KPR's 84 Hilux

[kpr]

driveshaft shortened

 

 

decided to  shorten the front half (2 piece)  so didnt put the unis under any more angle.    meant had to move the driveshaft hanger forwards

 

finished.  

 

 

 

 

plenty of clearance...  rear has more up travel  and the way the hydro bumps load up,  makes the front flex a bit more.  so things getting tight.  even though over all have lost a little flex.

 

 

still messing around  with a few things setup wise. but  the new shocks seem to be working better out of the box than the old ones.   ended up going with 2x 80lb springs on each corner back there,  so yep thats a 40lb spring rate on the rear crazy soft

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

Been dialing in the suspension.   almost getting to the point that need to re-valve the shocks to go any further.  basically been messing with the spring preload and switch over to the 2nd spring rate.    best results so far have been setting the rear soft as possible spring wise and also softening up the hydro bumps, gone from 90psi to  50psi.   Then on front have it switching to the 2nd spring rate with only 20mm travel from ride height  which  also stops it rolling so much.     so far im thinking it needs more compression valving in the front.  bit of a learning curve to figure it all out.

 

still having a nose dive issue.  my jump at the end of the vid sucks, which isnt helping the cause.   can see in the vid if hold it tapped it works a little better.    try roll the jump does a sweet nose dive.   seems to go over the first bump fairly nice.  gearing kinda sucks and have a massive leak in the inlet manifold which isnt helping the cause.  / need bigger paddock

 

side effect of less pressure in bumpstops.   that tuck

[kpr]

So  @Stu stupidly promised to make a fuel tank  along time ago.    He drew this up and got it cut out for me.

 

I hand made  the inspection flange, pump and sender brackets inside,  before giving it back to stu to do the final welding

 

The old tank sat hard up against the cab  and fairly high up

 

New tank sits back further plus lower down.  whole aim here is to get more weight over the rear axle and lower cog.   old tank had zero baffles. so will be alot better fuel slosh wise as well.

 

mounting cradle is a little overkill but any weight behind the door handles is ok.  bit more to go here.

 

 

[kpr]

Was going to run a drop down section like the oid tank for the fuel pickup.   but the driveshaft is in the way of ideal location at rear of tank.   so brought the worlds most expensive fuel  pickup 

which is one of these things

 

 

before tank was welded cut a some big holes in the baffles,  so this bit of foam can go across bottom of  tank and hold the hydramat down

 

like so,   that thing  bolted on the left is the fuel level sender from the old tank,  bent the arm so it works in here

got the shits with every thread being different, so welded fittings to make my own adapters .   the mat is npt,  the pump is metric, then theres the an fittings and back to hard line... 

Fancy fuel lines.  they connect to the hard lines just under the cab.

had to keep the diesel fuel cap

Got a bit of wiring then should be good to go

[kpr]

Got it running again,  that hydramat thing is pretty sweet.   put maybe 2L max in the tank.    drove it up my little hill. even parked it here for awhile, restarted sweet.  no signs of running out of gas. pretty legit for a flat bottom tank. 

 

 

[kpr]

This things a death trap ,  below will probably bore most people so just watch the vid..

Been doing some shock tuning,  basically have to pull the shocks apart  and change a bunch of shims on the shock piston.  
the shocks were factory 50/70 valving,  which means  50 (.25mm shims) compression  70 (.3mm shims) rebound.    thicker shims = more damping.  plus can get creative  and mix and match different sized shims to make the shocks more progressive etc. there are 5 shims on each stack plus and overload

on the rear took some rebound out, put the .25mm stack off the compression side onto rebound side.  also took compression out but left 2 of the .3 shims on the bottom of the stack so shocks stiffen up on  a hard hit

the above made quite a noticeable difference across the paddock alot less harsh. 

then did similar to the front, swapped the .25 compression onto rebound side. and put the .3 stack on compression plus swapped out the bottom shims for .4mm's like on the rear for more progressive damping

 the diffs now drop out alot faster  so ready for next bump.   the compression is more suited to the weight each end.  still aint dialed but alot beter

 

 

Any way end of the day, back on the marae.   made truck go faster over shit / scary.   actually looks super tame in the vids , going about 80k here.  i can pass cars that are driving down the road..

 

 

[kpr]

This one  shows the speed a bit better.     yup  its got some epic body roll.  its always gonna be roly,  but have yet another spring swap to go in the rear which will make it a bit better 

 

 

 

Probably said it before but the gearing kinda sucks in high range it'l do around 130k in 2nd gear,  so its a bit of a sack when going from 1st to 2nd until it gets up some rpm

but

After the above vid decided to have a play with the timing, as its still running the same ignition map as when the engine was in my ae85.  been meaning to do some adjustments for ages. Managed to put quite a lot more timing in  while still being safe.  Now its got more nuts everywhere.  Which means more sideways and more air,  put it back in shed shortly after..    Thinking it was a combo of the original tune being fairly conservative and my new 36+1 trigger setup being  more accurate 

 

 

 

[kpr]

New  seats.  while the old ones were period correct, thats about all they had going for them.   saved a little weight at the same time.

