I had the rear tires sitting too far out from center. I apologize for letting everyone think that the front tires moved in so much at bump. Although the explanation still holds true. Just not that drastic.
Did some work on the front shock placement, and the lower control arm bushings. I chose to use a bushing style attachment at the chassis for my lower control arms, and a trophy truck uni-ball cups out on the knuckle ends. All this shock placement gives me a concrete idea of how my control arms are going to be shaped.
Ground clearance in the rear. The front pinion doesn't ever move, but I've already noticed that if it were any higher I would have a pile of trouble getting the headers to fit under the front side of the oil pan. I feel like I'm pretty limited on where the driver side headers can be routed. The front diff is confined in a space where nothing can get to it anyway.
Whats the plan for engine removal? I assume it will have a full belly down to the LCA mounts, bulkhead/shock mounts right in front of the balancer, and dash tube on top of the engine.
Whats the plan for engine removal? I assume it will have a full belly down to the LCA mounts, bulkhead/shock mounts right in front of the balancer, and dash tube on top of the engine.
Leaning towards constructing a laser cut subframe that holds the engine, transmission, and the transfer case together as one unit. Right now in my imagination, that subframe bolts to the floor, on some sort of 4 point bushing system.
So in theory, right now what I would like to do is roll an engine hoist in the passenger door. Pick up the weight of the whole drivetrain. Roll it back some where the front of the engine is behind the a-pillar, and wiggle the whole thing out.
If I do it this way I will have to unhook the drive shafts at the transfer case. Pull the transmission lines and the fuel line. Unhook the computer and the 12 volt to the starter, and I may be able to pull the whole thing out and set it on the floor with the exhaust still bolted on.
I may be able to fabricate all of the transfer case shifting linkage on to the drivetrain subframe as well.
Is this an idea you have that you plan to build?
Is this someone else's idea you like?
Is this something you have already built?
If so where can we see it?
Etc...slow down my man...and communicate what you are sharing.
This is the first piece of sheet metal I've bent up for the lower control arms on the IFS system. I have to go through these build steps, so my friends at Motobilt can laser-cut the chromoly and bend it.
I ran into problems putting the bypass shock in front of the front axle. The steering linkage and the Bypass were going to intersect during steering cycles. I was given basically the only option of placing both shocks to the rear of the front axle. I was worried I'd be forced to move the coil over to a position that wasn't simultaneous. I was able to take the piggy back reservoir off of the bypass, and squeeze the shocks into a simultaneous configuration. This is going to limit the front suspension to only being able to use 2 inch coil-overs. I had intended to fit some 3 inch coil-overs up front just to use the bigger body for some heat recovery, but I'm not worried with it. I don't see any real threat to the performance of this machine by running 2 inch coils, as long as the shocks are looked after every 1000 miles or something. Both will be remote reservoir.
I have the new shell constructed for the front lower control arms. Basically at this point I have to take these lines, and design the sheet metal for fabrication. I have to visualize all the welds as I piece together the pieces of sheet metal so when it gets to the weld table, everything joints together properly.
Is this an idea you have that you plan to build?
Is this someone else's idea you like?
Is this something you have already built?
If so where can we see it?
Etc...slow down my man...and communicate what you are sharing.
The low end of the bulkhead is coming together, along with the lower control arms. I also made a billet rock bumper that bolts into the IFS system itself. It will do the job of keeping the forward chassis flanges from getting jacked up, and it is replaceable. As the lower part of the bulkhead and the control arms near completion, they will receive more interior bracing to combat denting of the bottom side chromoly.
The IFS system developed 19.25 inches of vertical wheel travel using less than 31 degrees of CV angle, with 0.6 inches of axle plunge inside each CV. During the process of cycling the suspension, I've landed on attaching 5 inch backspace wheels to the 6" on 6.5" trophy truck pattern Pro Series hubs made by Spidertrax.
Now that I have all of this information nailed down, I can move forward designing the steering knuckles for an easy turning scrub radius under the 40" x 13.50" tires.