It's my turn, 47 S10 build

[Cautrell05]

I milled it from a piece of bar stock and it pivots on a pair of bearings. It took a bit of trial and error to get it set right but it shifts perfectly now and the only thing visible under the hood is the pushrod running down from the pedal.

[Cautrell05]

I couldn't get a clear picture from the bottom but I did get one with the transmission cover removed. There's a video of it in my Facebook album. For some reason I can't share the video directly.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...ibextid=6aamW6

[Cautrell05]

Once again, way too long between updates. Truck currently has about 3,000 miles on it and is also torn down to the frame. The plan more or less from the beginning was to put it together as a rolling test bed to try a few different things and then once I knew it was going to work like I wanted pulled apart and finish the chassis out properly. I wasn't 100% sure on the rack and pinion working, the hydra boost I figured it probably would but if for some reason I had to change something, I didn't want to have to go in and redo paint on the chassis. There's a place about 30 minutes from my house that quoted me 120 bucks to powder coat the chassis if I take it down there already blasted. I can't hardly buy paint for that. And where we have the equipment at work to sandblasted it's kind of a no-brainer.
Things have figured out so far. Bilstein's are awesome, I already knew that but this just verified it. With new xtreme coils up front with 3/4 of a coil cut out and used xtreme leaves out back the ride is excellent. With the 36 mm bar up front and the factory S10 rear sway bar a corners like a go-kart. The torque arm out back works excellent as well. It will over i
power the tires if I really try, but otherwise it hooks up very well and there is no wheel hop.
The turning radius sucks. It kind of knew that with only having about 6 in of travel in the rack and the stock b-body spindles. The correction for that is going to be a set of fabricated spindles that I can set my steering arm length as well as correct the Ackerman. I looked into a couple different options but didn't really find anything that really matched what I wanted. You can get a GM metric spindle with a bolt-on steering arm which would technically fit. But then I'm down to smaller brakes and smaller wheel bearings which is not something I want. The new spindles are going to use 2008 Jeep front hubs just because they're 5 on 5 to match the rear axle. The stock base model Jeep front rotors are 12 in which is the same as the B-body rotors on the front now. And in the future I have the option if I want to go up a size between the Wrangler and the Durango there is 12 13 14 and 15-in sizes available that will all fit the same hub.

The 700R4 did a good job for the 3 years it was in there. The only time it would protest is 3/4 throttle or more when it's hot in first gear it would start to slip and squeal. Anything less than 3/4 throttle it shifted beautifully. Not really surprising when you put a 450 ish horsepower 406 in front of a V6 transmission. The transmission is for sale if anybody wants to make a drive and get it. I'm pretty sure it would be just fine with a lower horsepower motor or for somebody that just wanted a driver.
Was also pleasantly surprised that my plan of making the transmission mount reversible to fit a 4L80 actually worked. Picked up a used one with a hundred thousand miles on it a while back for 500 bucks. Was very happy to see that it would fit without having to redo the mount or the chassis brace. Or the exhaust for that matter. That officially removes the weak link from the drivetrain.
The engine unfortunately is back over at the machine shop. Found out that steam holes in the cylinder heads are not optional on a 400. Driving around is fine. Pull up anywhere and stop when it's fully warmed up and let it idle and it will just continue to build heat. Somewhere in the process the rings didn't fully seed and it was using a quart of oil every 300 mi. Talking with my friend at the machine shop sounds like just a set of rings and gaskets and will be good to go.

Also picked up an MSD Atomic 2 and was part way through tuning when the truck got tore down. The initial impression was very good. Looking forward to getting it back together and being able to run it hard without ending up with park and 6 neutrals in the transmission.

Things that are gonna get finished this time around -
The budget power windows. Modified square body regulators, just need to finish the wiring.
08 Chevy door latches. Need to finish out the inside handles so the door fits.
2 speed boat wiper motor with the factory delay switch. Need to finish the wiring also.
Full custom ac setup with frame mounted compressor and fresh air heat and AC. Compressor and heater case are done. Need to finish the ductwork and inside ducts.

[Cautrell05]

Been working on the spindles for the last couple weeks. It handled fine with the B-body spindles but the steering arm is too long and spaced wrong. Turning radius and Ackerman suffered though. It turned wider than my 99 k2500 crew cab and shoved the front tires in a hard turn just as bad. Did a lot of looking and nothing would work without a bunch of compromise or big money so the only way to get what i want was to build them.

