Megarun 14

Well, where do you start? How about here?

183' in 46 seconds. Winner winner, chicken dinner.
Yes it is on two wheels


>>>>   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXMAJ86I86Q&feature=youtu.be    <<<<


Check out at 41 seconds.

The crowds expressions are worth a thousand words

 While actually driving away from that beating, the drivers front wheel decided to separate from the jeep and
roll through the obstacle course, thus adding an extra obstacle.
The lug nuts holding the wheel spacers on, became loose ( check them if you have them.  loctitie and retorque them,)  backed out and stranded me in the middle of the main drag.
After getting new studs ( scout has weird sizes btw, has .625 knurl and .655  shoulder)
we discovered that the jeep studs went in, but could be knocked out easily, plus without the spacer, the tires rub the tie rod ends, So the weekend was over.

No other calamities to report really.

I installed some mid back bucket front seats and a free-to-me corbeau fold and tumble rear seat.
All were comfy.  I modified a cj7 fold forward seat mount to the passenger side, It worked great
until after this run I found the front of it was bent up a little.  Among the other problems, I will have to fix that
too.

pre 2014 megarun fix -brakes

In the spirit of Just Empty Every Pocket (jeep) I have been trying to make the commando where it can get road legal... ish The last item on the list was to install a parking brake cable. The jeep cable that was on the it was frayed and was removed during the axle rebuild. This is what I made the brackets for-

In prep of this the rear drums were removed. I noticed the parking cables in the drums were dangling and the brakes weren't extended. After looking at a diagram for 10 - 15 minutes to make sure everything is where its supposed to be, I had realized that the automatic screw adjusters were put in backwards (left to right) so everytime I hit the brakes in reverse the adjuster gave more slack to the brake system!
I reversed the adjusters and all is well. I put in the parking cable and prepared to hook everything up I had to cut the brake cable brackets off and move them behind the front mount of the rear springs where the frame starts to bend up, so when the axle droops there isn't a bind on them.
EXCEPT The new cable is 6" longer than the original. So off comes the t-case skidplate to move the parking brake front bracket, modify the length of that and when that was done, the cable rested against the flywheel- find flywheel cover and install. Not that easy. To install this, the left side exhaust that crosses over the flywheel had to come off, and the front driveshaft. Anyway a 40 minute job turned into 3 hours, but it is running again and has a parking brake!

Front roll cage hoop. v1.2

After getting back into shape to do manual labor again, I decided to get the roll cage completed, at least started to be completed.



Due to the dash design of the commando, I had to come up with a place to put the roll bar.
It is made with 3/16" with 1/4" side plate ( here unfinished)
The outer windshield bolt between the soft dash and the window bolts through
the  lower plate- thus hopefully giving some surface area/ support
the upper edges are what the roll bar pad will mount on then bolted through the back.
I'm planning on bolting the 1/4" through the side of the dash and put a leg  down to the floorboard.




And here's the product-  My friends $14,000 tubing bender didn't like the 1 5/ 8" diameter a500 tubing the rest of the
cage was made from, so I bought some of his 1 3/4" dom and he bent it for me pretty accurately.
The lower outer arms are 51" outer to outer, and since its set at about 60* like the windshield the height is 16"
The lower cross bar is the 1 5/8" tubing.

If you'll note the mounting feet that go onto the dash supports with the holes the bolts go through.
The edges of the feet have a double bracket that captures the 1/4" side plate

            And the final product...  It doesn't block the window much, and the top can still be bolted on.
I'm going to play with a couple designs for the rear cage to the front.

10-31-13

Since the roll cage is "tight" to start with inside the top, I decided to go with a opening to keep it as easy as possible to get to the back seat and into the front seats. It came out easier to get into than I expected considering I'm over 6-1. There will be gussets added from the
front hoop to side bars

To keep everything looking the same- I made a 30* bend  and shaved it to fit on both sides.
If nothing else- it looks good.



