Grand Tracker continual build

[Chevy1925]

Final assembly started tonight.

Links painted

Machined spacers for shocks

Changed the brake line fitting from metric Suzuki to standard Ford and put it all in. Still need to droop the axle and check that I have enough hose. Looks promising though. Way more than stock.

Cleaned the inside of the brake drums and set the shoe to drum clearance. Then set the shocks up with springs and set preload to 0.

Panhard bar is still drying so didn’t put the links on tonight. Once those are in I’ll measure for a drive shaft and get that going.

 

[Chevy1925]

Sitting in her own weight after 3 weeks! Need a stiffer top spring, took too much preload for the ride height.
I may also make a custom resi hose to keep the resi out of the tire. I’ll flex it out and see how close it is as is but think it’s gunna catch a lug. I can tuck the resi in farther to the inside of the body as well

Then it was just little crap that eats time. Aligned the rear end and tighten all the link bolts and jam nuts, got the stud ready for the rear output shaft, trimmed some pieces off the body that rubbed, siliconed up the body where I punched a hole and split body lines, and then figured out the e-brake setup.

Initially it looked like it would all click into place. Well it will at the axle but the cable is 1” longer than the ford cable. So I had to figure out how to shorten the cable. Some times is the simple things that work best lol

Knot in each cable and off we go. Adjuster is maxed here but I did t realize the cables came undone from the axle at the time. Simple fix and it’s about half way up that threaded rod now.

New routing for cables so they don’t bind

Might go drive her around in front wheel drive this week just for fun lol. headed to Foddrills today to get some internal spacers for my bump stops. shortening them from 4" stroke to 2". also going to top oil off in them a bit more to increase the bump rate.

 

[wilrob]

That spring to hold the line is genius! Looks good!

 

[Chevy1925]

thank you Wil! page i took from guys that run springs on long limit straps or brake lines to keep them out of the suspensions way.

 

[Chevy1925]

Attempting to get this thing done by the weekend for a wheeling trip. im not holding my breath. little stuff is eating up time terribly.

Bump stops are done. shorten up to 2" stroke, ditched the internal spring, changed the oil and put back together. didnt realize these had the springs in them so i had to make up more spacers. just 1.5" ID .120 wall chromoly from the scrap steel bin. Spring is in there to slow bump rebound and stop "clicking" when going full extension. im not going to get that in depth with shock valving to have to worry about the bumps rebound.

Tear down.

Clean shaft (ha, shaft)

reassembled. i made two spacers on purpose. for the full 4" stroke, there still needs to be a 1.375" spacer inside. the other is a 2" to shorten it up. shaft.... stroke.... caulk.... :lol:

filled with oil. 10cc removed with bump fully compressed, air removed inside, and oil filled to the top. leaves room for expansion from heat, increases the "ramp rate" as bump come to full bump, and keeps me out of the "hydro locked" danger zone.

back on the rig, charged up and ready

Also bolted the SYE since its been painted and put a copper washer under the nut that holds it on to hopefully keep oil from making its way out. Made from a Samurai pinion flange and my old slip yoke as no one makes a slip yoke eliminator for the 96-05 rigs (suzuki went from 26 spline to 16 spline). i could swap the output shafts for an older one but thats more work than making a custom yoke lol. only had to take .005 off once welded to flatten it out.

Then swapped one 100lbs coil for the 150 and tested at 1" of preload. think its going to be too much spring rate but ill see when i get the other side done.

 

[Chevy1925]

Tuesday night:

swapped back to the 100lbs top coil springs. forgot having the correct nitrogen pressure would change ride height some. 150s were way too much, 100s are spot on. Also flipped the dual rate carrier over and loosen up the dual rate stop on the shock to move up some. Put shocks back in and tighten down for good. Then played with spring preload. have it set with 0 preload and its still a bit tall. should squat some with the co2 tank, tools and spare parts back in the back. Then bled the brakes. they did NOT want to bleed. dunno if it had something to do with the load proportioning valve or what. My power vac bleeder would not pull anything through even with a little teflon on the bleeder threads to seal it up. had to do it the old fasion way. once fluid came through, the power bleeder worked fine. All the lines are good and no leaks so who knows. ****ing japanese shit...

picked up the driveshaft today.

and the list i have left to finish to get done for the weekend. not enough time to trim the body so tires are gunna rub like they have been the last few years.

