Custom Steering For Ed's LJ20 That Was Stuck 40 Years In The Sierra Nevada Mountains

we'll figure it out the steering wheel's going to be right in your lap today we're going to get a little more organized last time you saw us get the new body setting down on the lj and getting everything kind of buttoned up with the body wise so it's pretty close now so i think the logical thing to do is to make a list so we can stay on top of things and get things going so i think what we're going to focus on in this video is we're gonna work on the steering column [Music] the seats and the power steering pump if we can get all of that plumbed in there we'll be doing good [Music] that's what i thought so when we widened this this thing out it changed some stuff well no it didn't someone's cobbled this together i see what's going on here we gotta take their their stuff out and then this stuff will bolt back in we're in good shape seats are gonna just bolt right into this pig which is awesome that's a that's another step i got him oh yeah it's not made for a tall guy this is not a big machine this is like a tonka toy all right well i'll hurry and unbolt that stuff and we'll put another seat in it [Music] this is going to be interesting this is like unto tight skin [Laughter] guys like you didn't buy vehicles like this no they didn't man this is when there was no springs and foam in the seat you could set way down lower in it this is uh you're right up this is probably not gonna be a touring vehicle we're probably not gonna want to go long distances here because you may cramp up when you're driving sideways or we could do the harry and the henderson thing and just push the top up in a dome we'll figure it out steering wheel's gonna be right in your lap i don't know we're gonna figure that out figuring some stuff out here that seems to be a little close [Laughter] i'm gonna have to shorten that column up some this needs to be down here somewhere i don't think matt could drive this he's a little more portly than me i don't think he's getting in here yeah i don't just kidding yep i'll do some surgery how's the fit jd oh hey i'm thinking i could go for 10 minutes in this thing where's the steering wheel yeah where would you put that steering wheel can you put the wheel out here maybe it'd probably clear all the stuff easier [Laughter] and you think you're gonna fit you're gonna hit your head in there help it all right he'll fit all right so went to the post office today and we got some fan mail joseph best send us this pretty sweet little light we will use the heck out of that thing thank you sir thanks very much what does the light look like we're about to find out i'll bet it's all bright and shiny it is oh yeah magnet magnets right there yep that's pretty cool we also got this in the mail today brandy new so this is the first one this is one of one apex is new badlands 50 or yeah 5500 winch it's small enough but packs a punch to go on the front of this little gold nugget so we'll use it on here and put it to work [Music] oh yeah slide on the subject all right it's time today is that day the golden nugget is gonna steer i gotta make this and this fit down in the nugget so we're gonna do that today and we're gonna get steering all handled it'll be able to turn we're going to get a power steering pump mounted on here yeah we got a bunch of stuff to fit in this space right here doesn't look like there's much space because there's not but it's going to work so we're gonna get after it and get going but then once we get all that in the brakes have to bolt right there so we've got some tight fitting spaces to deal with and i'm gonna try to pull that oil filter off today to see if it'll work probably had 2700 000 comments okay maybe not quite that many but a lot telling me that that oil filter's never coming off of there well you may be right but i'm gonna find out let's do it right now okay all right let's settle this once and for all oh she's undoing oil's we're just going to let it drip oil for a minute because i don't want to get oil everywhere but is this oh i think you guys were worried about nothing look at this factory it's coming off quit threading oh yeah like a glove baby no remote oil filter necessary she fits we ended that debate i can still read a tape measure [Music] the oil filter works i don't have to mess with that anymore it's all done so on to this part this is not going to fit and in its proper form or original form so i'm going to have to cut all of this off put a little tiny skinny rod that's this size in between these two and then eliminate this and hook it straight to there i've got some stuff to do to make it fit because i have approximately one inch of clearance between these so that's what i have to do first things first i got to put steering wheel in and get it set to the proper distance from the seat so that you can drive it then we'll build this part of it once that's in there then i know exactly how much room i have and i can get a steering pump put on hose is hooked up get that part done so let's do her okay so this is basic i just got to cut some little spot welds right here and get this to slide up farther to get my distance and then i'll drill holes and bolt it in with the original mounting stuff so we'll get her done [Music] maybe spray okay let's see what we can do here all right going in good luck all right betsy somewhere right there is where it's gonna be best right there what does that do for us out here it puts it right at the exact wrong spot well that means we're shortening this column that's fun okay so this just got more complicated before i need the steering wheel to mount right there that's where the steering wheel needs to be we'll get that mounted so it sets there we'll weld that to the firewall or to the column and then we'll pull it out and shorten it so i'll show you i'm gonna take take a piece of two inch flat strap and run across this i'll drill them drill it for these holes i'll tap it and then i'll weld it to this right here and then i can put bolts through it and it'll bolt right up steering column will be in it and then i only have to deal with that see it's uh it's interfering basically this isn't going to fit down in there so i'm going to have to shorten this up cut it off so the u-joint will be up here i got i got all day trying to make this steering work it's gonna suck but here we go all right let's see if i can still oh that is not big enough we're going to need to do some some work to that yep fixed it turn that back around there now that should go into there like so if everything was measured properly should go up into there like so and should thread dang it i keep amazing myself on this whole tape measure thing that's pretty amazing okay i'll tighten those up cut those off so they fit flush up against that little welding she's in there all right we'll get this up into position here right there pedal still works all right you're gonna have to set that on tripod or something you're gonna have to hold this i'm telling today don't wiggle i will fire you like you've never been fired before hey fire out down there