Fabr's Desert Car (As If I Don't Have Enough on My Plate)

[fabr]

Hinges,cable restraint,latches and latch interconnect. Pull the hinge pins and slip the cable off it's pin and the door is off. No tools simplicity,love it!

[Enemy]

That is soo baddass!

[fabr]

Welllll,thanks!

[fabr]

OK,for a variety of reasons I didn't make St.A this year. Hope all that did had a great time! One reason was the sketchy way my dry sump pump mounts to a SBC block. All makes mount the same and all are wobbly to put it mildly. Always hated seeing the movement of the pump on my dragsters but with the short distance back to"camp" from the end of the drag strip I never really worried about it. Well ,when I got to LS this spring I just got paranoid about it. I went about moving the pump closer to the block-no improvement. For those that don't know,a SBC only has oil pan bolts and engine mount bosses. I really couldn't use the motor mount bosses since they are in use holding the motor up,duh. Oil pan bolts are only 1/4"  and not in the right place to make a rear mount for the pump. Sooo,wth do I do? Finally it sank in , make a huge freeking monstrosity of an adapter for the block and added a  flange to the rear of the pump. Well,not really that much a monstrousity and  the thing made the pump rock solid now. Zero movement. Along the way I had to make a couple pulley flanges,buy a broach to cut the keyways , make a drive mandrel for the pulleys and some other BS. Like I said a few times fabbing things,the easiest stuff takes the longest. Oh well,it's all back together and a much better setup. Pretty bad though ,making mods before it's maiden sand run. 

[dsrace]

Upper rear a arm frame mounts. Are those mounts removable from the frame to get the trams out?

[fabr]

No they are part of the permanent bulkhead that ties drivers and passenger side together. The trans will come out the back. I cadded up the trans and designed bulkhead around that. IIRC I only have approx 18" rear travel due to the spacing of the inner pivots and the lesser angle the 934's can go to which I believe is 24*.  IMO,there is little ,if any, benefit of more travel unless you plan on running 3 foot deep whoops at 100MPH al trophy truck. 18" is just fine. Bypasses instead of just coilovers make the 18" work as well or better as 24" with just c/o's. What I'm blubbering about is since I needed the wide spread of the mounts to get trans out without having to pull engine I have found that the car rolls/sways less than a narrower mount would have given.   With THAT said ,I know you are a fan of higher sitting and longer travel than I prefer BUT,if I were you your car would sit 6" or more lower and have bypasses all 4 corners. You would be amazed in the difference. Your cv's would love you too.

[fabr]

It would not be hard to devise a way to make removable ,however,I like it this way better.

[dsrace]

I like the way you built that back end. Always have and thought I would look through the pics. It looked welded but not easy to view on my phone for some reason. I have 2 tabs left to tack weld and drivers side is all mocked up on mine. I had to make a fixture to extend my crude fixture to find a arm pivots that match that of the wheel bearing carriers. I know you have plunging axles , so less critical then in my case. Hard to tell from the pic but it looks like you matched your carriers well.

Yes I like a little higher stance. Yes I like a little more travel. Yes external by pass coupled with a coil over are best.   I have internal bypass 2.5' for the front and am looking for the same for the rear. I have the 2.5 c/o set off the krx, they are not internally bypassed. Did learn that a 2.5 internally bypassed shock is actually only a 2.0 inside. I am looking at 3.0 internally bypassed as a result but thats on a back burner at this time.   

As far as wheel travel goes, I want the front end level to 2" higher then the rear. So my plan is to set the rear 2" lower and mount shock as close to the wheel as I can. 15" stroke shock and the 3.0 I find will be 15" as well. 15" because of a rubber bump stop on the shaft.  For this reason , I am aiming for only 20" travel in the rear. I do not have room for external bypass and a coil over on the front or rear.

[dsrace]

Got a couple ideas to connect the top with a removable cross brace. Just not sure how I want to do that yet as I ran into fabricators block lol  thats what prompted the visit to your build pics. My fuel tank has to sit on top of the trans so my cross bars have to incorporate the fuel tank tray as well.

[fabr]

I like the way you built that back end. Always have and thought I would look through the pics. It looked welded but not easy to view on my phone for some reason. I have 2 tabs left to tack weld and drivers side is all mocked up on mine. I had to make a fixture to extend my crude fixture to find a arm pivots that match that of the wheel bearing carriers. I know you have plunging axles , so less critical then in my case.No,I do not have plunging axles.the only plunge with these 934 non plunging cv's is the spline in the star. I designed it with zero theoretical plunge.Ended up with approx 1/8" real world.Busa buggy had the plunging axles but were not needed and haven;t ever slipped.Was a waste of money/time.Hard to tell from the pic but it looks like you matched your carriers well. I cadded up the pivot points for both inner and outer to align with center of star.

Yes I like a little higher stance. Yes I like a little more travel. Yes external by pass coupled with a coil over are best.   I have internal bypass 2.5' for the front and am looking for the same for the rear. I have the 2.5 c/o set off the krx, they are not internally bypassed. Did learn that a 2.5 internally bypassed shock is actually only a 2.0 inside. I am looking at 3.0 internally bypassed as a result but thats on a back burner at this time.   

As far as wheel travel goes, I want the front end level to 2" higher then the rear. So my plan is to set the rear 2" lower and mount shock as close to the wheel as I can. 15" stroke shock and the 3.0 I find will be 15" as well. 15" because of a rubber bump stop on the shaft.  For this reason , I am aiming for only 20" travel in the rear. I do not have room for external bypass and a coil over on the front or rear.Somehow,I knew you would say something like that................. FWIW I think that preference is due to your experience with the airshox that probably necessitated that much travel due to their limitations.

[dsrace]

The reason I don't hVe room for 2 shocks per corner is because I don't want to cut back farther into the frame as well as where my exh is routed.  I need to get this done and enjoy it. I did make some good progress yesterday before my eye injection. Yes I had to get another one. Only made it 4 months since the last one. Looking like they will become a life long routine. Not happy about that either. Took a lot of adjustment ,trials and scrap pieces but I am getting slightly better at welding right handed with only a left eye.  Didnt the any pics of the progress yesterday either. All the mounts are in place to mock up the left a arms so I can make some jig fixtures off of them. The upper a arm is wider at the frame than anticipated but I have my reasons for it.   

I like air shocks and always will. Price, weight and ease of tuning is un matched imo. You are correct, there are limitations. For Oklahoma they work just fine but I'm out of the weight class in the 2.5' on my rear. You cannot leverage an air shock as much as you can a coil over. That depends on the weight too. On the front I wouldn't hesitate on a 2/1 factor and would prob try 2.5 /1. In the rear, 1.5/ 1 might be the better ratio. 

Thats not why I want these as close to the wheels as I can. Thats dues to a spacing thing that ill know more about once I get the a arm made. Its a guess at this point but a guess based on where my shock will have to mount.