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Pzuzu The Isuzu Build (RIP)

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Didnt get a great deal done today seeing as how I got stuck moving a hottub and assembling deck furniture with my garage landlord for 2 hours in the morning and wound up cleaning the drums on Lauras truck in the afternoon...


The other day I got the idea that while the panhard bar mount is open I would bolt it to the axle. I wanted to do this as a reinforcement due to the panhard mount being on the cast iron spring pad.

So I drilled two holes about 1-1/4 deep through the piece of plate that I tacked across the spring pad that I built the panhard bracket off of. I drilled the plate 1/2 and then another inch into the cast spring pad with a 3/8 bit.

Then I drilled and tapped the spring pad for 1/2in course bolts. NOW Im not worried the panhard mount will ever go anywhere. Its got two bolts, torque holding the base and its going to be fully welded and boxed on top of that.

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I cut my lower coil buckets with the torch at work this week so hopefully Ill get them all ground and nice looking and the rest of the coil perches done tomorrow.
 
Got my lower coil mounts done today on both sides. Came out really good, was a seriously long day fighting the hole saw without the right tool to spin it and cutting 1/4 plate with the grinder not to mention making the edges nice nice on 3/8ths plate.


When I was grinding the tie in to the panhard bar mount to fit snug I got a little over ambitious. Looks like Ill be boxing the panhard bracket on the outside to make up the void.

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Drivers side.

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Frame side panhard bracket clearance. Still to be reinforced. Wanted to make sure it would clear before buzzing it on...

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You can see with how much of the coil sticks over the radius arm clamp why I went with 3/8ths for the spring pad. Im going to add probably a capped 6" long piece of pipe in the center of the spring pad to locate the spring since I dont plan on trapping them on the bottom unless someone has anything to say against that.

The top buckets will have retainers.

Today made me realized a few things about my tool arsenal. I really need a not piece of **** drill press with more than a 1-1/2 throw on it. I really need a corded drill. And i really need more tool storage...

:doah:
 
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some good stuff mang!

Stomis said:
Today made me realized a few things about my tool arsenal. I really need a not piece of **** drill press with more than a 1-1/2 throw on it. I really need a corded drill. And i really need more tool storage...

:doah:
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every time I do anything I end up making a list of tools that I wish I had to make it go so much more smoothly. :doah:
 
Thanks guys. Hopefully when I get back from the honey moon Ill be at liberty to drop a few hundo of the wedding money at some tools! Should be totally doable since the forecast isnt so great which = less money spent on activities.
 
On coil spring locating/retaining:

Might be a good idea to have. When I had my Ranger 6 or so years ago some of the guys were experimenting with the TTB front axles and Jeep Wrangler TJ coil springs that were far softer than the TTB coils. Only problem several had on the trail was that they could now droop so far the coils would fall out or not seat correctly when the suspension closed back up. One guy simply made a little bolt on clamp sorta like the plastic ones for holding PVC electrical wiring pipe onto a wall. Just bolted it to his mount and had it hold onto the bottom of the coil. Worked fine for him.
 
AJMBLAZER said:
On coil spring locating/retaining:

Might be a good idea to have. When I had my Ranger 6 or so years ago some of the guys were experimenting with the TTB front axles and Jeep Wrangler TJ coil springs that were far softer than the TTB coils. Only problem several had on the trail was that they could now droop so far the coils would fall out or not seat correctly when the suspension closed back up. One guy simply made a little bolt on clamp sorta like the plastic ones for holding PVC electrical wiring pipe onto a wall. Just bolted it to his mount and had it hold onto the bottom of the coil. Worked fine for him.
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It cant hurt to run them I guess. Id have to look at it to see how I would make a retainer with something centering the coil. I could always make some twist in retainers and then clamp the top solid too. Kinda like an eyelet you twist the open bottom of the spring into.
 
NorCal_Chris said:
2small u bolts on either side of coil. Done.
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After digging around on the net I think what Im gonna do is run a poly pad that gives the coil a flat bottom. Then put a piece of pipe the height of the seat in the center of the pad with a bent piece of 1/4 thick 1in flat bar across the pad.
 
