Project Double Trouble/Drew's Bronco

[drewbee88]

Been extra busy working on some other projects lately, but here's a little teaser

[Rmc]

Coming along nicely! More pics!

[drewbee88]

Its still a ways away from being finalized but getting closer everyday.

And this is at full lock.

[Rmc]

Camber angle looks good, overall pretty darn good so far. I would make sure you have over an inch between the radius arm and tire at full left/right. Only reason is tires flop left and right a bit in the rough stuff especially if aired down. You can always grind the steering stop bolt weld and ad a longer one if you need to stop the tire a bit shorter at full turn. Keep in mind when messing with the steering stops to check the u joints at the knuckles for bind too. You don't want to break an axel by way of a power steering unit lol. Less= ok, more = watch the u joint bind point. Looking great so far.

[drewbee88]

Camber angle looks good, overall pretty darn good so far. I would make sure you have over an inch between the radius arm and tire at full left/right. Only reason is tires flop left and right a bit in the rough stuff especially if aired down. You can always grind the steering stop bolt weld and ad a longer one if you need to stop the tire a bit shorter at full turn. Keep in mind when messing with the steering stops to check the u joints at the knuckles for bind too. You don't want to break an axel by way of a power steering unit lol. Less= ok, more = watch the u joint bind point. Looking great so far.

Yeah I have 2 sets of knuckles. 1 set with stops, and normal brake ears with the pins. The second set has bolt on calipers (which I like) but no bump stop adjusters. So I was gonna ad them. I have not check but I would reckon my ujoints would bind at full lock there. We shall see more cycling is happening this week.

[cs_drums]

My tires rub the radius arms at full lock. Not a big deal cause its only noticable doing u turns or tight stuff at slow speeds. I would try and keep the radius arm as far out on the beam as possible. thats just me. Are you welding the radius arm straight to the beam? or bolt on?

[drewbee88]

Yes I decided to build the infamous j beam radius arms. I will have a tube coming from close to the end of beam going to that tube and another on bottom and it will be plated with 3/16s. They should be pretty stout.

[drewbee88]

J-beam TTB, mostly because if i destroy these beams i will probably just build another set of beams, maybe even try to tackle the equal-length ttb setup. i feel way more comfortable with the Beams and TTB setup now. after many hours test fitting and thinking about it im sure my second set would go much faster. My last build was all bolt on except for the rear bedcage. so building these have stretched my fabrication legs. gonna throw it together to get it a roller and move it back into the shop before the weather gets crappy.

[drewbee88]

So I decided to ditch the j arm style and go with a threat style radius arm. Here a quick teaser the mount is incorporated into the top and bottom gussets on the beam as well...

[cs_drums]

Much better route, they'd how mine are. I think it's the best of both worlds

[Silverslk]

Looking good!!

[ChaseTruck754]

SO awesome! This is the attachment style I was planning on for whenever I build something else. Also loving the D50 ends on the d44 geometry, it's giving me bad ideas. How much work was it to figure out lengths, etc? Did you mention if you widened it at all, or are all the axles stock length?

[drewbee88]

SO awesome! This is the attachment style I was planning on for whenever I build something else. Also loving the D50 ends on the d44 geometry, it's giving me bad ideas. How much work was it to figure out lengths, etc? Did you mention if you widened it at all, or are all the axles stock length?

So Here is how i tackled the dana 44 and dana 50 hodge podge. i i first built a jig for the dana 44 on the fab table that bolted down and located the knuckle off a the upper ball joint in relation to the rest of the beam. The hardest part and what tool the longest was the dana 50 is perfectly square and the 44 is more rectangle, so i had to find where the knuckes both met width and height wise and cut them there so they matched perfectly when set next to each other. from there is was moving the knuckle 4 inches and bolting her back down and building my Extension plates. It was a pain but all in all i am real happy how it turned out. The Passenger beam is where it became super easy, i jigged the 44 beam up and the 50 beam is using the same geometry minus an a little relief cut for the crossmember on the bronco. so i traced the relief cut from the 44 beam to the 50 and plated and extended it. the passenger beam took a lot less math and time figuring out. The only downfall to using the 50 passenger beam is the radius arms will be slightly taller on the drivers side due to the beam not being as tall as the 44, but the strengths out weight the negatives. i can accept the fact that the radius arms will be slightly different. I mean you only look at one side at a time. other than than now that i know what i know about beams and fabrication ( this is my first set ever built) . If i stated again today i would probably take the dana 50 beams and tackle the equal length dana 50 setup for super gnar-cal status. But this is why i have been dreaming of building for over a year, doing tons of research and reading to get to this point. almost there. slowly but surely she will be finished soon!

[drewbee88]

BTW the beams are 4" over on each side. i think i forgot to mention that in my last post.

[ChaseTruck754]

Awesome - thanks for the write up. I suspected the 4" over thing when you mentioned moving the knuckle 4".

[drewbee88]

So I got things buttoned up temporarily to move the thing back into the shop to finish up beams and engine cage. Threw the battery back in the thing and now it will not start, no injector pulse. I checked all relays looking like the eec-iv computer is fried. I am gonna head to pick n pull and grab another just to have. But this is frustrating to say the least.

[cs_drums]

That was one of my biggest fears with my build. I had the entire harness apart to do the ABS delet and clean re route some things. THen after I buttoned it all up I realized it was gonna be a good amount of time for me to forget everythign I did before ide be able to drive it again. I happy i had no issues. Hope you get your worked out quickly.

[drewbee88]

That was one of my biggest fears with my build. I had the entire harness apart to do the ABS delet and clean re route some things. THen after I buttoned it all up I realized it was gonna be a good amount of time for me to forget everythign I did before ide be able to drive it again. I happy i had no issues. Hope you get your worked out quickly.

Yeah what is ironic, is while i was building the cage the dash went in and out and it drove. the second i park it out back to make space for some other projects in the shop (less than a month), it does this to me. haven't had a ton of time to dig into it, but fuel pumps and computer is getting voltage, no codes.... so a 30 dollar computer from pick-n-pull is good to have anyways as a spare if its not the computer. if not i will be digging into it more, checking all the systems. prolly gonna just tow it around this weekend and get it inside shop and start on engine cage. trying to have it driving before new years, and first trip in march! we shall see! wish me luck

[AussieRod]

Check that the large ring connector at the back of the intake hasnt broken off or been left off. Had this happen before and if not properly earthed, no go.

[drewbee88]

Check that the large ring connector at the back of the intake hasnt broken off or been left off. Had this happen before and if not properly earthed, no go.

Will do, never touched it but I will check it when I'm at shop next