Its not a project.... honest lol

[De-Ranged]

It is a bit of distance but I'm forward planing, the commy motor will be mounted back on the chassis and has its air intake near the back of the motor so this will work out not much more than a normal snorkel length and leaves my snorkel nice and protected

The LD has a 50mm intake this is 90mm so I'm hoping the length and loss of pressure will not effect it too much but that said its a temporary motor anyway

Oh and after 15yrs of skidders and bulldozers in the mud, my fun time is summer I'd rather drive the toy on the edge of its traction and balance than crawl through a bog

[slidenyo]

are you intending on leaving the rover box in?
i'd do a deal on my two rover boxes and pto for the bellhousing and ld that's coming out?

[De-Ranged]

The LD28 is coming out and as soon as possible.... along with the LT77
I may have plans for it yet....

Anyway while my landy waits for its big pimp out... your going to laugh at this I'm spending over 25% of what the truck is worth on some silicon air hoses and clamps

Since I want to finish with my Argon bottle and return it I've attacked the LT95 I'm turning into the new transfercase

Trimmed the housing back and removed the counter gear I'm going to have to shorten the main gear shaft and sort out some sort of coupler


With the shaft gone and the reverse gear shaft (the lower hole) I'm going to have weld a plug in here then I'll mount the housing in the mill and machine a mounting face

Worked out the hardest part of the PTO... making a gear to engage to the pto spline, your going to laugh how simple it is.... I'll worry about this later when I have it mounted to the commy auto

[Petemcc]

So what happened to those action videos??? Surely there is a way to get that format on the internet!

[De-Ranged]

They are there.... on facebook, I can't seem to get them to load to photobucket, don't like the format and couldn't find an answer sorry

[De-Ranged]

Spent the day sorting out how I'm going to setup the transfercase so the PTO thing will work
Going to use the center diff lock actuator and the front drive shaft stub axle and flange to engage/disengage the PTO there is a couple of bits I"ll have to machine up, a new bearing mount that slips onto the end of the main shaft engaging the pto gear and will have a section of the diff lock spline sweated onto the end and and welded the original roller bearing will fit inside this spline and the front stub shaft will be machined to seat into the roller bearing and bolt to the outside housing with a adapter housing that also holds the new mainshaft bearing

housing is machined down

had a bit of an idea of welding some alloy plate into the holes in the face then machining a mounting surface for a "sandwich" plate to mount this to the back of the commy trans but been rethinking this after trying to weld it done a bit of research and found I can change the AC frequency to pull the crap out of the casting then grind it away, keep doing this till I get enough clean metal to weld to
Really got me thinking about just adding a drive flange and remote mounting it with a UJ to the commy trans
Will make that decision when I've got the trans... still waiting on it to turn up....

[IcedJohnno]

Good luck on pulling the oil out of the porous casting.
Done this a bit with ancient ali crankcases. The hot oil leaches into the castings and I find it difficult. Had mixed success.
Will be interested to hear how you get on. Have a rare 1924 large 4 cyl crankcase with cracks between the webs of 2, 3, & 4 main bearings. Been putting it off as it is too rare to stuff and outputs a lot of torque.

[De-Ranged]

Right still busy shorting the new shed I'm moving to...and they have doubled my painkillers again LOL I was complaining about keeping my head in order before well its a right royal struggle now.... keeping focus on what I'm doing lol even typing this my mind is wandering
Anyway I got to a point with cleaning and sorting the workshop yesterday that I needed to do something constructive, and I'm out of argon so I started on the PTO conversion (still haven't got the Commy trans you'll laugh at this the guy who has it, has pinched a nerve in his spine so nether of us can lift it lol)
Started out by roughing out on the lathe the new bearing mount/shaft extension that was a bit of machining (no pic of this sorry) now this shaft extension will fit onto the internal end of the main(input shaft) using the roller bearing mount pin and the PTO spline the new larger bearing mounts in the middle of this and then the dog clutch spline off the end of the transfercase diff housing


The spline from this end will be sweat fitted over the end and then welded on, before I do this I have to machine a bearing mount into the nose of this so I can add a "spigot bearing" to hold things inline when the gear is engaged
My only concern (other than machining a hardfaced and heat treated gear) is the other end of the dog gear (on the front axle stub shaft) has a shocking amount of backlash over 5mm.... this is factory and I haven't heard of failures due to this, but still.... almost got me tempted to sweat on an off cut of the spline above and grind some entry angles hmmm

[Mattman]

Awesome work Reece.

Divorced would be the way to go - if you change your mind about powerplants later on its an easy swap

[Tarmac]

Yep ally is porous and "wicks" the grease etc, but with heat and chemical cleaners you will be fine (burn it - spray it - scrub it... repeat)- if it goes to turd just grind it out and start again. Looks like a sweet build though

[De-Ranged]

yea divorced does offer that advantage but on a short wb or with a set back motor it just adds that extra drive train length you don't want, will see when I've got it all infront of me
But just quietly, if I don't like the power of the commy I'll probably just sell the truck and move onto the next project lol already planning that one

Cheers Tarmac was going to do that and found out I can up the cleaning half of the AC phase on my welder to pull the crap out so between the two I should be all good but I'm out of gas at the moment and got more than enough to entertain me so I'll build up a list of tig jobs before I get another bottle....

