'51 Rock Wagon

Maxx · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2015 1:29 pm

I need to stop opening this thread in public.

JB · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:42 pm

So I finally got pulled over today. I was on a back road about a mile from my house when a Sheriff's deputy pulled out behind me, and I knew he was coming for me. After we stopped and he got to my door, he immediately told me I wasn't going to get a ticket, just wanted to check out the truck. Turns out he has a land Rover that Jonni is working on. We talked about that for few minutes, then I brought up Larue Tactical gear (he was wearing a Larue hat) and chatted about rifles for a few minutes. The guy was super cool. It was probably the most relaxed interaction I've ever had with an LEO :roflmao:

sideshow · **Posted:** Sat Apr 25, 2015 5:18 am

That's great.

Opie · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:37 pm

JB wrote:

Installed the 3200 governor spring today, and gave the PW some much needed revs. It feels like it pulls a little harder until it defuels too, although some of that might be coming from the AFC pin that I turned to its richest setting. It does smoke a little more as it spools up, but its running clean at the top end. I plan on tweaking the pump a little more when the weather gets better, as its spinning tires in the wet now :eek2:

.

Its not just your imagination - the 3200 spring changes how the 'governor' in the fuel pump acts through the whole range, and ultimately allows / limits the RPM of the engine to get to 3200ish - but changes the fueling the whole way.
What did you set timing to? Are the staked marks on the timing housing still aligned with the injection pump?
You can get a bit more out of it if you loosen the 3 bolts holding the IP on, and rotate the pump top towards the head - this will increase the timing and adds a bit to the seat of the pants HP.

JB · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2015 5:06 pm

Opie wrote:

What did you set timing to? Are the staked marks on the timing housing still aligned with the injection pump?
You can get a bit more out of it if you loosen the 3 bolts holding the IP on, and rotate the pump top towards the head - this will increase the timing and adds a bit to the seat of the pants HP.

I haven't added any timing yet, but plan to. I'm trying to diagnose a transmission problem first.

JB · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2015 6:55 pm

7075 billet sway bar arms from TK1 racing :eek2:

. I don't think I'll be bending these babies. :rock:

Tony took the old ones back for credit towards these newer arms.

Avanteone · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2015 6:56 pm

dr drae · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2015 9:03 pm

Damn.

Opie · **Posted:** Fri May 01, 2015 2:56 pm

JB wrote:

7075 billet sway bar arms from TK1 racing :eek2:

. I don't think I'll be bending these babies. :rock:

Tony took the old ones back for credit towards these newer arms.

Tactical
Billet
Murdered Out
7075

:brows:

JB · **Posted:** Sat May 09, 2015 3:41 pm

Ugh....tearing it back apart. :thumbsdown:

To get the trans out for repairs, the engine has to come out. And most of the interior, and the rear brakes, and all of the new wiring harness, and the driveshafts, and the transfer case and ....and....

Shane_C · **Posted:** Sat May 09, 2015 6:41 pm

I know how that goes... Hopefully it's back together soon!

comanchekid · **Posted:** Sat May 09, 2015 7:48 pm

Sounds like you let a engineer design it.....

outlawjeeper · **Posted:** Sun May 10, 2015 7:47 am

comanchekid wrote:

Sounds like you let a engineer design it.....

Haters gon' hate!

Boosted · **Posted:** Sun May 10, 2015 10:03 am

outlawjeeper wrote:

comanchekid wrote:

Sounds like you let a engineer design it.....

Haters gon' hate!

Agreed....lol

I hate that I don't have a bad ass rig like this one! :thumbsup:

Wang90XJ · **Posted:** Sun May 10, 2015 9:54 pm

Maxx wrote:

I need to stop opening this thread in public.

Tired of trying to hide your boner?

Paul · **Posted:** Tue May 26, 2015 12:33 pm

Yo JB, how'd the shock tuning go? Any changes? What shim stacks are you running comp/reb?

JB · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 9:06 am

Paul wrote:

Yo JB, how'd the shock tuning go? Any changes? What shim stacks are you running comp/reb?

I haven't had a chance to do any tuning. The truck is pretty much tore apart right now while I wait to get my transmission back.

The front shocks are valved .015/.020 in traditional comp stack and .010 rebound. But I also want to go to a lighter spring rate on the front before I mess with valving again. Front springs are currently 225/300, and I'm thing about going to 200/250 (keep in mind there's a LOT of weight up front).

I haven't given much thought to the rear suspension yet. The coil carriers have very light valving in them, and I don't know what's in the bypasses yet, nor have I touched a bypass adjuster. I just haven't had time yet.

Lezbone · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 11:24 am

Was that a freshly rebuilt trans? What was the diagnosis from the shop?

JB · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 12:26 pm

Lezbone wrote:

Was that a freshly rebuilt trans? What was the diagnosis from the shop?

Yes, it had 700 miles on it. Besides the broken top cover(my fault for being cheap and not replacing it earlier) it developed a loud growl while coasting in 4th gear. The shop said the bearings looked good, but the 3-4 syncro was toast. My guess is the shifter problem I had in Moab killed the syncros. :dunno:

It also needed to come out to replace a squealing throw out bearing (brand new :thumbsdown:

). I opted to have the Pros go through it since this is something I don't want to repeat anytime soon. I supplied the shop with a new fully splined mainshaft and nut retainer to fix any potential 5th gear problems.

bgbubabrwn · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 1:15 pm

This going to be complete by next weekend? :brows:

JB · **Posted:** Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:16 am

Pritchett Canyon left its mark on the Racetractor. Last month, while we were in Moab, I crawled every ledge and step I could find on our way through the trail. With the long wheelbase and low belly I bottomed out a few times. The result was some wrinkled panels and dented tube. It's mostly cosmetic, but I wanted to beef it up a bit more.

