Grand Tracker continual build

[Chevy1925]

Decided to swap in the toyota CV conversion ive had on the shelf for 2 years now. mainly cause im tired of driving around obsitcles so i dont snap a CV just looking at it. plus i dont know when ill get time to get back out in the garage after my son is born come Jan and i want to be able to wheel still. its been on the back burner as the diff mounts needed alot of massaging i didnt want to do. Well the pass side got that done when i broke it a few months ago so just had the driver side left. This kit is originally for a 1st gen Sidekick/Geo Tracker where the mounts dont interfere.

Tore the rf down since that diff mount has already been clearanced and started putting the kit together. First thing I found different from 1st to 2nd gens is the second gens use a needle bearing for the cv axle to run on, probably due to the fact they run the cvs all the time. Problem is the bore is bigger than first gens so the brass bushing does not fit. Bust out some DOM and start playing with the lathe, she’s good to go

Put some high temp loctite on there too just to help hold it all even though it’s all .002 press fit

Popped in. The raised brass area is for a seal to go in

Then clearanced the knuckle so the Toyota cv fits

Cv comparison. HUGE difference

Started reassembly of the pass side and got everything together and cleared only to find the cv is just long enough to bind soon as you droop suspension due to being compressed too much in the inner cv. I muddled over ways to get clearance and finally decided to just cut the diff mounts up and shift the diff to the driver side 1”. That will center the diff flanges under the frame as well and make CV's the same length when i go LT.

Cut, plate, welded the mounts. Pass side is 1” longer, driver side is 1” shorter. Also kicked the driver side mount out to the front 1” to clear the adapters for the toy cv’s

Stopped here saturday. Should be finishing up the pass side tonight and start on the driver side.

 

[NC-smokinlmm]

You've got some serious skill brother...

 

[Chevy1925]

You've got some serious skill brother...

Thanks NC


Thanks!


Went well into the night last night to finish the tracker. Initially i was just going to finish the pass side and do the driver side later.... well i said f**k it and finished the driver side too. just need to pick up nuts from ace hardware to bolt the toyota CV's to the adapters. Mine have magically disappeared. the longest part of the night was just making another sleeve to press in the bushing, everything else went together like butter.

i am going to run a cv spacer on the pass side. i moved the diff over 1", well apparently the slip in the inner cv is about 1" max. I neglected to check before shifting the diff, just ASSumed. oh well, driver side has 3/8-1/2 of in and out plunge before bottoming at its current spot so just the pass side needs a 1/2" spacer. I could probably run it but the rollers would be right a the edge of the cup at full droop and ill probably blow the cup or rollers if i get in a bind.

Anyhow, here are pics

Pass side all done

CV held on by hopes and dreams

driver side

with the wheel spacers, it doesnt make the hub look like its sticks way out. still shouldnt look too bad once i remove the spacers when the LT kit goes on. I really only needed the inner spline piece for the hubs to make my old hubs work on the toyota axles but finding toyota IFS hubs with just the spline part isnt easy, was better of just picking up complete hubs for 40 bucks shipped. the toyota hubs have more lip on the "free/lock" dial than the samurai ones, makes it easier to grab.

 

[six5creed]

Looks good James! I had a couple Toyota trucks in the past and the hubs can get hard to turn, especially when muddy. I took a piece of PVC pipe and cut a slot in it to fit over the "lock/free" part making it easier to turn and my hand didn't get muddy either, not that it matters, lol. Only thing was keeping up with a short piece of pipe.

 

[Chevy1925]

Looks good James! I had a couple Toyota trucks in the past and the hubs can get hard to turn, especially when muddy. I took a piece of PVC pipe and cut a slot in it to fit over the "lock/free" part making it easier to turn and my hand didn't get muddy either, not that it matters, lol. Only thing was keeping up with a short piece of pipe.

yeah thats a common thing with suzuki hubs too. they are all literally the same hub other than very small differences and the inner spline to the axle. i could run the outer part of my suzuki hub in the toyota if i wanted but i like the black better than silver. Even mitsubishi and nissan used the same aisin hubs and they all can be swapped around. They are also WAY stronger than any aftermarket hub as well.

as for mud, i f**king hate mud. i will avoid it at all cost except when i dont realize it like my trip up in payson :roflmao:

 

[Chevy1925]

Finished the front end up. Apparently no one makes a damn cv spacer for 86-95 Toyota’s but after lots of searching and measuring, I took a chance on seeing if a cv spacer from a 99-07 Chevy 1500 would work. Came in and bolt pattern is damn near the same. The diameter that centers the cv axle up is too big and the bolt holes are too small but nothing the lathe and drill press can’t take care of. Wound up cutting it down from 1” spacer to 3/4” which works great.

Had not drilled the bolt holes out yet but you can see how I had to shrink the centering lip .200 so the adapter would slip in. Bolt holes got drilled to 1/2” instead of 12mm to give wiggle room for the slightly off bolt pattern

All bolted up and done

Then changed the oil, checked fluids, looked at how I wanted to mount the spare gas can and there isn’t any way I really want to do it that lets you still see the brake lights. I’ll probably get those rotopaks at some point cause I’m going to built a roof rack for the rig too. broverlander at its best right there with rotopaks!

