General Tech Cory's single seat selfish buggy

[YROC FAB.]

Did some tlc on it today. Put a locking trans dipstick it, replaced the blown out rubber bushing on the carrier bearing with some solid steel spacers, repaired some light wiring, fixed an exhaust leak, adjusted some t case shifter linkage, cleaned and scotchbrited some of it, and did some fabbery on it.


Dzus driver/belt changing wrench


Tire wrench.

 

[Coco]

Looking good! I like the new tools.

 

[YROC FAB.]

I let the lady take it for a spin and i followed in my two seat buggy. She had a blast ripping it around the local dirt track and play hills. I talked her into trying to crawl with it and she was game. I walked with her up a mild trail and she did great. She said it is a totally different feeling driving them than being a passenger.

 

[Jinx]

My wife loved just being out when we would go wheeling, but now she is driving it is something she looks forward to and gives input on the trails.

 

[Bart]

That is awesome.

 

[YROC FAB.]

Smoked the trans last month. 2nd gear had been acting funny for the last 6 months to the point where it was all but gone. Eventually 1st started to slip and was completely gone in a short amount of time. As far as 3rd gear who knows, i run out of suspension towards the end of 2nd. We tore into the old trans and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear clutches were still brand new, the forward clutches however where completely gone. This really puzzled my transmission guy as he had never seen such a thing. After some careful inspections it appears the small check ball that is staked into place in the forward drum was missing. The staking was still very proud and it really baffled him that the ball could have even gotten out. The ball in question is a small check valve that covers less than a 1/8" hole. With out it i was loosing all the pressure in my forward gears allowing them to slip much more than normal and build up more heat.

We swapped in another forward drum with a check ball, new forward clutches and then did some experimenting with it. I already had the 1st gear piston turned down to be able to add an extra clutch to 1st gear, this is a common mod for the th350, this go around we took out the spring ring in 2nd gear and found thinner steel rings and was able to stack an extra clutch 2nd gear.

 

[YROC FAB.]

I made a couple of catch cans for it. The trans was getting excess pressure built up in the pan because of the check ball and it would push fluid out of the breather regularly and the rear axle was about a quart low with the only visible leak out of the breather so i figured it was time to add a couple. My fuel cell, tcase, and trans breathers all are excessively long and wrap the components a few times before being coiled onto them selves.

 

[YROC FAB.]

So after the trans was put back in and every thing plumbed and bolted back it i went for a short ride up the mountain then my carrier bearing failed. I think the bearing is strong enough for this application but the mounting on the shaft was under engineered. The bearing broke cleanly in half at its thinnest section. I think the main problem is the yoke was turned down to fit into the bearing and it is only long enough to go half way into the bearing.

The fix i came up with is i bored a heavy chunk of tube to press fit onto the midship just past the splines, I then chucked the hole shaft in the lathe and turned down the pressed on piece so that the bearing fits over it so there is more support for the bearing meow. I also left a shoulder on the pressed on piece so that when the bearing is on and the yoke is bolted down it pinches the bearing between the shoulder an yoke.

I went ahead and made a new bearing housing and didn't split it all the way through this time. Not splitting it all the way through allows me to push the bearing tight against the inner shoulder of the housing so that the bearing will take grease instead of just pushing it out.

 

[YROC FAB.]

After the trans and dlines escapades last month we took it up hanging tree and so far it has been kicking ass. I have been taking it out a few times a week since and the trans does not over heat no more and has a decent bottom end as where before it was slipping.

Today i installed some winch rope we had laying around the shop and some recovery points on the front end.
I welded a piece of 1/2 rod to the winch drum to eliminated that teeny weeny bolt they give you to attach the rope/cable, now my rope is tied on so i can get full unspool if need be.

 

[YROC FAB.]

Hanging tree with no water

 

[Ashcat]

That rock bouncer though...

Way to break the bearing. #1-piecemidshipproblems?

Mine is only supported on the long end. No issues 1-piece or the new slip. Now in-directly supported sort of like the shoulder you made. I made a collar that the short side bottoms out against but that’s to set the yoke depth on the splines. Was your carrier solid when it split?

I believe these bearings are more than adequate for this style of 2-piece drivelines. Especially for the price. They great for packaging. My biggest concern is lubrication. My concern is at 4K rpm though and all that Ford muscle not LS powered crawling.

Attached is a new idea. It uploaded 90*. View from behind. Frame side on left. Solid but can pivot with t-case output. (Exaggerated) KOH chewed my poly booooshings up. Maybe a little run-out in the new midship? Idk. It was damn close when we finished it at 2am but the splines could’ve been junk or who knows. It didn’t break so don’t care. I’ll have Slyco recreate the same design with new components.

