GM 5.3/4L60E/Klune/Stak 300

[Mr.OverKill]

I got the pitman arm double shear done.

Jeff

i have been lerking here for this whole build and i need to say, i like your work, the pitman arm looks good too. keep it up, thats a lot of work but it will be well worth it.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I've not been hitting it like I should, but I did get a little bit done. I sold the Ballistic Fab steering arms for a loss and then paid Parts Mike more yet for another set!

I had them have their builder (who is in Colorado someplace) make a set with the tie rod ends drilled, but not tapered as well as include the 5th hole for a Reid Racing steering knuckle. A 5/8" bolt slips into the hole quite nicely. I want to double sheer these as well, but I'm afraid to do much until I get the axle in place and push it up to full stuff to check for clearance issues.

Speaking of the axle, I welded the inner C's solid using a big MIG running flux core WITH gas shielding. I believe it penetrated the thick C's and 1/2" thick tubes quite well.

I set the pinion angle to 11 degrees up with the caster at 7 degrees. Jeff

 

[whitneyj]

Good to see more progress on your rig. I was just looking back at your thread about narrowing your front fascia, excited to see this thing come this far! Why did you go from ballistic's arms to part's mike?

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I decided I needed the rear portion of the Parts Mike arms for a ram and the Ballisitic arms did not have a rear portion. Also, after mocking up the steering I decided that I did not need two holes on the front of the passengers arm like the Ballistic arms had. So, in short, the Parts Mike arms suited my needs better. Jeff

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I haven't quit on this thing, but I haven't exactly been hitting it real hard either. My son got married in Nevada a few weeks ago, so that was a good trip. I did a little exploring in California and almost hiked to Half Dome in Yosemite NP (2 miles short my wife said she would go no further!) Anyway, I've been playing with the axle, track bar, upper suspension link, exhaust, steering, etc trying to get them all to fit at what I'm calling full suspension compression and it is NOT working all that well! Currently I'm trying to come up with an upper front suspension link frame mount at full stuff and have some geometry questions for you all. I've cut a big hole in the tranny tunnel to try to fit the driveshaft and upper link at full stuff and it looks like the frame end of the upper link is going to have to be right above the front driveshaft double cardon joint. I think I can make this work with some creative tranny tunnel massaging, but what I'm worried about is the geometry. The axle end is going to have about 7.25" separation between the upper and lower links. They are all going to be about 40" long and sitting pretty much parrallel to the ground at full stuff. With the need to place the frame end of the upper link above the driveshaft, the separation at that end is going to be about 7". This makes the arms damn near parallel which I'm afraid is going to be bad for suspension action. Thoughts? Jeff

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I really need to snap some pictures, but I don't have a camera available right now and I'm not sure I would be able to capture things sufficiently anyway. My research indicates that the front really should be separated further than the rear for some anti-dive and the longer the links, the more the separation should be. I read that Jes with 35" arms had 8" separation at the axle and 7" at the frame. Crash had 8" separation at the axle and 6" at the frame running 40" arms. I believe Goatman actually raised his axle end mount on the old XMJ to gain some anti dive after running it for awhile. So, I'm kind of screwed. I can't raise the axle end any because it would hit my motor mounts and the exhaust manifolds. I can't lower the frame end any because there is no room between the driveshaft and the tranny for a tube and if I put it OVER the driveshaft I can't lower it any because it would hit the driveshaft. My only option that I can see is to cut the hole in the floor more and mount the upper between the driveshaft and the frame/tunnel. This might work, but I'm afraid how much the new tunnel would affect access to the accelerator petal and just general foot room. Jeff

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Here are a few pictures of a truss I made for the front axle. It is low and doesn't even go over the pumpkin. I have a section that does go over the pumpkin, but it is located back from the actual truss to provide room for the track bar at full stuff.

Jeff

 

[Jes]

What are those cone shaped things on top of the Cs? .188" or .25" on the truss?
Looks good.

 

[MoparManiac]

Kingpins.

Great job on the truss man! Looks awesome!

 

[asp]

sweet truss. i have contemplated something similar for mine but i have a UCA mount to work around on my stock 30. i like the approach overall though...