Main requirement is that i don't have to change wheels and don't want to change brake size at this time.

Current pattern in 5x5. 2008 and up Jeep Wrangler hubs are 5x5 and don't need a stub axle to hold them together. Also the base model Wrangler rotors are the same diameter and thickness as the B-body rotors they are replacing so i can run my current calipers.
First step was to mock up the rotor and hub with the suspension to determine pin height and offset. The plywood knuckle might look redneck but it allowed me to visualize what i needed and get measurements. I didn't remember exactly what they were but it gave me a 2 inch drop and i spaced the rotor about 3/8" from the lower arm. From there it was pretty easy to draw out. 1.040" from the hub face to the machined flange for the caliper bracket. Lower ball joint flange is mounted at a 7° angle from the main plate, upper Ball joint ear is 8 1/2" from the lower.
I had a single piece of 12x12x3/4" and some 1x3 to work with. Rough cut the 3/4" to match the pattern i got from the plywood version and cut the hole for the hub and Added a 3/8" spacer for the hub that i will machine down to set my hub height.
The caliper mounting brackets worked out to be flush with the back edge of the 3/4" plate. The plan was to build it for future upgrades. Currently it has the 11.8 inch rotors which is a big as i can go and still fit inside the current wheels. Nice thing i figured out researching is that base model 18 grand Cherokee rotors are 13 inches and the heavy duty version is 14 inch. Or the SRT is i believe 15 inch if i want to upgrade later.
For the initial build the caliper mounts were spaced to the Cherokee caliper and 13 inch rotor. Then I'll build the bracket for my current caliper to fit those mounts.
For the Jeep caliper it came out to 1.040" from the hub flange to the caliper mount. That was easily cut after the hub flange was welded on.

[dsraven]

nice to have the tools and skills to do all that. keep posting your progress pics

[Modsqaud69]

Great work! Wish I had some of your skills. Would the rack work with the widened frame and stock s10 spindles. I know that's not what you're after but very curious about it.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by dsraven

nice to have the tools and skills to do all that. keep posting your progress pics

I got really lucky. 3 1/2 years ago I was still in a GM dealership doing regular repairs and building small scale stuff as a hobby. Then i got onboard with a restoration shop and never looked back. I've picked up so many skills since i got here it's crazy. But an awesome change after 27 years of turning wrenches.

A lot of what I've learned from customer builds i use on my own truck and the other way around.

This is one of our builds that's almost done after 3 years. 2016 GT350 with 67 exterior and the full 2016 interior.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by Modsqaud69

Great work! Wish I had some of your skills. Would the rack work with the widened frame and stock s10 spindles. I know that's not what you're after but very curious about it.

Thanks.
The touring radius would still suffer. If i was going to do it again i probably wouldn't use a rack. The make faster ratio steering boxes that would bolt right in. That plus a better idler arm would be a lot less work. I'm pretty sure the wider frame would clear the stock 47 radiator. Maybe trim the mount a little.

Also, i would maybe only go 3 inches on the frame. At 4 inches it gets tight around the F-body swaybar. It clears but there not much extra room.

[Modsqaud69]

So only go 3 inches wider, better idler arm, quick ratio steering box and a g body center link? Thanks Cautrell05. I know spacers now aren't what they were 20-30 years ago but the thought of using them still bothers me. You've had some great ideas on this build.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by Modsqaud69

So only go 3 inches wider, better idler arm, quick ratio steering box and a g body center link? Thanks Cautrell05. I know spacers now aren't what they were 20-30 years ago but the thought of using them still bothers me. You've had some great ideas on this build.

Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it.

Sounds like a good start. As for center Link, it might be a toss up between narrowed G-body, narrowed F-body, or widened S10. If you can lower the inner tierods about 5/8-3/4" it will help with the bump steer.

For spindles there was a couple years that the 2wd blazers used a bolt in wheel bearing and the larger 2 piston calipers. That's a big upgrade from the stock stuff without having to buy high end stuff.

[Cautrell05]

Next up was the lower ball joint mount. Shop doesn't have a 10 degree reamer and I'm too cheap to buy one for one job so i used the lathe. Cut the 1x3 for both lowers, squared then up on the mill so that they were both identical and drilled a half inch hole where i wanted the hole. Piece of redibolt through the hole with a grommet around it centered a piece of 1 1/4" pipe which which was then tack welded on. Redibolt was removed and the pipe was then chucked in the lathe. Kept the speed low enough so the balance didn't affect it and used the compound slide set at about 4 1/2 degrees and slowly worked it in rechecking several times to verify fit.