With padding installed

February 2014 update...
It still runs- Got the flat fixed, Getting ready for megarun again.
Finally got a scout 2 parking brake cable & hoping to get it road legal sometime.
I got a nice rear seat for it, now I'm looking at some mid-high front seats
(like a CJ7 style). 

Post wheeling report

I got the urge to go wheeling just for the day.  August, in Texas, 102*, little to no breeze= perfect.

At least the park wasn't busy. 

There was a cold front coming in during the afternoon, it was supposed to get down to 98*

Rich took his nearly stock 06 TJ along just in case.



We wheeled the entire north end of the property, everything had changed from March at megarun.  The easy trails
had extra drop offs, and wash outs.  We went down "old town trio" (blue arrow, that had also washed out) Rich took the bypass
and I took the trail.  It was severely off camber turning down and right to a 2-3' drop off.  After going off the drop off
I heard/felt a sound go through the chassis when we landed on the front axle heading straight down the trail.

 

 

The new steering was doing its job , but after about 6 hours the steering was not doing as good.

I had checked the tie rod ends and found no problems.

I started up spider ravine (bottom of the map) and the first right turn the jeep kept going

straight

off

 the

 trail.

 

Dang.



Rich swears it was the stump that I ran over, but it had to be the drop off. 
As soon as I fix one problem, it moves to a new spot....

 

The notch I had to put in the crossmember for the chebby Saginaw steering box turned into a crack!
It would turn left okay because the crack would shrink back up, but the right turns opened up
the crack and flexed the crossmember and drivers side frame.  At full right turn the pitman arm was 30* off of center but the tires weren't turning.
We did a 20 point turn around to get back to the main trail and back to the trailer.  I'll weld that up and reinforce it with something.  Maybe duct tape.

Also found that part of the idling problem was one of the 3 pins on the map sensor plug had backed out a little causing an intermediate short, egr sensor wasn't sensing, and the damn chebby tbi has
another vacuum leak at its base. Oh yeh, and a tps.
Beyond that- great trip.

Frame re welded...

1/4 x 1.5" bar strap

Gusset around the notch to strengthen/ transfer some of the loads

The finished product.
There may be a TJ style steering box cover in the future too.

P.S. oh yeh- after filing the base flat & rebuilding the tbi, the engine idled smoother, but would only idle at 500rpm.
After plugging and unplugging the various lines, I noticed the engine idled better after loosening
the idle air control.  After shutting it off and unscrewing the iac I heard a hunk of metal hit something- after looking for a dropped socket or something and not finding it, my attention went back to the iac, only to find that the spring was laying next to it and the plunger had shot off to
who knows where.  There's your problem....


New IAC showed up, it idles pretty nice, unfortunately it is 8pm, too late for a test drive right now.

1 TON Steering - FINALLY DONE!

otk= over the knuckle
trf = tie rod flip
high steer, whatever you want to call it...

These are tapered inserts that I got from TMR in Oh! Canada!
There are similar ones from local dealers too. The shipping
to TX from Ontario was more than the inserts...
They are weld in type and require drilling a 1" hole in your steering arm.
I held the industrial drill steady while a buddy sprayed
 cutting oil on the bit to keep it cool.

The insert gets installed upside down to get the taper going the right direction.
Some companies require you to get a $80+ reamer and some mini inserts
to tap the existing hole. I dunno which way is better...

The adapter welded in and ground even with the arm.

weld all the way around



I hope I cut the right part!

Here's the chebby one ton steering y link.  The dom tubing still needs to be cut to length.  It weighs more than the axle.
I'm not kidding.
News:  I originally installed a jeep j10/ wagoneer  drop pitman arm with the same pitman arm rod end
 on the chebby steering box.
This has the same threads/ diameter (although not as long) as the chebby rod end that came with the kit, so I am going
to stick with it unless there is a problem.
The steering ratio from pitman arm length to steering knuckle length should be almost even again
so steering can be quick again like with the old scout arm :)

Delays, Delays: The Super Swampers barely rub against the new steering linkage. Just barely. So just for kicks I'm going to
get some 1" wheel spacers.
It needs a minimum of 3/8" clearance not to rub, but will get more.

