Tommy's Class 1 Jeep

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Shinjari

ANy updates? Want to see these short axles under something =)

So do I! Unfortunately, I'm severely lacking time right now. For the last few weeks I've been working like gangbusters on my 1:1 Jeep getting it ready for a big event, which was last week. Since I've been back I've had a nasty sinus infection. Now this coming weekend is the biggest weekend of the year for me, the Lone Star Round Up. Anyone who is into vintage hot rods will know what I'm talking about.

Long story short, I'm hoping to get back onto this sometime next week, but probably no sooner than that.

[Shinjari]

Understandable =) make sure to post pics of the hot rods and hope you feel better

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Shinjari

Understandable =) make sure to post pics of the hot rods and hope you feel better

Thanks! I sure will. I usually take tons of pics to share.....and to get inspiration for my Model A build.

[hotwheels000]

Dang, we are still a few weeks or more out from any shows in our little damp hole we call the PNW. Jeleous for sure,cant wait to see some pics.

Speedway just sent me the t-bucket catalog....hmm, if the nova ever gets totalled I thing a BB bucket is in order

[dostacos]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

Don't tell me you've ever seen a more beautiful winch mount. 'Cause I know you'd be lying!


I JB Welded the brake line routing to the servo case. VERY limited space, but this is holding up very well! Pretty pleased with it.....but very happy it won't be seen normally.

ah...does your wife know you stole her sewing machine bobbin?

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by dostacos

ah...does your wife know you stole her sewing machine bobbin?

LOL, if I had one, she might be pissed!

[Shinjari]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

LOL, if I had one, she might be pissed!

Lol!

[Tommy R]

Been a while since I've posted an update, but some goodies finally showed up in the mail today and I had to mount them up.


I love my 1.9s, but I think these 1.55s look so much more accurate, scale-wise, on this size rig.

[xigtc]

Agreed! Those wheels are one thing I keep talking myself out of.... Jeep looks good man!

[Shinjari]

What axles are under it right now? Scx10 or the narrow wraith?

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by xigtc

Agreed! Those wheels are one thing I keep talking myself out of.... Jeep looks good man!

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Shinjari

What axles are under it right now? Scx10 or the narrow wraith?

Standard SCX10 for now. I started doing some work on my narrowed Wraith axles the other day, but still have quite a bit of work to do. In fact, I think I'll have to start over with a new housing to cut up since I used too much JB Weld on the first one and it's preventing me from being able to fully install the C-hubs.

[Shinjari]

Ah ok. the scx10's arent too bad under there. Front shot so I can see how much the tires stick out? Also I've got my narrowed axles almost done enough to mount up. Will keep you posted. Jeep is turning out great though!

[Tommy R]

These are the best pics I can come up with at the moment. The front centerline of the tire is 1/8" outside the fender's edge. The rear is closer to 1/16" or so. Certainly too far for Class 1. I'm running some spacers up front to get the tire/wheel to clear the tie rod, otherwise, it would be quite a bit narrower. I wonder if VP makes non-Zero Ackerman knuckles for the 8* hubs? But regardless, I'm going to follow through with narrowing the Wraith axles so I'l need all new hubs/knuckles anyway, right?

By the way, which axles did you start with? Standard Wraith axles and just cut them down?

[Shinjari]

Yeah just standard AR60 axle housings. Got a build thread somewhere lol. Thanks for the pics.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Shinjari

Yeah just standard AR60 axle housings. Got a build thread somewhere lol. Thanks for the pics.

Oh, I know that. I was asking about the axles themselves, not the housings.

[Shinjari]

LOL I is a fart smeller. the axles right now are just some spare dog bones I had that I cut down to the length I needed and I am planning to use my sweet Grip-fab no slop lockers. In the future I intend to just cut the middle section out, sleeve it and braze it so I can keep the axle tang and still use traditional lockers instead of fancy no slop ones. I'll post pics of what I mean when I get home, did this sleeve method on my brute.

[Shinjari]

Top is new universal, bottom was custom welded cvd that broke at the weld. You can see the sleeve in the middle of the new universal. Friend took some chromoly tube, bored the ID to press fit over the axle, brazed and voilà! It stupid strong now

Let's me use the stock locker or any other non no slop locker since it keeps the stock tangs at the locker end instead of filing it flat/ugly lol.



Here's a pic of my ar60 vs a k44. They are the same pin to pin hex to hex. I have done some work to the ar60s since just no recent pics on my phone currently.

[Tommy R]

So the last time I was wheelin' this rig, something broke in the transmission. After a few months I finally took it apart to see what's up. Turns out it was the "spur" gear which, as you can see, is the main transmission gear from an Axial trans since I'm using the Dinky Divorce setup.




As you can see, the pinion's set screw prevents the pinion from fully meshing with the spur. I've run a metal spur, but it's crazy loud and I hated it so I tried the plastic one. I was romping on it pretty hard when this happens and after I make some tweaks to this truck, I won't plan on driving it so aggressively. So hopefully the plastic spur will be okay in the future....

[Tommy R]

Yeah, I know it's been a really long time, but I'm finally back to working on this hoopty. It's currently all torn apart. I'm going to finish painted the fabbed parts, do some interior work (like replacing the seats), install the production Dinky Split Skid, waterproof the electronics, and maybe repaint the entire body. As some of you may know, the body got a little scarred when I was trying to remove the original stickers and a fresh coat of paint will really help with that. I'll likely paint it gloss black so when it scratches through, it won't be so obvious. The fender flares will be flat or satin black, as will the cage and suspension bits.

Lastly, I'm not sure exactly when I'll do this, but I still plan on reducing the track width. Performance be damned, I want this thing to look right! I'm not ruling out the idea of narrowing Wraith axles, but I'm currently leaning toward some RC4WD Yota II axles instead. Even thinking of making the rear a leaf setup, but not sure about that.

[Tommy R]

Here's another thought..... What about making this into a Class 2 rig? I've got some neat ideas for a different Class 1 rig and even a Class 0 rig. And this Jeep could easily be a pretty cool C2 truck, IMO. I really don't want multiple rigs in the same class.

If I did convert this to C2, I would keep the same low-ish ride height, trim off the fender flares, but would NOT comp cut the back end. Tires would likely be the 1.9 Pit Bulls I've got that have never really been used. Otherwise, there really wouldn't be a lot of changes, but the convenient thing about it is I could keep the Axial axles. The 1.9 wheels tuck better than the 1.5's so it might look pretty sweet.

Thoughts?