LocostUSA.com

My atlas nine inch lathe was only $350. You see them on craigslist all the time. Small and you can't take big cuts but it works well for my purposes.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

I spent the weekend mounting the rack and pinion to the chassis. It was slow going. If I did it again, I'd make the rack housing about 1-in narrower to get the mounting points more inboard. I also mounted the rack a bit higher. I will eventually be mounting heims to the steering arm and I want them to rest on the top side. You'll notice in the photos that the rack rods are pitched forward to meet the steering arms. THe tie rod mounting point sits precisely in line with the front of the frame. For that reason, it might be best to mount the upper and lower a-arms back a couple inches. I am going to leave things as they are for now. After all, the rods move fore and aft as you turn--it's just that now they are good bit more fore than aft. It doesn't bind at all. To get the toe I need I'll be making threaded sleeves to place between the rack rods and the heim joints . They'll need to be about 2.5 inches in length. I'll use left and right threads so they can be turned to adjust toe. I'll plan on zero toe since there is no rubber in the suspension.

If it doesn't work out on the test drives, I'll make new steering arms that are shorter. That will quicken up the steering which I view as a good thing.

I thought I would have to cut down the MGBs famously long steering shaft. But the photos show that it ends up in pretty much the right place, so I'll leave it.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

Forward-angled tie-rods seem to be a pretty common feature on Locosts. IMO it doesn't change the steering feel or the Ackermann enough to notice.

GOod. It seems to work fine and there doesn't seem to be enough fore aft movement to change ackerman. Of course, the true test will be on the highway.

JDD

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

According to Staniforth (Competition car Suspension, 4th ed., p. 72), the angle of the tie rod is not so important as the included angle between the tie rod and the steering arm. Staniforth suggests a target included angle of 75 degrees for 100% Ackerman.

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Warren
Isuzu Pickup/SR20DE, +401 COLD frame
Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11601

Good info. I'll check it once i get the tie rods installed. Right now I have about 4-inches of toe in.


JDD

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

I've decided against using heim joints at the ends of my tie rods. The rods are 9/16-in (not 1/2"). Not a very common heim joint to buy. I've now turned two 2.5" spacers on my lathe and installed a 9/16" threaded rod into each tie rod end. I'll screw the spacers on to the tie rod ends and then into the tied rods. That will move my toe out to adjustment range. Just need a 33/64 drill bit for my 9/16" -18 tap. Try finding that at Home Depot! THey're carrying less and less stuff every year. So they'll be down to a few bent 2 x 4s and a couple of plastic mail boxes. Fastenal here I come.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

I'm not ready to work on the engine yet, but I got two weber 40DCOE side draft carbs on ebay last night for $350. They came off of an old Alfa and were recently rebuilt. That's a good deal if the shafts are ok). Since I'm using a ford 2.3 liter motor I'll have to buy a manifold from Racer Walsh, they're the only ones making a manifold that allows for the use of the stock distributor. Otherwise you have to go with a crank fired unit.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

Racer Walsh is a good source for the 2.3L. Depending on how close to stock you want to keep your engine the following may, or may not, be of interest. It's a cool website just to poke around on if you're interested in the Ford 2.3L, which obviously you are.

Here ==> http://www.esslingeracing.com/

Cheers

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

Yep...I'm getting a cam and lifters from Esslinger. One reason I like the 2.3L is that it has a really strong bottom end and you can get lots of HP with little expense. I'm going to tune mine mildly...mostly because I want the old time cammy sports car sounds!

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

This is boring but I disassembled the car and finished up the rear end. I also went to my local hardware store and they gave me a ton of the bins they use to hold bolts. (As their way of saying thanks for all the bolt buying). I also hacked the engine oil pan down so it wont hit things once it's in the car. I also have a rather large hump to traverse when the car enters the barn.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

Tearing apart the donor may not be as exciting as welding up the frame, but I'm pretty sure it belongs in the build log. It's progess, so it's not boring.

That rear axle looks fantastic. How much did you have to disassemble it before welding on the trailing arm brackets? I'm hoping to avoid at least removing the diff, since you apparently need some kind of axle stretcher to get it out of there.

I only remove the backing plates (to replace the axle seals.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

I finally finished sandblasting the wire wheels. Four 50 pound bags of sand to get those little buggers clean.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

I made the engine mounts today. I fabbed the out of 1/4-in. Steel. I have today I do more and more of this steel work using one of those $79 Harborfreight counterrotating saws. I broke the gear set in one saw,but I have an extended warrantyso they gave me a new one. Glad I didn't triangulate the frame yet before doing this work.


JDD

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames