My Yerf upgrade thread

[drillpvt]

What are you using to read the RPM ?

[x-bird]

cheap e-bay version of the tiny tach--while i'm pretty sure the reading is accurate, the lag is horrible 4-5 seconds for it to reach and stabilize at the engine speed. I was trying to get the video up for the audio portion, I've gotta dig out my camera manual and find the compression specs because the sound and audio quality are still way off. The raspy sound of the engine hits around 9200, doesn't sound like the stutter and fall flat of floating the valves or binding springs, could be reversion flow, but i think it says "don't take me here!" I have no clue when it comes to these little buzz bombs.

[drillpvt]

Not as bad as the one i just posted, My rattle trap does not like the MIC at all !
I want to get a tiny tach for checking what im doing and finding the exact cause of flat spots !

[x-bird]

put a piece of 1/4 in thick foam or so foam over the mic.

[SYCARMS]

The GY6 stock valve springs are really weak for high rpm's especially with taller cams. I can guarentee you 9200 rpm is too high for stock springs when these were designed to run 7800 rpm tops. Be cautious with the chinese performance springs although better not much better then stock. With that rpm a set of american made springs would be the way to go.

TOM

[x-bird]

ok, finally got something decent out of the vid and uploaded. same run sequence, just much better audio/vid quality. I think it's a little lean, gonna have to do some plug checking



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcccZ0LHoLs

[satoys]

x-bird, it is only 22 sec, is that right ? it ends just as the engine starts...

[T3beatz]

Just to let you know that link is to a test vid, only 22 secs... I found the other one in your vids.

[SYCARMS]

Sounds good at idle>

TOM

[x-bird]

I just deleted the test video (I used that clip to find the correct audio video settings) and retitled the correct one to Carter/Sym test run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcccZ0LHoLs

output shaft has a wobble to it. Don't know if it's just a little bit of play in thereverse unit or if the shaft is bent.

[SYCARMS]

Sounds good I think the occasional pop and the raspy sound is valve springs. Never had the opertunity to go inside the sym motor, but mine sounded just like that and cleared up after the springs were changed out. You prpbably won't get to but 82-8500 rpm with wheels on the pavement. I may have asked this before but do you know if you have the 2 or 4 valve head? You looked like you were cold out there. It didn't feel cold to me LOL

TOM

[x-bird]

It's got the 2 valve head. i left the intake at .03 and took the exhaust from .08 down to .05
It was about 30 degrees out-- i'm up on a plateau a couple miles off the delaware & lehigh rivers, we get a nearly constant 5-10 mph wind so it gets to the fingers pretty quickly.
Are there decent cams & springs for this one? If so, after i get it on the ground and running i may fiddle with a bit of port work on it if it looks like there's anything to work with. If there aren't a couple cam profiles to play with then it probably isn't worth doing much more than checking for port matching. A set of better springs would be within the budget. I called in my last favor for it today, my welding/gas supply house owner owed me for a golf club fitting from last year ... Got my O2 and Mig gas tanks filled, another 10lb. spool of wire, new gloves, a skull rag and new plastic for my Speedglas helmet for $75. Hopefully that'll see her through to completion.

[x-bird]

Upper arm mounts are tacked in ... used a fishing line and spacer for a plumb bob to align the upper and lower holes on the front mounts and almost forgot to check floor and frame level. Mr bob don't care, he's always hanging straight down! Nearly offset them by about an 1/8th top to bottom. No clear path from top to bottom for the rear mounts so i set up the arms and measured and squared between them. Might be able to get the parts for the uppers and spindles this weekend.

Also going to have to cut off all of the upper frame tubes and reconfigure them to fit the shocks and come up with a way to put some mount supports in and bring the center tubes to them. Should strengthen the front end considerably.

[x-bird]

Alas poor Yerf, I knew thee well ...

Got my angle iron to close up the upper mounts fitted and prepped for welding.
Waiting on my tubing supplier to call that it's ready for pic-up. (PA Steel -- they just opened up a distribution center in Bethlehem --the closest we get to big steel returning)

Mocking up the new cage and front tubing runs with some cheap screen tent tubing... Can't decide whether to make the cage hoops as one piece front to rear or a frontal side-to-side hoop with the front to backs welded in. May go with the latter even though it's a bit more work and tighter bends.

If i get the tubing today, going to be a welding party tomorrow ....

[drillpvt]

Whats a good site to buy steering universals ?, got a gut feeling the grasshopper im building is goin to need them !

[x-bird]

Quality universals are really pricey, about $60-100 each -- borgeson, flaming river, ididit. I ended up buying one of the "leftover" new yerf steering columns and mount bars (BMI) and one of the sliding column extensions with universals on either end--both of those combined were cheaper than 1 universal. The one i made got way too sloppy really quickly.

[drillpvt]

Looks great !

[x-bird]

Well rather than have at the tubing with my drill and hole saw (which chunked a couple pilot bits and holesaw teeth last night during my first couple notches) What a royal pain even with a good "lock" on the tubing) I spent the day making my own tubing notcher. Looked at what was available , decided that between an old, but like new overhead projector mount, some yerf parts (of course) 2x2 tubing and other odd bits, i could come up with something better.

Did a test cut first with thin wall, which was a little touch and and go with kicking back because of the size of the hole saw's teeth once it hit the halfway point. The just seemed to really catch the outside of the wall and hang on it. Went right to the .095 after a sloppy, but usable cut on the thin junk and with the drill on high speed, it ran through with no kickbacks or lockups. There's just enough play in the drill shaft (Hardened bolt through bronze sleeves in the yerf's old steering pitman tube) that it doesn't go through at 90-degrees if i'm not careful. If i can find a cheap chromed shaft that fits just a touch more snug than the bolt, i'll buy it --gotta be under $20 though lol) Drill drive is via a cut off 3/8 stub extension and 5/8 socket.

I made it so the drill hangar (Finally found a home for that steering stabilizer mount!) can be unlocked and pivot so i can adjust it and clamp it on an angle to take a broadside cut through a tube.

The tubing clamp also pivots. For now it's locked as close to 90 as i could get, i may slot out the scribed curve so i can pivot it and put the notch on whatever angle i need as well as weld on a stop tab once i dial in 90. I can angle it presently, but to lock it requires vise grips --same as the drill adjustment. If i slot it i can just use a nut and bolt and mark it in degree increments.

The clamp itself is the old yerf swingarm mount with the chromemoly tube i added cut in half. Inside is a 1/2-in. wide piece of grip tape. The bracket and the pipe-tube cap it's in is from the projector mount and was designed just as a rotating clamp to go around 2-in+ tubing. The through bolt was already set to tighten to the corner, it really clamps down with no slippage and not a mark on the tubing (I didn't like the looks of that double-strap clamp deal on the HF notchers).

Going to add some 1/4 inch rubber to the underside of the base--the back legs work nice to stand on using it on the floor. On the bench, i didn't even hand-hold it or clamp it down, just ran the drill. the 2x2 is so heavy it just vibrated around a little bit.

[SYCARMS]

Good job and it works. Thats what its all about.

