Phase 2 Mud sucks, I'm going racing!

blackbird kit

solid kit

not sure about that fix. would need new calipers and would be smaller? Thinking about drilling and tapping threads for a second retainer bolt?

Here's what I found so far:
blackbirdcustoms.com sells the caliper brackets that use K20 calipers and rotors. The brackets are $140 and you still have to buy the calipers and rotors. It adds up pretty quickly to being rather expensive to swap over to the smaller calipers. I guess it all depends if you have working calipers and decent rotors. If you don't, then you might as well swap it all out.

What others have been doing to keep the calipers from coming loose is to use 2 of those springs at the H block and to tack weld the bolt to the H bracket. I may try this first instead of buying all new stuff.

Cool that works. 140 just for the brackets. I figured to was a whole kit. I didn't really look at it that close I was just trying to find you a link

maybe you should leave it since its the norm to ram people. Or when you fix it make it more of a bumper to take hits.

I was thinking something from BEN-HUR (has anyone seen that movie? no...you should) put spikes or something on the back of that thing to if the want to bump you fine but they aren't going to like it.

Maybe you need something like my rear bumper...that thing was taking 30mph hits from matt's rig with a lunatic behind the wheel

Locked_N_Loaded wrote:

Maybe you need something like my rear bumper...that thing was taking 30mph hits from matt's rig with a lunatic behind the wheel

Thats in the top ten of my greatest wheeling moments.

LOL 2 threads at once where I was going to comment about being around for amusement

Ordered a sway bar today from Rock Equipment. Great tech info too since I have no clue about mounting. went with a 30" bar, 16" arms from hole to hole. Said if equal travel up and down then the arms will be fairly level with ground. If 6" compression and 10" down travel then the arms will be mounted pointing somewhat down. said to make the end links as long as possible. If running 16" coils then the end links should be about 16" long. That way there is less sideload on the arms. Also said mount the bar and arms with 1 end link and cycle to see how it does before hooking the other one up.

Also ordered a set of tender coils to replace my 200# ones running now. seems I made a mistake with my calculations. I measured shock angle while the juggy was at full compression. front measured 18 deg and rear measured 13 degrees. But at ride height it measures 13 and 5 degrees. thats why the suspension was so stiff. Blue Coil was great with support. they swapped the main coils so I went from 300# down to 250# coils. Still had slop in the springs. measured the angles again and ran teh calculators from sway away, pirate, and FOA. with the new angles my tender springs were still too stiff so the fronts are going down from 200# down to 150# and the rear is going down from 200# to 125#. That should allow me to adjust the preload and take out the slack in the springs. Right now if I take out the slack in the springs the vehicle sits way too high.

Also picked up some new brake hardware to fix the calipers on both sides and picked up a helicoil to fix the thermostat housing stripped hole. Steering cylinder is centered again and I put a bar on the allen key to get some torque on it. also fixed the diff cover leak in front. started fixing the steering shaft joint.

i really need to put a sway bar in my jeep also. So ill be looking forward to see how you do yours.

did a radiator pressure test. How long should I expect it to hold 16# pressure? I pumped it up to 18 and fixed a few leaks, some loose hose clamps. I put a second hose clamp on most of the joints just to be sure. Pressure very slowly leaks down from 18 to 15 over the course of 20 minutes.

steering is fixed, had to lengthen the steering shaft 2" and reassemble the steering joint. it was still in good shape, problem was it was not engaged fully.

Installed a new driveshaft carrier bearing. shortened the front driveshaft by about 1 1/2 " to solve that problem. I couldn't move the carrier bearing back because the angle would max out the bearings capacity. Now if I could only find those 1350 u-joints for the front shaft.

tapped new threads in the thermostat housing since I stripped them out earlier this week. Used a helicoil.

This week I ordered the sway bar, new tender coils, new steering wheel with disconnect, brake hardware and a few other odds and ends.

brake caliper hardware was installed, the bolt for the H bracket was still torqued down. I know this because I turned it slightly in the wrong direction and broke the bolt off in the caliper bracket. sucks......

Rockn93YJ wrote:

Now if I could only find those 1350 u-joints for the front shaft.

http://www.northerndrivetrain.com

with normal shipping it will be here in 3 days.

