ChestonScout
opinions are like Jeeps..
- Location
- Clinton, Ut
I haven't gotten very far yet but figured it was time for a build thread
Here is the link to my last round of reworking on my tired old rig. Its in the IH section of Pirate so most haven't seen it.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/inte...-dont-you-just-build-buggy-scout-rebuild.html
The Scout has been working pretty good the last few years. I haven't changed much and haven't broken much. Well that all came to an end this year.
Ive been very happy with my Rockwells with Ouverson parts. This year I broke a lot of parts. To top it off at ITTC I screwed up. At the finish line of the OC I stomped the brakes like I always do to come to a stop. This time I had traction. Did a stoppie and it ended up blowing up a u joint in the front axle shaft. It was still spinning so I kept competing. It finally let go on the last course but went BOOM when it did. Busted the inner, outer, locker, knuckle, AND broke the kingpin off the housing. I didn't get many pics but here is the general idea
All of this can of course be repaired. But I was sick of spending money on Rockwells and it was gonna take a big chunk of change to upgrade the knuckles, spindles, and U joints. Let alone all the new OEM parts.
(Disclaimer....this breakage of Violator parts was caused by me running stock u joints. I have nothing but good things to say about Ouverson parts, just run all of them if you are going to run them)
SO....Im jumping on the Axletech bandwagon.
First up was finding some axles. It turns out that a local company had a bunch and they were currently installing a set on a SEMA build. After speaking with them I brought a set home. Thank you to Dave, and Steve and Dieselpowergear.com!!
If you haven't seen these axles in person your missing out. Pics do them NO justice. I saw them at Boyce Equipment a few years ago and thought they were awesome. Just not realistic at the time. So anyway they are friggin big. It didn't take long to realize that I wasn't going to be able to muscle these around like I could the Rockwells, I needed a forklift. Just so happened that a friend had a spare one sitting. He even delivered it for me.
Its old and ugly but mostly works. So now that I could unload them, it was time to start working on them.
I sold the Rockwells and my Stazwork wheels. The goal was to try install the techs with that budget. HAHAHAHA
I decided to try to take the spring perches off myself. My tooling is VERY limited and as you can see....Im working in a very small 2 car garage. 19'x19'.
So the first axle I cut off what I could with the porta band, used a cutoff wheel on the grinder, and tried to use the cheapo plasma cutter I have. After 8 hours I finally had one clean. Decided it was worth it to find someone with a air arc for the second axle
few minutes later
Money well spent. As you can tell I also had the housings sandblasted to get rid of the nasty carc paint.
Next up was trying to come up with some parts. After seeing the kickass work that SkippedLink did on his techs I started bugging him to produce some parts.
I got his high steer arms, driveline adapters, and I had him cut out some link mounts as well. Again, money well spent.
SkippedLink in here on RME but he doesn't check in much. He will be referred to as Leroy as well.
Here is the link to my last round of reworking on my tired old rig. Its in the IH section of Pirate so most haven't seen it.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/inte...-dont-you-just-build-buggy-scout-rebuild.html
The Scout has been working pretty good the last few years. I haven't changed much and haven't broken much. Well that all came to an end this year.
Ive been very happy with my Rockwells with Ouverson parts. This year I broke a lot of parts. To top it off at ITTC I screwed up. At the finish line of the OC I stomped the brakes like I always do to come to a stop. This time I had traction. Did a stoppie and it ended up blowing up a u joint in the front axle shaft. It was still spinning so I kept competing. It finally let go on the last course but went BOOM when it did. Busted the inner, outer, locker, knuckle, AND broke the kingpin off the housing. I didn't get many pics but here is the general idea
All of this can of course be repaired. But I was sick of spending money on Rockwells and it was gonna take a big chunk of change to upgrade the knuckles, spindles, and U joints. Let alone all the new OEM parts.
(Disclaimer....this breakage of Violator parts was caused by me running stock u joints. I have nothing but good things to say about Ouverson parts, just run all of them if you are going to run them)
SO....Im jumping on the Axletech bandwagon.
First up was finding some axles. It turns out that a local company had a bunch and they were currently installing a set on a SEMA build. After speaking with them I brought a set home. Thank you to Dave, and Steve and Dieselpowergear.com!!
If you haven't seen these axles in person your missing out. Pics do them NO justice. I saw them at Boyce Equipment a few years ago and thought they were awesome. Just not realistic at the time. So anyway they are friggin big. It didn't take long to realize that I wasn't going to be able to muscle these around like I could the Rockwells, I needed a forklift. Just so happened that a friend had a spare one sitting. He even delivered it for me.
Its old and ugly but mostly works. So now that I could unload them, it was time to start working on them.
I sold the Rockwells and my Stazwork wheels. The goal was to try install the techs with that budget. HAHAHAHA
I decided to try to take the spring perches off myself. My tooling is VERY limited and as you can see....Im working in a very small 2 car garage. 19'x19'.
So the first axle I cut off what I could with the porta band, used a cutoff wheel on the grinder, and tried to use the cheapo plasma cutter I have. After 8 hours I finally had one clean. Decided it was worth it to find someone with a air arc for the second axle
few minutes later
Money well spent. As you can tell I also had the housings sandblasted to get rid of the nasty carc paint.
Next up was trying to come up with some parts. After seeing the kickass work that SkippedLink did on his techs I started bugging him to produce some parts.
I got his high steer arms, driveline adapters, and I had him cut out some link mounts as well. Again, money well spent.
SkippedLink in here on RME but he doesn't check in much. He will be referred to as Leroy as well.