TOM

[x-bird]

Spent the last couple days messing with the notcher and starting in on the new front section. Nice to be able to cut compound notches. Still have to do some grind-to-fit work on them as my drill shaft has a lot of slop--found a hard chromed shock shaft to use, but didn't quite get the threads on the end of it square so the hole saw wobbles a bit. Have the new structure tacked together, still have to make two riser stubs to fit between the center bars and the rear of the upper arm mounts. Going to weld all the connections, cut the tack welds to the main frame, finish the underside welds then drop it back in and weld it in place. Shock mounts are going to be a challenge since i don't have anything perpendicular to weld them to.

[drillpvt]

Looks great , Been thinking of making my own jig like that !
Going to have to stick to the dremel for now !

[SYCARMS]

Looks great.

TOM

[x-bird]

I knew i was taking a bit of a risk welding the top half then cutting the tacks to do the underside. Really had no choice as it is just too tight under there. Think I got her too hot and heard a pop-ting while doing the upper side, but couldn't find a tack or anything that had moved. I was even trying to be patient and running about 1/4 of a tube bead then moving to the opposite tube and doing the same. Cut the tacks and sure enough, the left side tubes sprung down on me. Finished the welds off anyway. Doesn't want to sit back correct, looks like i need to break the "rules" and partially weld the right lower tube and apply some heat and pulling power and "pivot" it into place.

[x-bird]

Took til the wee hours of the am, but fixed my goof. I'm pretty sure the left side tubes had some heat expansion when i welded the topsides that may have caused them to bend/curl slightly down and inwards. Ended up putting a heavy tack on the right lower tube and used a webbing strap to pull the middle of the new section to the upper bar and vice grips to clamp/pull the front of the center bars back to their centers above the a-arm mount holes, then tacked those and the upper right corner. the left side was still gapped out 1/4 away from the corners, so i hooked a coil spring and a strut compressor together and pull the upper bar in a bit, then used my port a power from the bottom of the frame to the offending upper bar to push it up and out. Then out came the torches for some heat. (you can see where it blued.) As soon as i did that, it seemed to fall in position. i backed off the port a power and the gap closed right up, welded it, then repeated the procedure for the bottom tube with the same results. hot metal is some fun stuff at 1 am, got a new badge of honor on my forearm. LOL.

Finished up the undersides of all that today, including my little stubbies. If you ever want upside-down welding contortionist hell, build this front end. )))))) Time for some advil for my neck and lunch!

[x-bird]

Yerf-Dog Pick-up stix anyone?

Well, I started with 48-foot of new tubing (weighing 44 pounds) and am now down to the last few pieces shown below. They're cut to rough length and ready for final notching/fitting. Had to dip into and use up all the left over yerf pieces-- the other pics show's what's left of everything that I've removed. Net gain is going to be about 45 pounds for the new, plus about 35 at the rear of the main frame, another 20-30 or so up front for a total of about 100 more pounds of steelwork into just the frame. Then there's also the difference between the Tec and GY6 engine and swingarm. The 'ol dog isn't so svelte any longer!

[x-bird]

oops ...

[x-bird]

Default
Fowuh howuhs!! To upload a video!!!

Been going pretty hard core at the 'ol yerfie so I decided to make a vid a'la Rarerat instead of posting a bunch of threads. The vid is done as a bit of a progression, so there's a few old shots and a little clip of "The Tecumseh's Last Stand" My last ride with it (had just put the new 6 inch driven and gotten the jetting finally squared away) on the yerf --- mind you, no helmet or cage--yes X can be sometimes

Anyway, I still have to make a box for the engine's electrical, am waiting on the yerf extending steering column and the final 2 pieces of the suspension. I'm planning on having it front steer, but left room for it to be set front or rear. I may have to cut and extend the steering column for the front-steer setup.

Then it's time to zip up all the welds, paint and thrash this bugger!

[metalstudman1]

I couldn't get the vid to play

[GX150]

Video was blocked due to your soundtrack.

[x-bird]

I changed the link ...dang youtube, if you try again, please post as it's working for me. soundtrack runs about 30 seconds longer than the video--i forgot it had a pause and final fade back in .... if not the above link, try this one ... I'm hoping it's not the soundtrack ripped from a CD causing it. I'd hate to have to re-upload this thing.

[GX150]

The link you posted is the same. It is the music selection you chose that is preventing you from sharing the video. The only way to get copyrighted music playing in your video is to voice over the music or combine it with the actual audio of your video clip.

[x-bird]

The software i have let's you rip and drop the soundtrack right in, it does play with the video's audio at the same time. oh well, back to the 300+ minutes to upload .... At least the software takes about a minute to remake it with no soundtrack--shame cause the song really, really fit. YES -- "Does it really happen?" off of Drama.

Pulled the track .... 152 minute upload time in progress LOL. It's only 5 minutes, of which only about 2 minutes is video. Wish I knew why my upload speed is so sloooooooowww. High speed broadband. hey', let's start a bitorrent upload ...))

An hour and fiteen later and the wait time is 240 minutes .... lol ...

Uploaded ... yay ...... processing with 22 minutes to go .... for the last 2 hours ....

Got an e-mail, apparently, possible rights violation with WMG group. No action needed to be taken on my part, but i'd already pulled it. I'm wondering if the title "The X File" was the cause or the song. They may have even jsut put it under review for ok or an order to yank it. I'm all for copyright protection, I've had to call out "misuse" of my own work on the internet in the past. I just think it's a bit silly that a non-commercial vid clip with a song comes under fire that fast. A little scary in fact, but they've gotta CYA so oh well. ....

[x-bird]

Yes, another 4 hour upload of a 5 minute clip???!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyfpcBigXXg

and if you start this one at the same time in a separate browser for the background music ... i think i just fits too well ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdR5DM4a-8A

[metalstudman1]

Wow!!!!! the first part before the serious re-mod's it looked like you were on ice. Very imformative vid though- That's ALOT of additional tubing!!!! Nice work- can't wait to see the final,finished project. Incredible dedication. Loved the ransom note at the end!!!!

[x-bird]

Thanks,
I was having a blast on the flats, and scaring myself silly in the woods. I couldn't tell how wide of a capture area I had with the camera, i was doing donuts off screen that I couldn't get out of without drifting sideways for 10-20 feet. Really tore me up to pull the Tec off it after finally getting it going good. If i hadn't come across the mini shark, I would likely have just installed a steering rack with single bars and been done with her long ago. In the woods that was about half my normal speed through there--seat belts went along with the cage. It just happened that i got the carb fixed up and the pulley from mike installed the night before I planned to cut it up.

It literally was ice, while we only got 2 snows this year that didn't last, 75 percent of the days since december there's been about a 1-2 inch deep frost line that the top 1/2 to an inch thaws by 9 -10 am. as soon as the tires cut through that, it's thin wet top soil on top of frozen ground = mud ice.
That's also the reason for the nerf bars, a couple of the trail loops are off camber with a lot of small roots and vines crossing them. thin top soil on limestone bedrock. when it's wet, it's too easy to slide sideways off the trail and into the trees. I hung it up just off trail on the rear tires on trees a bunch of times. Getting too old to drag this thing backwards uphill to unhook it.

I have one 6 inch piece of tubing (a notching screw up of one of the little connector tubes between the front bars that tie to the front corner of the frame,) along with the hole saw cut-outs and 2 6-inches left out of 48 foot. that are going to corner out the top of the front hoop. I'd actually like to run hoop-to-hoop on both sides and shoot one from the front hoop's cross bar to the back corner. Finishing the x on the back hoop is also on the list, but those are going to wait.

