Project: Commodore powered buggy

[maddog]

We're getting really close to Put up or Shut up and there's still a lot to do on the buggy. Worked all Friday night till 1am putting some of the panels on and fitting the front brake calipers.

Gauges look good at night

Worked on it again all day Saturday trying to bleed the brake system and get it all working. Also put the front shaft in after having it remade when the first one was over 100mm too short. This one was 20mm too long, but I think we'll get away with it. I'm amazed that the company that makes it struggles to use a tape measure.

Took it for it's first drive late Saturday afternoon. There was a lot of rattling and clunking from the loose control arms, and the mount for the centre bearing on the rear tailshaft needed to be modified to include another rubber mount for strength as it was torquing up and hitting the radiator pipe when you got into it.

Has no brakes so we had to be careful getting it down the driveway and driving it around.

 

[maddog]

Few more pics from Saturday.

Rear tailshaft doesn't like it when you drop the suspension out from under teh buggy.

Diffs look good with axles in them finally

Gassing the shocks to get the right ride height. Still couldn't get enough pressure out of the reg set we were using, so I might have to take it somewhere to get more pressure in them to get another inch or so height into it.

First sticker is on!

Diff hats painted and installed

More driving pics

I have video footage of Saturday's test run, but haven't got it on computer yet. Hope to have it up soon.

 

[maddog]

Worked on it again all day yesterday. Hot day to be working on a buggy!

No pics, but it's pretty much finished. There's some small bits and pieces that need to be done before the weekend.

The biggest problem we have now is that the last test drive we did yesterday afternoon caused a big problem. The rear pinion bearing ceased mid drive. It ceased so suddenly that it locked the rear wheels and the buggy skidded to a stop. We pulled the rear diff apart and the ring and pinion were fine, but we were unable to remove the pinion using a punch. I ended up abandoning hope of saving the pinion and hit it directly with a sledge hammer which didn't work. Hit the inner race of the bearing with an oxy w/ heating tip and still no luck. I'm assuming the only way I can get it out now would either be to pull the diff out and put it in a big press, or oxy cut the inner race of the bearing in half and try not to damage the inside of the housing. If anyone has any tricks to do this I'm all ears?

We're trying to get hold of either a 5.13 r&p or a set of spacers so I can run the 5.36's I have (which belong to Shane). We may be able to get them overnight from SA if we're lucky.

Still hopeful that we'll get it to Put up or Shut up on the weekend, but it's going to involve more late nights and some good luck. Have to try and fit in an offroad test session some time before Friday morning too so I know how the thing behaves before I try and compete in it.

 

[maddog]

Pulled the rear diff out from under the buggy last night, put it in a press and had to heat up the pinion bearing to get the pinion out. Lots of force required to get it out. Got the diff back in and everything hooked up again. Finished up around midnight again.

All that's left to do now is set up the new ring and pinions in both the front and rear diffs and install the firewalls. Although the firewalls need some holes cut for the hydraulic lines. Hoping I can get that done tonight so I can have a quick test run offroad tomorrow and head off to the first comp.

I'm not 100% sure about the brakes, the pedal seems to travel a lot further than I expected and I'm not sure about the braking power to stop the vehicle on steep angles, but I guess I'll find that out when I test it.

Going to be another couple of long nights.

 

[maddog]

The buggy is now finished, and has run it's first competition. Here's some pics from it's first test run, the morning we were leaving for the competition.

 

[kasem]

that looks like fun!!

 

[R0d]

thats awesome...

 

[fatboy2869]

How did u go on its frist competition outing mate hope it went well

 

[maddog]

Yeah we did well for the first competition. We were happy with the overall performance of the vehicle as it seems to handle well and feels solid. We came 6th overall at the end of the event, which I'm happy with for a first event in a new vehicle with only 10 minutes drive time the morning we left for the event

The weekend was not without problem though, which is to be expected on a new build. On the Saturday afternoon I broke the rear tailshaft in the second last stage of the day. We repaired it with one minute of breakdown time to spare and completed the last stage of the day.

Sunday had a couple more problems with a small fire at the end of our second stage caused by an electrical fault and some leaky oil. There was no damage caused as we got to it quickly with the two onboard fire extinguishers.

The shootout stage at the end of the event on Sunday afternoon was a problem and I rolled about half way through the stage. There was a bit of damage done to the frame in the rollover, but nothing we can't fix. The main hoop has a couple of bends in it, and the two front shock hoops are also bent up.

Overall it was a great weekend and we're going to start getting stuck into some serious practice as well as making some minor adjustments and repairs to the vehicle before the next event. We plant o be well prepared for the next event as it's the start of the points season.

Here's some pics from the last event.

Front wheel drive burnout to warm up the tyres for a slippery climb.

 

[maddog]

Some more pics