Just an update on the Justy.

 

I cut out nearly the whole fire wall, and the whole tunnel. I needed to take out the old subframe, and all of it's related structural ties to build the new subframe, and the tunnel in order to make room for the seats. I want the seats to be lower and further back. The new gaping hole gives me great access to the engine bay components for proper connection to the rollcage.

The new subframe is more like what you would expect in an off-road truck. It is very narrow. It runs just inside of the exaust header at the engine, just outside of the tranny, about 10cm under the front drive shafts, to a point about 15cm behind the tranny. It will tie to the front main hoop and dash bar of the roll cage and along the tunnel to the lower stiffener on the roll cage at the original bottom of the back seat. Should be very strong and have great torsional strength.

I also picked up the upper and lower ball joints for the new suspension. I am using the stock XT lower ball joints, and four bolt type upper ball joints from a ford f-150. I picked up the bushings and bits to build the upper and lower A-arms, and now I just need to finish the geometry calc's for the scrub radius. I am not going to use power steering, and a near zero scrub radius should make it very easy to turn.

I think I have been able to adjust the geometry just enough to keep the overall length the same as stock. Although the head lights cannot be stock, because they are too deep. The engine will be right behind the grill, so I will be putting in some ricer projector style lights and fog lights for driving.

My goal is still to have it together and running by the end of the month. I hope I can pull it off. The first local dirt rallycross is in April. I would like to have a few hundred miles of testing under my belt before I unleash the beast on the masses.

Long post, but I couldn't wait to share what I have been doing.

 

My wife can fake interest for only so long before she says " shut up, I don't know what you are talking about, so just go out to the garage".

 

Later-

Troy

I am always impressed by the level of work you are bringing to the hobby. While your engine adapter is simple enough in concept and fairly easy to make in a machine shop it is beyond what most of us have access to. Your controller is also a smart piece of fabrication.

YouGoBoy!

Must have pix!

Hooligan, Check out his site, tons of good pics there. I figured out his tranny adapter template method in about two seconds after seeing his pics.

 

http://petersontroylynda.home.comcast.net/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

thanks for the compliment!

 

My engineering is very basic though. I made the adapter with a jig saw and my drill press! Nothing special there.

 

I am going to get some pics of the work from this and last weekend up tomorrow. Look in to see the hole, the engine/tranny, and the subframe. It's all apart right now so that I can get the dimensions just right. It should start going together this week.

 

Oh, I figured out how to get my CAD work onto the web page, that should show up this week as well.

 

Troy