Overall, i'm pretty happy with how it came out. It's tacked right now with only the hoop bases fully welded and it's still really stiff. Got my reverse lever done, just need to put in the bracket for it and finish the a-arms. Work for the daytona 24 and 500 teams put my "B" list project (kingpins) on the back-burner, supposed to be done in the next day or two. waiting on a brake hose and the steering link from BMI, so i've got my fingers crossed.

[x-bird]

Well, it took about 8 hours of actual welding time, but I got the frame finished. I'm calling the front end the torture chamber, banged my head in there a bunch of times. Another 3-4 hours I spent figuring out where all the fun little tabs and brackets need to be and making and installing them. Glad to see both the gas and brake rod and cables from the 03 will work for this setup.

I had planned on keeping the bench seat mounts so I could swap it to a two seater if I wanted to. It would've been a little crunched with the wheel and pedals centered, but the reverse lever and battery ended up in the way, so now I have more tubing for a couple minor items and four more tabs to chop off.

Wish i figured that out last night, I spent about 3 hours saving the bent sliders that the rollers kept falling out of that were on the sunl's seat.

I save just about every little bit of metal, trimmings, it comes in handy as you can see. closed up all of the frame bolt holes and open ended tubes--notcher droppings ))) and leveled the angle iron my rear shocks mount into. I had tacked them in up against the triangular underside gussets, both of which were crooked. verified them with the square and straight edge and welded them for good.

to the right of my "small gusset" collection are the parts that i'm trying to turn into a parking brake. (more Scag mower parts.)

"Top" view makes me think that I had star wars imperial battle cruisers or stinkbugs on the brain when i started tubing this thing up.


just front a-arms and steering to go ... hmmm, isn't that where i was back in october ????

[T3beatz]

Looks good, that is a lot of welding, I get tired after 40 mins!

[x-bird]

stardate 3-21-2012 ... progress report .... ))))

Needed to put a laundry list somewhere other than my head for some motivation!

"chassis" 98 percent complete
(need to cut up the seat frame for final rear hoop "X" tube and 4 small corner brace tubes

engine 99 percent
(run in present tune on completed buggy to determine jetting needs)

rear suspension 99 percent
(need to verify rear shock positions in relation to center of swingarm and fully weld in place)

front suspension 75 percent
(spindle kingpins are done, waiting on a couple minor hardware bits associated with them, need to gusset the spindle tube at the axle. Need to weld up upper a-arms--pending installation of kingpins. Need to locate upper and lower front shock mounts,)

Steering 50 percent.
(Basic locations of all components checked for clearances. All good. waiting on column extension pieces to arrive. Installation pending completion of front suspension)

Electrical 90 percent
(need to acquire horn and wire/install and acquire rear brake light and switch for it, also considering turn signals. Engine electrical box needs fabbed up and installed)

body panels 40 percent.
All fasteners installed, panel fabrication 5/16th complete.

Paint 40 percent.
(Main chassis stripped for primer, swingarm ready to be stripped after installation of electrical box)

seating--complete
Yay! something's done .... lol

A little more, wife and daughter are at scouts so i can get a couple hours in ... got my spindle goodies today. Need to trim the tubes a little bit, but i expected that, had the bits undersized an 1/8th so i didn't end up with any play in it. The old lower A-arms just got their shock mounts chopped off and am nearly done fabbing the two plates that the spindle axle will mount between at the end of the arm. I'm going to have to space the wheelo off the hub about 1/2 to clear the upper arm's heim bolt. dang i specced this thing a hair too tight!

Pics later, gotta keep moving on it while i have the time. working 7 days a week now, so i've gotta pick at here and there to finish it.

[Rarerat]

Really nice work.

[SYCARMS]

Ditto, nice work

[x-bird]

i need some 36-hour days ....

Spindle components ... still need the thru-bolts, but i'm pretty sure I have those in my box of freebie hardware from my neighbor.

The lower arm clevis-style mounts were plasma cut for me, should have done like i originally planned and just bored them out with a hole saw and cut them with the recip out of the angle iron i have. they had drift in the cut and the length of the mount they missed 1.5 inches despite have a 1 to 1 scale drawing on grid paper .... so i cut up some angle iron and am welding extensions on. Have to file the slots square and be careful as the overall dimensions are changing and i have to make left and right specific pieces now or they'll end up offset on the tubes


First arm in mock-up, still need to finish grind the welds and polish the inside of the plates. they have a total of 10 thou clearance on the plate sides to center block with the pin's bushing so they've gotta be parallel and smoooooooth. The plates will get bronze bushings in the bolt holes.


Sneak preview of the body cladding. 114 flipping nuts! a few are off, just cutting them off and redoing any bad ones as i go along. I found out i shouldn't have run them so tight into the corners. live and learn lol. They'll likely get button head allen bolts blue loctited (that way i can chuck up an allen in the drill and buzz them on and off) with fiber or nylon washers behind the panels and plastic edging on the sides to eliminate and vibes/buzzing ... no wind-frozen toes this fall ....

[x-bird]

A little bit o progress. completed 1 lower arm over the weekend and fitted the spindle. Yerf rack in stock form has adequate tie rod length, so i may only need to notch the rack. won't know till i get everything located and connected. Figured out both ends of the front shock mounts, arm end is going to be easy, frame end a royal fiddly pita--which i expected. The change in arm design and rims (below) has cut my overall front track width from 53 to 50" looking at a nice increase in ride height upfront.

Resolved my rim/heim interference issue -- took one of the 8-in. dia. atv rims i got with my $20 tires and made their bolt pattern into a 4 on 4". They're offset about 1.5 compared to the golf cart rims, which are dead center. The hole diameters were around 5/16th and the center to center was about 3.75" so i'm not really sure what they were (4 on 3.75" or 147 mm???) Measured and marked where the 4" spacing holes outside edges would be in relation to the center hole. Took a die grinder in the drill and carefully worked 3/4 of the original bolt hole's circumference wider towards the outside of the rim. my studs are 1/2" .. so once it was close, i used my 1/2 drill to run the hole walls square, followed that up with a chamfer on either side with a step drill. I think i'll be looking for crush lock nuts for these since they're flat plate mounting surfaces without the stamped out taper area. They went on the hubs nice and snug, maybe 1/32nd of deviation from center. if they vibrate/run noticeably eccentric , no big loss, i'd like to upgrade to 10 inchers anyway and the Sunl can use the tires i have on the yerf.

[x-bird]

latest pics ....
a-arms ready to be redone ... i think they looked like this back in november ...

messing with the shock mount boxes, they fit pretty nice in the plate gap. not going in this position though, bottom tab was just in the way ...


finished first arm ...

basic setup with the lower and "new" rim set at wheel height. with me in it, it should give about 11-12 inches of clearance to the back underside of the mount box (lowest front point). Nice amount of offset to the rims. tie rod alignment is going to end up about dead center between the arms.

Figured out the upper shock mounts tonight. going to have to jig a good flat piece of the top angle iron to make sure i have these square and on center to the arms when i weld them in since the tubes they attach to are going on different convergent angles ...

[SYCARMS]

I have an early spiderbox and welds are complete but it seems the later ones were lacking. The first few years yerfdog was building them instate then Sams required cheaper so they had them built in China.