I didn't want to just butt weld the lower mount to the back plate so i cut it so that the ear would go partially through it. Clamped the ear in the vice at a 7 degree angle and cut the top 3/8" so it was vertical. The end result was they would key in and hold together on its own. Made lining up for welding easier.

[Cautrell05]

I didn't get too many pictures of getting the top sections cut out but what I did was take a section of pipe with the ends squared and a washer welded on either end to keep it centered over a piece of half inch ready bolt. Tack welded the lower ear to the main plate so it wouldn't go anywhere and then bolted that together with the upper ball joint ear. That kept my kingpin angle locked in at 7 degrees and in line with the lower ear.

The upper ball joint ear was cut from a piece of 2-in round stock and then offset drilled in the lathe to cut the taper. From there I measured everything out and drew it up on graph paper so I can figure what I needed for angles for the short section up top. I knew I wanted it keyed in like the lower. Once I knew what angle I needed it was a semi sorta simple job of cutting out most of the material with a smaller bit and then Going in with a 2-in end mill bit that we happen to have and cutting the rest of the pocket.
I left the pipe bolted in between the upper and lowers through the whole welding heating and cooling process to try and keep everything where it was. It came out without any need to wail on it with a hammer and the hub still bolts in so I think I'm good.

[Cautrell05]

They might not be the rainbows and unicorns you see on Instagram but i feel pretty good about how they turned out. Definitely made for a long afternoon of welding.

[dsraven]

maybe check with the local colleges etc for some courses on this stuff....
kidding, you do very nice work. i wih i had a few tools like that at my disposal.

[Cautrell05]

Added a brace going out to the tie rod end and started putting together the caliper brackets. They originally came from ballistic fabrication but after seeing how much i had to cut them to work i would have been money ahead to make then myself.

[dsraven]

yup,, nothing like just doing what you need to do and getting it done. not remaking somebody else's stuff.
nice work man! keep posting up your pics, awesome work.

[Cautrell05]

Thanks. I'm happy with how it's turning out. Just wish it would go faster lol

[Modsqaud69]

Wow! Just wow! Just make your own spindles. Great work. Rob

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by Modsqaud69

Wow! Just wow! Just make your own spindles. Great work. Rob

Thanks.
Fabricator syndrome is real lol. I've got access to the tools and way more time than money. Plus it's semi therapeutic.

[Modsqaud69]

Believe me I understand "more time than money". That's why I've built 5 Harleys from parts I've acquired. Keep up the great work and pictures. Rob

[Cautrell05]

I'm really hoping to get some miles on it this summer but with what all i want to get done and how long it takes for me to get stuff done it might be next year.

[dsraven]

I get the fabricator's syndrome thing. my wife says I spend more time building tools to work on stuff than I spend actually working on stuff. haha
great woek, keep posting up those pics. love it.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I get the fabricator's syndrome thing. my wife says I spend more time building tools to work on stuff than I spend actually working on stuff. haha
great woek, keep posting up those pics. love it.

I've built many tools that are getting used on this. Lot cheaper that way.
The nine inch fixture is a blessing and i made the tubing bender just for ac hard lines. There's a few more but those were the easiest to find pictures of

[Cautrell05]

Caliper brackets are done. Visually they're not as impressive as a knuckles but functionally they will work. Everything bolts up and clears and I'm very happy with the turning radius now. Before I had about 26° on the inside tire, driver side in the pictures. Passenger side has the new knuckle and I've got about 38° at full travel on the rack with about 3/4 of an inch to an inch clearance between the tire and the frame. I did end up having to run wheel spacers which I wasn't real excited about. I knew that I would lose about 3/4 of an inch of width from the ball joint center line to the hub face and the original idea was to extend the control arms and then that would move my pivot point farther in on the tire and reduce the scrub radius. But my inexperience showed up and reminded me that drop spindles and 15-in wheels do not always work well and the outer tie rod was directly in the way. Originally ordered 1.25" spacers and that still wasn't enough. Another half inch on top of that gave me just enough clearance so it just settled with 2-in spacers.