Weekend is over...what did you get done?

[Lowrange2]

Hmm, I didn't know Losi made crawlers...

 

[ChuckstrPT]

Any RC tracks up your way? We had a nice one over in Tuscaloosa my son and I visited a couple times. I'm disappointed, I don't there there is much over here in Birmingham...:viking:

 

[Lowrange2]

There was racetrack about 20 miles from my house when I was big into RC racing. It was for stadium trucks and 4wd 1/8th scale buggys tho... Not crawlers.

 

[chattacuda]

Fabbed up new radius arms for the D44 front end to make a wristed radius arm set up. Made the arms from 2.25 x .375 wall DOM and ballistic joints. Now just gotta clean em up, paint, and install. Should really help in the flex department

Here is another shot

 

[kastein]

not sure about that...or your jeep is so powerful it's making the ground move too....I've been to a NEA4WDC event some years ago...how are they doing up there??

Yeah... I edited and added "mostly"

You can see it from the rocks in front of my bumper, they have a bit of blur but not much. The whole jeep has a lot more blur.

NEA4WD is doing pretty good, we did just lose rights on a massive tract of land in western mass because the timber company sold it to the state, which is turning it into a wildlife management area (i.e. no motorized access.) Sad thing is that the people who were tearing the area up and leaving trash everywhere were all locals who were wheeling illegally, not NEA4WD members. You wouldn't believe the number of shot-up old piles of junk (plastic bottles, cans, etc) and shotgun shells I picked up and tossed in the back of the jeep on our run in November/December right before the closure.

I'm sure the same locals will continue to trash the area, we just won't be able to go pick it up.

 

[Lowrange2]

Fabbed up new radius arms for the D44 front end to make a wristed radius arm set up. Made the arms from 2.25 x .375 wall DOM and ballistic joints. Now just gotta clean em up, paint, and install. Should really help in the flex department

Here is another shot

I don't understand the tabs on the front half of the bracket. Doesn't that part go on the front?

 

[256offroad]

Any RC tracks up your way? We had a nice one over in Tuscaloosa my son and I visited a couple times. I'm disappointed, I don't there there is much over here in Birmingham...:viking:

yeah theres one that i know about.

i do alot of rc crawling (parts alot cheaper than the real jeeps)

 

[Lowrange2]

i do alot of rc crawling (parts alot cheaper than the real jeeps)

lol, Not a whole lot cheaper!

 

[kastein]

I don't understand the tabs on the front half of the bracket. Doesn't that part go on the front?

I think that's the business end of the other radius arm - it's a wristed setup.

 

[256offroad]

lol, Not a whole lot cheaper!

haha yeah they are.

one pair of high steer aluminum knuckles, $20, aluminum c's, $20, shocks $30, they are alot cheaper. but you can get carried away REAL quick haha

 

[Lowrange2]

I think that's the business end of the other radius arm - it's a wristed setup.

I guess I'm just going to have to research what a wristed set-up is...

 

[loki_racer]

Are you trolling us? I have no clue how these work.

 

[UNCC_99XJ]

Learned a good lesson tonight. My daughter came home Thursday afternoon and the motor in the MJ sounded like a diesel pulling in the driveway. She put in the carport and shut it off. Since me and Ed were getting ready to leave for Winterfest I told her to leave it and drive my Jeep while I was gone and I would look at it when I got back. Me and Ed talked about it and both kinda thought it might be the oil pump because it sounded like the upper valve train had no oil. Ed had a similar issue with his and a new filter and oil change fixed his so, that's what I did. It didn't fix it. After work tonight I went to AZ and got a cheap oil pressure gauge because the dash only has an idiot light which hadn't come on. I hooked up the gauge and fired it up. Plenty of pressure. Crap! I actually started looking around and trying to pinpoint the noise. My hearing isn't the best but I determined it was coming from the front of the motor. I started checking everything and that's when I found it. The idler pully was bad. The bearing had worn and was chattering. Oh well. I went back to AZ and got a pully and it's quiet as a mouse now. Lesson: always check the idler pully when it sounds like a diesel!!!!

Friend of mine with a 98 SE 4.0 that has well over 200K on it came to me with a similar problem over the summer. Kept saying the top end was making noise and it was getting worse, yet the dummy light wasn't on indicating a drop in oil pressure. I took at look at it, listened to it for about 10 minutes going all over the engine with a piece of wood between my ear and the engine. Determined that it was coming from the front of the motor more than anything else, so I took the belt off and started spinning stuff by hand to find the water pump bearing was shot. Replaced the offending pump and it's still on the road today racking up more highway miles!

 

[Ghost]

Wristed means it will twist like your wrist. The ford d44 from 78-79 had cast ends and the mounts cannot be cut off. There are kits that have adapters to make long arms for the fords but they willnto sell the parts and the arms are $600 or more now days.

 

[Team Willys]

The BAD thing about radius arms is that they bind when you flex it up. one arm twists up and back, the other down and forward and it basically tries to twist the axle tubes like a torsion bar and that doesn't work so well. So, to fix the binding issue, you make one side "wristed" and the one fixed side (long one in the photo) controls axle wrap. The wristed side is just to locate the axle, it is not intended to control wrap at all.

 

[Lowrange2]

That's pretty much what I had figured. Seems like a decent idea. I might have to do that to the Bronco!

 

[ChuckstrPT]

Yeah... I edited and added "mostly"

You can see it from the rocks in front of my bumper, they have a bit of blur but not much. The whole jeep has a lot more blur.

NEA4WD is doing pretty good, we did just lose rights on a massive tract of land in western mass because the timber company sold it to the state, which is turning it into a wildlife management area (i.e. no motorized access.) Sad thing is that the people who were tearing the area up and leaving trash everywhere were all locals who were wheeling illegally, not NEA4WD members. You wouldn't believe the number of shot-up old piles of junk (plastic bottles, cans, etc) and shotgun shells I picked up and tossed in the back of the jeep on our run in November/December right before the closure.

I'm sure the same locals will continue to trash the area, we just won't be able to go pick it up.

I can't remember were we went exactly, but I think it was near the Conn/Mass border, and I think I remember there was a steep rock face climb right off the road? Sound familiar? It was fun. Good group to wheel with in the NE. I was piloting a Silver Sammy on 31's at the time, with Maine plates...:viking:

 

[kastein]

I can't remember were we went exactly, but I think it was near the Conn/Mass border, and I think I remember there was a steep rock face climb right off the road? Sound familiar? It was fun. Good group to wheel with in the NE. I was piloting a Silver Sammy on 31's at the time, with Maine plates...:viking:

Sounds like gremlin or maybe ma bell (haven't been there yet), gremlin is literally on the border in sturbridge/charlton right near i84.

 

[ChuckstrPT]

Sounds like gremlin or maybe ma bell (haven't been there yet), gremlin is literally on the border in sturbridge/charlton right near i84.

Ma Bell sounds familiar....it was fun!

 

[chattacuda]

Are you trolling us? I have no clue how these work.

Sorry, been busy. Other guys have it figured out. I read about this mod on a bronco forum since the broncos came with these axles and lots of those guys wheel them hard. Problem with the factory design is the way the radius arms mount to the axle housing they make the axle like a big torsion bar. You can help a whole lot by extending the radius arms into long arms and installing good joints on the frame ends. The ROTM X1994J has the long radius arms and he goes great. Guess I just wanted to try something a little different with wristing one side, I hope it works. Will post some more pics as I go along