SXOR single seater build

Glad to see an update to this thread and looks like you have a great supervisor in the shop with you.

Then in October '21 we moved. And the buggy sat untouched again for almost a year. The new house has a 30x42 shop with a lift. It has a 100amp service to it, but it only had 1 double gang 120v receptacle in the whole shop and the lighting wasn't great. So I spent a lot of time wiring the shop. It's still a disorganized mess, but at least I can get some stuff done in it now. I also bought my LJ last January and that stole a lot of attention from this thing too.

I have worked a little more on the rear axle. I built a backbone truss out of 3x3 .125 wall tubing. And now I'm working on the top "truss". It's built from 10ga plate. I've got a few more pieces to cut to box it all in then it will be ready to weld out. It's getting a new Yukon load bolted 3rd member, 9.5" 5.13 gears, Strange 40 spline spool, Gearworks pinion support for flipped 3rds, Strange 1350 35 spline yoke, and 40 spline shafts and drive flanges. I have everything here but the shafts. It just all has to be put together.




The front axle will be getting all the same parts but with 10" gears. It will have '05+ Superduty outers, haven't decided yet on the Branik 32 spline direct drive stubs or 40 spline stubs, Branik 1550 joints, and 40 spline inners. I have the housing, Cs, knuckles, gears, and joints. I still gave to get the 3rd member, pinion support, install kit, and other small parts. But like I said in the last post I'll probably finish up the rear, slap some spacers on the front, and wheel it while I build the front.

ridered3 said:

Glad to see an update to this thread and looks like you have a great supervisor in the shop with you.

Click to expand...

Yeah he's a good helper, and it won't be long and little brother will be right there with him. Lol.

hokie_yj said:

Yeah he's a good helper, and it won't be long and little brother will be right there with him. Lol.

Click to expand...

Then you'll have twice the help or twice the opposite of help

Exactly. Lol.

A year later and the rear housing is finally done minus caliper mounts. They should be here in a few days and I'll get this thing off the table and get the SD60 for my LJ rigged up to put the new C on. It didn't turn out quite as sexy as I had envisioned in my head, but it will be a hell of a lot stronger than what I had at least.





Next up for this will be to measure and order the shafts and drive flanges and get the 3rd built.

Just a couple weeks ago I ordered a new 5.0 Atlas to put in this thing too. The 3.0 just wasn't enough behind the Powerglide. So as soon as I can get it pulled I'll have a 3.0 Atlas for sale if anyone is in the market.

Then next up will be start laying out the new front axle to match this one. By my calculations it should take approximately 7 years to build. I've got way to many projects and big ideas in my head, and absolutely no time to complete any of them.

hokie_yj said:

A year later and the rear housing is finally done minus caliper mounts. They should be here in a few days and I'll get this thing off the table and get the SD60 for my LJ rigged up to put the new C on. It didn't turn out quite as sexy as I had envisioned in my head, but it will be a hell of a lot stronger than what I had at least.

View attachment 215562

View attachment 215563

Next up for this will be to measure and order the shafts and drive flanges and get the 3rd built.

Just a couple weeks ago I ordered a new 5.0 Atlas to put in this thing too. The 3.0 just wasn't enough behind the Powerglide. So as soon as I can get it pulled I'll have a 3.0 Atlas for sale if anyone is in the market.

Then next up will be start laying out the new front axle to match this one. By my calculations it should take approximately 7 years to build. I've got way to many projects and big ideas in my head, and absolutely no time to complete any of them.

Click to expand...

Glad to see an update on this build!

Caliper brackets are on, housing is painted, and brake lines ran. Now I just have to order shafts, and get the gears done.

Looking good.

I had to be at work at 5:48 this morning and I didn't sleep well last night so I hit the shop at 3:30 this morning. I didn't take any pictures but I rolled the new rear housing under the buggy and loosely bolted it up. It's done minus getting the stuff to @Jody Treadway to build the 3rd and ordering shafts when I have the $$$.

