Thanks for the words of encouragement. I’ve been collecting parts since 2009, so I’m really pleased to finally start making some progress.
Nice build. So much easier when you have access to machining tools!!! Keep the pic flood coming!!!!!!!
I’ve been a machinist and millwright for a long time, so I’ve invested my future in tools and machinery. I do have access to heavy machine tools at work, but the small lathes and mills are often times booked with paying jobs. So the lathe and mill shown in earlier posts are in my home garage. It’s only a single car workshop, so things are really cramped. But it’s not too bad as long as I keep things organized.
So I did drag the Dura Rover project down to the shop last weekend, but I didn’t make as much progress as I’d like to. There were some decisions to be made which slowed things down. But the LR did come home on Sunday night with the Duramax mounted between the frame rails for the first time, so that was exciting. Yes, I drive a Ford!
I got a chance to use this 50’s Delta drill press for the first time since I rebuilt it making these temporary body shims out of 5/8” plywood. I won’t know exactly how much body lift will be required until the new wheels and axles go in, so I figured these would be handy to make adjustments. The final lift will either be aluminum spacers, or I’ll weld steel tubes in place if I feel like going through all the effort. The LR has 14 body mounts, and I don’t intend to participate in any kind of off-road activities that require wearing a helmet. Aluminum spacers will be more than adequate for my purposes. I only make this comment because there are some body lift trolls on many off-road forums. But their complaints are more of an issue in theory than practice. Anyways, here’s the drill press:
I decided on 1-5/8” DS offset for the power train. The entire setup is now parallel to the frame rails from the balancer back to the TC output shaft. The oil cooler delete plates I made clear with plenty of room to run lines.
I measured the angles to determine the correct elevation to work with the rear diff, but again until I get the new axles in things may change. I made this rear trans mount out of 2x2x¼” square tube. It’s too heavy, but that’s all I had on hand. It utilizes the factory rubber mount under the TC adapter. I have plenty of threads to insert spacers as needed later. The tubes are drilled/tapped for metric bolts. The entire build so far has used metric hardware because it annoys the hell out of me when automakers mix/match. I will fabricate clearance for the front shaft later. For the moment I just needed to get things mounted. It actually looked really nice before I subjected the steel to my welding skills:
Next time I’ll try and bring my wire feed from home. The ancient ARC welder we have at work is difficult to use on lower amperage settings required for ‘thin’ materials. At least for me it is. And I couldn’t find any anti-spatter so I had a bunch of cleaning up to do with the grinder when I was finished. So back to the mount. The holes are slotted, and centered currently in case I need to juggle things around again:
So then I made motor mounts of 3/16” plate and square tube. Drilling the holes in what we call the “small drill press” at work:
My band saw sucks ass on short pieces of tube, so I decided to clamp the miter joints in the mill to square them up because I got tired over at the belt sander. We hope to be getting a new band saw for the shop this summer:
This is just a proof of concept, so the mount is solid welded to the tube for now. I ordered the appropriate sized poly motor mounts yesterday to replace the tubes. The poly mount is the pivot point and I didn’t want them hanging out in space. I placed them directly over the factory motor mounts so the entire load on the mount is downwards. Any kind of mount that is spaced from the frame will torque the frame. It concerns me because the Duramax power train is around 600 lbs heavier than what the LR came with. The frame is actually quite thin I discovered. I can easily bend it with a C-clamp. Oh, and I made sure there was room to remove the starter!
I am only using three points of contact for the drive train. A motor mount on either side, and the trans mount. This way when the frame flexes off-road it will not stress the trans or transfer case. And I am certain this LR frame will flex.
Lastly, here’s a shot of the front differential to oil pan clearance with the suspension compressed. Well, the weight of the Duramax compressed it almost down to the bump stops but I’ll take care of that with new lift springs. The differential on the GM Dana 60 front I’ll be using is offset several inches further away than the LR diff, so I should be good to go without cutting the aluminum shelf off below the starter. As you can see, the transmission housing would need to be cut anyways to make use of that space. But of course I will butcher what I have to when the time comes. But for now, I’m thinking I’m ok.