[x-bird]

i'm guessing the "which kart should i buy thread" ;~) Fwiw, this '03 had the made in the usa sticker and incomplete welds.

[x-bird]

cooking with wood

#1 done
Finished file-fitting the pieces for the second arm--another welding session in the am, then the fun of drilling and installing the bung tube (which turned out to be exactly what i was initially seeking for the bottom arms) i have about 4 1/2 to 1 inch piece of the cro-mo tubing left, so after the notcher grabbed the edge of the first arm i tried it on and made a bit of a mess of it, i just ground the notches on these out with my angle grinder. Angle cuts i did with the recip saw and a new blade with the tubing in the wood "mitre" i made when doing the lowers. surprising how accurate you can be with a recip ...

skipped using a jig this time around to hold them while welding and just worked on one of the pieces of table saw side extensions (flattest non-wood thing i have) that i've had laying around in the basement for years where they even came from ...

I'm thinking a test ride may be in store by sunday if i can get the shock mounts in and the rack installed. Tried every which way, front steer is the only spot for it. really would've worked nice in between the arms, (have the room to mount it) but in a full turn the end of the rack would hit the upper arm (possibly the lower if a good bump was hit in a corner.)

other than that i still have to make the little bellcrank for the brake master linkage, convert 1 more rim to 4 on 4, swap the tires and mount the engine electrics somewhere.

[x-bird]

Finished arm #2 tonight and some other odds and ends ...funny how the little things can eat up a lot of time. Had to make two more a-arm through bolts and grind a set of the bushings down for them. Going to eventually convert them to tubes that are threaded on both ends. filed my 2nd spindle tube down to match the new "bolt" for it. Looks like one of the hubs has its bearing set not full seated--rear seal is sticking out further than on the other. from the dirt and surface rust on it, i can see i got it that way, surprised i didn't spot it before.

bored out the first arm for the heim tube and am not liking what i see in regards to the amount of material left around it. 1-1/8th dia. thin wall chrome-moly with a 7/8th hole punch through it does not leave much around it for support. on the inside, i'll make a gusset plate with a rectangular cutout to weld the tube to. I think i'm going to have to overlay a curved piece of 1/8th steel around the heim tube. either that or gusset it it, likely four of them per heim tube, horiz. and vertical.

the closer i get ....

New front shoes ...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270945573411...84.m1439.l2649
worked out to a bit over 40 per tire shipped. They'll gain me another 1/2 inch up front and my 19s will go to the Sunl. Looking into rear tires lately, (thinking 23 to 25) but really think I should move into a set of larger rims and different hubs.

Funds came from four 5 gallon pails of golf club heads broken on the driving range. (about 3/4 of a season's worth of poor golf swings ...keep it up fellas!) if i could actually break those down easily and separate the shells, and ID the alloys, they'd be worth a lot more as most of the faces are titanium and the shells are high grade stainless. Lots of tungsten weights in them as well. Nasty and dangerous to crack them apart though, tried a couple last year and it was just too much work with really sharp, springy metal. sadly i've thrown away 4 to 6 trash can's worth of them over the years.

[GX150]

For the front you will have to see how much clearance you have with the wheels fully turned and the suspension fully cycled. In general 8" rims work well up to 20" tires, 10" rims for 23" tires and 12" rims for 25" tires. You can go larger on the tires with smaller rims, but then you get a lot of sidewall flex and more chances of the bead popping in fast turns.

On the rear it will depend on your gearing, but I wouldn't run larger than 23" tires with a 150cc engine unless you have a lot of money in internal upgrades.

[x-bird]

Thanks for the info, I was wondering what rear diameter was sort of the limit for the 150 before it bogged it down too much. For now i have the Carter 2-bolt head, small valve Sym in stock form, though Tom indicates despite the lack of aftermarket support parts-wise is a pretty nice little screamer as is.

The same seller i bought the fronts from has 2 different styles of 22" x 8 rears. Most likely will go with a set of those. The new suspension, while a little narrower than the original single arms i made, is still plenty wide. I also pushed out in front about 2.5 inches, i have a lot of room for tire--i could probably stick 25s up there lol ... My thinking on the 10s is more for putting disc brakes in and getting a better tire selection. The sunl has a set of hydraulic discs in 8-inch front rims. I was just looking at the offset 8-inch rims i've had to move to, i may be able to copy the sunl setup if i can find the discs and calipers. i have a buddy who has his own welding biz who could Tig a set of threaded aluminum lugs onto the backside of the golf cart hubs to mount the brake disc on.

Rears i'm looking at, pretty similar tread, 4 vs 6 ply and b vs c load rating (can't find a chart to indicate what those weight ranges actually are ...) I'm assuming the 4 ply will be a bit lighter?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/270945504966...84.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350553500547...84.m1423.l2648

[GX150]

Once you move up to the 250 class, you may have to worry weight ratings since some can weigh 800 lbs before you add driver and passenger. I suggest only looking at UTV rated rims and tires for these larger buggies. If you ride where there are sharp rocks or roots, get the 6-ply tires. Otherwise you can save some weight by going with less plies plus the tire will wrap around objects better giving it better grip. I ran 22x11-8 snow/sand 2-ply on my Yerf without problems because it was so light.

[x-bird]

I broke my scale weighing the frame --- seriously --- LOL ... gonna pic up 2 cheap bathroom scales so i can weigh it out a little better f/r distribution & corners. With it all said and done, i'm estimating that this will weigh around 350-400 dry. frame alone (no front or rear susp. etc.) looked to be hitting 175 before something went "sproing-crack" in the scale.

My "track" is about 1/2 acre wooded limestone/bedrock outcrop that the farmers never touched and it's scrub-wooded in. Loads of pointed rock and loose chunks. I have about 6 in-out loops through it and will be adding more off the steep side where it drops about 20-feet over a distance of 30 feet. Where's there's soil, it strips away to root or rock pretty quickly as i ride. The trees blow down often because there's nothing to really root into and we get near-constant wind. Getting a lot of off camber ruts with square edged steps as i expose the strata. When thing got to be a clearance issue with the stock setup, i'd just whack the tip of the rock with a sledgehammer and it'd fracture out pretty easily--sharp edges though. It was evidently also a farmer's shooting gallery. i've gathered up a couple gallons of old broken plates, bottles etc.

Sounds like the 6-plys are worth the extra 15 bucks.

I like the way the tread on the Maxxis has a bit of a gap to grab with and the contact would be across a much wider portion of the long sideways lugs. the kendas look like the gaps will be grabbing into the skinny lengthwise lugs.

[T3beatz]

Yeah, I'm in need of some new front tires myself. My track is about 1 mile long, mostly hard packed dirt, small tree stumps, and roots! I was out riding today with my bro and I tipped over goin down a steep hill into a small stream. The buggy tipped to the left and the left front tires bead blew out! Bead locks are too much for my blood I figure some better front tires will do me well, the ones that I have on it now are 19" and they are pretty old, but still have tons of tread.

[GX150]

I found I have to keep the front tires inflated close to max operating pressure otherwise I get leaks in the bead. when you seat them again, run a bead of silicone sealer on the outer bead to help...

[T3beatz]

That's what I did, The tires are old and without the sealer they wont have a good seal on the bead and I can't even get the tire inflated. Basically it's time for some new ones and use these as spares.

