Hi guys

Im new to this site and may i say, why oh why dident i use this before.........

Anyway ive been building a locost from the new haynes manual over the past 18 months or so.

Started of as many do bought a second hand seirra and the oridginal ron champion book in feb 2007, built the chassis to suit that book, so all was swimming allong nicely......

Then i found out that there was a new haynes book out... DOE..
anyway this was a big turnig point in my build, i had a 2.0ltr sierra Gt 4x4 parked outside the workshop and a soon to be updated ron champion book gathering dust,
After a few jokes about why i dont make the car 4x4 ha ha ha As if.... i decided why the hell not so i widened the chassis 60 mm converted the rear to LSD diff and independant susspention, offred up the 4x4 gear box and engine and bolted in place.

Now anyone that knows this type of sierra will no that the front diff and drive shafts run through the sump of the engine. and with the frount susspention geomatry being so far forward on the locost it is impossible to use this set up.

Not a big deal just means moving the front diff forward.....lol

But the sump of the engine is part of the drive train... simple realy machine / hack the old sump keeping the bearing supports on bothsides and the shaft tunnel, look at pics for info. there is very little left of the old sump when you are finnished Hay ho ...oh well

I mounted the diff and shafts forward in the car to suit locost whell possition.

Dam... just where the bloody steering rack would go!!!! hmmmm more problems! ill get to that later....

So front drive train was bolted in! I them extended the drive shaft from the sierra mt75 dropbox to couple up with the front diff Happy days........
So on the the susspention.

Happy reading guys ill post pics.

Purdy

Sounds amazing. Get those pics up pronto!

John

PS make sure the front drive shafts don't cause any SVA aggro

No problems it passed its sva last tuesday just awaiting the bloody dvla with plates....

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Pics are UP...

Sounds interesting.


There's a couple of others around (Liam's fantastic 2.8(?) v6, Honda engined, Sierra running gear) being probably the best thought out I've seen.

Have a look at his profile.... maybe some tips for you on the steering rack isssue.

Hope that helps,
James

Yeah I think Ewan Spence was probably the first to put together a 4x4 locost (using the ford v6) back at the begining of this century

I used to follow his build diary on geocities - It's still there @

http://www.geocities.com/ewanspence/

He's still on here as well so give him a u2u to compare notes (few pics in his archive still )

G


[Edited on 31/7/08 by Mr G]

Why thank you James! One day it might be finished too! Just hasn't progressed for a while and wont for a good while as I've just bought a house with my partner that needs...well...pretty much rebuilding

Congratulations on passing the SVA, Purdy!! Nice to see more crazy enough to fit 4wd just because it can be done (that's why you did it right?). What did you do about the front propshaft out of interest? Have you taken any steps to take into account the fact your engine (assuming it's not solid mounted) can now move in relation to the front diff?

Good stuff...

Liam

Wonder what happened to Ewan - he was building like the wind back then then it all sort of stopped (or at least the site updating did). Wonder if he got on the road? I'd suggest there's a good chance Purdy is the first (only?) 4wd SVA'd - so good on ya.

Liam

Well done, theres a Dax round here with Cosworth power and 4x4 and all I can say is WOW

Description

Sorry Purdy, didn't realise you'd finished it- thought it was still work in progress.

Looks great in the finished paint job.

In the couple of pics I can see of it, the positioning of the steering rack would suggest you're gonna suffer from quite bad bump steer. How does it handle?

Cheers,
James

Thanx james

I solved the problem by shortening the stearing rack and turning the track rod end fixings points on the sierra front uprights by cutting them off and welding them back on upside down with a cast dissimler rods.. worked a treat ..

This gave a level path for the steeing rack and made it able to mount the rack in a higher possition infrount of the diff.

Shortened the rack by stripping it down to just the shaft, at one end you have the machineing for the pinion and the other is plane it was possible to cut a section out taper the ends of the shat in the laithe and weld back togeather using V blocks and a tig set... infact ive shortened a few stearing racks this way

With regards to the front prop its very tight to get in as when i moved the diff forward the angle of the shaft became tight to the side of the bell housing so i had to cut a section of the very thick alloy bell housing and re-weld a alloy section in.

The prop is made up of standard 50mm tube from the front dif then reduces down to 40 mm past the bell housing to allow for the taper..

im an engineering GOD... HA ha ha

So what you busy with at the mo James?

quote:

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Originally posted by purdy

im an engineering GOD...

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yeah sertainly not shrt of popeing about, john.

mark..