Wedneseday night:

stayed up till 12:30am trying to get everything finished up on the zuk for the weekend. Literally did everything on my list. took it for a test drive last night and ran into an issue with the shock resi hose getting caught up in the shock tower. notched it some but its not enough. ill have to put a 90* fitting on it which is fine as the valve is waaaaaaaay too stiff. .020 shim stack on compression and 1 free bleed open is way too much for this rig lol. Drove it into work and noticed it seemed to be dragging. get to a stop light and you can smell brakes. either i adjusted them too tight or the stupid suzuki brake system is making the brakes stick.

No pics other than at the shop. busting my ass too much to take any last night

Yesterday i ordered up parts to bypass the damn load sensing proportioning valve suzuki uses. 90% sure its junk and causing my brake issue. ill beat on it around the neighborhood and see if the ass end locks up before front so i dont go sliding out in a panic stop on road. id probably leave it for the dirt but with it being a DD still, need a little safety in there. battery is also shot so ill pick that up with my bypass parts. hoping changing the pinion angle fixes my driveline issue. im pretty sure it will. its off a few degrees since i went to the DC style shaft and not a single joint at each end.

then i get to tear down shocks to change valving and figure out the resi hose. going to go way light on the valving and open up a free bleed hole. see if we can make it too soft and work up from there.

 

[Chevy1925]

Tore the shocks down today to revalve them. I was expecting the double stacked compression valving but not the doubled up rebound. Didn’t realize how hard I was working these 2.0 shocks on my sand car. Shock fluid was burnt too. There was actually 2 free bleeds open as well. I was having a buddy revalve these at the time, mainly due to time restraints and lack of nitrogen tank at my house.

Compression valves on left, rebound on right.

Went by foddrills and grabbed a gallon of shock oil and two stacks of .010 shims. Between all the shims that came off the shock, i got plenty of .020, .015, and .012 to change valving. Wanted to lighten the rebound way up though so it got .010 stack and the compression got .012 stack with a flutter.

Trimmed up the shock mount as well to keep the resi hose out of it, clears great

And now for the brakes..... all that pissing and moaning about the stock load sensing proportioning valve and so on wasn’t my issue..... it was a full on pollack moment. I had put a brake line clamp on the rubber flex hose between the frame and body to keep the rear brakes from leaking. I never removed them.... removed it and wouldn’t ya know it, brakes work correctly lol.

Yesterday i got a new CV axle in the front end and dropped my driveshaft off to have the DC end cut off and a single u-joint put on. i just dont have the adjustment in the links to pinion angle where it needs to be for a DC style shaft. Then drove it in fwd around the neighborhood. i can already tell the rear valving is too soft (good thing) and i was smacking the bump stops (which are too hard). Im going to change up my rebound shim stack a bit more cause it still feels too slow. ill probably go to a set of .015 shim stacks on compression with a flutter and at min, remove the biggest shim from the rebound or swap to .008. thinking ill try the biggest shim removal first since i dont have any .008 shims on hand.

ive really been eyeing the idea of a rate plate in there. i sort of have one already but the shim stack is too tall to take advantage of it. I like the theory behind it for what ill be doing but i have not messed with them yet. not going too indepth with the rear end yet till i get the front end built as the front affects the back and the back affects the front. just want to get the ass end riding decent for the time being.

 

[clrussell]

Shocks sound like rocket surgery

 

[Dozerboy]

Rocket surgery with a little bit of on the fly windage adjustment...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chevy1925]

Shocks sound like rocket surgery

Rocket surgery with a little bit of on the fly windage adjustment...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

they look worse than they really are. an engine or trans build takes much more thinking power :roflmao:

there is 3 sections to compression or rebound valving. low, medium and high dampening. Low consists of the 2 biggest around shims, med is the middle 2 shims and high is the last smallest shims. its all based on how fast the shock shaft velocity is. so little bumps or chatter like pot holes, wash boards, etc are what makes up the low side. 3 ft whoops or big jumps that are trying to jam that shock shaft in as fast as it will go is the high side. then you have the piston which directs flow and whats called "free bleeds". these are little holes in the piston that allow fluid around the valving stack. trying to keep them open without a shit ton of valving is the goal as it keeps the oil from getting super hot. then you have nitrogen pressure which is what protects against cavitation but can aid in making the valving work better.

thats the basics. then you have flutter stacks which is a certain orientation of how the shims are stack and its mainly found on the compression side. what it does is create a folcrum under the biggest or two biggest shims so they open up easier before contacting the shims below it and making them start bend. this is good for single shock rigs that have a hard time getting a smooth ride through chop.

