The Misfit

[RalphDogg]

Picked up a great deal on Craigs List. The guy had it listed as a CJ front bumper, but it's definitely a Shrockworks Samurai bumper. With a little love I can make it work and add a winch mount. Totally worth $85!



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[Deadman 94 xj]

Nice find

[ruffchem1]

real nice find

[RalphDogg]

The body work has come to an end, all I have left is to wet sand the body and paint the bitch. Since that nightmare is close I have moved on to the fun stuff. I welded steel plates to the frame to beef up the bumper mounting points. The frame is around 1/16 so it's thin and will tear when under load. I'm pretty happy on how this bumper turned out.


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[ridgerunner97]

Looks great Ralph!

[RalphDogg]

I'm trying to get most of the mechanical problems addressed so this thing will move and stop under its own power again. The brakes were molded rust so I ended up replacing everything starting from the master cylinder. I pulled the tranny because the clutch was slipping badly, it's getting replaced with a Luk clutch, and of course all new fluids. I've had good luck with Luk clutches the past. The exhaust is rusted off right after the manifold so that may get fixed while the tranny is out. I love living in the rust belt.


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[RalphDogg]

Slowly I've been collecting used parts for the rear frame extension/ truck bed conversion. I think I'm going to use a sidekick four-door rear drive shaft which will give me an 11 inch wheelbase extension. And I can also use four door Ebrake cables to retain a factory usable Ebrake, which is always hard when doing these chopped up builds.

You can see the 11" length difference between the drive shafts, So we're looking at a whopping 100" wheelbase Tracker!


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[RalphDogg]

I found this bed design and I think I'm going to copy it minus some minor details like the spare tire mount. I'm really diggin the double tube rollbar.


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[ridgerunner97]

You do the bed like that bed Ralphie your going to have to import some simex centipede tires or jungle trekkers, swap in a tdi motor and enter it in the Croatia trophy!

[RalphDogg]

I don't think your that far off from the finished product I'm going for.

[ridgerunner97]

What is your tire size plan? 33s?

[RalphDogg]

Eh not quite, 30x10.50 swampers on a 2" backspaced wheel with roll out rubber fender flares in the front. I guess a misfit of the Croatia trophy truck race. The one that qualifies last.

[ridgerunner97]

I'll have to pick you up one night and take a ride over to Adams burg I'm fairly positive the pope-mobile is sitting over there in the weeds dude

[RalphDogg]

Looks like one thing leads to another, and I started on upgrading the front IFS. The front IFS will be made up of various Suzuki parts from over the years to make what I can easily trust to handle my tire size.


Im sure I will lose a few Jeepers here but bare with me peeps, I'm speaking Suzuki...
I modified the inner axle shafts, this modification allowes me to run the same length STOCK outer CV axle on both the passenger and driver side. That's great because I will only need one trail spare and they easily unbolt with 3 bolts.
While inside the diff I upgraded from the early year 22 spline, to the later year 26 spline shafts and welded the gears to make a spool.

Thats about as far as I have gone, I'll be moving on to widening the front control arms and beefing up the front aluminum axle housing.

22 to 26 spline, a big difference

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[RalphDogg]

A few pictures of the inner axle modification. (Again speaking Suzuki)

Before/middle/after


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[Deadman 94 xj]

Looking good Ralph. Do you have plans yet for the housing?

[CESCO]

Do you have plans yet for the housing?

I am wondering the same thing. I broke a housing in mine this winter and didn't know if there was anything to make it stronger without buying a steel replacement

[RalphDogg]

Here are a few pictures of the front end. The additional 3rd member mount isn't finished, but I wanted to take a pic before it was finished and bolted under the tracker permanently. It's basically another ear welded to the aluminum cast, and it will get bolted with a rubber bushing to the frame just like the factory mount. I am hoping this will distribute the torq stress evenly over the 3rd member. This is my cheap fix instead of spending the money on a steel front end.


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[RalphDogg]

Here is a bit more on the configuration of the equal length cv shafts


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[RalphDogg]

The equal length drive shafts can be unbolted while the vehicle in on the ground and even with the tires still on. It's a great upgrade when u break one and have to change it on the trail.

[Deadman 94 xj]

Nice!

[Tom'sToyotaFarm]

Looking forward to how this turns out.

[RalphDogg]

She's out of the garage and driving under her own power, SO far from done but so nice to drive it!


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[Tom'sToyotaFarm]

Not to jack your thread Ralph but, looks like a lot of solar power going on in the background.

[RalphDogg]

Yeah, he added the panels a few years ago, hopefully they pay for themselves eventually.