Yanked my old inverter that finally died and threw a Chinese 2000watt, 4k peak one in. See how long it lasts. Runs my grinder and drill at the same time without breaking a sweat.

Swapped my injectors out from the NA supra injectors i had in it back to stock. my piggy back computer was giving me lean fits a few months back and i just bypassed it with the bypass connector. well then obviously i got crappy fuel mileage from not running it (was running 10.0-10.5 afr when in open loop and im damn near always in that on the highway) but my other issues stopped. Runs much better back on stock injectors (duh). Just have to mount my hi-lift jack before the El Golfo run.

 

[Chevy1925]

I swore this day would never come.... finally got to start on the front end setup.

First was the “let’s tempt fate” with tearing the frame section down.

Yes yes... those are ratchet straps. Sadly, I’m not dead or wheel chair bound. It actually went very uneventful.

With all the fun out of the way, it was off to setting up the jig to see how far off the calimini arms would be

Those sweet tabs :rofl:

Measured out 3” from the knuckle, cut the tack and moved the whole thing out 3”. Squared up and tacked down well. Still going to add more bracing once I get ready to burn everything in. Then dropped the calimini arm in to see how far off I was. The frame mount points are 3/8” narrower than the second gen (these are first gen trackick arms) so I pulled the inside bushings out to get them to drop in. It’s soooooo close. Damn near 3” wider than stock second gen as is!

It’s 1” too far back towards what would be the firewall. I technically have the room to just run it this way but by the time the ball joint would drop into the knuckle, it would be 1/2” shorter. Sooo out came the plasma. Cut the tubing off at the boxed area where the spring goes and started grinding my life away and cutting tube.

Made a whole new rear pivot with .250 wall 2” tube for the bushings to ride in and .250 wall 1.75” tube to connect to the boxed section from the bushing. 1/4” brace throw in. Other side just took a little grinding and tacked back into place

That’s where I stopped for the day. I plan to box in the top of where the spring would go and double shear how the ball joint mounts. The coilovers will be mounting there so needs to be strong. Then buzz it all in. I may add some more .120 tube cut in half to the bottom of the front tube to give it strength against rocks.

 

[dieselfan]

Looks like you're in the right track. Nice work! :thumb:

 

[Chevy1925]

So with the Limo's engine screwing up my fab time for the long travel, ive just been doing maintenance stuff on the tracker. did a whole a/c revamp as the compressor was noisy and the condenser had folded over fins from the pusher fan creating too much head pressure on them. Put new EMF rebuildable joints in the upper link and pan hard bar (uses a brass insert and ran on many different ultra4 cars, bad ass stuff from canada). rebuilt a leaking coilover and de-rusted things from when i was in mexico.

Then we were suppose to do a trail run from phx to crown king with some family friends. then found out they wanted to do this longer way from mayer to crown king. all dirt roads and a long day that way. We were taking my 4 month old son with us for the first time so a long day was not something i was after. told my wife i had to cancel that trip due to length and she agreed it was too long but then said she really wanted to go wheeling and was looking forward to it. Well shit, you dont have to tell me twice! i will put something together to make damn sure we go go wheeling saturday!

So got a few friends together, my brother in law, his buddy and my parents and did a run up to Crown King via the normal crawling way everyone goes. "should have been" a half day to 3/4 of a days worth of wheeling but that road has gotten torn to shit from all the rzr's running it and all the rain we have had this winter/spring. Surprisingly my little boy didnt make one fuss the whole damn trip and my 3 year old daughter had a blast as usual (she loves going out in the tracker). I even got my wife to drive over a couple obsitcals since she was in the rig moving it up as i guided people over an area. made her drive the next few miles . Got back to teh valley by 5:00 pm and had left our house at 7:30am. Even stopped for dinner with everyone so we didnt get home till 7:30pm. it was a great time for sure.

some pics and ill see if i can get the videos uploaded to youtube of me and then my wife.

my dad as he gets high centered and i had to winch him back. man power wasnt cutting it lol

my wife driving at this point, me guiding

my buddies GV i helped build. he had to stack some rocks to get up this as he has no front locker, just the rear

my brother in law using the rockers he just built at the beginning of the week lol

His buddy in a pretty sweet taco

overall, not a real tough trail. Just enough obsticals to make it fun and give a little challenge if you dont hit the right lines.

 

[Mike L.]

Cool pictures James. Brings back memories from my younger days. I ocassionaly try to do this kind of shit with a golf cart when the marshal isn't watching.:roflmao:

 

[Chevy1925]

Cool pictures James. Brings back memories from my younger days. I ocassionaly try to do this kind of shit with a golf cart when the marshal isn't watching.:roflmao:

:roflmao: :roflmao: youre never too old for this shit!