 

[Herzog]

There's a lot of clever details in this build. Love it, glad to see updates.

 

[YROC FAB.]

That rock bouncer though...

Way to break the bearing. #1-piecemidshipproblems?

Mine is only supported on the long end. No issues 1-piece or the new slip. Now in-directly supported sort of like the shoulder you made. I made a collar that the short side bottoms out against but that’s to set the yoke depth on the splines. Was your carrier solid when it split?

I believe these bearings are more than adequate for this style of 2-piece drivelines. Especially for the price. They great for packaging. My biggest concern is lubrication. My concern is at 4K rpm though and all that Ford muscle not LS powered crawling.

Attached is a new idea. It uploaded 90*. View from behind. Frame side on left. Solid but can pivot with t-case output. (Exaggerated) KOH chewed my poly booooshings up. Maybe a little run-out in the new midship? Idk. It was damn close when we finished it at 2am but the splines could’ve been junk or who knows. It didn’t break so don’t care. I’ll have Slyco recreate the same design with new components.

Yes it was mounted solid and is mounted solid again right now. Time will tell if it breaks again. Im not racing so it not as big of deal and we have another bearing on the shelf already. This one broke when i was up on the mountain and i was able to drive it home just fine with out it tearing anything up.

I had only greased the old one once when i first got it and it seamed to be enough for it to last until it broke as made clear by no heat marks on the bearing/races, there was also a fair amount of grease in there still. Im sure there is a better bearing out there but for the price these have been good. like i said it think this was about how much of it was supported. My two seat buggy it is rocking the same style of bearing only with a 1.75 id and it is supported completely across it as it sits directly on the midship tubing, I had also tacked welded it on since the set screws were not cutting it. The two seater is mounted with with a decent flat flange with some 3/8 rubber belting pinched between it and the frame side as kind of seen here.


I like your idea of mounting it with heims to give it a little more wiggle/pivot room. If this keeps giving me problems i will get creative and mount it like my two seater.

 

[YROC FAB.]

Tranny has been working good and the midship bearing has not broke so far. I defiantly have two bent wheels as this thing just loves to drift. There is no body roll in this thing because the center of gravity is stupid low. When i start sliding sideways in it it just squats the suspension and gets lower like a race car. I'll be on the look out for some forged aluminum wheels from now on as it hasn't taken much to bend these steel wheels.

Any ways i scooted across town to a friends house in it and on the way back the governor gear in the tranny shit the bed. I tore into it under the carport tonight. I had the seat and harnesses out in 1minute and 37 seconds and then had to cut a piece of the tranny heat shield out to get to the governor, I'll weld some tabs for some speed nuts later and bolt that section of plate back on.

 

[YROC FAB.]

Got it back together tonight. We had to pull the t case out. The roll pin in the governor worked its way out even with a proud staking, it was still in the governor keeping us from pulling it out. We put a heavier governor in it since we destroyed the old trying to get it out before pulling the t case.

I welded some tabs on the panel I cut out for some speed nuts and bolted it back in.

 

[YROC FAB.]

 

[YROC FAB.]

Gutted. Trans rebuild #2. Imploded the forward sprag. I guess shifting into 2nd with 1st gear completely wrapped out every time is problematic.

 

[Herzog]

Love this rig

 

[YROC FAB.]

Got the trans back in. 2 gear sprag was in a couple of pieces. Im surprised it still worked as good as it did with as many metal pieces that was in there. We went ahead and put a high dollar element sprag in there from tci, machined the piston down smore to stuff six 1st gear clutch in there now (factory is 4, i had 5).

I have been driving it and doing small maintenance on it also, I fixed a loose rear hub, antisleized all the hiems, installed washers on a trans cooler mount, little bit of scotch bright chroming, installed a 3rd clamp on the ram mount after seeing a friends move, redonedid the tie rod bung and realigned it, pimped out the shifter so they are a nice short throw, installed a steering wheel hook, machined a steel/bronze shift knob, and have been building a windshield frame.

 

[YROC FAB.]

I dont know how any one missed it but my alignment has been off for years now. I must have aligned it when i had the old knuckles on it and it never got checked or noticed when we installed the solid knuckles. I have been wondering why my tires have been wearing quick, I just figured it was from spinning the hell out of them all damn day. Either way Im glad Austin notice it and said something, shit happens. It was toed out 1.75" . Im surprised it handled as good as it did. I had my bungs welded when i originally aligned it so that there was practically no way to adjust the toe in so i had to weld some new bungs in, I had a pile of 7/8 bungs in a drawer so it was NBD.

Alexs ram is mounted the same as mine since i mounted the both of them and he ordered 2 more ram clamps so we just dont have to worry about them moving around and he gave me one.




Root pass

Pulser on the left, Pedal puming on the right.