Something w/ rabbits. 72.5 pages of BS | Page 84 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Something w/ rabbits. 72.5 pages of BS

So seeing as spring is just around the corner, I thought I'd start a thread on the future undertaking of swapping in the Dana 60.

The axle is from a 1986 "Fawwd" F-threee "fitty", sporting some kingpins and a whole lot of rust. I took this axle apart a few months ago (except stupid me didnt remove the pinion nut before breakdown :rolleyes:) and had it hot tanked. I wanted it sandblasted, but the machine shop owner smirked and said "naaah yo, that junx is too big for my blasting cabinet" .. okay except he didn't really say that cauz he's old and a really cool guy. ANyways *twirls blonde hair*, this is my plaannn:

- WMS-WMS this axle is just a bit over 69" wide so I'm going to cut the passenger's side down a few inches to match 'ye ol General Motors 14-bolt axle. So this is going to require custom axle shafts and I think I'm going to go Chromos and 35-spline outers off the bat from the most awesome guys at Complete Off Road.

- Drive flange or lockouts? They are about the same in price and its a dedicated trail rig so I'm leaning towards the drive flanges. Right now, the cheapest flanges I found are the Teraflexes at $180 for a pair. If anyone knows of a better deal, please let me know :D !!

- High-steer arms and a double-ended hydroponics goodness ("cylinder").

- Opposite-ended panhard bar! The idea is to mount the chassis end of the panhard on the passenger's side frame rail and the axle end on the driver's side. Doing so should allow a more simple and cleaner design since the axle-mount can be mounted on top of or near the differential housing, instead of a tower on the passenger's side (like in my current D44 setup). I also plan to boost the panhard as far up as possible to increase the roll center of the front suspension. Yeah the concept is a little strange but I'm hoping it'll work and won't have any issues (no drag-link to factor into the design). But if anyone knows of any problem running this config, please chime in!

*EDIT*
- Detoit Locker for the carrier. I'm please with how the Detroit in the 14-bolt has performed so I figured I'd run the same in the front. Of course 5.13s to match the 14-bolt.


So here's the little guy, he's been in this position for the past few months just collecting dust:

DSC000871.jpg
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





You should submit this tech stuff to the people at Revision3. They'd have a field day w/ some of this. Maybe make a few shows to help other w/ this kind of endeavor. The Ben Heck show and Tekzilla would be ideal!
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Iz, it looks like the pins on the bottom of the power supply are touching the case. Are you going to mount it up a little higher? I can;t see it's mount-
 






Also tested out the LCD, 1500 nits of wholesome photons arriving at my face. Max native resolution is 800x600 - not bad but not great either, but it'll have to do

I think I remember you saying you were using xubuntu... you might try the netbook version of it, the window manager/desktop is pretty good for small resolution screen (i use it on my netbook): http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook
 






Iz, you might want to modify the MS mounting. The heatsink on the MS3 board is intended to make contact with the aluminum case to increase surface area for cooling. You might want to add in something similar to your mounting solution. (which looks great btw)
 






I think I remember you saying you were using xubuntu... you might try the netbook version of it, the window manager/desktop is pretty good for small resolution screen (i use it on my netbook): http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook

I heard that Ubuntu stopped using gnome as the default desktop environment. I really need to build a new machine to try out the new stuff. I need a HTPC now, wonder if that's gonna be the route I take. Windows is so easy, and OS X is becoming so locked down by Jobs that it seems worthless to try and make a Hackintosh. Wow, my mind is really getting a work out. I'm completely off topic now. Ok, Iz, good luck w/ the whole thing!
 












You should submit this tech stuff to the people at Revision3. They'd have a field day w/ some of this. Maybe make a few shows to help other w/ this kind of endeavor. The Ben Heck show and Tekzilla would be ideal!
THat would be just too good to be true - but they'll probably be like **** or GTFO.


Iz, it looks like the pins on the bottom of the power supply are touching the case. Are you going to mount it up a little higher? I can;t see it's mount-
Yeah that was just sitting there for positioning, it wasnt mounted yet. I made threaded aluminum standoffs for the mount:
standoffs.jpg


I think I remember you saying you were using xubuntu... you might try the netbook version of it, the window manager/desktop is pretty good for small resolution screen (i use it on my netbook): http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook
yep - thats what I have running in the system now.

Iz, you might want to modify the MS mounting. The heatsink on the MS3 board is intended to make contact with the aluminum case to increase surface area for cooling. You might want to add in something similar to your mounting solution. (which looks great btw)
Thanks much for the pointer SeaFarer - so after reading your reply, I bought a heatsink on Ebay, modified it, and welded it onto the stock sink:

heatsink2.jpg

heatsink1.jpg


Stock heatsink (crappy Ebay pic ftw):
heatsink.png


The valuable lesson in this exercise was drain cleaner removes anodization, very hard anodization.

How much is this rig going to weigh? That is alot of DOM.. Nice build though..
Not exactly sure - we'll just have to wait and see.
 












That heat sink will do nicely.
 






All I want for Christmas is.... izwack






to get done with this damn thing already! ;)
 






Il just take IZ for Christmas.....That is all.


Its funny that the thread tags for this thread are "newb" and "newbie" hehe
 


















Its like witnessing a double rainbow!
 


















Hey, I just went through the whole build and all I can say is WOW!!! I'm amazed by your fab skills and all!! I can't wait to see this thing finished... Cheers from Costa Rica.
Moises C.
 






Updates?
 






Alright IZwack. We're getting worried.

Are you ok? Can we at least get a pic of you with your shirt off in front of the beast? (you know, so we know you're ok.)

k thx.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





What's up IZ? Lost motivation??
 






Back
Top