Had a not so fun discovery, mildly surprising one at that, the diff final gear and the housing including the spline is made from cast iron.... I'm guessing the hardened teeth on the spline helped to hide the tell tail spark trail when I cut the spline off, I didn't notice till I started machining the spline in the lathe... then confirmed it with a weld test on the old section of diff housing.... easily snapped the weld out of the cast iron leaving that porous look hmmm
And the shaft section has been roughed down too much to cut the spline into so since I'm going right back to the start I'm going to go and redo my CAD and see if I can improve things since I'm gong to have to cut my own splines

[De-Ranged]

They do say third times the charm...
Well this is version 3 lol after I got the extension machined up I decided to do a double bearing setup... make it a bit stronger just because I have the bearings there lol
Here's the housing being machined to fit into the transfer case housing


Will finish the rest of the housing tomorrow

[De-Ranged]

and the adapter housing all done



Now just got to machine up the new inner shaft extension.... the third one... lol

[De-Ranged]

Had Chriss in yesterday wanted to have a go so left him to pull the motor and box out


with them gone next bit is these X members go....


I'm bringing the transmission up and I want the base level with the bottom of the chassis rails... where I can fit it I'll make a new X member to go over the top of the trans... all going to plan this will also have a bearing mount for a jack shaft for the front drive shaft (same as I did on Nobbers surf)

[De-Ranged]

Right I got a chance to work on it lol..... been doing work stay aways so haven't had a chance to get in the shed and do something for me, but I have a 2 week break between contracts so see how much I can get through

Got the Motor/trans dropped off the other day so thats sitting in the shed waiting some action


Motor and trans is all good just a noisy power steer pump but I have access to some spares so all good.....
3.8L copy of the buick V6 and a 4 speed GM 700 trans

Got the landy into the working area of the shed ready to start


The plan was to go back to another project (in the background) but I couldn't help myself.....


Out with the some of the bits that are in the way lol
And we have a blank-ish canvas..... still undetermined as to how much and how severe the chassis mods will be forward of the new bulk head... since my laptop crashed I haven't had CAD to play on so I'm going to do this the old fashion way... sit it all in there and see where I can place the bits that can move lol


I want the front axle in front of the motor and the base of the motor and trans flush with the base of the chassis, to help this the front axle is going forward going to end up with a 102" WB..... the front axle is sitting about where the new axle will sit, I'll use the original for mock up as I have to strip the new housing down


Going to move the top of the cab forward 2" to give me a bit more room in the cab for the carp you end up carrying that you don't want wet lol that is why the plasma hit the old bulkhead all of it is going to be replaced with new spanky stuff....

[Mattman]

Is that a VH ranger?

[De-Ranged]

Yep a ranger ute... after some trim bits if you know of any

Had a good mate come over and hide.... dodging a singstar afternoon lol all good with his help we got the motor out and dropped in for a fitting


Got the guard sitting on there to see about wheel placement
Think I'll move the Cab forward 100mm instead of 50mm this will help the front of the guards with the front tyres

[De-Ranged]

A wee taster of tomorrows pics lol been enjoying this

[noexitroad]

what the hell.....?

[DMcCready]

Somebody bought a dimple die set...

[mightyhilux4x4]

I sence alot of pent up aggresion sir..

[De-Ranged]

what the hell.....?

Just a bit for a landy lol

Somebody bought a dimple die set...

Nope made em yrs ago... to do bar work on a lawnmower now that was a case of "what the hell" lol

I sence alot of pent up aggresion sir..

Nope lol just a big grin

And the answer is a X member...


The section with the holes will be inside the cab, the bulkhead alloy sheet will go onto the engine side

[DMcCready]

Nice

Perspex for the dash so this work of art can be seen?

[tomsoffroad]

Bloody hell Reece you obviously have too much time to think

[De-Ranged]

Bloody hell Reece you obviously have too much time to think

LOL as beertara will testify.... with work I do alot of stay aways, when we arn't drinking piss I'm sketching and designing... not just this project but alsorts, the rat bike, workshop tools, a container based workshop the list goes on... problem is I don't have the balance of time and money to make em happen
As it happens I've got plenty of time, this time lol just been told I'm off till end of may see how far I can stretch the build

[lokrite]

why not plumb up to heater fan and have a decent cab heater outlet

[De-Ranged]

why not plumb up to heater fan and have a decent cab heater outlet

Now that is something I never thought about lol hmmmm I'll remember that for the next one I do

Got most of the rest of the bulkhead frame done today


Just got to drill the door hinge mounts and throw some braces inbehind the hinges



Going to have a bit of late start tomorrow I've got to sort the CAD on the front suspension..... its looking more and more like I'm going to cut the chassis off at the bulkhead and space frame the front, there just isn't the room for links, springs, drive shaft, motor, wheels and a chassis hmmm

[Rotazuk]

This is starting to sound like a project ........

[slidenyo]

bloody neat idea to invert your x members above the chassis though.
not sure of a commodore v original weight comparison but surely moving it all back will give it good balance,
what did that dimple die set run you?

[De-Ranged]

This is starting to sound like a project ........

LOL Yep good point, I should ask Reece to move it to the projects section

As for price on the die's, I can honestly tell you they were free. I made them from scraps, the two smallest are made from old broken ram pins from a prentice logging grapple, one of the larger ones is made from "pig steel" large dia cast mild bar and it still forms nice sharp folds, the smaller ones 4130 but just based on strength for the locator pin... I can't remember what the rest of the material is from... a bit of advice if you are going to make some, don't worry about material on the larger ones its not worth the cost
My fold angle for the cone is very steep 45degrees (most commercial ones are 30deg ) this was based off discussions in an engineering forum lol yrs ago!
at 45 I have more structure (more strength), but I run the risk of splitting the edge of the hole... but since I don't work in cromoly sheet I figured it was a better option and I haven't split one yet