[x-bird]

Went with the maxxis, always trusted their brand, still have them on my DH rig. Quick phone call and Jed's (the seller) just let me pay the starting bid price and put them in with the same shipment as the fronts. Saved them a couple bucks on their "free shipping" and got them rolling my way a couple days sooner with no one else to worry about bidding against. $200 for for new tires shipped, calling that one a decent deal these days. Also puts four good tires on the Sunl. I'm so tempted to put my old tires on the offset rims so i can test the front end, but i know if i do that 2-3 days later I've gotta take them off again.

[x-bird]

It took 3 different attempts over two nights at an upper shock mount tube, but finally got it set where i want it last night. Do i overuse the word fiddly??? wonder why LOL .. more little bits for gussets since the box tube was only touching the tubes in 2 places. Once the other side is installed, i'll put a piece of round tube between them and back-brace that to the frame, turning my 6-tube juncture into a 7 tube juncture.

Beefed up the heim tube/bung in the control arm. while it just looks like a dogpile of welds, there's a piece of 1/8th wall 1.5 round tube overlaid around the bung. Still have to do the same to the other side and trim the tube end off for shock clearance.

[x-bird]

In the home stretch .. may have this running in "rough"" state this evening or tomorrow.
Front suspension finally all together both sides.

Hubs taken apart and regreased. one rear bearing race has some issues, so a new bearing set is on the "near future list" One bearing and race size for both front and rear makes it simple ordering wise at least.

Second offset rim converted to 4x4 bolt pattern and both painted.--new shoes mounted.

Steering rack mount made. the lower "support" chunk is a 3/4 x 1/2 piece of Ez-Go golf cart steering arm. One hole existed for the tie rod, I added another to cut the weight a bit. The vertical piece that the rack bolts to is cut from structural steel C-channel. The inside dimension of the channel had very heavy radius and thick, angled sides of the "C" and using that allows the rack's to mount pointed upwards, more in line with the column. I did a heavy bevel grind on the inside, welded the two together, the ground and filed off the excess weld to make a 90-deg. corner. The base of the yerf's rack was very uneven from the casting process, so that had to be ground and filed flat to set snug in the 90.

Rack aligned with late night teething session. Sander, dremel, angle grinder file ...forever ...

I have to grind back the a-arm mount upright for rack nut clearance, weld the mount in place, bolt the rack in then work up the tie rod mounts on the steering arms. Have some grade-8 aircraft rated nuts/bolts for it.

After that, it's bolt (and zip tie & tape) everything in place and see how it runs. If the knock off uni air filter is issue for jetting, i have a stock airbox to put in its place. Could also tape over portions of the filter to cut the intake of air if needed.

[metalstudman1]

You're in the home stretch of the build- not the process!!!!! I'm crossing my fingers that your first test run is ALL you dreamt it will be, Have you tried to see if the short rack boot is going to extend long enough with all the new teeth? Nice job-by the way

[T3beatz]

Great job Xbird... I run one of the knock off uni filters from ebay and it works just fine as long as you use filter oil of course.

[x-bird]

Spent a lot of the past two days hunting through the hardware bins. became a hard-war zone in the garage lol.

Managed to keep everything but the brakes and engine SAE. freebie bin i got awhile back has turned into a near gold mine. Loads of never used bowman precision (they're out of business now) fine and coarse thread aircraft bolts & nuts. nice variety of shank lengths & diameters. Not a pivot point on it now with thread touching the mounts etc. only thing i had to buy were 7/16th bolts for the front shocks and the swingarm mounts. shock bushing sleeves are a bit "off" -- everything i've tried is binding in them by about the thickness of the bolt plating.

Buttoned up the front end an hour or so ago was very pleased with the results. Getting the tie rod mount spot on took up most of the time i had for this today. tie rods run parallel with the top of the upper arm and about 1 1/8th inch out in front of it...

I was pleased for all of 30 seconds ...lets see if who can find dyslexic X's "little" issue in the 2nd pic... gonna cost me more than a couple hours to fix. ... can't believe i didn't see it at any point during the past several days ...

[SYCARMS]

Right tie rod mount on back (wrong) side??

[x-bird]

Nope, also the 2nd pic is prior to the work on the steering arm mounts--nothings aligned at that point, just have the frame and suspension leveled up on my mess of a slab. i'm 90 percent finished with fixing it. decided to hold off going out to mow today -- 20 mph sustained winds plus major gusts, so i'm fixing my sponge-brained boo boo. Otherwise, it'd already have the engine in and running. Hint ... Problem was mostly caused by always looking at the item from the front view. It's one of those "too obvious" things.

[T3beatz]

I'm stumped... I've looked for at least 5 mins.

[metalstudman1]

I'll guess- rack is upside down for front steer.

[x-bird]

Ding. metal has it--figured he or GX or Ckau would spot it the quickest. After "cycle testing" the suspension and wheel motion while turning them by hand as i lifted last night, i hooked up shocks & the steering wheel, crouched in to get a feel of the effort as i packed a LOT of grease into it, turned the wheel and just about cried turn left, wheels go right (reminds me of a rally co-pilot i know. LOL.) never noted how these things were bolted into the spiderboxes and most of the work on it lately has been late night after work when i'm dogged mentally and physically. All fixed -- didn't take too long and i didn't lose any of my alignments.

a suzuki 250R followed me home today after a drop-off at the scrapyard. $46 rough old thing looks to be mid to late 80s vintage. aluminum rims, but 1 front and 1 rear are pretty beat, may try to save them. pull and electric start, reverse ... front suspension for the sunl, engine if it's salvagable for this in the fall. probably spend the summer going over it. Pulls and sounds like decent compression.

[GX150]

The steering uses "Reverse Polish Rotation"?

[x-bird]

whacked off the lower support chunk, made a template of the rack's mounting surface and pinion carrier area, drilled a hole out for that, welded in another chunk of the 1/2 x 3/4 bar stock then located & drilled the mount holes through that and added a support plate across the top.

Shocks are in one of the lowest ride height settings, the tie rods parallel the arms when i move the bottoms in and raise it about another inch. shocks need more air pressure.

new teeth feel pretty good in the rack, i have to put stop tabs on the lower arms that'll hit the spindle gusset. When cycling with full turn (which i don't need or want--too extreme of an angle) the ball joint hits and can sneak under the corner of the upper arm when near full travel.

1985 Suzuki LT 250 E quadrunner ... haven't heard that name in years ...

[metalstudman1]

Your place is going to look like mine soon!!!!! I used frontend parts off the same quad for a friends kart. The 250R is still popular.

[SYCARMS]

Hell I would not figured that out by the pics and if in person I would have been scratching my head as well as other parts while reciting my cuss vocabulary with some new ones. This is why I take notes on these posts.

[x-bird]

Funny thing is, i oriented the rack really based on the pinion shaft position to keep the column up high and didn't even think about direction of rotation. New spot was close, but the column's universal's clear the floor and side posts by 1/4 inch. Would've been boring clearance holes through the floor plate otherwise.

Burned the midnight oil til 3:30 again, then got up a couple hours later and just finished all the little details.

Just bled the brakes. For all you yerf hydraulic brakers--- the issue making it a royal pita is the bleeder screw leakage. the vacuum just pulls air into the tube at the caliper and doesn't even draw on the lines. Even with my mighty vac insert that replaces the bleeder, it was taking forever 10-15 minutes of watching air bubble through the tubing despite trying anything i could think of. Then I got the insert completely seated tight in hte bleeder hole --- sucked the system through in all of 30 seconds.

