Looks amazing JD! I'm sure there are a lot of things that I might be able to do with the right tools, materials and time, but that, sir, is NOT one of them :biggrin:. Great work!

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it survived the ride at CAW. needed some tuning/ jetting, and broke one master link against a rock. other than that ran/handled good. now to improve on this concept. the cool thing w/ that is i can make sure there are no time constraints on that.
here's some vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9SZrXiGHM0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYT2y8Rsy5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flLMnKCMrxw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5IrnT4ZC4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gr0UBgCwfs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotYahHG7E0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIMo1Nj_Vw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MItBnZjh84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6oFM44N-EM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z38WGlQXCG4

Nice, JD! Love it!!!

Great vids.

:evil:
well leaving for TN next week to go to RIDE ROYAL BLUE,
started working on the crosshammer to get it ready.
re-clutched it (replaced the main spring which was wrong , a yellow intended for a cf clutch) and put in 17G sliders and took out the 17G rollers.
feels better in the shifting department now and spins the 25's pretty good.
tightened up some loose clamps and bolts and replaced the reverse cable and a bad rad fan.
i also wanted to come up w/ a radiator shroud to force air towards the fans better so i came up w/ this contraption and made a stone guard for the back of the radiator

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:evil::evil:

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getting ready for RRB this weekend. trying take care of the lil issues.
found a couple of rattles that have been driving me crazy. one was the light brackets broke, so i made new ones. the other was the DG silencer i threw on there. i tried repacking it but that didnt help so i figured id bite the bullet and finally make a muffler for it. i planned on doing it all along anyway. i eventually want to make a new pipe for it because i was in a rush when i made this one. it's drying now.

Lookin good

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thanks tom.
it's dry and on. sounds better and no rattle. gonna have to take it down the street to test it.

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just returned from RIDE ROYAL BLUE. had an awesome time w/ the wife and great friends. my 400 did me proud but unfortunately the crosshammer broke on the end of the 1st day. the right front spindle snapped. of coarse i had an extra.........left one. we had to leave it up on the mountain and go back for it later. we borrowed the right front from G-ray's 454 reaction buggy which is similar but different . it was enough to get it to drive down. i guess a front end rebuild will have to be in order, i'll add that to the list.

Who was it that lost the rear hub. Watched it on facebook when OOPS the ramp moved. Looks like you guys had a good time. I'm going to have to make the trip there some time.

:evil:
that was G-rays 454, his younger son was driving it. we had to drive his truck up the mountain about 5 miles in. that was the roughest ride of the weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=658854597527019

:evil:

well planning another trip to NC so it's time to start coming up w/ a plan for the front end on this thing. the goal is to make the front end stouter, give it some better arm articulation, eliminate alot of the bump steer, change the wheel combination and offsets to match the 400 and try and gain some potential ground clearance. i'm going to replace the stock spindles w/ some modified joyner spindles like i made for the 400. i've been playing w/ the idea to replace the hubs w/ honda 80's era quad hubs. i did some bearing swapping and i think i can make them work. i have the right inner seals to make it work and did some measuring and ordered the appropriate seals for the outers.
i'm planning on eliminating the chinsy 12mm stock heims and replacing them w/ 1/2" heims and using 5/8" heims w/ hi-mis spacers for the balljoints. the rack is going to either have to be moved or modified to change the location of the tie rods. and i am going to incorporate the adjustable dogbone into the upper arm for caster adjustment, another idea that will be borrowed from the 400.

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one other issue i decided to try and get a grip on is the vibration so i started rigging up some isolator bushing some i made from heavy duty gromets and fender washers and for the rear chain mount i drilled out some iso bushing from a 150. it helps but i need to make a home depot run for some more stuff.

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went w/ the tire sidewall deal, ended up rubber mounting the lights to w/ faucet washers.
front end wise, started disassembling the front, measuring and ordering heims and seals for the honda hub. good thing because the spindle i used to replace the broken on was cracked where the upper ball joint mounts. also started working on ideas to make this caliper work w/ this honda hub. i think i'm on too something.