So after lots of thought and no input from anyone on here :D Ive decided to go leaf springs in the back. I want to carry a water tank, possibly make a trailer, and still DD the thing unloaded so I need to set it up for variable weights.

Coils are just too much of a butt pain and I dont want to run air bags.

That being said my first though was toyota springs but theyre too dinky for the weight of an SUV plus serious gear. Ill either be running some junkyard 56s or 64s depending on where I measure the shackles to be given the spring length and wheel base. I dont want my shackles hanging way out the ass of the truck like my chevy was.
 
Picked up a trans an transfer case tonight. W56 and Top shift gear driven toy tcase. Came with clutch/brake pedals and a flywheel. I thought it was quite the steal at $200.

Now all I need is some leafsprings, leaf brackets, motor and adapter kit and to get my ass to work :doah:
 
This post is mostly for myself to get my **** back on track... :doah:

I picked up some coil spring isolators. Not sure if Im going to cut them to get my coils to sit flush or just run them.

That being said I was doing side work all this past weekend so I made no progress on the truck. Ive been trying to pick up extra work to get some finances more in order for buying a house this summer/fall.


This weekend Im gonna get back at it though. Since Im definitely going with a toy tcase now Im going to switch my dana 44 yoke to a toyota flange so I can just run a toyota front shaft. Its a good thing anyway because I was really on the fence about being lazy and welding my panhard bar brackets up without pulling my gears and seals out...

Ive got to brace my frame side panhard bar mount and get my coil buckets tacked on. I also need to get my radius arms gusseted up all the way cause as of right now Im kinda worried about have 30 little things to do before I switch the body to the frame...

Im shooting to have my drivetrain together by the end of the summer. I need to buy a motor ($500-$700) and pick up the adapter kit ($625) plus a good clutch from marlin crawler and a gear reduction toyota starter.

God I bit off a lot with this one
 
Too many times Ive gotten half way through projects and stopped. It wont happen this time because the wife is behind me. We're going on a roadtrip around New England as soon as the rig is done and shaken down for bugs :waytogo:
 
Some real progress finally. Got my coil buckets tacked to the axle last week and lined up with the coils sitting on them. Clearance is still good on the panhard with everything lined up as planned.

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I made some frame plates to give myself a flat surface for the shock towers since they sit half on fish plate. Then I got the shock towers tacked on.

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I set my shocks up for 4.5in up travel. The half inch is just a safety margin so they dont fully bottom out. I was happy I was able to leave the Ford towers uncut by mounting the lower shock brackets on top of the radius arms instead of out the side.

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Theres a crap load of room around the shocks. Came out really nice.

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I also decided to bang out finishing my X member now that I dont have to be concerned with where lower 4 link brackets might end up later on. I fish plate the rear joint and tied the tubes in right in the middle.

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I also cut out the rest of the plates for my axle side panhard bar mount at my buddies with his torch. Now that everything is tacked the only thing left to do is add in some short pieces of pipe to center the coils with a retainer built in. After that I can pull the gears back out of the rear and fully weld up all the brackets at work.

Once thats done Im going to fully build the front axle so I can cart the frame around like a wheel barrow :haha:
 
right on! it will be cool to see this thing sitting on some wheels. it will help to give some perspective as to what we're looking at.
 
ashman said:
right on! it will be cool to see this thing sitting on some wheels. it will help to give some perspective as to what we're looking at.
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Yeah I set out to work on it all day with my buddy. Figured Id bang out a simple side job of a trans service I had lined up before he got over. Frozen snapped bolt in pan... Took a ****ing bath in burnt trans fluid... Took 2 hours to get the broken bolt out.

Then we finally got to work on the frame. We got my panhard bar mount on the frame gusseted and that was it. Ive got to locate some 3in schd 40 to make my spring guides and retainers out of and then the axle is coming out to get welded up.

Id imagine the body will be getting pulled sometimes toward the end of august. Im gonna pre-fab all my body mounts sometime soon. Im thinking about using the blazer tank I have kicking around now instead of the wacky trooper tank too.
 
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