 

 

welded some plates on the chassis,  from the front suspension towers back to where the chassis is full height.  so now when the chassis snaps in half doing jumps,  i can say i attempted to make it stronger

relocated the rear limit straps . when i done the new coilovers, reused the existing mounts,  which didnt work too well.  would only limit if the diff dropped straight down.  so when getting hectic body roll or  flex the shocks would top out.    remounted them close to the coilovers,   no more clunking.

also put some longer 14" springs on the bottom of rear coilovers, so could get more adjustment out of the dual rate adjusters.   have it switching to the 2nd rate a lot early like front, so body roll isnt so crazy now.

 

 

Pretty happy how the suspension is  working ,  possibly needs some more shock tuning. but just need to drive it more for now.   springs should finally be good
front have ended up with  150/200lb      rear  80/110 lb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

Some action from awhile back

 

[kpr]

That time of the year again, grass needs a trim on extra low

 

 

 

[kpr]

Exhaust is pretty junk. has be cut up and beaten with a hammer to fit around the link setup & crossmember , because couldn't be assed making a new system at the time. after all that it still vibrates on the chassis

Originally was going to make an ali muffler  to keep weight down.  but had this old stainless extinguisher hanging about.  

Drilled some 3" holes and chopped and end off.   brought  perf baffle  for it and a reso

Packing

done.  it sucked to weld because its super thin,  maybe  0.9mm.  but its pretty much the same weight as the reso and alot lighter than the one on the truck.
lets see if it blows up

looking through both mufflers.

 

 

Since i was too lazy to test fit it before i built  it.  it  doesn't actually fit where i was planning on putting it.   have found a new spot for it,  but more parts required.

 

 

 

[kpr]

 

old exhaust that got beaten with a big hammer

going full retard again,  thats aluminum tube after the muffler.

had some leftover ali from something else.  so machined a couple of v band flanges to adapt from  stainless to aluminum

 

 

[kpr]

starting to get this ali welding sorted.  half my issue was the torch and cup setup was junk and leaky.   got a new gas lens setup and the old china welder is working legit again

center  section between the 2 mufflers

 

Need a couple more bends before can finish the exit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

seemed like a good idea. but exhaust grows when it gets hot.

 

Edit: catcher mode on:

 

 

 

[kpr]

 

With the soft springs and lack of rebound valving truck  tends to do this..  watch very end, kinda missed it.

 

 

Not turning in the vid,  my crappy ali fish eyed camera just makes it look like its a corner.    its ok in 4wd,  just does it in 2wd under power.     but tbh don't really care that it does it under power. mostly the body roll around corners is a bit extreme . 

enter "offroad swaybar" kit.     its basically a weak swaybar  that can handle high travel.  not sure how well its going to work, will find out the hard way like usual.

Had to relocate the limit straps again ,  4th time??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

Lost count how many bottles of argon have sunk into this thing over the years. 

bar ain't gonna fall off.

 

Bit less flex now. but still pretty good.

 

 

Still need to make the tray fit, as the rear mounts interfere  with the arms.  so only did a short test run.    still  has a lot more body than your usual road vehicle, as expected.  but seems  more stable and progressively rolls rather than falling into the corners like it did before.  

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

Tray back on.   Still handled bad on the road, better than with no swaybar but still junk.    Figured out main problem was due to the lack of rebound dampening in the shocks  combined with the dual rate springs.   Basically how it was setup, if were going around a corner and hit it bump,  it would hit the 2nd spring rate (which is over double primary) and bounce back.  making the truck wobble like a bowl of jelly. 

Manged to get it to work alot better with some adjustments.   
Backed off the adjusters on the rear shocks so pretty much never hits the 2nd rate  on the road. so there is no sudden change in spring rate.  Letting the swaybar do its thing to control the roll.
Tried the same with the front shocks, which did make it better but more body roll.  Then went full retard and set it up so the front  is on the 2nd spring rate at ride height. Surprisingly this  worked sweet with alot less body roll.  I need to drive something else for awhile, then test it out again  before decide if its good enough. or if i was just getting use to driving a deathtrap.

 

Offroad;  again, surprisingly it rips in the paddock now.  less roll and still soaks up the bumps good.  rear rides nicer due to the later spring rate change.

 

Because boring ramble:

 

Put a light bar on it, because some gezzer on nz offroader said it would make it more capable off road and pick up the ladies

 

 

Not gonna ever use it,, just a gimmick  to scare 4wd barrys

 

 

 

[kpr]

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

I don't always get stuck.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kpr]

Done another little run last weekend.  no drama's, just a few more dents in the door.