A low slung old chevy on rockwells... it can be done

[jtk26]

So with that huge center section in the way, crossover steering isn't really possible. Decided to go full hydro, more on a budget. The orbital valve is a load reactive unit from trail gear with flow for a 10" ram. The mount is from diy4x.com and I used trail gear's short steering shaft adapter. I reused some left over tubing I had to connect the stock shaft to the adapter.

Whe I originally hooked this thing up it was erratic, felt like it would bind up and would even would steer randomly just sitting there. After a call to trail gear it was determined my shaft was putting irregular pressure on the gear teeth. Once I put on my u-joint (an impact 1/2" wobble... ha ha) it steers like butter.

My 2" by 10" stroke ag single ended ram. I drilled a hole in the back half of my leftover d ring mounts. Drilled a 1" hole in them. Welded one to the axle, the other to the tie rod.

the tie rod is 1 1/2" .250 wall dom with 7/8" chromoly heims from ruffstuffspecialties, spaced down to 3/4" bolt size. I picked up 2 inserts from psc to change the tapered hole on the knuckle steering arm to a strait through 3/4" bolt.

had a local hydraulic shop makes these hoses, which ended up costing me more than I wanted. They did reuse the stock high pressure line fitting at the ps pump.

as of right now it steers great, but heats up fast. In the middle of building an external reservoir, with a cooler to help.

 

[jtk26]

well, have been on vacation and haven't been posting, here are some more pics, all of these are old pics, I swear I will eventually get this thing up until now. I relocated the gas tank to behind the seat. After spending way too much time on this site seeing cut up blazers and burbans I followed suit. I always thought I would have a full bodied rig but since I want to do some more hardcore stuff I decided the body had to go. You can see the beginning stages of my rear "bumper" setup.

a crappy microsoft paint rendition of what was running through my head

I wanted to bob and dove it but more than the standard 7 inches, I don't have the tools, or the experience to fab the fenders and quarterpanels enough to not make them look retarded, but still have it bobbed almost to the frame, so I decided to hack of a lot of the body, trim down the core support and encase it in tubes.

another paint photo

 

[jtk26]

I cut off the rockers and replaced it with 2x6" rectangular tubing, I did not go with .25 wall stuff because first money, that crap is $. And second weight. This thing is pretty heavy and I don't want to add to it... at least that's how I will justify how much of a cheap a$$ i am

a few pictures of the cage being mocked up. She aint perfect, but not bad for a few measurements and standing back and sticking your thumb up to see how strait it is.

 

[jtk26]

okay so onto my driveshafts. Once again, I'm a student with kids, money's tight, so I decided to build square driveshafts. They are not my ideal setup and will eventually build my own super beef round shafts. Square driveshafts are strong, but it's very hard to get them not to clack like crazy, they vibrate, are heavy etc. But when I can build front and rear driveshafts with 4 new 1350 joints for $150, I decided to do it. And when I change them, these will be my spares.

that's the rear, I made my own flanges and welded a 1350 driveshaft flange to it.

the rear comming out of the 205. I made a simple 205 crossmember out of 2 fabricator sets from diy4x.com and some tubing. They are tied into 2 bolts on the back of the 205. It was simple and only took me a few minutes to make. I think I will eventually replace it with a stronger crossmember setup that cradles that 205, but works for now.

 

[jtk26]

my front driveshaft looking back at the 205 front output. It's gets pretty close to the transmission but never contacts. I currently am keeping the front transmission crossmember so right now I have 2.

 

[jtk26]

For my gas tank I cut a hole in what remains of the floor, added some tobing to keep it from rubbin on the lines, and put a cheapo autozone shifter boot for the lines. I can run 20 psi rubber lines because I habe a tbi and the fuel pump is for 15 psi or something like that.

the ratchet straps hold it good, that's what I am going to run with until I get a fuel cell that won't leak in a rollover. The stock ones leak upsidedown.

 

[jtk26]

So I started to work on the front end. Picked up some 1/4" plate from a local metal supplier in their scrap metal pile. Was super cheap due to surface rust, nothing a flap wheel won't take care of. I welded it to the front of the frame and made a small stinger and started the rest of the tubes.

the stinger ties into the core support

 

[jtk26]

 

[jtk26]

So to get this thing actually moving under its own power I needed new exhaust. I bought a basic dual exhaust kit from summit with some glasspacks. For headers I couldn't find any shorties for 73-87's that were reasonably priced so after looking at seems like a million pictures and measurements I decided on a shorty set for a early 90's 2 door ifs blazer for a tpi 350. The collectors came out at just the right spot to clear that high up driveshaft and for $125 I thought they were not bad. I did have to trim a few parts of the frame, just barely though. I don't have any good pics of the exhaust routed good but I have a true dual that goes on both sides of the np205.

