Pzuzu The Isuzu Build (RIP)

[Stomis]

So I went back and forth with superior and poly performance for a week and a half before I cancelled my super 88 kit order. Poly was cool, I ordered it through them but the crap from superior was basically "We have really ****ty suppliers that we outsource to. I cant give you any estimates on when the kit will be in." Then they finally got back to me and said 2 weeks and I said forget it after reading horror stories about guy waiting months and months and not being able to order replacement part etc.

I found a company with the yukon version of the kit called the ultimate 88. Called him up and got him to honor his intro price from last year. $450 instead of $600 + shipping (superior price). It got here today and its pretty damn cool setup.

Basically you cut the seal / axle retainer section of the housing off and bolt on 9in style bearing pockets. I still need to send the shafts out and have them copied into 6 lug versions. My gear install kit will be here tomorrow so my rear will be 1/2 there tomorrow night.

 

[Stomis]

Got the locker and gears in the 8.8 today. Still need to send my shafts out to get 6 luggers copied off them.

The $90 summit pinion depth tool that measures off the main bearing race surface was an utter waste of money. Its going back, the thing is friggin useless. Theres so many places for the thing to be off and mistakes in measurement made plus the math that I just threw in the towel and pulled a pattern off the stock shim and adjusted. One day I'll drop $350 on a pinion depth kit that has the tapered pucks and bolts into the main bearing races and gives you pinion depth dead nuts in 5 minutes...


Ive already got dreams of building an RCV'd jana 54 or j4 king pin front axle with another ox locker dancing in my head......

 

[SUPER'BURB]

This rig is F'n cool .

 

[454Sub]

Yes, I did the rig for sure. Im contemplating building an S-10 Blazer along these lines.

 

[Stomis]

Yes, I did the rig for sure. Im contemplating building an S-10 Blazer along these lines.

I was gonna do a 2 door box s10 but decided on something with more headroom. The trooper was the only combination of head room and width I wanted other than numerous vehicles that werent in the US like Patrols and FJ70 series cruisers.

I think theres some good mitsubishi choices like the raiders and their next step up,

 

[Jester1]

Did you get new springs for this thing yet and wondering what they might be.

 

[Stomis]

For the front or back?

 

[Jester1]

For the front or back?

Back, I thought the front was coils?

 

[Stomis]

Front is early bronco coils. Back is 54in Tahoe leaf springs.

 

[Stomis]

So my shafts will be here friday. Dutchman was great and I would recommend them over moser any day of the week. Super communication and very personal.

I've set it up so that front and back will share as much of the same parts as I could. Same wheel studs front and back, same rotors, same pads, same calipers. Im going to be pinning the rotors to the back of the axle flange just like the front. I painted the calipers up tonight, gotta do the rotors later. Studs, hoses, and lug nuts are in the mail also.

Next weekend it should be tacked together as a full roller. Then Ive got to get my 442 sold so I can buy my clutch and adapter kit for the motor and start getting accessories made. Then it will be major deconstruction time on the truck and body off the frame time

 

[ashman]

Next weekend it should be tacked together as a full roller.

right on man! that is going to be a pretty major milestone. can't wait to see it.

 

[Stomis]

So my shafts came. Man are they really nice. Easily the highest quality shaft Ive ever had in my own hands out of Yukon, Mosier, Strange, Alloy USA, and obviously stockers lol. I thought I had big problems with length but I was wrong. I totally forgot to calculate for not having backing plates/caliper brackets on my axle so I had my shafts slid all the way in and the bearings were seated in the pockets but the retainer plates where still almost a half inch off the housing. I could have ordered the shafts adjusted in hindsight but Im just going to make a .44in spacer to fill the gap and make that spacer the caliper bracket since the weld-ons I bought will not work.


I did get the axles full assembled with bearings, inner and outer retainers, rotors and seals.

Heres some comparison between the dutchman shafts and the piece of junk Yukons.

Dutchmans unboxed

Close up of a dutchman.

Close up of a Yukon, lol chinese crap...

