TheSamba.com :: View topic - riNR's Mid Travel 4 Seater Woods Rail Build

Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:05 pm

the calipers have dual pistons, self adjusting

Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:09 pm

A friend of mine ran this on his street buggy and he said the part where the E brake lever goes into the casting was always leaking on him. Anyone experience this too? He ended up rectifying it by getting it machined = $$$$

Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:39 pm

the calipers don't require adjustments as they are dual piston.

A 5 rib tranny has different gearing in it stock. also supposedly they are not as strong as a 6?

I think you can get fairly inexpensive rebuilt calipers from e bay?

I always wondered if a 2nd set of calipers on a hand brake thing would work for the e brake. it would be a seperate braking system, so i think it would work??

The other thing is the cable. A stock suspension does not have to travel that far. I am not sure it will work over that range of travel?? Could be why they never were installed :wink:

Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:56 pm

Took my tranny out to get repaired. It appears that I busted second gear, so while he's at it I'll get third gear synchros fixed too.
I figured I might as well do something constructive so I started on the roof rack. I am making it so that I can still run a removable canvas top one day without having to have bolts go through the top. I will mount it only at the shock gussets and lower down on the window side posts, that way a top can be stretched down with no holes.

Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:46 pm

Did you have him check to see if your gearing is stock or changed over to close ratio for 3 and 4th gear?

Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:27 am

The gear sets are all stock. I don't want to have gears that will not be great for highway cruising as this will be street legal one day. Hopefully soon ??? :?

Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:15 am

Good Point. Plus you should have enough power there to pull 3rd and 4th gear with out an problems.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:33 pm

That is only the start of the rack so far. Still needs stilts down to window frame...etc.
Springs: Top 2.5 X 10 X 200, Bottom 2.5 X 10 X 250....if that is what you wanted to know.

Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:40 pm

Got the roof rack all mocked up and ready to take to welder...the unfortunate part is that I cracked the windsheild when one of the vise grips slipped off...DHOH!

Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:13 pm

Got the engine and trans all back in and took off roading 2 weeks ago with the new roof rack on to see if I could brake that too. Everything went great....go figure. Painted the roof rack last week with truck bed liner to give a textured, glossy yet durable finish, and put on a peice of 1/8" aluminum diamond plate.
I also took the car to the scales and got it weighed. It came in at 2240 lbs with me in it or 2040 without me.
Went to a local buggy show today and met some local off roaders to ride with...cool! One of the guys had a mid-travel manx with a factory twin turbo subaru engine, power steering, power brakes, vanagone auto trans with the quick shifter, ethanol injection to keep things cool for the turbos, really nice set up! The owner told me of a way to use motorcycle calipers with a master hooked up behind a parking brake ratchet handle for the parking brake.....brilliant!! and cheap !!.

Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:31 pm

Rail is looking good and............... nice rack. :lol:

Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:38 pm

Looks great nice to see you were able to get it going again before the summer was gone.

Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:47 pm

Nice Rack.............................No babe it's samba...dont say it it out loud the wife gits the wrong impression. :D

Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:17 am

Thanks for the compliments on my rack :wink: After spending what seemed like a zillion hours to build it and telling myself that I was nuts to start it I am now glad it is done.
Next project is to get the CVs to stop clicking, and then paint the body, and straighten out the one trailing arm, and brakes front and E brakes on the back and .......and........and........and..........

Sat Aug 25, 2007 1:02 pm

OK, I finally seem to have the CVs clicking licked. I had the CVs polished and the axles shortened a bit as they were binding between the flanges. I put them in yesterday and there was still a bit of clicking. I lowered the car down a bit which caused me to loose about 1 1/2" of ground clearance but I figure that is better than always listening to the CVs and being paranoid that they are going to break. NO MORE CLICKING!!! HOORAH!!
Next.....

Sat Aug 25, 2007 2:46 pm

My baja tipped the scales at 2280 lbs. with 22 gallons of fuel on board! That is a heavy rail for running an air cooled motor... but then again that fancy new rack of yours doesn't look like you scimped on tubing any. :lol: 8)

Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:00 pm

that's a pretty crazy air cooled motor if you ask me.

Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:33 pm

That explains it... missed the shot of the H2O back there. :oops:

Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:14 pm

I don't think I would ever want an air cooled again after this set up.
I can't see the sense in building stroker air cooled engines to get the same HP as a factory water cooled lifted out of just about any just about any vehicle. Sure there is more wiring and an ECU to mess with but having the EFI and reliabilty seems so worth it. After seeing a Subaru transplant last weekend I'd say that is one slick way to go. That or the Ecotech but I like the short block on the Subaru engines. I do still like the simplicity of the ol' air cooled engines though. I would consider one if I was doing a Manx style buggy and wanted things really compact,light and simple. And I'm not a real fan of the whole LS1 thing either. Though those cars are quite amazing it just seems so excessive.....but to each his own. Maybe if I had a ride in one I'd change my tune.

Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:59 pm

Did some work on the trailer a while back now. I added ramps that fold down so that it wasn't such a PITA to load and unload everytime and made room for the spare tire up under the front of the back bone. going to wait until next summer a lay a coat of tremclad black on once a little surface rust has formed so it will stick really well.