The old girl is wore out--time for a change.

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I got the shock mounts finished up and the cross supports to the dash bar.

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Got the front links thrown in and they are perfect...

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Spent a good 4=5 hours in leathers welding all the tacked in tubework....

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So was time to get the motor/trans in place for the actual setup...

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So the first pic was where I guessed the front pinion needed to be and gave me about 8 degrees of caster which is a butt hair high but workable. So where the pinion needs to be puts the caster around 20 degrees and I was hoping to not have to cut the knuckles off but looks like I have too. Pulled the front diff out...

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So I got the knuckles pulled and and shafts.. I really hate cutting stuff I weld on---its always a battle,lol. Took some work and got them off and the housing/knuckles cleaned up...

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Tossed the diff back under the rig and got the knuckles tacked into place and will burn them in once I am 100% on the pinion angle...

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Time to get the radiator fit into the chassis. I got lucky and the spal fan I had on my toy was the one that the radiator called for to use.

Got it roughed into place...

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So with a very good idea where the radiator will be I got the motor put exactly where I want it and got the new mounts made up. I have built many mounts for toy guys and 4.3 conversions and even ran these same mounts for many years. Super strong and really do a good job limiting movement and vibration.

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So I got the lower bucket made that the radiator will sit down in and also added a cross tube for it to sit on.

[Rotare]

Awesome! You've got some great fabrication skills

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So with the motor set in place I built the upper mount that doubles as a cross support. It needed to be removable to be able to pull the motor.

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Originally Posted by Rotare

Awesome! You've got some great fabrication skills

Thanks mate.. It has taken many years of building my skill level up and after many years of doing rigs for other guys I owed it to myself to finally kick everybody outa my hop and do my own...

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So with the motor secured I went and built the mount at the t-case using the same mounts. The novak adapter has a nice foot for a mount but I also tied the tailshaft of the th350 into it....

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These beauties finally arrived...

So my original plan was to re-use my sway a way coilovers. I was talking with a few buddies and they swore by these ORI air struts. I did a bunch of research and I could not find a single bad thing about them except the lead time for getting them.

Well if I was to run my coilovers I would need new springs, air bumps at all 4 corners and a sway bar. Well with the ORI's those are simply not needed but you need to be exact on your shock compression because they have built in bumps.

Well with the cost of making my coilovers work and the room needed for the extra stuff it just seemed like the smart move to sell the coilovers and go ORI. So thats what I did..


Now one thing this rig won't be is a dedicated rock rig--its being built more towards a very well setup and capable trail rig that will do very well in the rocks.

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So one thing I did not wanna do was the conventional buggy front--I wanted to do something different. This is what I came up with.......

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So the rear shock mounts were pretty simple to do. The rears are 16"

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Now the front--that was a whole other deal

I miss judged the width of the top of the ORI and ended up with a clearance issue with the outer portion of the front mount so I had to lop it off..

So I built it right this time and onward and forward

[clm]

Originally Posted by crash

So one thing I did not wanna do was the conventional buggy front--I wanted to do something different. This is what I came up with.......

Your trail truggy has luscious lips ;)

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Shocks are all on....