Alright!  I've been wanting to do a build thread here for ages, but due to lack of time and hesitation to dive in angle grinder spinning has discouraged my forward progress with my Tracker.  Here's my attempt at catching you up to speed on these last few years...

I purchased my 91 Tracker back in 2000, I think.  It had 298,000kms on it, the body was mint but the engine was toast.  Wouldn't do better than 80 km/hr (50 mph).  So I rebuilt the engine. 

Put 235's on it and then a 3" body lift.

Now Mr T needed better boots:

I deleted the body lift and 30x9.50's in the name of practicality.  Once I got my head straight
(practicality  ) the next addition was a turbo:

I wanted to build a long travel, or at least a lift for the suspension so an easy start was extending the trailing arms:


Sorry I got to cut the story short.  I have to run, but I'll finish when I get back...

More pics and details PLEASE!

Yes.  Waiting for the trailing arm build.

Hi guys.

I have been busy modifying the control arms these last couple of days.  I forgot my camera, but I'll get pics of it today.

As for the trailing arm mod:

I cut off the frame mount, sleeved it, and welded it into the cross member that is forward of the original location.  If I remember correctly it added about 19 inches of distance to the mount.

Below you can see the original mount and the new location.  As you may notice the body mount is was integrated into the arm mount.  So I made sure to leave a bit of the vertical material for strength.  Then using my weapon of choice (sawzall) I gently removed the mount!

Before I removed anything, I blocked the tires so they wouldn't move.  Then removing the rear springs and jacking it to ride height, I removed one trailing arm, cut off the mount, relocated it.  Cut the trailing arm closer to one end (just personal preference...I think, it's been a while).  I reinstalled the two ends in their respective locations.  Then checked measurements between the axle and the frame on each side, confirming they were the same, I tacked in the sleeve.  Then removed the new trailing arm and finished welding and painting.

Repeat on the other side.  I actually screwed up the first time.  I got out on the road and realized it was dog-tracking bad.  I went back and remeasured.  Found where I went wrong, ground out the welds and fixed it.  I've put a few thousand miles on these now, wheeling and highway.  The only issue I've had is on full flex the trailing arm occasionally bumps the bolt on the body mount but only on fast ROUGH terrain.  Because I plan on lifting it, I consider this no real issue.

If any of you are wondering, I lengthened the arms to decrease plunge of the drive shaft into and out of the transmission.  Especially helpful for long travel or lifted applications.  The closer the pivot points of the trailing arm are to the U-joints of the drive shaft, the less plunge there will be.

More to come soon...the image below is what gave me a big "idea" I've been stewing over for months.  This week, crunch time before a trip this weekend, I decided I would "JUST DO IT!".

Nice. How 'bout some pics of your turbo? Always interested in other turbo setups.

Nice. How 'bout some pics of your turbo? Always interested in other turbo setups.

My turbo setup has changed a bit since this pic, and truthfully I would have done it a little different.  A couple of years ago, I was getting itchy to put a turbo in.  I starting looking around and pricing out materials and parts.  Then I came across a guy who had built a setup for his Tracker.  I wanted to ask him some questions about it.  You know, get the lesser known details about installing a turbo.  He told me he was selling the motor and all turbo parts for far less than I could build just the turbo kit.  So I bought it.  So, not my design, but works well.

The hood scoop is functional to fit, and provide air, for the top mount intercooler.  (For some reason it would let me load these pictures onto my gallery so I posted them on photobucket.)

Can you recall what error you were getting while trying to upload into the Gallery? I'd like to fix that if there is a problem.

-Eric

Can you recall what error you were getting while trying to upload into the Gallery? I'd like to fix that if there is a problem.

-Eric

Yeah, it said something like "Error - file type incorrect" ?

I'll try again tonight and I'll PM you with the error if it is any different.

Quote from: ebewley on May 28, 2009, 07:20:42 AM

Can you recall what error you were getting while trying to upload into the Gallery? I'd like to fix that if there is a problem.

-Eric

Yeah, it said something like "Error - file type incorrect" ?

I'll try again tonight and I'll PM you with the error if it is any different.

Thanks....

-Eric

  Nice turbo setup. All together pretty cool mods.

Nice turbo setup. All together pretty cool mods.

Thanks!  It a never ending WIP (work in progress)... 

So, a few of us are going out wheeling this weekend and I got ambitious.  I've wanted to lift the front for ages, and as I said in a previous post I was inspired by the photo of a chopped and dropped control arm.  I figure, hey, if you can do it to lower you can do it to lift too.  So here I go: 

The original measurements for frame clearance are 8.5" front and 10" rear.

I was tired of the front tires rubbing on the kickboard/firewall so I wanted to move the tires forward.  If you've ever looked under your rig, you'd notice that the cv axles actually angle to the rear.  Why?  I don't know.  A combination of lifting, widening, and extending was my goal.















I fab'd a new balljoint mounting plate and chopped up the A-arm.  Put it where I wanted it then re-enforced it.  The new location for the ball joint was 2" forward, 1.5" down, and 1/2" wider.  I repeated the process for both sides.  Throughout the process I checked and double checked that there was not rubbing or binding or hitting throughout the travel and steering changes.

Then I painted and installed them.  I flipped the strut mounts to get back some of my suspension travel, but I think I need to upgrade to the OME ones.  When it was all installed I ended up with 2 inches of lift in the front.  To level it out I laser cut 3/4" spacers for the rear.  I had already installed crown vic shocks, so the spacer install was easy.



To finish off I measured the frame, front and rear to get the after measurements...

10.5" front
11" rear

I measured the fender to tire and found them to be the same front to back.  So now it's got some mad clearance (compared to stock).  The control arms are up out of the way giving equal ground clearance across the whole underside. 

Time to go wheelin' 

If you have any questions ask away!

P.S. - My reasoning:

If I didn't explain it well enough before, my intent was to lift the Tracker enough to get some decent clearance without sacrificing much stability.  I guess for me the optimum height for stability/clearance is when the centerline through the axles line up with the bottom of the undercarriage.

I'd love to hear your comments!

That widening looks great.  I don't know why on earth Geo/Suzuki made the tires sit so far back in the wheelwells...pushing them forward looks great and must work great.  I like the intercooler!!!  I'd rather have that, than have it blocking my radiator.  I'm gonna watch this build closely

You discovered a new way to do this: http://www.zukiworld.com/month_120102/feature_hagan_frontendmod.htm

If you can figure out a way to use Toyota CV's, that would be sweet 

  I love to see modified stock parts do the job, Great work!