So then I started getting the rotors on. I decided to use the same parts as the front axle for good measure and ease of spare parts. Everything I tried to use is stuff I know parts stores generally stock or is 1 day order. The rotors, wheel studs, calipers, and pads are the same as the front. Only thing modified is the rotor and can be done on a drill press in 20 mins. The rotors are pinned on the axle flange from the back just like the front. My buddy criticized me for choosing to do it like that but I decided in the 3+ years I had the chevy weighing 5000lbs + and 36in swampers and putting 10,000 plus miles on it on the road I never had a rotor wear issue and they are thick as all hell.

Shaft flange.

The issue at hand. With a pinned rotor you really HAVE to have an access hole for a socket wrench for the axle retainer plate bolts. So that chunk of rotor had to go!

A couple pilot holes since the center of the 1-1/8in hole landed RIGHT on the angled edge of the damn center opening, then a trip to home depot for the right size hole saw bit and 20 mins of drilling and I had this.

And done and pinned on.

Then I started running into the spacing issue with the axle pockets and got frustrated and then all of the sudden it was 12:30 at night...

Its not easy to make factory parts work together with each other combined with aftermarket stuff made for other factory parts. Especially when you've got nothing to follow previously done

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

Those look awesome!

 

[1BEATK5]

Dutchman has done stuff for me in the past. Great service and quality.

 

[Stomis]

Got some work done on bearing spacer/ caliper brackets last weekend. Only did one. Ive been burning the candle at both ends between work, welding/fab side job, and masonry side job. Its paying off though, my financials are in so much better shape after just a couple weeks of hardwork. After the KoH eastern qualifier next month my garage at home will become home base for getting the trooper body on the new frame.

Heres some shots of the start of the caliper bracket and how the pieces I bought from Diy4x go together.

I'll be trimming down my weld on caliper brackets from barnes 4wd and mounting them on the flat piece of plate that bridges the two brackets together. I tried one but it didnt come out how I wanted it so its going to get redone.

The day jobs been spotty with this odd storm we've had on the east coast here. After I got done at work at one I decided I would set out to get my wheels and tire situation fixed. Rollers back on the trooper with old wheels and the Duratracs on the frame on the Soft 8 steelies.

Meat on the new wheel.

Frame on 33s at the final backspacing. As I noted earlier I will JUST have full lock against my control arms when I step up to 35s.

My shop is a frigging mess from it basically just being used as storage for 4 months.

Just a funny shot of the trooper with 3+ inches of lift back on 29in tires

 

[Stomis]

So I was recapping my build thread looking for a measurement and man Ive really been slacking compared to progress I used to make... Im ready to get back into this project full swing! Just a couple more weeks, the Rausch Creek KOH Ultra 4 Qualifier will be done and the race car will go into hibernation for a month or two while we hammer away on the trooper.

I have been a little more active on it this last week despite work being insane. I pulled the cam from the diesel and soaked it in some of that new WD40 rust dissolve over night. Cleaned the damn thing up like new! So I need to reinstall that on the motor now. Tonight I worked on trussing the 8.8. Ive been really on the fence about whether to bother or not and I figured eh, I'll throw a quick simple one on there because god forbid I ever bend a tube I'll be pissed at myself. Got it 75% done tonight, at least the hard part of notching tube around the pumpkin is finished. Just gonna make some pieces of 1/8 plate to fill in between the tube and the axle tube and it will be complete.

Next weekend Im going to start fabricating the 6 main body mounts for the cab. I wrote down some rough specs that are closeish to the factory mounts that Im going to fab out of some 5in 1/8 strap with some 60* press bends in it. I plan on making a jig off the old frame/body for these 6 main mounts and then building the rest once the body is bolted on the frame. Working a side job tomorrow and have another one coming up so hopefully I'll be ordering my adapter kit very soon too.

 

[Stomis]

Did some work on the frame. Had to modify some of the existing rear tube crossmembers to fit the blazer tank I decided to use. I also X trussed the rear legs of the frame. Im hoping to have the rear done and assembled this weekend. Progress has been kind of lacking as we found out just after my last post my mom had cancer again and a double mastectomy last wed, not that I have to make excuses

 

[y5mgisi]

Sorry about your mom bro.

 

[Deuling]

x2 dude, sorry about mom



Looking good though dude. He what did those dutchman axles set you back?

 

[Stomis]

Thanks guys.

Dutchman's were like 350 with shipping.