Actually found the set I lost and found the spare set. I will be ordering another 2 sets just in case.
Fixed the caliper. Instead of welding the bolt to the H-bracket I found the right size washer and welded that on. that way the brakes can be disassembled without needing cutting tools.
found the ubolts for the front driveshaft and finished that install, greased it up good.
Fixed the shifters.
Fixed the transmission shifter mount.
Fixed the brake pedal linkage.
Installed mirrors.
Ran the jeep and it didn't overheat but then again I wasn't doing full throttle assaults either.
Cleaned the garage, finally.

thats a first, never seen one mounted with the tube on the bottom. I wonder if it will affect the performance?

The physics of it is correct. Moves the leverage of the sway bar from the rear of the vehicle to a more center point near its roll axis. this is highly recommended for those choosing to run just one sway bar instead of front and rear. I had zero space between the tires and frame for a sway bar arm so had to mount it inside the frame rails. There was nowhere to mount it and have the arms clear the fuel cell tray. mounting it on the axle is no different than on the frame, just upside down and backwards. Got the idea from Dan Guyer on the Creepers board. I'll let you know how it works on thursday.

bill was that you that was searching for a pinion nut for your D60, if so were did you end up getting it from? Mines about toast from snapping two pinion yokes off. I noticed that it starting to back off and letting the pinion move a bit up and down.

I ended up ordering one online with some other stuff. Appalacian Offroad in westminster MD has them in stock though.

Still overheating and boiling over at times. Looks like I've got some reading to do.
cooling bible

Ultimately, what this means is that straight water can carry away 50% more heat than 50/50 Ethylene Glycol mix and 70% more heat than 50/50 Propylene Glycol mix per degree per unit volume.

It turns out that plain old distilled water has the highest specific heat of all liquids commonly used for coolant. Water has a specific heat of 1 - meaning one pound of water can absorb 1 BTU for a temperature increase of 1° F.

and don't ever listen to anyone who says a water pump can flow too much and not let the coolant cool down in the radiator - pure myth.

... for those running vehicles at the top edge of performance that see rigorous regular maintenance and are never subject to freezing temperatures - straight distilled water is undoubtedly the most effective liquid to use for coolant

The short story is: Get the biggest aluminum radiator from Griffin Thermal Products that you can possibly fit

By far the best fans are electrical "puller" fans - and the best of those are made by SPAL.

Steam pockets or localized coolant boiling can occur when excessive heat is generated (because of a lean condition, excessive ignition advance, or faulty cooling system)

the best advice is to run the highest rated cap the design and construction of the system will allow

2% air in the system results in 8% less heat transfer, but 4% air results in a whopping 38% less!!

Try straight water with water wetter addative i know alot of people say that it works really well

Thanks Chris, that seems to be the right way to go from what I'm reading.

How do you begin to design or build a cooling system for your rig?

The quick answer is, you should maximize:

The flow of the coolant - the higher the better. More flow will always equal more cooling. Do this with a high-flow water pump, large hoses and passageways, large radius bends, and keeping the passageways as free of restrictions and blockages as possible.
The flow of air through the rad - quality, high CFM fans (like those from SPAL), properly shrouded, as well as appropriate bodywork/ducting to ensure air flows through the rad and not around it. Don't lean the rad way back, as air will flow over rather than through it.
The surface area of the radiator - use the biggest you can possibly fit. More details on rad tech to come shortly but again, short story is - buy an aluminum one from Griffin!
The percentage of water in the coolant - for cooling, as we have discussed, water is best - use as high as a percentage as you can get away with (without freezing, boiling, or corroding the system)
Pressure. Use the highest rated rad cap you can without blowing a hose or cracking the rad or some other component. More pressure equals higher vapour point (boiling point) which not only means less chance of steam pockets or boil-over, but also that the coolant can continue carrying away heat at temps beyond which lower pressure systems would have maxed out.
Turbulence. Turbulent (or rough) flow of coolant through the rad ensures that as much hot coolant as possible is exposed to the cooling surfaces of the tubes. If flow is too smooth (laminar), only a thin outer layer of coolant is cooled in the rad and an undisturbed, hot core of coolant goes uncooled. That's uncool! Griffin have some super-trick ways of ensuring turbulent flow in their high performance rads.

so was that your strap on the side of the road

nope, I had all mine. Joe the sway bar worked fantastic