 

[lutzjk913]

Looks like a great time

 

[SoCalMike]

So with the Limo's engine screwing up my fab time for the long travel, ive just been doing maintenance stuff on the tracker. did a whole a/c revamp as the compressor was noisy and the condenser had folded over fins from the pusher fan creating too much head pressure on them. Put new EMF rebuildable joints in the upper link and pan hard bar (uses a brass insert and ran on many different ultra4 cars, bad ass stuff from canada). rebuilt a leaking coilover and de-rusted things from when i was in mexico.

Then we were suppose to do a trail run from phx to crown king with some family friends. then found out they wanted to do this longer way from mayer to crown king. all dirt roads and a long day that way. We were taking my 4 month old son with us for the first time so a long day was not something i was after. told my wife i had to cancel that trip due to length and she agreed it was too long but then said she really wanted to go wheeling and was looking forward to it. Well shit, you dont have to tell me twice! i will put something together to make damn sure we go go wheeling saturday!

So got a few friends together, my brother in law, his buddy and my parents and did a run up to Crown King via the normal crawling way everyone goes. "should have been" a half day to 3/4 of a days worth of wheeling but that road has gotten torn to shit from all the rzr's running it and all the rain we have had this winter/spring. Surprisingly my little boy didnt make one fuss the whole damn trip and my 3 year old daughter had a blast as usual (she loves going out in the tracker). I even got my wife to drive over a couple obsitcals since she was in the rig moving it up as i guided people over an area. made her drive the next few miles . Got back to teh valley by 5:00 pm and had left our house at 7:30am. Even stopped for dinner with everyone so we didnt get home till 7:30pm. it was a great time for sure.

some pics and ill see if i can get the videos uploaded to youtube of me and then my wife.

my dad as he gets high centered and i had to winch him back. man power wasnt cutting it lol

my wife driving at this point, me guiding

my buddies GV i helped build. he had to stack some rocks to get up this as he has no front locker, just the rear

my brother in law using the rockers he just built at the beginning of the week lol

His buddy in a pretty sweet taco

overall, not a real tough trail. Just enough obsticals to make it fun and give a little challenge if you dont hit the right lines.

Looks like a great time James! And congratulations on your son!

Cool pictures James. Brings back memories from my younger days. I ocassionaly try to do this kind of shit with a golf cart when the marshal isn't watching.

Lol Mike

 

[Mike L.]

Looks like a great time James! And congratulations on your son!



Lol Mike

Ya they catch me and read me the riot act sometimes. I just play stupid.:baby:

 

[Burn Down]

Hell ya James! Looks like fun to me

 

[Chevy1925]

Thanks guys

here is a couple short vids of going up where my dad got stuck and then my wife driving.

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[YOUTUBE]_NDaAmX-xS4[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Dozerboy]

That’s awesome James.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chevy1925]

Truck engine really ate into my tracker fun time. now that thats out of the way, ive been tinkering on it. i did some wheeling up in camp verde over memorial day weekend. drove up from phx each time, wheeled for the day and drove home. put about 600 miles on it that weekend. Then once the truck engine was done, i hauled it up in the toy hauler to flagstaff for Labor Day weekend. just cruised back roads with it that weekend.

once i got back, i decided it was time to address the rattly timing chain ive had for over a year. The v6 is notorious for this. While i was in there, figured i would put the custom cams in i had done a couple years ago..... then the whole "while im there" struck and i wound up yanking the heads to put new valve guide seals in and new headgaskets/head bolts in. this thing burnt oil ever since i bought it. Compression and leak down test said the cylinders were awesome but after looking at the heads, i understand why.

head torn down

leaky leaky

im sure the guides need replacement but they arent sloppy, just a touch more movement over the intake. the seals on the other hand were hardly even touching the valve.

new seals

while i had the heads off, figured id check the health of the cylinders. cylinder service limit is 3.3090, im at 3.3087. out of round limit is .004, im at .003. cylinders look awesome. for retrospec, factory new fresh bore is 3.3076 to 3.3078. 233k miles and only that much wear, im good with that! shes ready for boost :roflmao:

miles of chain going back in

That brings us pretty close to up to date. The cams helped bring power in sooner and probably gained a few ponies as well but nothing majorly noticeable. that prompted me to start looking at these

which was a waste of time because ebay t3/t4 is all the same regardless of trim, so f**k it, its boost time. Should have most of the parts here tomorrow. T3/T4 china turbo with 8psi internal waste gate, 20 x 7 x 2.5" intercooler, drain, feed, RR FPR (going to run 1.5 to 1 or 2 to 1), and other goodies.

i did this because i needed to put an engine cross bar in my rig to keep frame flex down due to some 2.5" shocks i planned to run for a trip to mexico at the end of the month. Bar has to clear the turbo.

so sunday i spent the day fabbing up shock mounts. Driverside is all done, just needs paint. Pass side is all tacked in, needs fully welded and painted. its tight as hell fitting the 2.5 shock in there but everything clears with over a 1/2" or more in every area (full bump, tires cranked or full droop and tires cranked). im hoping she will be a little more contained in whoops now

 

[lutzjk913]

I wish I had those skills James. Wow.

Top notch as normal.

 

[clrussell]

I wish I had those skills James. Wow.

Top notch as normal.

I wish I had his motivation haha