Well time to finish up the third link area.Welded the tabs on they are 3/8 on 3/8 plate so used arc welder.Ark welders can be intimidating sometimes since wire feed is mostly used these days.With welder set at 130 and 7018 1/8 rod burned them in perfectly.
For a cover I used a used basketball hoop tube that is thick and sturdy.Ended up choosing this over just thin gauge for more strength in case some one would sit on that center and ease of welding thicker tube.
Split the tube and measured out
Made a rod template for height and shape
Flattened the bottom of the tube for more height and kept measuring and cutting until this is what it ended up as.
Tacked on
welded up,gaps and all
Vacuumed,cleaned and caulked inside floor a cargo
Using a good anti rust implement paint on the interior floor
Not going to use the factory spare tire compartment cover any more,with no spare there is really no reason to go in there.Looking at it a plywood sheet would fit nice on there.1/2 inch even so made one up.
Good thing for for using some of that left over stain sitting in the basement.
Going to go through the floor with the fuel pump wires first then screw the board down.Threw panels in and board,fits well and is flush with the forward floor,will pad and carpet all the way to the back eventually.
Been a while but finally got some progress on the rear axle.This is the measurement I have with the newer style front wheel drive offset wheel.These new type of wheel give a lot of different style options as well as put the disk brakes farther out on the axle into the wheel.So far I haven't cut any sheet metal from the rear wheel area even with E-brake calipers,if I will have to,it will be minimal.
After messing around with diff shops who didn't get the thing done I had to do it my self so I picked up a 1 3/4 TGP 5 1/2 foot stress shaft from Speedy Metals and a measuring plate and end jig hubs from leadmineproducts.com on Ebay.
I had the end support hubs turned to 1.75 ID to a slide fit to the shaft.
Picked up a bare 9" third member from the salvage yard.For a shaft center support I decided to have a large steel tube turned down inside 1.75 and out side the size of the carrier bearing diameter.
torqued bushing in.
cut some half bolt holes in the outer hubs to bolt the housing ends to them.
Ends are Mark Williams large bearing small bolt pattern.Put a gasket on.
All pieces together with ends clocked and measured out with the housing measuring jig ahead of time.
Got an Everlast Powermig 205 welder running .35 wire for the heavier welding jobs.
By the way the housing was not exactly straight with the bearing ends which most housings are not so I had my neighbor push it straight checking it with the shaft as we went with his large press.Looking good now.Tacked ends 4 places opposite from each other and burned a continuous weld around the tubes.
Washed the housing with alcohol and gave it a couple of coats of Sharkhide protector
The brake brackets are from Scarebird that use a Toyota Previa van front rotors and T-bird Turbo coup rear calipers.Accidentally ordered small bearing brackets so I had the inside diameter turned to fit over the bearings with some Strange Engineering retainers over them.Mocked these all up ahead of time on the car to set in the right spot for body clearance. Axles are Mark Williams 31 spline Masterline.
I think a nice axle for the street plus some.Screwing stud in.
Removing O-ring to install caliper bracket.
Sliding into housing.
Strange retainer.
T-bolt kit.
Previa rotor.
38mm offset 15 X 6.5 wheels 5 x 4.5 BC
Ordered a Massive pan hard bar to my custom spec.Like to just say how I appreciate Massive's service and custom made HD control arms with the Aurora ends,Helped me out a lot.
Yukon thru bolt aluminum 3.25 Truetrack from Randy's
Yeah Gary, and the steel he's putting in this thing, he'll be able to drive through a school and keep going. Where did you get the 3/8" plate steel, Tank Surplus? Any guesses on what it will weigh when done? I guess 3800. Holy Smokes, that is some sick fab work though. A lot of hours there. Looking forward to seeing the end product.
Good luck with it and keep the pics coming !
Mike
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'What is it? A Maverick? No. A Pinto? No. Looks like a mini Camaro. A Camaro? No. A Chevette? HAHA, No. It's a Vega. Ahhhhh, cool man.'
Purchased a set of newer style S-10 Blazer 2WD front spindles caliper brackets and bolts already cleaned and painted cast gray off E-bay.Was going to use drilled and slotted rotors but have heard of some problems with them so going with AC delco for now and Timken hubs.
To run FWD offset wheels on the front I purchased 2 forged custom wheel adapters 5 x 4.75 BC to 5x4.5 BC 1 inch thick.
Experimenting with moving the tie rod connecting point back and in to work better with a rack and pinion.