Test ride about to commence. maybe some vid this afternoon. gotta get some real hours on the work clock!

[x-bird]

Holy beep!

Aside from a chain tensioner issues -- I urethane bushed the top but it pulled the bushing's washer plate through, loosening the chain and skipping-- and flipping the filter off a couple times -- success.

Rear shocks are too soft of a spring rate, haven't tried tightening the spring yet -- 5-clicker type. common size fox spring, so going to another shouldn't be a problem. something's banging when they bottom out, haven't spotted it yet, don't think it's the bump stops in the shock though. pretty loud-- no noticeable contact or dings. Hope it's not the rear tensioner slamming the frame.

lot of power oversteer, gotta put this on the gps, way faster than it was with the Tec. if i flick it full throttle while moving pretty fast i can break them loose on the grass and keep a full drift corner going. spun it out a few times at speed doing that, pretty stable.

Waah, I don't wanna go to work ....

[metalstudman1]

I hear the excitement!!! Now let's see it!!!

[x-bird]

you know my Youtube upload times , i think the vid will be along any year now ... Found the weak link on ride two today ... and broke it ... ))

[T3beatz]

uh oh, what happened?

[metalstudman1]

Now the PROCESS!!!!!

[x-bird]

Well, as is usual, video is an issue. Got a GoPro Hero for my b-day, using my software, the vid comes out in the slow mo version with the sound out of sync. downloaded a file convertor so i could use windows movie maker and it locked out the start menu on my computer last night. video will have to wait, as it looks like it'll take a long time to get it figured out.

Anyway, on the first run the back end came around a bit more than anticipated and i clipped a tree with the left front tire. bent the tie rod's ball joint at the shoulder.

later in the day i went for a top speed run (of course I turned off my GPS in my pocket while belting in doh!) out on the golf course and then headed home up the back side hill of my "track".
At the base entry is a really large rock on the right and a big stump on the left. always had to squeak through. The front wheel track is now about 2 inches narrower, so i hit the opening probably at 25 mph or so. forgot about the secondary small stump now overgrown with vines next to the big one and hit it dead on the money with the left front. Sheared the bent ball joint. if it hadn't been bent, it might have survived with no damage.

Duct tape is your friend--taped the arm to the ball joint and drove her the rest of the way up and home.

Both impacts are on vid, so when i get it done, some carnage to enjoy.

No damage whatsoever to any other front end component, no play etc. It is the sledgehammer front end all right!

Solution is going to be a small drilled plate on both ends of the steering arm's mounting tube, a shear pin or bolt through it with a heim joint on the tie rod end.

I knew the ball joints were going to be an issue strength wise in relation to the rest of the front end. Best thing to do is take advantage of that fact and make it a replaceable failure point. Carry a few extra pins on the buggy for two minute repairs.

Issue number two to resolve is rear traction. the stock tires are just too slippy. power oversteer is pretty severe. I think power-wise, this thing can handle the new tires i have. It's what caused the first hit.

Top speed on the GPS from run 1 was 39.5, from going around my house--I didn't come close to reaching full speed, ran out of room before i got there, which is why i went out on my course for a run. I think this thing has mid-40s in it!

Ride quality is sweet! tightened up the rear shocks --turns out they're 3-clickers and that improved it. It is banging the rear tensioner mount on the frame, no contact issues with rear travel. It loosened up the chain/tensioner about 4-6 times in the two tests. i really don't like that portion of the stock setup at all. i have it jam nutted both sides, topside has a locknut on it too boot. Needs urethane on both sides.

[lucky13]

That looks nice dude

[x-bird]

After a lot of messing around and trying different software, i 've found an OK method for getting my vids up. quality suffered a little, but it was shot on the gopro's default setting. Use the small screen view-- it puts all of the front end into the frame.

Two clips merged, first one you can hear the chain tensioner/chain come loose after my little donut and the tensioner starts to slap the frame, other lighter clapping sound is my helmet's visor (duct taped that for the second clip) first hit is what really killed the ball joint. one little blip of gas too much. Going to try and mount one of the maxxis to see if they'll clear.

http://youtu.be/IQ5OE6h6aW0


Have yet to get this thing up to full speed, probably about 80-90 percent at 39.5 mph
Throttle cable is too short and it's not releasing back to idle. Tried reverse once, it never engaged and really slammed going back into forward. Will cut and move the original gas rod tab on the frame back a little bit to fix the issue.

other work to be done includes:
rod ends (ordered) for the tie rods
chain tensioner improvement
mount rear tires (hopefully)
Lighting and horn. (just need to bolt in and wire up)
instrument panel corner trimming
finish body cladding (a "whenever" thing this summer)

I can absolutely see Ckau's point on these 150s in tight woods trails --can't move much else of anything larger through them any quicker. The 250 i have sitting on the quad is only appealing to me now if i decide to do an IRS--which this really could use. Setting up a rigid engine platform with the existing quad frame would be pretty easy. add in a suspension like a Jag rear end and it's not too hard of a deal. Otherwise, i have no room for any more top end. barely have room for this as it is.

[T3beatz]

The buggy looks good X bird, I bet it's a lot better riding it now that it doesn't have the old side shaft industrial engine! lol

I was just riding yesterday through some atv trails that I've never been through and anything much bigger than my buggy would have had a hard time getting through.

[metalstudman1]

Looked fast!! How about some pic's of the whole buggy.

[x-bird]

No full pics, but i've got a walk-around vid on my JVC to dump out yet. At work now, we just permanently closed our golf course for safety reasons, so i'll have a little added room to "play"

Tell you what, something tells me these carter 2-bolt Syms everyone "avoids" are something i might just look to stockpile a few of. You got 'em, lmk!

I've gotta do a plug reading because of the air filter, otherwise, i have no interest in modding it. bottom end is strong enough for my needs, even if i move to the 22s. Those will kill the wheelspin and should pop the top speed up a bit more. Going in the curves around the house the back end wants to walk out from under me with the stock tires. Spun it at speed earlier in the day when i gave it too much gas while going pretty fast and they broke loose. first tree hit you can hear the little "blip" i gave it--back end kicked a little loose and stuff-o-matic.

