Bebe's Long Travel H3 Build Thread - A Boy Howdy Story

[bebe]

So I'm going to begin the lift project, front diff redux here. When the project is complete I will put it on Pirate. I will not be posting this on HXC - mostly because....well F5 knows what I mean.

ANYWAY we got the ball rolling on Saturday with some pre-mock up, tear down stuff. I'm going to post some pics, without a lot of explanation, only because this thread will be moving very fast.

Things that are changing.....all of it:d

Some of this will be marketable but I'm sorry to say, like an SAS there will be a good amount of fabrication, and that will be one off custom stuff.

As I have promised in the past I will do right by my H3 brethren and do as much as I can to fix what Hummer did wrong for those of us who wheel these rigs.

What you will see int he following pics.

High Pinion Dana 44
H2 half-shafts
rear axle flange

and a pile of for sale parts :d

The goal:

What is being done is upper a-arm relocation and reconstruction, lower a-arm relocation and reconstruction, coil overs.
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[bebe]

So now that all the measuring is done, we are going back tonight to take out the a-arms.

Everything is being cut off the frame There is no going back now!

There are two ways to lift IFS, by using an extended lift knuckle, and dropping the front two cross members - or by relocating both the upper and lower A-arms.

It's important to keep the geometry as stock as possible (because we already know it works). With that we are going to chop off the cross members and build a new sub frame with tube, new A-arms upper and lower like in the pic above.

It's harder to explain than it is to show, so tonight when we get back from the shop I'll post more pics :d​

 

[bebe]

AND readily available since they are used on H2's, 3/4 ton and 1 ton GM trucks!!

You'll never have a supply problem either.​

 

[bebe]

We ran out of time . No chop chop tewnite.

But here is some more dis-assembly:

And another pile of 4 Sale parts

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[bebe]

Moar pics:

The mock up brackets MFS style - this is so they could set the diff in place and take more measurements for fitting the axle flanges.

Of course, using a Torchmate Table means even the mock-up brackets have to be bad a$$ :winkie:

Then they made a mock up flange for the passenger side

The brackets are also going to be used so that the sub-frame for the A-Arms, Steering Rack, Diff support, skid plates etc. can be mounted in their new locations.

Essentially, like I've mentioned before, we will be doing a 4 inch lift, but will be doing it by lowering the A-arms and keeping the stock knuckles.

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[bebe]

LOL I can't believe I almost forgot the most important one !

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A set of 5:13's front and rear with ARBS coming - front and rear :d

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/HummBeeBe/Bebes boyhowdy IFS/IMG_1967.jpg

Here are some coil overs ,..

And my pretty new BeefBus Center Section :Yippee:

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They are custom - and not fabricated yet.

What you see in the pic is a mock up, using a GM 1 ton flange welded to a D44 axle. It is in no way intended for use.

The actual flanges will be made by a local axle guy here KickAssOffroad/Performance Cryogenics who is going to use a 44 rear axle blank to cut and spline, cryo treat, and fit into the front diff as a flange which the 1 ton shaft will be bolted to.​

There is so much of this that will be custom work, but still trying to keep some production pieces.

We will be able to identify:

44TTB diff
Custom upper A-Arms
Custom Lower A-Arms
Custom Axle Flanges
RCV Half shafts with custom length shafts
ARB Air Lockers
Custom Driveline


However, the subframe and bracketry skid plates and crossmembers will be proprietary items owned by Motorsports Fabrication Services in Lincoln CA.

When all is said and done we will have to see what they want to do with the Cad files

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[bebe]

In our quest for the ultimate travel for a street/rock rig, as we were playing with angles and placement for the diff, upper and lower a arms, Jeff was not feeling good about the Hi pinion 44.

So after a bunch of talking, thinking and staring, RICK AND JEFF THOUGHT - "HEY, WHAT ABOUT A LOW PINION?"

So just then a friend of ours called and said, "hey I'm coming by the shop to check out Bebe's rig and show you some cool trailers I bought".

Well he arrived, they all chatted, and Rick mentioned he was on the phone calling around to wrecking yards looking for a front low pinion 44.

