Wishbone Runner's Build

And subsequent carnage which get us to current projects are underway, rack took a shit right after the crack in Moab, had to put a gallon of ATF in it to get er home.

 

So, time to cut shit out and bring in the beef, throwing in a tundra rack on a new crossmember to position the rack properly. Started with the @tetten method of filleting the crossmember, but wasn’t happy with the amount of material left and clearances, so chopped it out, plated the ends and put the factory barrels in a 1/4” 2x4.







This is about where it will land compared to stock, I’m using the pass diff bolt for the rack which moves it forward about an inch. Leaving it on the stock crossmember puts it up quite a bit and too close to the motor.

I decided to do this, which may have some wonky steering effects, as I plan to do a JD pivot kit in the near future, which will move the spindle forward the same amount and get me back to stockish steering geometry. This will also allow for better tie rod to shock clearance down the road, which can be an issue with the pivot kit it seems.



Up next is to weld it in then work on the steering shaft which might need some teaks, and maybe some frame clearance, though I am hopeful the frame clearance wont be needed due to dropping the rack down compared to the stock crossmember location.

 

And my spindles were cracked to shit, so paring the tundy rack with JD double shear and a fresh pair.

 

Impressive!

 

Can you remove the belt on the 4.0 from the pump and still be good to roll just without power steering?

 

Only one belt on the 4.0 vs the 3 on our 1st gens. So no.

 

Seek and destroy!

Negative, just one belt, Brett was telling me about your adventure doing that to save the pump. I don't think I ran it dry, but I'm replacing the pump as well for good measure, it does have 225K on it afterall.

 

Ninja skills!

 

And nice working cracking the TC sway gussets. Wish those JD ones were around when I welded mine up last year. We'll see how long they last.

Probably not worth it for the 1 time you would use it, but I bet you could find a shorter belt to run just the alternator and fan for situations like that.

 

This is the second time they cracked, they cracked closer to the tierod outrigger last time, seem to just move the weak point around.

Welp, I'm hoping all this work will be the end of steering issues and destruction, FOREVER! I was planning to use the tundra tie rods, but the machining of the rack gear to get it down to stock width doesn't leave enough meat left in the driver side where the rack teeth are to allow the use of the larger sized tie rod. So, the weak link now is the tie rod, which I am actually fine with leaving as a fuse. The 4Runner one is larger than the taco too unfortunately, so I cant use the nice collection of ties that I have around, so need to pick up some taco ones.

 

Also, I'm making it up that f'n v-notch on wheeler this year for sure.

 

Lets do it, I need redemption too . . .

 

Keep me in the loop. I need to get on the trail a lot more this year.

 

Sub'd for updates on the steering rack, awesome build!

 

Nice rig!

 

Got most of the hard work done these past two weekends: crossmember is located and tacked in hopefully is final position, notched the frame for steering shaft clearance, remade the steering shaft out of tube and shortened up the bottom spline section for better clearance, cut the motor perch off and fabbed a new one out of pieces of the old one, plated the frame where the new mount is going and have everything tacked in place ready to get burned in.

 

Also found a crack in my @Bonzen motor mounts, which I attribute to a missing bolt that I noticed before heading out to Moab in the fall, who knows how long it had been missing I was actually missing a bolt on each side.

 

In almost 2 decades of making these, their only natural enemy is loose or missing bolts. As soon as any component gets loose in an offroad environment, stuff cracks, ovals out or breaks.

V-Groove and weld that crack, and remember to use loctite on the new bolt.

 

Definitely not blaming you, I already ground it down and welded it up. I did not use loctite, but will this go around!

 

Right on, just putting that info out there

In the instructions I send with the kits, its recommended to use blue thread-locker on the aluminum engine blocks, and red thread-locker on iron blocks/frame perch plate bolts.

Also to periodically check the bolt tightness of the mounts, and especially after your first off road trip.

Trust me, I'm even bad at this too. I actually found a few loose motor mount bolts on my own off road truck the other day