 

[jtk26]

had to relocate the battery due to the bobb job. I cut some ancillary crap off of the original tray and bolted it to the floor. After not running this thing for over a year the interstate mega tron battery bit the dust. It lasted about a decade so no complaints with it. I went back and forth over a lot of batteries and I ended up with an optima yellow top for a lot of reasons. One of which being I wanted a sealed battery so acid wouldn't leak on my arm in a rollover. A bit pricey for me but I am hoping it will be a super long term battery. I dual grounded it to the frame.

 

[jtk26]

Okay so then it had a full drivetrain and started right up. Checked fluids, bled steering, brakes and pulled it out of the garage which was a monumental day.

still lots of tube work to do and dang those 35's look pussy.

 

[Kay86K5]

I was wondering how long it would take you to get this over here.

 

[jtk26]

I added some tubes to the front along the cut hood line to make it look a little less hack. While I was driving I around the orbital seemed to heat up pretty good and when I would steer I could see the ps fluid in the pump dropping down really low so I wanted to increase my fluid volume and have a way to cool it at least a little bit. I decided on a 99cent waterbottle from dollar tree and some npt fittings on the return line.

it was hard to put it together and make sure there was no air in there but I think I did a pretty good job. Now everthing seems cool and steers more consistent longer.

I also did the west texas offroad ps pump mods from this website. That seemed to help steering even better at low idle while in gear.

powersteering

 

[jtk26]

Oh also, when I first hooked up the water bottle it leaked so I took it all apart and put epoxy on the 2 fittings that go into the bottle, now she don't leak. If people want more info I can post it but the water bottle reservoir has been done several times on here.

I also built a spare tire mount, I wanted to do something that can accept whatever size tire I put on this thing so I basically built a cradle on the back with some loops that have ratchet straps hold it down. It is very stable and pretty sturdy.

 

[jtk26]

So from this stage I finish welded the cage with a buddy's 220v mig because I don't have one. I went and ran elvis trail in Florence, AZ with my half finished rig with a group of good friends from ArizonaK5.com. Had a great time, about 15 blazers were there anywhere from 4" and 33's open diffs all the way up to my rockwells.

I was pretty happy with how it worked.


a decent line

just crawled right up it

a friend doing it, he is locked on tons with 40" nittos and psc hydraulic assist

wife was taking pictures, not a good angle of the obstacle

same obstacle different angle

since I was driving I don't have many pics of my rig but I went through this squeeze, drug the rt rocker the whole way and didn't even show it, here he dents his rockers.

no one got over this waterfall, almost impossible with the water/mud in the bottom.

 

[jtk26]

These tsl's have hooked up really good ever since the sipe job, but damn they look tiny with no wheel wells and rockwells. Can't wait to burn these suckers up so bad my wife will consent to a $2000+ set of tires!!!

The rig ran great on 2 trails. Steering worked flawless and seemed to stay pretty cool. The rockwells did piss a good amount of fluid out of the pinion seals as I drove back to camp going 20+ mph. I have 4 of them comming in the mail from rockwelloffroad.com. I thought they were good, but I guess not.

My crappy motor mounts had my oil pan rubbing on the ord crossmember the whole time, I have a new set of polyurethane mounts in the mail from diy4x.com.

Tons of crap is still unpainted, I have been waiting to get more tubes on there and especially finish the front up and not have it look so crappy.

 

[jtk26]

so about the harbor freight kinker. Most of the cage is made of 1 1/2" sch 40 pipe. The first few bends with the bender were super crappy, so I built up the sides of the die with welds and ground them down for a really tight fit. After a bend I have to pry it off with a tire iron.



ps all the pipe and harbor freight haters please don't post. I am well aware of the argument between pipe and tubing.

 

[jtk26]

I know i said earlier that I didn't want to use ord's crossmember but I changed my mind. After putting 2" rear springs on the front I now had the clearance I needed and the ord set was just so easy to install. Any who some pictures.



I use vht roll bar and chassis paint, I love that stuff, it is very durable for anything like axles, frame, tubing etc.

 

[jtk26]

that picture above you can see my oil pan rubbing on my new crossmember because of sagging motor mounts. I put diy4x's competition poly motor mounts on and now it's more like this...



the motor mounts

 

[jtk26]

I replaced all 4 pinion seals and while I was at it I finish painted the front brake and somehow when I first ordered this rear pinion brake I didn't get a name plate that says diy4x on it so when I ordered the motor mounts I talked to them and they threw one in free. I love DIY4X.com. Any chance I can, I buy from them. Top notch stuff at great prices.



One of these pinion flanges was really bound up, probably from being in a fire. Had to pull the mother f'er.





for those not familiar with rockwells the pinion is a large shaft going through the whole chunck with the flanges on each side. That spins the intermediate gear which spins the bull gear. The backlash is set by these shims in the picture below. There are similar shims on the intermediate gear cover on the side of the chunk. Very easy to rebuild.





had to really beat on this mother to get it out. Garage carnage

new seals from rockwelloffroad.com. by far the cheapest place for seals, boots, etc for rockwells.