Update Many months later... I got a superduty with low miles that needed a few things first to be a daily driver / tow rig (front axle gone through, all fluids $$$!! ya know.) so that took all the money and time from this project. The good news is that I have gotten some 1.25" wheel spacers for the jeep, eyeballed the alignment, welded up the steering, and everything is working and driving again.  
This is it with the body lifted (axle droop ) of about 4". 
At rest the pitman arm is a little lower than the cross tie rod.


Side note- I don't dislike wheel spacers- but if you use them, tighten them down- way down and
red Loctite them from loosening up.

New replacement pieces

Christmas in May:

All in 24 hours a Ballistic Fab chevy 1 ton Y steering link system

and a new replacement wheel showed up.

The steering tie rods are 1.5" dom , 1@50" and 1@58" about 32 lbs

The rod ends are the big 7/8"suckers. 

 Instead of reaming the steering knuckles I bought some pre tapered

 weld in inserts @ $8 each.  All that is needed is a

3/4" drill bit to re drill the steering knuckles.

New Cragar:

Why the 7" wheel do you ask for a 36" tire?

Well, it didn't pop off while wheeling at 6-10 psi, so why switch.

Plus at $67 with shipping they're cheap replacements.

And tough.. this is the dented front rim, a little hammering back into shape and

it now holds the spare tire just fine.

 

This thing has no arm rests or easy ways to get ahold of the door,   They were options- really.

 So I put on some arm rests from a geo tracker (Suzuki sidekick)

They aren't any deeper than the window crank so it doesn't hit you in the ribs

when the door closes.  The original mounting holes for door handles

is about 3" below (at the black rectangles) where I put them.  A little kid could

use them down there, but it isn't practical.

Lets face it - on this vehicle originality has gone out the window.

The hole is where the dspo tried to mount a speaker in the door before realizing
that the window would interfere.

 

Going topless

After scouring the internet for Jeep top hoists, I realized that Commando owners
are on their own pretty much.
The top is 125+ lbs ?? I'm guessing, but the darn thing is like trying to pick up a
bowl of jello.  CJ tops are pretty rigid, the sides on this flex and sway.

I was going to build one of these:

But the size of the top and the single lift point would let it sway if a breeze hit the garage.

So I built this:

 

 

After fabbing this up with the top off, I had some "help"( not much of it) getting the top 

back on the Jeep. 

The pulley system is a 3:1 system,  that means the end of the rope is tied to the tops frame,

goes through the ceiling pulley, back through the frame pulley, and back through a second ceiling pulley.

With this system, if the top weighs 150# pulling on the working end of the rope only takes
50# of effort to lift it.  This also means you have to pull 3x the rope to move the top up.

The lag eye bolts for the pulley are #0 and are long enough to screw into the 2x4 and the floor joists
There are also 4 other lag bolts holding each one. I tested these before hoisting the top by pulling
myself up from them.  No broken bones to report.

The rope is 230# safe working load, the pulleys are 440# safe working load,

I have a carbiner with a knotted pull rope going

through the knot where the front and rear ropes come together.

While on the interweb I saw these frames made of angle iron, rectangular tubing, to just plain

straps and rope thrown around the top. Mines made from 1" emt tubing.  It can be as simple or complicated as you want it.

AS LONG AS ITS SAFE.

The clamps are a 6" long piece of angle with a hole in it that

goes over the frame spacers bolt.

The frame sits in the rain gutter, and the angle clamps under the rain gutter.

So there's 12" of surface area per side lifting it.  So far- so good.

Best I can tell the CG of the behemoth is right around the very back rib on

the top due to the glass.