[x-bird]

Walk around vid pointing out the remaining 3203 "dna"... really didn't want to put up any complete shots until all the panels are on and it's in paint, but with my track record of getting my projects into paint, we'll all be debating walker suspension systems before that happens..
sound sync issue again, so i just cut the audio so you don't have to listen to Alvin on helium
http://youtu.be/2bRcJ3syA58

[ckau]

That really looks good! And it did look fast! But dude.. you gotta watch that tree! The base looks as though you have already nailed it a few time before.
I hate at this point, after you've worked so hard to be the bearer of possible bad news. In your vid I detected the underlaying sound of gear whine along with the exhaust note. I had this exact same whine in my motor right before the transmission grenaded. That whine is the signal of a internal trans bearing getting ready to fail! In my case it was the shaft support bearing for the smaller primary gear . The bearing came apart, the shaft wobbled, got the gear in a twist bound up the mesh and bam! . When I popped the cover, chunks of case, bearing bits and gear teeth hit the floor. I was lucky I only had to replace the trans cover and of course all the internals. Had the damage got to the left side motor case, the motor would have to be completly torn down.
you can hear the exact same sound from mine in this vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkYQMJpYBrA
kinda hard to hear cause of the sound track but the whining sound sound is clear at times. Catastrophic failure about 3 days after the vid was made.
hope I'm wrong but it's worth checking out to prevent some headache

[x-bird]

Originally Posted by ckau

That really looks good! And it did look fast! But dude.. you gotta watch that tree! The base looks as though you have already nailed it a few time before.
I hate at this point, after you've worked so hard to be the bearer of possible bad news. In your vid I detected the underlaying sound of gear whine along with the exhaust note. I had this exact same whine in my motor right before the transmission grenaded. That whine is the signal of a internal trans bearing getting ready to fail! In my case it was the shaft support bearing for the smaller primary gear . The bearing came apart, the shaft wobbled, got the gear in a twist bound up the mesh and bam! . When I popped the cover, chunks of case, bearing bits and gear teeth hit the floor. I was lucky I only had to replace the trans cover and of course all the internals. Had the damage got to the left side motor case, the motor would have to be completly torn down.
you can hear the exact same sound from mine in this vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkYQMJpYBrA
kinda hard to hear cause of the sound track but the whining sound sound is clear at times. Catastrophic failure about 3 days after the vid was made.
hope I'm wrong but it's worth checking out to prevent some headache

That's my favorite tree--nailed it head on from the 90-degree direction from my other woods entry with the last incarnation of the single a-arm setup. wheels were toeing in really bad under compression, when they'd unload, it would shoot me off any which way, which was that tree at one time. it's in one of my old skate helmet cam vids (the really bad quality ones), then it ate the single arm steering tie rod end on my very last ride for the same reason as this one. That turn up top is cambered and really loose soil and rock.

Thanks for the heads-up on the trans, When i get the steering fixed, I'll do another run vid with it with the camera on the back end for better audio. i'll open it up and look at it. The fan "roar/whine" is pretty loud on these things, so I'm not sure what sounds are good or bad with them. I may start trolling the forums to see if anyone has any of these 2-bolt syms to dump for parts for this one.

Meantime, i'm moving my throttle cable stop mount and installing one of the 22s for clearance testing.

[x-bird]

progress report ...
Rod ends were on back-order, should be in by mid-week next week.

Ball joints didn't take my test session too well, eh?

Getting really close to paint. have the front end stripped of parts, back end is next.

Took the arms that held the heads of the clubs on one of the old Ping club racks and made my shock reservoir mounts. They're slotted for hose clamps and a piece of rubber goes around the bottom half.
The old "muzzle" of mine finally found it's home ....

Got all of my body panels rough cut out, down to five out of 16 left to finish and fit.

pics not loading .... hmm little one must've been playing with the camera, used to have it set to shoot so i didn't need to resize ... anyway, resized and we now have eye candy.

added a couple showing the brake and gas cable setup. Basically copied the spiderbox master mount & lever, but added more angle to the lever for a stronger pull on it (1/4" aluminum)
Used the same rod and cable from the 3203, i like the feel of the cable better than a direct rod to it. still have to find some better hardware. throttle is also stock 3203 with an extension added to the end of the rod and the outer cable housing stripped back to get enough free inner length to work with the gy6. both the brake and gas mounting brackets have been moved from their original locations. If the throttle cable had been long enough, the stock location and rod length would have worked.

[metalstudman1]

Looking good!!!! Are you planning a bumper? Smack a reservoir and they're done.

[x-bird]

Thanks;
the front of the reservoirs sit back behind the notch int eh curved section and clamp around the very front and rear of the tube. The rubber cushion I'm using is 1/4 inch thick old style mini golf putting tee pad material. when the muzzle's bolted in top and bottom, it's stout. If I hit something hard enough to crumple it, the mounts should push up and back and the rubber should protect them in case some of the metal bends and angles upwards -- they'll be the least of my worries if i hit something that hard. Got another chunk of time to work on it tonight--storms shut my place down early.

[metalstudman1]

That view looks totally different!!

[ckau]

I'm searching for some cables like your using on your brake system. Where did you get these from? I have sourced morse type cables but wow! those things are more than a dollar an inch! I would like to complete my brake and accerator systems without investing $75. in just the cables. Any ideas?

[x-bird]

The cable is from the kart, you gotta remember, this started out as an old 3203 )))).

For next to nothing, you could probably hit the junkyard and pull a 1970-81 Firebird/Camaro parking brake cable. (later years had the center console handle) In the 70-81s it runs from the foot lever in the car to just under the driver's seat under the car where the inner ends with a threaded rod on it that's end-nutted into a curved hangar. Inside, it's an in-line barrel stud in a clevis with an over the top spring clip, pop that, and the spring clip on the housing end on the brake mounting plate. underneath, the other end of the housing has a threaded ferrule that goes against the floor pan inside and protrudes through it with a threaded portion an 11/16th or 3/4 nut. Spin that off, remove the nut on the inner cable end at the rear cable saddle under there. Under the carpet there will be two or three cable clamps around the housing and screwed into the inner rocker, remove those and pull it out from inside the car. 10 minute or less deal.

If you go to www.performanceyears.com and search their online catalog, you can get either the front section as described for $35, or a rear cable which is pretty similar for 17.50. At some point, the rods on both the gas and brake will get replaced with these.

[speedshopmike]

throwing a pimp-call out there for Casperson even here - good job, jim!
it looks fantastic; im super impressed.
great work, son!

[x-bird]

Paint! Broke out my old Sharpe guns, blew an inch or two of dust off them and went to town in my hi tech spray booth. Couple of saggers here and there on the tubes, used rustoleum clean metal primer and an old can of Sunrise red .... none left on the store shelves east of the Mississippi for some reason .... it was a little congealed and didn't cut down well, stayed tacky all night til i overshot it with some clear enamel.

primary tubing color is my own custom blend of rustoleum hammertone grey and some black to get it to a dark argent-- pretty close to the pontiac Rally wheel color i was after .... Have a bit of welding to do on the subframe -- a version of ckau's axle mod may be coming using the old 3203 hangers and bearings.

Time to start hanging parts ...

[SYCARMS]

Looks great, but one would have to expect a quality paint job out of a High Tech EPA approved spray booth such as yours. but I must say that lately I have been very distrought over the shortage of red paint, especially the red bubblegum paint by Rustolium I like the color combo you used, looks great

[x-bird]

Originally Posted by SYCARMS

Looks great, but one would have to expect a quality paint job out of a High Tech EPA approved spray booth such as yours.

My brother wouldn't let me come near his DD booth with the rustoleum. He'd be chasing fisheyes for weeks Word of warning ... the hammertone paint has to be cut with xylol-- a lot nastier than the mineral spirits used with the regular rusty. Were I in CA, the EPA's black choppers would've hauled my butt off in minutes --- nothing like a good 'ol high pressure gun and a massive plume of dry overspray wafting out of the garage. I'll just blame it on dixie or the cement plants around here ...

It used a quart of primer at $12, 2/3rds of the hammertone, $14, a 1/4 cup or so of black, and a 1/2 cup of red $3 or so. plus strainers, pails, mineral spirits and xylol adding another $25. about 50 total. Rattle cans would have been more, as would powdercoating, and i have way too many nuts welded to this thing to have to chase them all clean ... again.
Even though he owns his own collision repair shop, my brother won't spray any of his toys, automotive paint is way too expensive these days, he goes the powdercoating route.

