[toomanytoys2]

Well got a little bit done on the Pojo dog this week end. It was mostly fitment issues, but now I know that my theory will work. In a past post I was talking with Ckau, and he stated that he would rather beef up American made products then work with the china crap. Boy was he ever right. For those who may have forgotten, I will be grafting on the suspension from a Joyner 650 sand spider onto my Yerf. The most critical part of the whole build is setting up the CV joints in the rear. I have done a lot of work on full size off road cars, but this is my first real build in the mini buggies and I will say up front that the Chinese had their heads up their butts when they designed this rear end. To get the most travel out of a CV system, you want to have equal amount of wheel travel up and down from when the wheels, axles and mid axle are in a straight line. However, in this model of Joyner, they got most of the travel by having the suspension setup with an extreme droop and not much upward travel. This puts the CV joint at an angle that will lead to a premature failure. In fact this is a main complaint over on BN.

To figure out my axle lengths, I stuck a broom (redneck) through both wheel bearings. I then jacked up the broom handle until the wheels and mid axle would be in a straight line. This gave me a ball park figure for the total length of what the CV system would have to be. I then cut my “wood” shocks to the length that would hold the suspension in this position.

What my game plan is, is to use the CV cups from the Joyner and weld VW CV cups to them. This way I have many different axle lengths to choose, and I can use a better quality CV. I plan on using Porsche 944 CVs. The inner Joyner CVs are easy to take apart; they just have a C clip that holds them together. However, the outer CVs are a real PITA. To take them apart, you have to get them off of the axle first. However, they are held on to the axle by an internal C clip and it seems that most of the people that try and remove them end up breaking them. So instead of taking a chance, I cut the CVs from the axle right at the cage. This way I could rotate the cage and pick out each ball until they came apart. Then I did some measuring and found that if I can center the rear sprocket, I can use stock bug axles.

So my next step is to set the Polaris engine and Trans into the Joyner rear end to see where I will be able to set the sprocket. So, the last two nights I have been cutting apart the trail boss to separate what I need from the rest of the quad. I will be using the majority of the quad frame in order to keep the structural support needed to keep the CVT system lined up. I cut off the upper section of the frame, even though it has a motor mount built in, but I plan on using it to mount the stock fuel tank. I figure that it will be easier to rebuild this section, then to try and fab up the gas tank holder. So my next job is to sit the Polaris engine / Trans into the Joyner to find out where I can place the rear sprocket and then I can start fabing up the CV system. Also, see my picture of my left over parts, if anyone wants anything, I will give them you them for the cost of shipping. I am keeping the front springs though.