in." (Pg 74, 1st column, 5th paragraph)
"A car with excessive positive camber is bad, but toe-out makes handling unpredictable and unforgiving. Toe-out causes oversteer - the tendency of a car to loose traction at the rear and spin" (Pg 74 2nd column, 1sr paragraph)

I would slot the plates to get the toe-in setting roughed-in, and then do the final adjustment, if necessary, with the SRE.

Big Dave · Post by **Big Dave** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:35 pm

So it seems like the consensus is that I need more thread engagement. I don't think I can slot the bolt holes that much and I don't like that idea much anyway.

What if I split the difference and WELDED the nut to the threaded bung, in essence lengthening the threaded portion? Then I would add a new jamb nut on top to keep the rod end straight.

Im not sure why I'm faced with this problem anyway

The arms and torsion eliminators are all from Eagle. Both sides of the car have the exact same number of threads showing. It seems like that threaded bung piece should have been longer to start with

BTW, yes the tape shows 21", but the pan does hang down below that a couple inches and the rear limit straps aren't in yet and it is sitting above what will be actual ride height