Grand Tracker continual build
- Thread starter Chevy1925
- Start date
I thought I read that you wanted to make some changes once you got the shop completed. But I could be loosing my marbles since Tom won't tell us what he finally got after 16 years...
I thought if that was the case maybe you were going to put a full frame under it or build something.
i just dont stop, Tom
. honestly, things get put off to do something else or i have to plan things out a month ahead of time but rarley am i home just sitting on the couch doing nothing. There are points i do that cause im burnt out but it only lasts a day or two and im back at it. its a hard balance to keep time with the kids, work, family adventures and accomplish things like the shop, tracker, dirtbikes/quads, trailers, etc lol. oh i got ya, na i wont really be doing anything chassis wise. id like to cage it but doing so would really kill the daily driver aspect and thats high on the list of "tracker requirements". i still keep looking for a first gen colorado/canyon 4wd thats long traveled or a TTB explorer. ive also really thought about when the wife gets a new truck, taking her 2wd colorado and turning it 4wd, then long travel that. Problem is, no one makes LT kits for those trucks anymore. i cant go full size due to trails we run and body damage so stuck with mid size rigs. its gotta go fast in the dez, rock crawl, and run highway speeds.
I just saw an S10 in the junk yard that had a kit I had never seen before with Tubular upper and lower arms I thought about grabbing them but then I don't know what I would do with them... I also don't know how to identify them. No stickers or tags. Just black powder coating.
probably a CST kit. I think CST and Fabtech were the only two that did those kinds of kits, used the stock spring (no coilover) and added travel. Fabtech would be blue in that era, CST is black.
I was thinking CST, but the only pictures I could find from there kit had uni-balls. Unless this is an early kit with Ball joints. Maybe I should go back and take a closer look... for the 200-300 it would cost for key components it would be worth it for some one...
CST always offered either option on alot of kits. back then, uni-ball stuff was new and expensive but balls still failed (usually from over extension). Just like the overland crowd though, gotta have the best of the best even though you will never use it, so CST would offer the uniball version. On their coilover kits, uni-balls were generally needed to max travel.
but anyhow, unless you have an s10, i dont think its really worth going to get. S10 suspension geometry sucked.
I Don't. But I like the mystery...
I am sure the geometry does suck. After all, It was recycled from the older cars.
Damn I don’t update this thread for shit.
After the engine swap, the China turbo died… so I bought another
. Needed to make a ride we were doing so an Amazon emusa turbo went on. Old one died literally 4 days before our trip.
Between the last update and the turbo dieing, I scored on a montero transmission. It’s been the key to me being able to go driver side drop transfer case as it has the same output spline as a jeep yj/tj/xj trans. The extension housing adapter is also the same as a jeep so I can use new process t-cases.
That means I can go TTB up front (ford d44 twin traction beams off 83-95 bronco or f150). So of course I did just that. Picked up a full front frame section from a 93 bronco.
Pretty much sat while I acquired parts like brake pads, ttx ball joints, spicer u-joints, wheel bearings and seals, 5.13 gears, locker, carrier for the deeper gears, manual hubs, and other odds and ends.
Kept putting off working on it, preran the Cali 300 race with it, wheeling trips and so on. Then I was given no choice. We went on a cruise behind the house with my buddy who just recently got a Tacoma. Wanted to get him familiar with rock crawling. So all the hard stuff went good and when we hit dirt roads, I asked Erin if she would like to drive. She jumps in and we take off. Well she crests a hill at about 15-20mph and there is a hell of a wash out on the other side. I’m not paying attention and she’s to new at wheeling to look out the side of the rig as you crest steep stuff like that to look out for wash outs or other obstacles. It grabs the LF tires and pitched us 90* to the road. Everyone was good but tracker was hurt. Killed a seal in the steering rack so it pissed all its fluid out, tires were toed out big time and we were 40 miles from home.
Pic doesn’t do it justice but I was able to adjust the toe in to drive it straight. Couldn’t see what was damaged till we got home.
Found the knuckle was bent at the tie rod, spindle was starting to rip out of the knuckle and the steering steel mount were half broke off the frame. Sweet lol.
So then started the ttb conversion. First was swapping output shafts (montero trans is hydro controlled and mine is electronic), put the adapter on back of trans, get a jeep tcase, make Jeep tcase input shaft seal to montero output seal, and adapt everything over. This was tedious and time consuming.
So before I cut the front end out of it, I went and drove it to make sure I put the trans together right, things didn’t leak, I could adjust the Dakota digital to correct the speedo (jeep speed sensor reads twice as fast as the Suzuki), and just be sure this was going to work. Sure enough, test drive went good, had all 4 gears and tc lock up!
So out when the front end
And I’ve been working on getting the ttb in shape to put under the rig
Which brings us to today where I took today and tomorrow off to try to knock as much out as I can. Stripped the frame and started lining things. It fits decent. Oil pan keeps me from moving the frame back more but we are within 1” of my prior wheel base (I moved the old frame down 4” and forward 4”). I’ve still got room to move the frame up 1-2” which will help because as you see it is “ride height” and the ass end will go down 2 more inches than what the pic shows. I’d like to try to have this sit semi even but if it goes a little front high, that’s fine.