Dave says "heck I got one in my back yard!" Rick asks, "How Much do you want for it?" Dave says" You can have it, I want it out of my yard!"

Well damm if every other wrecking yard Rick found wanted 400 bucks. So Rick hops in the MFS truck and heads over to Dave's and brings back this:

SO Rick and Jeff started trimming,

and we ended up with this:

Now, the point was that the retarded oil pan was becoming a big problem, so the point is to get the diff as centered as possible, to completely maximize the travel.

The stock H3 has less than 5 inches of travel. Yep that's right - 5 inches. There is not a girl on this planet that would be satisfied with that.:d

Our goal is 10 inches. With the high pinion set up we would have maxed out at 7 inches. Not good enough. So by using this low pinion diff, we achieved much better oil pan clearance and thus - changed the travel to over 9 inches

"Now that's more like it" she said :d

Here are some pics of the ratty new straight axle chopped up and placed - nearly center, to maximize travel.

When chopping it up, Rick and I saw how thick the axle tubes were, Rick and looked at each other and said "SCORE"!!!

Jeff started whipping up some handy dandy mounting (again...these are not actual mounting brackets, they are MOCK up brackets...Not intended for USE) brackets so he could get the positioning right, and viola...my new diff!!! (yes we are going to have it media blasted and cleaned up before it goes together).

Tires are ordered, Shocks are ordered, RCV's are coming, flanges are being fabricated - we are almost ready to start BUILDING!!!

Next week is gonna be BIG.:Yippee:

Jeff has some seriously mad skills, and I just can't thank him enough for doing this for US, the H3 community. He want's it to be perfect - bad ass and solid from the time it hits the ground to the time it hits the trail.

The build is only the beginning - the effect on the H3 after market industry will be legendary ,..
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[06 H3]

This is a ground breaking build! love it. Can I ask about the a-arms and drop bracket?

For a-arms...are they longer then stock and was the track width brought out? It seems like the only way to bring out the trackwidth using stock rims, backspacing and no spacer is with longer a-arms so I was just wondering if the tires came out a bit.

Drop bracket: Was the drop bracket set at that size due to personal preference or was it set like that because the axle wouldnt fit if it was smaller?

Thanks, Chris

 

[HUMMER INVESTMENTS]

:corn:Any good pics of you in Moab?

 

[atvspeed4]

Not sure if this thread is ever checked anymore, I am looking into doing a simpler diff swap and am looking into using the 2500hd cv shafts with all stock suspension. I remember reading on pirate that the 2500hd cv fit into the wheel bearing but did not clear the lower control arm balljoint. Was this within stock suspension travel?

 

[Paladine71]

Bebe, you left us hanging... :corn:

Could we please beg you to finish this thread? Especially with the finished flex pics that you posted in the old forum???? :horns:

 

[bebe]

So after more study we decided to try a low pinion D44 straight axle. Our reasoning was this way we weren't trying to tube and flange a TTB, we could just cut off the straight axle to fit and weld on axle retainers with set 20 bearings. We felt it would be much stronger than tubing and boring the TTB. Luckily a friend who was at the shop that day had a Dodge 8 lug 44 in his backyard, so we ran to his place and picked it up - free.

After some cutting and some cleaning we are where we are at today. The retainers are centered on the axle tubes and ready for welding, but the shafts are not going to be here until Tuesday now at the earliest.

More mock up brackets were cut and we welded into place, with pinion angle set.

Rear shot shows how much closer to center was achievable with the low pinion vs the high pinion.

At that point we turned down the axle retainers so they would fit on the outer axle tube, thus allowing us a stronger centering placement for the axle. Which, is where we are today.

 

[bebe]

Here is a quick mock up with a GM AAM925 short side flange

We've since centered it on the axle tube for the retainer to be tacked on...awaiting my custom 35 spline flange from Dean :smokin:

 

[bebe]

Passenger flange done - driver side ready to cut/fit. (Thank you Performance Cryogenics) I'm so spoiled having Dean right up the road - I get personal pick up and delivery !! It's a 300m 9" axle cut and splined (35).

When both sides are complete, we will have everything we can cryo-treated. Saturday we are mounting, mocking up a drive line and making the a-arm templates.