After that I got the front end up on jackstands and measured and sketched out the existing front axle. By then it was time to head to work so I brought my pad with me and sketched out the layout for the new front axle. The new axle will be about 8" wider, and I plan to move the lower link mounts and shock mounts out 1.5", and move the pinion over 1.5" as well. Of course none of that is set in stone yet. The vertical separation between the links on the existing axle is only 7", that seems low to me so that may need to be addressed as well.

I jumped back on this thing a little bit the last couple mornings. A friend is building a buggy and wants to buy my 3.0 Atlas, so I got started on getting everything out of the way so it can come out. The belly of the chassis is solid, so it has to come out from the top, so everything in the interior has to come out. I didn't take a picture this morning, but all that's left is one bolt still in the seat, pull the front driveshaft, and then the adapter bolts. The transmission and t-case went in already assembled, but I'm hoping to be able to pull just the case.

hokie_yj said:

I jumped back on this thing a little bit the last couple mornings. A friend is building a buggy and wants to buy my 3.0 Atlas, so I got started on getting everything out of the way so it can come out. The belly of the chassis is solid, so it has to come out from the top, so everything in the interior has to come out. I didn't take a picture this morning, but all that's left is one bolt still in the seat, pull the front driveshaft, and then the adapter bolts. The transmission and t-case went in already assembled, but I'm hoping to be able to pull just the case.

View attachment 216547

Click to expand...

That looks "fun"

I finally got the case out this morning before work. It had it all loose yesterday morning, but it was being stubborn separating from the transmission and I ran out of time. The powerglide doesn't have an output shaft seal so the adapter has to be RTV'd, it just needed some persuasion to come loose.

While I have it apart I'm going to follow some advice I was given during the build that I stupidly didn't follow. The way I built the trans and t-case mounts neither could slide back far enough to separate. I cut the tabs off the t-case mount to get it out. I'm going to also cut off the trans mount tabs and clean all that up. I'll rebuild them both, most likely hanging from the top from the removable tubes that hold the interior panels.

Future you will appreciate what current you is doing by changing the mounts

ridered3 said:

Future you will appreciate what current you is doing by changing the mounts

Click to expand...

Yeah, past me was an idiot because I was advised not to build them like that for this exact reason and I didn't listen.

hokie_yj said:

Yeah, past me was an idiot because I was advised not to build them like that for this exact reason and I didn't listen.

Click to expand...

That's typically how that cookie crumbles.

I sat the new case in this morning and temporarily bolted it up. I had to order some stuff today so I can start coming up with a mounting solution to hang them from the top.

hokie_yj said:

I worked on the midship shafts today and got both of them tacked together and the carrier bearing mounts tacked in place. The carrier bearings are WOD's single ended bearings. The weld yoke is a Spicer 3-28-777 welded into a short piece of 2.25"x.250" DOM to sleeve into the 2.5"x.120" tubing. And the end yoke is a forged 32 spline 1350 yoke from Northern Drivetrain.

Starting on the rear shaft.





Here's my redneck fixture I set up to get them as square as possible and the joints in phase. I'm sure there are much better ways of doing this, but it's what I came up with and it worked pretty well for me.



All tacked together.



And tacked in place.



This picture makes it look a little closer than it really is, but it should clear the shifter linkage just fine.



Looking back from where the pinion yoke will be. As you can see this thing will see some pretty crazy angles.



Putting together the front shaft.



Mounted in place.



And looking back from the pinion again. The front shaft won't have near the angle that the rear does.



I originally planned to put short slips in these shafts hoping that would help with vibration. I already had all the parts to make the shortest slip I could find. But I mentioned it in another thread and Ryan from He-Man Machine recommend that I not put a slip in them. And since he designed and builds the bearings I figured I should definitely take his advice.

Click to expand...

I know this is a long ways back. But WOD lists this is a 3"x .095 mid ship end? Did you machine it down to fit the smaller tubing? I would love to find a smaller tube for my midship shaft..

pennsylvaniaboy said:

I know this is a long ways back. But WOD lists this is a 3"x .095 mid ship end? Did you machine it down to fit the smaller tubing? I would love to find a smaller tube for my midship shaft..

Click to expand...

No I didn't machine anything, but it appears they've changed the design since then. The ones I have use 32 spline yokes, and now they use 10 spline.