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

King pins baby! You don't see those on a 44 every day. The truss is .188 wall. I have a number of pictures that try to show the difficulty of fitting a long upper link with the axle at full stuff, but it is really hard to get a good clear look at things in real life let alone in pictures.

Overall from below:

Drivers side from below. The upper link is sitting in there, but you cannot see it because it is above the driveshaft. If I put the upper here, there would be too much separation at the frame end compared to the axle end. It would be around 7" of separation at the frame end. The axle end is around 7.5" right now.

Axle end of the upper with it sitting on top of the driveshaft.

From the front.

near the frame end through a hole in the tranny tunnel.

There's no room for the upper between the tranny and the driveshaft though.

Maybe I can fit the frame end of the upper in here to the left of the driveshaft?

Here the temporary link is slid in to the left of the driveshaft as far as I could go without more hole cutting.

From inside through the hole:

The axle end with the link forward, but going back to the left of the driveshaft.

I think I'm going to cut the hole bigger and figure out some sort of mount to place the upper to the left of the driveshaft with about 5.5" of separation with the lower. BTW, I asked the same question over on Pirate, so here's a link to that discussion: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=799859 There are some interesting pictures in that thread. Jeff

 

[MoparManiac]

I haven't read through your whole thread, but is there a problem with running the upper link on the pass side?

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Since I'm going crazy with pictures, here's some more!

Axle to exhaust clearance at full stuff. If I can get the pinion to tip back a bit more and still be right at ride height this would open up a little clearance. I already ground a smooth matching notch in the D44 supporting rib to get this tight.

Here's the path for a track bar. It hopefully will just slip between the top of the housing and the bottom of the oil pan at full stuff:

Jeff

 

[shortxjdoug]

I haven't read through your whole thread, but is there a problem with running the upper link on the pass
side?

iirc the 4l60 tranny pan is too wide to have decent clearance?

 

[Root Moose]

iirc the 4l60 tranny pan is too wide to have decent clearance?

Yep - that's what was said at PBB.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I should probably start multiple threads but I guess I'll just lump it all in this one. This post is about the Dana 300. I gave up trying to get any answers out of Stak as they NEVER answer their phone or return messages or reply to emails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I bought a JB conversions HD D300 rear output and am going to try to make it work with a High Angle Driveline flange, rotor and caliper. I got the thing in last night and did some trial fitting and thinking.

Here I am noticing the recessed area for the seal housing and how it fits over the raised area on the main housing.

When I tried to install the H.A.D. flange I found out the seal provided by JB was too small.

Here I removed the seal and trial fit things together.

Then I slipped the caliper over the rotor and found that the lever cleared the main case mounting flange depth! Woo Hoo!

I then took a look at how a caliper mount might fit and found out that a plate sandwiched between the seal housing and the main case would not line up even close on the caliper. However, a plate against the outside face of the seal housing comes very close to working!

I also noticed that the seal housing uses six pretty small countersunk socket head 5/16 bolts to bolt it to the main output housing. I'm thinking if I build a completely new seal housing I could make it just enough thicker so a flat plate against it's face would line up for mounting the caliper. I could also just have straight holes in the new seal housing for the six bolts. I might have to use a tapered type flush mount bolt with tapered holes in the caliper mount to keep the heads down and not have interference with the CV mounting bolts though. Perhaps I could incorporate those dowel holes in the output housing and extend them through the seal housing and have the caliper mount index on them. It's just circular, so it should be pretty easy to make on a lathe. What do you all think of this idea?

Here's the whole setup placed on the Stak case in the MJ. Clearance looks good!

Jeff

 

[JeepFreak21]

Damn Jeff... was the 3 link not hard enough the first time around???

Billy

 

[MoparManiac]

I'm curious to see how you'll like the 44/60 hybrid. I've often thought about it myself.

I'd assume the pinion will be the weak link now though?

 

[asp]

i <3 tcase output brake :loveu:

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Well, I procured a piece of aluminum plate from an old Analog TV transmitter and cut it into a donut with a hole saw and band saw. I just need some time on the lathe to make it fit right. Jeff