The $80 one ton shaft is giving up +/-10" of travel, we are going to have a custom length intermediate shaft made next. That should get to the planned 11" bumped and strapped.

 

[bebe]

Here is a pic of the sub frame as we were mocking things up Saturday:

Here are the A-Arms mocked up:

Now for the sick part - I've never seen anything like this before, so to me it looks freakish:

Full droop

Ride height

Full Compression front view w/6.5 inches GC to the front diff:

Ride height front view w/11.5 inches GC to the front diff:

Full Droop front view w/ 16.5 inches GC to the front diff:

 

[bebe]

i might have missed it but u are using the facory h3 rack and pinion correct?
does the factory rack and pinion work well?

We are going to try it. It is a good R&P but it has at least one flaw that we know of and that is the mounting. We will fix that and add some beefier tierods and see how it goes.

It is known to separate at the 'breakaway" shown here where the silver an black meet. If we add a mount shown in the pic, hopefully it will not bend and separate.

 

[bebe]

Thanks to Will at 4Wheel Parts Sacramento - He delivered my new 365/75 R16 KM2's this morning!!!!!!

Here they are next to my 45K mile 315/75 R16's

38's look good! No Sawz All required!

For the A-arm attachment to the knuckle - a 1 1/4 inch heim (Thanks Dan at RuffStuff!) with a 7/8's"grade 10 cold rolled bolt made by CAT....

 

[bebe]

Here is one 38 mounted on the Hutchinson

 

[bebe]

So today we cycled the suspension one last time, a little fine tuning, making sure as suspension was being cycled with the 38 mounted, that our geometry was still good.

It cycled perfectly!!!

So, Rick had the honors of getting out the plasma cutter, and started cutting off all all the junk on the frame.

 

[bebe]

And while Rick was busy cutting, Jeff finished up the differential. It is 29 7/8 flange to flange. The OEM AAM 760 IFS was 30 ".

And it is now ready for Dean to cut the long side.

Here is the short side

Next step is to set up the drop cradle, mount the axle and fabricate the A-arms.

 

[bebe]

So camo is informing me there are more appropriate Heim Joints to use for this build - as it is a daily driver/trail runner. (TechTim should patent that term - I really think it's going to catch on :smokin: )

We have chosen a 1.25" Heat/Cryo Treated Chromoly Rod ends for the mounting of the upper and lower A-arms. We are using the 7/8" to attach the upper A-arms and Delrin Bushings for the Lower A-Arm.

I'm looking at the Kartek, Poly Performance and McKenzies sites for other options.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks

 

[bebe]

Frame ground off and cleaned

Drop cradle IN!!!

 

[bebe]

When the stock rack went back in, the hard lines were so close to the diff cover, we knew it was not going to work. My heart sank thinking about a $2,500.00 -$3,500.00 steering upgrade for a daily driver.

So we went on a quest - and I have to say this is one of those times when the Internet really pays off :smokin: There are a couple of sites, powersteeringpros.com and o'reillys.com that show actual photos of the product. I first identified similar vehicles, with similar or higher payload, Curb weight, GVRW, turning radius's and track widths.

And we came up with 3 viable options - and went with this one:

The hard lines and fittings are on top of the rack, the pivot points are perfect for the widened stance of the H3.

Jeff's getting started on finishing up the mounts for the diff and steering, and has already gotten some work done on the upper and lower a-arms.

The worst is over.

 

[bebe]

Rick picked up some bling for me yesterday at Tognottis - I am going to be Rockin' this!!:laughing:

Here is a comparison of the new Tie Rod inner vs the OEM (left). Jeff is going to fab up some Clevis Mounts and we are trying to locate a source for those Monster 24mm bolts that will have to screw into the rack. We will be using the 3/4 in heim from RuffStuff :smokin:. Unfortunately PSC, Howe and ProAm don't make Clevis's that big.

 

[bebe]

Dean brought in the Clevis blanks, and a couple extra for Jeff to machine later. This 2 inch diameter threaded 24x14mm.

And for some perspective:

The 38 hung on the rear at full droop;

Lower A-Arm;

Upper and Lower A-Arm attached:smokin:

And a little vid of it working Click on pic and it should play