It's the tiny things

Couldn't find a local source for a 10-32 female threaded rod end for the B&M shifter cable to attach to the 4L60 shifting arm... so I made one.

RIP our friend, Jim Alexander

Jim and his buggy in Clayton, Oklahoma

(Brandon holding the tire down)

TIG - it's a beautiful thing

Exhaust is now fully welded up. Ain't she a beauty?
Once we're close to being done, the plan is to have these ceramic coated to reduce the heat.

This Offroad Building Can Be... "Exhausting"!

Our buddy Adam came by to work his exhaust "magic" on the Thump rig. Amazing... that's as best a description as I can come up with. An assortment of left over exhaust parts from prior projects ranging from Jeeps to our tow-rigs, a chop saw and a few spot welds were all that was needed to knock this gem out in a few hours scattered across a couple of evenings after work. Adam's got the touch when it comes to routing exhaust tube in the most challenging of tight spaces. Never discard that ol'tow-rig exhaust you replaced years ago... turns out, Dodge 3" exhaust tube is quite useful for these projects.

We decided to route the driver side under the oil pan to the passenger side and point it straight back down the passenger side frame rail into a collector Adam fabricated. The tube from the header flange to the collector is 2.5" with the collector tube at 3" diameter. The muffler is a Hooker 3" straight pass through with a slight dumping tip just past the rear axle. We bought a ball-flange and have it located in the middle just under the passenger floor making removal of the whole exhaust system simpler.

The B&M shifter is mounted to the cage next to the driver seat. We wound up reworking the carter fuel pump mounted to the YJ assembly as the wiring was grounding out due to the ill-fitment of the larger pump and OEM rubber mounts. Hose-clamps rule! Upon mocking up my freshly created switch panels, we realized how little room an 8" dash provides and had to reassess my layout. The end result is three panels now instead of four. No photos yet of the new panels... but plenty of the other at the link below.

Update photo album

Finished! Congrats to 4411.

#4411 Completes Day Two in V2R!

Some mad, late night pit work on the rig before impound and a short night's sleep until one more day of racing! Saturday's the final leg ending in Reno.

Get IT! V2R day two!

Day one was a disappointing DNF for 4411 as it was for all but two rigs in the Ultra-4 class. However, they patched it up and are hitting it hard today.