____________.010
___.010
_________.010
_______.010
_____.010
___.010

^^that is a compression flutter stack. the .010 means how thick the shims are. lines are the shim width.

then there is the rate plate which gets tricky. what you do is pull out a few shims from the typical 6 on the compression side, then put a thick washer under the smallest shim thats the same dia. as the biggest shim. what this does is let the 2-4 shims you have between the piston and plate work at low and some med shaft speeds, when you hit some hard, the shims flex to the rate plate and the plate stops any more flexing of the shims. this effectively creates a hard stop for fluid flow better than the typical pyramid stack would with a softer feel in the low and med shaft speed. issues is, you can build a shit ton of head pressure quickly and if not done right, you can blow the shock or resi apart from too much pressure. it also builds alot of heat quickly if you are in a racing situation and the shock is too small.

____________.010
_______.010
____.010
_.010
___________.125

this is a general look of a rate plate setup.

alot of it is trial and error. a guy videoing what the rig is doing over rough stuff gives you the best idea of how to make your next adjustment. you have to really know what to feel for and understand the difference between the front end and rear end as well as who is causing the issues. Biggest reason i love watching videos of guys at the strip. it tells you alot about a trucks setup if you know what to look for. ive been half tempted to try some valving tricks with a fox shock on a drag race truck that would work for DDing and the strip but with the adjustability of QA1 shocks, there is no reason to.

 

[clrussell]

I actually tried reading that. My brain hurts

 

[gmduramax]

I actually tried reading that. My brain hurts

Glad I wasn’t the only one :rofl:
If I ever want my shocks valves I’d send them to James :thumb:

 

[Chevy1925]

:rofl: :rofl:

 

[zakkb787]

I got about three sentences in and saw the numbers and made my stomach wheezy and head hurt. Maybe that’s just this nasty hangover my dumbass has tho :roflmao: seriously tho that’s some good info. That’s why I take my bike shocks to have them rebuilt instead of doing it myself

 

[Nathan.]

I didn't even know a flutter stack was an actual thing. Whatever a race plate is sounds fast though.

 

[Chevy1925]

lol its a rate plate. not a race plate.

welcome to suspension 101 ladies :roflmao:

 

[Dozerboy]

I think I kind of understand, but I’m sure would make a lot more sense if it was in our hands. I got a lot of respect for anybody that can diagnose suspension issues sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle.Hop in a Bigrig and it’s got an odd vibration and everybody has their idea on what’s causing it. I tell him to take it to the shop and let them figure it out.


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[Chevy1925]

Poser fork lift pics

Resi hose has plenty of clearance

 

[clrussell]

Saweeet

 

[Chevy1925]

Proportioning valve in. Backed all the way out which only allows 57% to the back and the back will just start locking up prior to the front. Heck of a lot of brake back there it seems lol. Atleast I can actually jam on them decent without fear of the ass end locking up like before lol.

Ignore that open line off to the side. That’s the extra bypass like safety thinger that Suzuki had to keep people from killing little babies when the front brakes go out. I prefer to live dangerously and will be pulling that whole line at some point. but seriously, its incase the front brakes loose pressure, it diverts all fluid to the back brakes. great idea till it leaks pressure by and since i ditched the load sensing proportioning valve at the back end where the other side of that open line connected, it does me no good.


Shock tuning is getting closer. bump stops are waaaaay too aggressive. going to pull some oil out of those and make them softer. rebound is at .008 stack which really helped keep the tires on the ground and compression is as below:

________________.010
______________.010
______.010
___________.010
_________.010
______.012
___.012

I played with the reservoir fill level as well and added some more oil there with only 200psi charge level. this helped lower the ass end and keep nitrogen from jacking it way up. At this point i need to start adding weight back there to act as if im going out for the weekend so i can set preload correctly (or up spring rate) and make sure valving is good. i will have to carry added weight for DD to keep the thing from driving like a stink bug and a smooth ride. just remove when i load up for trips. just too light back there to make much else work.