Part II of the paintwork comes when i finish painting the cladding and install it in a few days. makes it a completely different animal ....

[SYCARMS]

When I painted my single seat buggy I used the Dupont 1/2 gallon of slate metalic plus 1 pt. reducer and 1 pt. hardner, the half pint of candy with its clear hardner and reducer then the final clear coat with still another reducer and hardner. Everything was pints half pints with the base color being the 1/2 gallon since I wante some extra for repaint or touchup later. My total was $450.00, this was in 2005. The paint I will say is holding up like I could not have imagined. No rock chips. Only one chipped dent from when my son backed into me. But I will next time go the route of powdercoat. When I had my truck in the body shop, the shop mgr showed me a receipt for a 1/2 pint of paint for a 2011 Caddilac $1400.00. It was some kind of irredescent paint Caddilac used. Unbelievable how the price of paint has sky rocketed. The guy from my paint supply house said it is due to all the EPA regulations on even disposal of the paper towel they wipe their hands with after mixing the paint as hasmat. Now why is not the car they just painted treated as hasmat as the rag that got paint omn it. EPA is out of control. And you are right about California and the black helicopter.

[x-bird]

Got a little more done today between shifts ...
Despite having gone far beyond anything resembling a budget with this thing, I still try and see if i can make what i have work.

Found a seamless sleeve in one of my bins that was a little tight for the 12 mm bolts, so i bored it out with a 15/32nds bit, cleaned it up and made my new steering arm mount tubes. chopped about 2/3 of the old tubes off and ground and filed a channel for these to set into.

The distance between the bottom of the rod end and the top of the lug nut is how much droop I'm losing to bind at the rack end of the tie rod. This has cut my usable range of my shock mounts from 15 positions down to about 6. It's also keeping my total axle/suspension travel to about 8 inches before settling under load. So "true" travel will be about 6.5 to 7--depends on which position i set the shocks in and how many turns on the spring.

made my own misalignment spacers using golf cart lug nuts. after boring them out for the 12 mm bolt, i nutted it tight then ran it on the belt sander, holding it on a slight angle so it didn't sand away the last little bit. That little extra matches the ball and gives a couple more degrees of misalignment = at least an inch more of travel. The shorter one under the bolt head is a cut off of a lug nut's tapered section, it got the same sanding treatment.

Unfortunately, even though I allowed room on the misalignment spacers to drop the suspension enough to cover the gap shown in the 2nd pic, the rod ends binds in upward travel when the arms get just above level --caused by putting the mount tubes on too much of a matching angle to the tie rod. Did i tack and test? ... nooo had to leave for work so i buzzed them completely ..... had the originals on a slight angle, figured a little more wouldn't hurt ... splitting the difference would've been golden. ahhh well ..... Before i consider changing anything (heavily back-cut misalignment spacers would be my easiest route) i need to compress my shocks and see if it matters at all anyway. If they're at 85-95 percent compression by that travel point, i should be good to go. Still have to sand down the spacers for the other side, then the front suspension is done ... again

Only thing left is matters typically tackled with by a white coated guy and rubber gloves My buddy frank put the tolerances right on the money for my sprocket support donut. taking the plating off all the way around along with any nicks/bumps with some emery strips has it sliding on the axle nice and snugly but easily, once i reach the sprocket, i'm curious to see how well i managed to center it with a stack of 7 washers on each bolt. Decided i'll tack the sprocket to the donut and not weld it to the axle at all. would be a shame to waste it if the axle goes. may drill some holes in it though, heavy slug o metal.

After that, i'll add the 3203 bearings for some extra support and maybe install an axle overrider tube on the hub like t-3 did. still debating the expense of those lug extenders. never been a fan of using wheels spacers in any application.

Then it's teardown time for the transmission. I think i'll check the gear oil level first, but I'm pretty sure it's at a correct level.

[metalstudman1]

It's the little "odd's & end's" things that take all the fab time!!!

[x-bird]

Spent the morning disassembling the old 3203 axle. I've gotta say one thing, you can definitely see the decline in quality and the "budget conscious" mindset between the components on this axle and a spiderbox axle.

The bearings are made in the USA, still in excellent shape and completely sealed. The spiderbox bearings look to be china made with races open internally. My '03 axle does have a slight bend in the sprocket area, but overall is definitely higher quality steel with better machining and tolerances.

I take it the spiderboxes also came without the plastic axle protectors? Even the '03s set screws have properly dimpled and knurled ends on them, have to be a US source. Most of the ones i come across today have poorly cut end dimples which makes them pretty much useless. Thankfully i have an old Dorman dial-selector tray full of good ones.

Only "issue" I can see with using the '03 bearings to beef up the spiderbox axle is the way they machined the spiderbox axle where its bearing sets. The axle cores definitely had concentricity problems, (cast axle blank vs a drawn & rolled blank) the machining for the bearing doesn't match the core's center. There's some play with the '03 bearing ID outboard of the stock bearing, i may lay a couple low heat welds opposite the high side and file them down so the '03 sets on center with the stock one.

[SYCARMS]

The origional Yerf was not a bad buggy, but was still origionally designed for kids as a yard kart(not rough terrain). When Yerf started selling to Sams Club it was still a good buggy but then Walmart demanded cheaper prices to them and that is where Yerf took the wrong road that eventually led them to chapter 7. I have a very early model where all the welds are complete, the hubs were made of better aluminum and so on, which was when they were truely made in America. Although the later still had Made in America stickers on them the laws had already been changed which allowed this. Prior to the law change Made in America meant just that. Assembling parts from around the world were classified as Assembled in America. Anyone with a bit of years on them should remember those times. This is why I say todays GM, Ford, and Chrystler are no longer American Made Products, for they are assembled in America from 80%+ foreigh obtained parts, and not manufactured (made) here. Once again the elite have changed the origional meaning of origional english grammer intent. This is why you have noticed the differences. We now in this country make (manufacture) only about 15% of what we used to when our Country ran efficiently thus creating the strongest and largest middle class the world has ever known.

[x-bird]

note to self ... M12 x 1.25 ....

For those wondering, that's the thread dia & pitch of the spiderbox tie-rod/ball joint and steering rack/ball socket ends.
Working on getting rid of the bind at the rack end, so i can get my droop to where i designed it to be.

That china-derived dimension of course really fubars things for easy modification. Simple idea, clevis and rod end for the rack end of things, not easy since i can't find anyone making components with that particular dia and pitch combo.

I waste more time searching for little bits and pieces than actually getting anything accomplished!

Ah well, simplify the design and make life easier .. and harder at the same time. I have an extra pair of the 12 mm rod ends (Aurora) with the correct thread. Going to stick those in the rack end with about 3 nuts to lock them in place against the end of the rack shaft and hold the rod end vertical. The od of the tie rod is a perfect match to the ID of the old 3203 spindle tube, so if i can't find something similar at ace, i'll cut and clean those up, (something tells me i use one for some purpose already) chop the existing tie rod's ball socket end off and weld a pair of plates to it to make a clevis.

When it comes time to adjust toe, i'm going to have to remove the through bolt on one end or another to make the adjustment instead of having a turnbuckle style LH/RH tie rod.