[VitNick]

Any updates? Would love the portals and may sell my motorbikes to pay for them

[joeblow]

First lot will be laser cut laminated jobs. I've also had to design a 1:1 version which won't give as much lift. TIG welder has arrived to weld them up. Just have to sort out the gear blanks. Machinery is just about up and running.

[Polar_Bear]

awesome.

Great to hear these are still a goer!

[VitNick]

The fab work going into these is top notch, keep up the good work. These are looking like a very good option instead of a SAS can't wait to see how the first run goes, I'd offer my car as a test bench but am in Sydney

[zerohex555]

Hay joeblow do you know if a sierra gearbox will fit in my jimny 1998. They are both 1.3l?

[joeblow]

zerohex555 wrote:

Hay joeblow do you know if a sierra gearbox will fit in my jimny 1998. They are both 1.3l?

Not unless you want to be reaching into where the stereo once was to access the gearstick.

[SierraDan]

Do you know/remember what the original diameter the knuckle balls were before you machined them Joe?

[joeblow]

I'm not even sure if I've written that down. I can see the mark around that one where the original dia was.

[SierraDan]

Yeah, no problem. I'll just cut them off and see, thanks.

[got_bar_work]

Any news on the portals.
Did u get a prototype done yet

[Mike_B]

How soon before a portal conversion is on a vehicle, can't wait to see some pics. Also interested to find out how the authorities handle it if it's declared? As I understand it there should be some benefit in the fact that the rest of the suspension is not changed, all the lift comes from the portals and the tyres that are fitted, and the track width is increased as well to compensate for some of the lift. Will be thinking hard about whether I save some money for this conversion, would solve most of the current issues with the Vit.

[hackd]

Any updates.?

[greenzook89]

hackd wrote:

Any updates.?

[Gwagensteve]

Joeblow: Last visited: Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:57 pm

[hackd]

Unfortunately he does not look to be the only one who has not been back in a while....

[Dozoor]

Was an interesting read , and some nice work ,

[suzukikid]

He may get back into these he has extra time on his hands these days......

[Grags]

I was looking at this clip of the rainforest challenge and noticed a few of the cars had smallish axles with portals, anyone know what the axles might be off, or would they be some kind of custom part?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6WgI2r30z4

[Gwagensteve]

(Haven't watched the video) but Volvo C303 is most likely. The Malaysian army scrapped all their C303's in the 90's.
I'm planning a project running a set, but they're much harder to find than they once were.

Roughly hilux sized centre. 5.99 or 6.99 compound rario

[Grags]

Could do a lot worse than to just copy important parts of the design and go from there.. you know.. the R&D has been done, the specification of the materials is there, the design has proven itself over time
Those cars were being thrashed big time and they appear to stand up to it

[tanshi]

Grags wrote:

Could do a lot worse than to just copy important parts of the design and go from there.. you know.. the R&D has been done, the specification of the materials is there, the design has proven itself over time
Those cars were being thrashed big time and they appear to stand up to it

if you find two sets let me know Steve. id split shipping with ya

[got_bar_work]

So Tanshi any chance of picking up where joeblow left off with the portals for vits/gv. Would solve a lot of problems all at once.

[tanshi]

haha i suspect the main reason Joe didnt go any further with this is the reason why i wouldnt entertain it.

TIME vs income. the amount of cost involved in making something like this vs the amount that people would expect to pay.

[Gwagensteve]

Portals are also not the be-all and end-all of capability. Whilst the added ground clearance is helpful, they can make recovery a nightmare because the tyre can drop below its radius. In order to get the car out under these circumstances can be very difficult.

Bill, who I wheel with, has portals and ripped one off when winching out of a stuck because of this issue.

He would prefer mismatched dual wheels (larger on the outside, smaller on the inside) to portals - they provide similar ground clearance benefits without the difficulty of recovery.

[got_bar_work]

I bet coming up with a bolt in cromo cv would sell good. Lux cv r a lot of work and money for something that still breaks and is getting hard to find good stock ones.
What do u think of putting a shock alongside the strut and make a new strut that is just a pipe on some longitudinal bearings
.

[got_bar_work]

Cap a pipe. Turn down to right diameter cap the bottem and weld on the ears. Put a grove in for a circlip and a wiper seal. Slide some off the shelf bearing down . Then turn a thread on the end of a shaft and drop it in . Just use a limit strap to hold it together. Shocks r now off the shelf what ever u want and the strut is just a upper control arm.

[Gwagensteve]

Interesting idea.

have a read of this for reference: http://www.lm76.com/General%20PDF%20For ... (Autosaved)PDF2.pdf

Assuming a 1.25" shaft (which seems like a nice round number) a linear bearing will be 2.625" long, so with retaining etc you'll have about 3" of "dead shaft" to package, not counting top mount etc. That sounds like more than a strut. OD of the bearing is 2" so the OD of the finished "strut" would be around 2.5" They're rated for 520lb of load, which sounds great but I don't believe they are rated for load in the direction it would be being applied in a strut configuration. The Black Racer ceramic type seem like a better option but the physical dimensions are the same (no doubt intended as a drop in replacement for a conventional linear bearings.

Linear bearings also look to be fairly short lived and require a reasonably hard shaft to run on.

With all that overcome, I'm not convinced that that the outcome would be worth it - surely converting to a double wishbone configuration would be preferable?

[got_bar_work]

Stock strut is 320 closed 580 open. Has like 6in dead shaft and can be at least another 40mm longer closed . Means u could have 5in of brearing support and still gain 60mm travel. Back that back to the 40mm safe spot it should be heaps stronger then a strut with only a 23mm shaft. Upper are would be way better but alot more work . Was just a idea after seeing the racing stut body with the bearings

[fordem]

Gwagensteve wrote:

Portals are also not the be-all and end-all of capability. Whilst the added ground clearance is helpful, they can make recovery a nightmare because the tyre can drop below its radius. In order to get the car out under these circumstances can be very difficult.

Steve - can you explain this further please - I'm having difficult with the concept of a tyre dropping "below it's radius".

[missmyljdaze]

Tyre is much deeper in it's hole - below the level of the [original] hub

much more force required to hoik it out of the bog, I can easily picture the extra leverage causing a portal hub getting torn out.