Canadian Disco 2 Build

[R_Lefebvre]

Oh yeah, Ashcroft made crawler gears? Interesting.

Tires are only little 245/75/16's.

 

[AxeAngel]

Check out toddco. He has gears and an under drive you could use.

Good guy to talk to and very knowledgeable. I fashioned my motor swap based on something similar that he did.

-Sam

 

[Nonimouse]

Sure did, though with 245's it might a tadge low. Legend has it that there was a minor incident where one of the gears let go - no biggie here in the UK but it was in the US' so the lawyers started circling like sharks. Ashcrofts did a recall on all the gear sets (only one set ever did let go)' offering special deals on the under drive for those returned. But not all the sets were given back, some folk liked the nice low ratio so kept there gears. I know of two sets here in the UK - but the guys who won them have become somewhat like Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings. Word is that there may be more in the States and in Australia...

I'll find out what the ratio was but I think it was 30% lower

Maxidrive made gear sets as well - but they were marketed by Great Basin so were a tadge pricey. The new owners of Maxidrive might be making more

There is a chap called Bill Van Snorkel on the forums - Aussie bloke and very, very clever. Nice guy to. He makes gear sets for his own use I do believe

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Sam, you mean the underdrive unit for $2900? No thanks, I'll deal with it.

Nonimous, don't worry about those Ashcroft gears. It all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

 

[Nonimouse]

Not dodgy more shrouded in mystery

I'll keep an eye open for an underdrive over here and let you know if I find one, I'll also get my niece's 'not' boyfriend on the case in Aus

 

[AxeAngel]

Sam, you mean the underdrive unit for $2900? No thanks, I'll deal with it.

Nonimous, don't worry about those Ashcroft gears. It all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Haha. But for that price you get an extra shifter!! And while you are at it you could change the tease from being AWD& 4wd to 2WD& 4WD.

I really regret that I didn't do the above when I was putting in the new tcase. It would have paid for itself in MPG efficiencies.

-Sam

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I don't know that it would really improve the MPG at all, being in 2WD. Without (un)locking hubs, all the spinny bits are still turning up front. There's still friction. They are just being pushed by the tires instead of the TC.

 

[Yorker]

I'll be anxiously waiting to see how the crawl ratio is. I did some instructing at a Jeep JK event this weekend, and saw that the crawl ratio in 1st gear low on a non-Rubi just isn't low enough. You end up having to use the clutch and brakes to get the truck to come down real slow off ledges and such. Looks like the crawl ratio on those is 38.9:1. Mine is going to come out at 39:1. I'm not worried about power going up hill, it's just the ability to go ultra slow without clutching in. The JK low range is only 2.72 and they have a 3.27 axle ratio, but then they have a 4.46 first gear which is super low.

The Rubi's have a 77:1 which is ultra low, and they just walk over anything. 4.46 first, 4.0 low range and 4.10 axles.

I knew I would suffer some in really difficult areas. But it'll be better most places.

There have been quite a few times I wished I had lower low range- stock low range in the series trucks is usually ~40:1, I'd rather have something in the neighborhood of 50:1, maybe even lower. The only way to do that is with the early 2.89 T case gears.
Of course with a Series you have to deal with little power and a carbed engine, you have EFI and plenty of power.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Yeah, I don't forsee any power problems. It's just slowing down that is at issue. The guy I was with kept dragging the brakes with the clutch engaged to slow the truck down, and was bringing the revs down to 4-500rpm. The engine was chugging and clattering. I told him I don't think he should be doing that, but apparently the chief instructor had told him never to take it out of gear or push the clutch in, and he was taking it to heart. A couple times he stalled it coming down off a ledge, and he'd fire the starter with the truck in gear, it lurched forward, he'd stab the brakes and stall it again. It was a mess. On grippy rock, I'll just push the clutch in and use the brakes, I don't think there's much risk of losing control on grippy rock.

 

[Yorker]

in any case there really isn't much you can do about your crummy low range unless you change R+P and that obviously impacts your high range, or spend the big $ for an underdrive.

Really for what I think you are apt to do ~40:1 will be ok. It might take some getting used to after the auto trans. There really are times offroad where an auto is nice.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I agree. I'll just have to live with it. If the money tree ever bears fruit, I could do a 4.something R&P, and change the high range over to 1.0. But for now... yeah, I'll deal with it for the 0.0001% of the time I'm actually on a crazy steep rock.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Alright, so here we go with start of the actual build up process.

First off, I went back and edited the post with the bolt length. The bolts I got for the slave cylinder were too short. Stupid mistake I made when I figured the bolt length. I found out when I stripped the threads on those due to too little engagement. No big deal, I just "Recoiled" it and it's fine, and it's now mounted with 40mm bolts.

I got my 3/8" UNFx5/8" bolts, and those are about 1-2mm too long for the clutch cover mounting holes. So now I've had to order 1/2" long bolts. That's crazy short and I'm a little concerned, but... that's just the depth of the bolt holes in the flywheel. They're only 1/2" deep, the clutch cover is about 1/8" thick, but the 5/8" bolts are line to line with the bottom of the hole, and won't clamp the clutch cover reliably. I could cut them down a bit but, I'm not sure which is best. Wish I knew exactly what the factory was using.

I cleaned up the bellhousing area, as it was a mess full of sludge.

Had a little help from my little boy again. He sure loves helping me out. It's too bad he can't actually do that much yet, but he likes to watch.

Then I got the massive flywheel bolted up. Torqued to spec and blue Loctited.

I also got the rest of the interior bits from Rimmer Bros, and started figuring out how they go together.

 

[Root Moose]

My little guys have zero interest in what I'm doing in the garage. I hope that changes at some point.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I can't hardly keep him out. This time he came out without putting his garage clothes on like I told him. He's an absolute car fanatic. Way worse than me. Incorrigible. At one point, I picked up the manual flywheel to work on it, and he went and grabbed the old auto flywheel off the floor to show me, probably weighs half what he does.

The good part is he's fairly well behaved really. I can actually do light work with him around.

He got his first ride in the track car a few weeks ago, and he sure liked that.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

The clutch didn't come with a centering tool, so I turned one out myself on the lathe. Billet Aluminum. Extreme. Totally HiSpeedLoDrag. :coffeedrink:

It actually worked quite well. So then put the clutch up.