Nice Work! As was mentioned...you really should consider turning the rod ends on your panhard bar so that they are like your control arms are...rotating around the bolt/ball insert as it moves through it's travel instead of working the ends sideways like you have them now. Not sure how much suspension travel you will have there, but it could pose a problem & is really a mis-applied way of doing things. Wouldn't be all that hard to box the bracket in (if you want to keep it in double shear) that you already have there & drill a couple holes. My Two Cents, Lorne
Yea,I probably will do that.I also changed the upper shock mounts out board some to get the shocks a little more vertical as someone suggested.I will be able to keep a permanent ride ht with the air bags in back so prob could fix the pan hard in one spot leveled.I built 1.6 degree of upward pinion angle into the spring plates and brackets to match that amount of drop I put in the trans so that should be all set.Like to have some kind of rear sway bar and putting 2.5" exhaust over and out the back yet.That should make her fully stuffed.
Like others said, the rod ends on your panhard bar need to be rotated 90 degrees to allow the axle to move up and down. The panhard bar is only for centering the axle under the car. The way its mounted now any up and down movement of the axle will bend or break the way it sits now.
Also, I am pretty sure the pinion angle is supposed to be set with the nose pointed down 3 degrees to allow for axle rotation on acceleration when the pinion gear tries to "climb" the ring gear.
Loving what you are building looking forward to more udpates.
Did some work on front cross member and rack.Cut off temp stuff off frame to make way for a bolt in front cross member.
Used sturdy tubing and cut as near to oil pan as poss and formed down to attach a rack and pinion mount
From cardbrd template made compound angle cuts to welded tube
Positioned square and level tacked and welded end mounting angles
Looking at a lot of rack and pinion options and having bought a used one I thought I could use finally decided on a Coleman Racing square shaft manual rack.These are outstanding and at at fair price. http://www.colemanracing.com/default.aspx
trimmed some on the rack housing and shaft to my need and stated to form a bracket to mount to the new cross member
Sanded top of rack for more oil pan clearance
cut the slave cylinder mounting boss and tapped it larger foe an extra mounting spot
Formed an initial plate bent over 90 deg
drilled and bolted first 2 bolts
Trimmed and shaped top of bracket to match rack housing again for oil pan clearance
Got a rack spacer that prob will not use but works well to locate third mounting bolt.Stated with a bushing with the mounting plate attached
tacked on
Car is at ride ht. and made 2 boards clamped to the rotors and a rod through them at rear to get toe close
modified spindle tie rod ends in and back and down to line up with lower ball joint.that is is a preferable location for rack install according to Woodward racing and others.Then put a string line from outer tie rod to tie rod to set the center line of the rack shaft.From what I have seen they prefer 1/4 to 1/2 in rack center line toward rear of tie rod end center line to help keep from locking the arms at full turn and adjust Ackerman.
Found those measurements and cut and tacked rack bracket to cross member
Also had to mount to the driver side to clear the shaft u-joint and will center the rack shaft and locate the inner tie rod ends back to center when I mount those
fabbed a mounting tab to go to the slave boss for extra mounting point
Went to Coleman Racing once again for their large bearing steering joints to match the rack. http://www.colemanracing.com/Steering-J ... P4845.aspx #25447 and #25448 I think are the correct #s and also a 3/4 DOM pipe shaft Moved the steering column even farther down and toward the outside of the car to get a better shaft location to clear exhaust manifold.Seems the column from the factory is angle in toward the center of the car anyway,now it is more of a straight line into the engine comp.didn't seem to hurt any thing even where it mounts under the dash. so with the shaft coming straight in I made a support bracket with a 3/4" HD heim to run it through.
template to shape of inner control arm structure
bent,trimmed,fitted,and marked hole
Cut "D" shaft and slid through Heim and lined up all shafts to cut to length and located and tacked support bracket
For a better fit had to trim some off the top of the rack input shaft
mounted exh manifold with some washers behind it for gasket spacing and finally got an acceptable clearance Tacked together
Set the joint orientation to most rack manufacturer's recommendations and spun the steering but being at compound angles,it did not work well.The shaft and motion had a whipping action so doing a little more research found that Danchuck Engineering has a "57" chev rack set up that they had to orient the U-joints opposite one another.Tried it and it worked.Seems when U-joints are in a straight line ie' drive shafts straight alignment is needed but compound angling prefers offset.
Spinning and working good held shafts straight with straight edges and welded solid. Exhaust manifold actually comes out without removing steering shaft
When finished could push on the op end of the rack shaft with finger and spin the steering wheel in the car cant wait to try it on the road.These Coleman square racks are smooth and will not turn in the housing like round ones.