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gonna replace the stockers w/ 1/2" heims width wise theyre fine just need to hit the holes w/ a drill bit

:evil:
once i got the aftermath of the talon cleaned up from saturday, i spent sunday getting a start on the spindle/hub thing on the crosshammer.
i wanted to get these caliper brackets out of the way so i knew how i was going to proceed. i used some 5/16 coupler bolts and some flat stock. i ended up using to small of a dia holesaw bit so i ended up die grinding out the rest to what i need. i'll get the bigger holesaw for the future, should save me alot of time. i made extra so if i didnt like what was going on i didnt have to revert back to the beginning. the first one i miss judged and needed shimming w/ washers. the 2nd was perfect so i made a third and discarded the first. the jist is it's gonna work. now i can carry on w/ the spindles and arms. i took some shots on the scale of what i was running and what the new setup will weigh approx. 4 lb difference per side. that's alot.

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:evil::evil:

:evil:
started the arms

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well set my self up for progress tomorrow.
made my self a little KPI gauge of sortsfound where the tabs need to set and cut the fat off the spindles hopefully a a pair of finished spindles tomorrow.

:evil:
hated to do it but i had to shorten the top arms an 1 1/2" to get proper KPI. it's different when you're working with existing mounts, another lesson learned. got all the tabs in check and welded one up last night. gonna do the other one now (sat morning) and hopefully get the arms done then its on to rack placement.

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well today i was just trying to get the basis down for a set of arms so i can jig them and dupe them for the other side. they are cooling right now so i figured i'd get the photos up.

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well the 1st set is done so i jigged the bottom and started it. i have it tied down and want it to cool so i'll finish it tomorrow. not really feeling it today. my wife and i spent the evening in the hospital last night as my best friend (and engine builder at the shop), Jeff , lost his father last night suddenly. i know that some have had the opportunity from rides and down at the shop to meet jeff, but most maybe from just hearing the name in my posts. jeff is whom i built "baby huey" for.
but if you would all keep him and his family in your prayers i would appreciate it. my biggest fear in life is losing a parent so i cant imagine how painful it must be...............in the meantime because of that and some other thing in addition the wife and i decided to cancel our trip to go up to NC to ride w/ G-ray and NEKK. not sure w/ all that is going on this week if i'd get the shop time to get this project done and just want to be available if Jeff's family needs anything..........thank you!

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bottoms are done

:evil:
arms are about done, time for the fun part, location of the rack and steering tabs.

:evil:
made the tie rods, painted and retrofitted the hubs w/ the new bearings to fit the joyner spindle stub, made forks for the stock crossfire rack and kind of mocked everything up to get a perspective.
next are making new steering arms for the spindles and location of the rack.

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well today i'm back on the front end after a long gap. been super busy w/ customers stuff but the wife wants to ride so it's time to get this done.
gonna redo the upper arms and tierods that i made the 1st time. just wasnt thrilled w/ them. trying to get this done to shake down on saturday. planning a group ride w/ a bunch of friends and customers so the pressure is on. also gonna try and give the new toys a test run.
these on the other hand , hers is perfect and mine needs work.

Nice

:evil:
all tacked up

Looking Good!!!

:evil:
well i humped on it wednesday and thursday night so we could ride saturday.
got it done and loaded by friday. we get to the park and her throttle stuck with in the 1st 15 minutes. got it back to the trailer and the slide was stuck. what had happened was the throttle cable started coming apart and some cable strands jammed the slide . took it apart cleaned it out and stole the cable from the 400. there was no way after working on it all week it was gonna get parked. i took a test drive and was super pleased with the front end. bump steer was completely eliminated, turning radius was great and you could put this thing in the rough stuff and control it with confidence.
so i would say it was a success. the new brake/ hub setup worked great too. as soon as i get a chance i'll be making this same swap on the 400.

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well if ever there was a place to test a front end , Windrock park was it.
Amber rode great, like a champ, and the buggy held up. she even rolled it once, she was fine except for the fact she could not stop laughing, and the buggy didnt have a tweak in it. we flipped it back over and it was good. the only issue if any is that although the 250 surprised me that it did as well as it did, this buggy could definitely benefit from more power. .............and so could Amber.
either i need a bigger machine for her, or a bigger engine in this buggy..............hmmmmmm or both!well if ever there was a place to test a front end , Windrock park was it.
Amber rode great, like a champ, and the buggy held up. she even rolled it once, she was fine except for the fact she could not stop laughing, and the buggy didnt have a tweak in it. we flipped it back over and it was good. the only issue if any is that although the 250 surprised me that it did as well as it did, this buggy could definitely benefit from more power. .............and so could Amber.
either i need a bigger machine for her, or a bigger engine in this buggy..............hmmmmmm or both!

:evil:

looks like u had a lot of fun