After the engine swap, the China turbo died… so I bought another
. Needed to make a ride we were doing so an Amazon emusa turbo went on. Old one died literally 4 days before our trip. Between the last update and the turbo dieing, I scored on a montero transmission. It’s been the key to me being able to go driver side drop transfer case as it has the same output spline as a jeep yj/tj/xj trans. The extension housing adapter is also the same as a jeep so I can use new process t-cases.
That means I can go TTB up front (ford d44 twin traction beams off 83-95 bronco or f150). So of course I did just that. Picked up a full front frame section from a 93 bronco.
Pretty much sat while I acquired parts like brake pads, ttx ball joints, spicer u-joints, wheel bearings and seals, 5.13 gears, locker, carrier for the deeper gears, manual hubs, and other odds and ends.
Kept putting off working on it, preran the Cali 300 race with it, wheeling trips and so on. Then I was given no choice. We went on a cruise behind the house with my buddy who just recently got a Tacoma. Wanted to get him familiar with rock crawling. So all the hard stuff went good and when we hit dirt roads, I asked Erin if she would like to drive. She jumps in and we take off. Well she crests a hill at about 15-20mph and there is a hell of a wash out on the other side. I’m not paying attention and she’s to new at wheeling to look out the side of the rig as you crest steep stuff like that to look out for wash outs or other obstacles. It grabs the LF tires and pitched us 90* to the road. Everyone was good but tracker was hurt. Killed a seal in the steering rack so it pissed all its fluid out, tires were toed out big time and we were 40 miles from home.
Pic doesn’t do it justice but I was able to adjust the toe in to drive it straight. Couldn’t see what was damaged till we got home.
Found the knuckle was bent at the tie rod, spindle was starting to rip out of the knuckle and the steering steel mount were half broke off the frame. Sweet lol.
So then started the ttb conversion. First was swapping output shafts (montero trans is hydro controlled and mine is electronic), put the adapter on back of trans, get a jeep tcase, make Jeep tcase input shaft seal to montero output seal, and adapt everything over. This was tedious and time consuming.
So before I cut the front end out of it, I went and drove it to make sure I put the trans together right, things didn’t leak, I could adjust the Dakota digital to correct the speedo (jeep speed sensor reads twice as fast as the Suzuki), and just be sure this was going to work. Sure enough, test drive went good, had all 4 gears and tc lock up!
So out when the front end
And I’ve been working on getting the ttb in shape to put under the rig
Which brings us to today where I took today and tomorrow off to try to knock as much out as I can. Stripped the frame and started lining things. It fits decent. Oil pan keeps me from moving the frame back more but we are within 1” of my prior wheel base (I moved the old frame down 4” and forward 4”). I’ve still got room to move the frame up 1-2” which will help because as you see it is “ride height” and the ass end will go down 2 more inches than what the pic shows. I’d like to try to have this sit semi even but if it goes a little front high, that’s fine.
Pretty extensive. At first I thought you were transplanting the twin beam setup, not the whole frame section. Is there a specific reason to run the twin beam?
It’s the best bang for the buck, so to speak. It lets me still rock crawl but also gives me a lot of wheel travel that works well for high speed desert. A straight axle doesn’t work as smoothly at high speed as the TTB and to make control arms work and keep a decent overall vehicle width, I’d have limited travel since cv axle bind would become an issue. I was building an arms originally but I’d only get 13-14” of travel and be wider than this setup. Now I’ll be up around 17” and not as wide.
Graphing in the frame section is far easier than making the beam pivot correct on the tracker frame. Plus my old frame was bent to high hell from all the years of punishment
Took all damn day yesterday to fab all this, really didn’t think it would take that long but core support mounts are in and frame braces are done
Looking good! It's all the tedious little stuff like that which seems to eat up the most time.
"All I got to do is..." seem to be the famous last words.
"All I got to do is..." seem to be the famous last words.
It doesn’t help I was being particular to make all the plate edges line up nicely so when I welded it all up, the weld lines were nice.
Shits like painting, hours of prep work for a few minutes of welding to look nice
Shits like painting, hours of prep work for a few minutes of welding to look nice
Wait until you see my engine stand... and my welds are not as nice. It still took me a few days worth to do it... but it's functional the way it is.
I threw a tire on to see what it looked like and didn’t get a pic. The pic above is at full bump. Tire slightly rubs the radius arm at full turn but not much I can do about it. May throw a small spacer on the hub. Tire to fender clearance is good. Enough to fit 35’s and if I do go that route, I’ll probably go a 35x10.50r15. Helps with the tire rub on the radius arm too.
So to fix the pivot boxes, I put a break in the outer tab to go back against to the frame and added some gussets
I might add another gusset from the inner frame edge to the pivot box too. That way it grabs the stronger part of the frame since I didn’t plate the frame. Probably over kill but won’t hurt anything.
Then on to the passenger side. Rinse and repeat. Least I was building things in doubles as I went so this went far faster. Clearance is just about the same as driverside. Guess that means I centered it all well lol.
Pass full bump
Mmmmmm flat links at ride height
So to fix the pivot boxes, I put a break in the outer tab to go back against to the frame and added some gussets
I might add another gusset from the inner frame edge to the pivot box too. That way it grabs the stronger part of the frame since I didn’t plate the frame. Probably over kill but won’t hurt anything.
Then on to the passenger side. Rinse and repeat. Least I was building things in doubles as I went so this went far faster. Clearance is just about the same as driverside. Guess that means I centered it all well lol.
Pass full bump
Mmmmmm flat links at ride height