I cut the bottom welds on the bent panels and straightened them the best I could, then re welded them.

I added a length of 3/16 angle along the bottom to add some strength.

I was able to get the truck back together before a run down to Sand Lake this last weekend. I don't think I've posted any pictures of how tight the engine bay is, so here's one.

JB · **Posted:** Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:55 pm

The new sway bar arms are great, but I still had a binding problem with the heims on the links to the axle, and snapped them both off while out at Sand Lake :nono:

. So I upgraded from the little 1/2" heims mounted single shear, to slightly beefier 5/8" mounted in double shear. The truck feels so much better with the bar.

You can see how the old link was arranged originally (its invisible :brows:

) on the right side of the picture.

Version 2.0

dr drae · **Posted:** Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:18 pm

That looks a lot mo better. :cool:

Ryno · **Posted:** Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:50 pm

Looks good, man. Although, I will miss trophy truck lean. :thumbsup:

JB · **Posted:** Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:33 am

I've been meaning to update this for quite a while. Last year was a lot of fun with this rig, and was able to hit Evans Creek, Walker Valley, and Naches. Some small bugs popped up, like T-case shift linkage, but it has mostly been trouble free and works great.

On an attempted snow run about a year ago, I only made it a 1/2 mile from the trailer when the steering broke. It looks like the clevis end of the ram was a little loose, and allowed the stud to fatigue over time and finally snap! Luckily I was in the snow and not doing 70 mph next to a bus full of nuns.

I upgraded to a beefier bolt through style clevis.

It also allowed for a larger rod end to be used. I feel a lot better about this set up.

Here's a good comparison of the parts.

JB · **Posted:** Tue Feb 28, 2017 9:14 pm

As some of you guys know, I paid my entry fee for the 2017 NORRA Mexican 1000 last year, and have been modifying and prepping the truck for the last couple months. This year marks their 50th anniversary, so its shaping up to be bigger than ever before. I'm less than 2 months away, and still can't believe I'll be racing next to legends, and a fleet of legendary desert cars! The biggest issue was upgrading the suspension. Fullstack Motorsports (Paul and Kevin) are helping out in a huge way, supplying the Racetractor team with Fox Factory shocks, bumps, and tuning support.

Some of the first goodies to arrive:

I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the Fox pieces, especially compared to the crap that was on the truck.

[/QUOTE]

The shock mounts and tabs on the truck were built to FOA's shorter eye to eye measurements. That's fine for a more compact installation, but sucks if you're upgrading to different shocks. King, Fox, and Radflos all mount with longer but similar dimensions. I had a lot of time in the rear upper mount and didn't want to cut it out and start over. I carefully measured my travel at the bypass, and confirmed that a Fox 2.5" x 12" coil over would fit perfectly in place of the 14" FOA and not restrict travel. You can also see the clamp style 2.5" cans that were cut off and converted to pin mount for the Fox bumps.

New stuff installed. I kept my spring rates the same, but noticed the preload changed a bit with the shorter springs. Might have to play with rates again.

The front is a bigger project and I'm still trying to make everything fit. I wanted to add bypasses to the front, but I don't have much room. One of the chassis tubes was bent to fit around the alternator pulley. This prevented me from moving the top mount forward to allow for bypass space. The top mounts also had to be raised up (and still fit under the hood) to allow for the longer Foxes.

Chassis tube and front bump can cut out.

I shortened the upper alternator bracket. I wish I had though of this before.

checking clearances with the new straighter tube in and raised coil over mounts/tabs done. New bump cans in too.

gtxracer · **Posted:** Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:24 pm

I'm glad Paul and Kev are getting it squared away for you. I bet you pick up a ton of speed in the desert!!!

Hoping for badass deezul shock tuning clips followed by in car footage of you passing people and the looks they give you :hi:

JB · **Posted:** Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:16 am

Jeez, I'm a slacker. I'll try to repair the photo links when I get a chance(stupid photobucket), but for now I'll start throwing in some updates. Starting with earlier this year.

Ran into some major clearance problems when fitting in the front bypasses. Originally I had piggyback style bypasses for the front, but as you can see, there's no room for the reservoir when testing clearances with another coil over body.

With a recessed upper mount, these will fit.

Here's lower mounts. I had to stack them on top of the link tabs to make them as low as possible.

Some other stuff:

Re-ran my fuel vent to comply with NORRA tech, and changed out the fill hose to eliminate a kink. Still have to make a bracket back here to carry a spare driveshaft.

Had to change out the fill neck on the cell from the 45 to a straight with a 90.

Filled the cell with these.

They are poly (baseball size) wiffle balls that I bought on Amazon. $150 was enough to do the 22 gallon cell. I soaked one in diesel for about a month with no signs of degradation. I have no idea if they would hold up in gasoline.

JB · **Posted:** Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:19 am

As usual for me, the last couple months leading up to the Norra Mexican 1000 was way too hectic. Finished up the front suspension.

Finally bought my set of TrailReady HD's and was lucky enough to have a sponsor, H&R Spring, supply us with 5 new 39" BFG KR2's for the race.

With just a few days left before we headed South for Mexico, The Racetractor team took the truck over to Eastern Washington to meet up with Fullstack Motorsports for a shock tuning session.

We spent about a day and a half beating on the truck, and picked up 20 mph through this section!
https://www.facebook.com/FullStackMotorsports/videos/231072277296672/

Paul · **Posted:** Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:54 am

Tuning this thing was fun. I hope you can make it down to some bigger desert stuff before you run down Baja again. I'd like to see how it handles it large whoops and it's attitude in the air. :rock:

www.PNWJeep.com

'51 Rock Wagon

Who is online