like i said oh you're just kidding about fires i got a set in this thing i think we're too far over because we're really close to the header right now i don't like it wow that's super bright when you look right into it your eyes feels like one of those clown cars they drive into the rodeo there's no comfortable driver position here this is my head's in the roof the steering wheel is it's just it's too low it needs to be like up here in the dash somewhere to be comfortable i mean that's where it needs to be but it's going to hit the brake pedal and i don't know i'm not satisfied with that well i mean you're building it for ed which is he's older and plays shorter than you that's not gonna work it's not see i centered the steering wheel up with the seat centered that up with the seat which makes that better but makes that worse we're gonna have to fudge this over all right so what i'm doing right here i gotta shorten it this much so we are cutting this off sliding that off of it we'll shorten the splines up ouch it wasn't that severe i mean it just poked me but still hurt hurt my pride a little bit all right she's broke free now i just gotta figure out how to get all this stuff off the end of it a bigger hammer no that's not what we're about to do here i think but that's threaded see that that's gonna make our job more difficult see that pop goes oh this is gonna be easier than i thought oh i thought this was going to be hard not hard this is tube this is an insert welded into the tube so all i got to do is cut this weld take it over chuck it up in the lathe get it all smooth cut this off put it back in weld it in take this hair thing slide it down in that voila whiz bamboo we're putting steering in ed we'll be doing donuts in no time land that's where the bearing runs is right on that so the bearing's got to set here that means i got to cut this off here to make that work we got some length issues to deal with we'll get them okay we're winning this battle here shaft is out we just got to cut this to the right length which is going to be easy we'll cut that off weld it together slide it back up in take this bearing push it up in there tap a round lip on it put snap ring on done [Music] okay should be able to put that bearing right in here [Music] i think everything's gonna be happy [Applause] [Music] that was easy just push the button no that was easy there you go now we're talking this is not perfectly round we'll have to i mean you clamped it in the vine that was easy too okay sure we're wondering do you know what i'm about to do get a hammer with a hammer i'm gonna hammer with a hammer look at that [Music] come here a little rascal okeydokes now just gotta get that straight now and weld it in and we're good to go that's pretty straight [Applause] she's shortened up we're gonna slide this sucker back in here and then tighten all this stuff up it should be awesome should fit in here and then fit in the nugget more importantly and then we'll start building from here to the steering box next it's like this much shorter than it was now so this thing should fit right in there and then i should be able to build all this stuff land's got it all fixed up and we'll weld off of that to this fixed we're going to leave this crumple zone in it if we can so if it ever crashes it steering wheel won't poke him we did this properly all right there's that walla walla that's how we wanted it shorter way shorter there's that there's that we just make those two hook together and steering steer and then [Music] we're gonna go lop that off then we're going to try to drill a hole right in the middle of that and then we'll get a piece that slips between them we'll probably take and cut this off right here slide a piece in it weld those two together something that's small enough that's just barely going to squeak by right there i think it's going to work yeah we'll know here in a few minutes looks like overall it's 14 13 and three quarters so we'll just use a short piece of this this one and get the other one that slides in and out of it so it's collapsible weld this all together and we'll beat the header to fit yeah i don't see any other option right yeah we're gonna go make that fit into there should be pretty easy i'm gonna go cut a little tiny piece of this [Applause] all right so [Music] now we're gonna go ahead and set that down on and weld that thing around it then she'll be bulletproof never to come off again hold in that that seems to be pretty tight to that header land yeah let me get a let me get a header per square device well it's not horrible right yeah doesn't hit the header anymore i think it's good we'll finish weld that thing ed's steering oh by the way uncle joe's in the shop how's it going he had to come check the nugget out so this has to fit right there somewhere yeah yeah we're going to need one of those magic wand waving things for that tester outland yeah i think you should jump in it let me get the get my magic over here it looks like it works pretty good feel like you can take it over sweet jump oh yeah name that movie i probably get two feet uh well cool steering's about whip we'll tighten everything up i gotta drill those four bolts and then we can work on brakes we had to run down to st george and pick up some parts for this old girl from matt and we got in there and ed was there now every time ed sees me he asked me about this thing so this was no different he quizzed me down he's like well how's my nugget coming i said ed the motor's given me grief it's uh it's locked up tight i can't get it free which is not a lie it's true i uh quickly distracted him because he had his rokon out in front of the shop his old motorcycle and i'm like hey is that your old rokon out there and he uh he took me out showed me it but i distracted him and uh he forgot about the nugget so he doesn't have a clue what's going on here for all those people that think he knows he knows i'm working on it trying to get it to run he doesn't know what we're doing oh we'll show you that footage right now they're talking about what mufflers they should use on the golden nuggets let's go see what else we got for this one what is this thing holy mackerel yeah what is that it's a two-wheel drive motorcycle you can touch it it like matches the golden nugget is it like a set pretty much the corvair boneyard there's all kinds of things in here that's it that's the one we need that was easy enough you should have a button yeah that was easy that was easy so this is a one ton steering chip from barnes four wheel drive and it is supposed to have what you need in it yeah perfect hey he's coming everyone be quiet there's so much stuff going on here he has no idea there's ed all right morning edge morning oh these are paul's parts yeah junk for me i'm down here robbing today ed doesn't look like very much but it's it's useful i hope he takes everything trevor your beard is literally glowing in the sun right now it's like glistening what i didn't even put beard oil it's a beautiful sight it's nice did we talk about how trevor's the parts guy for this whole situation if i need something for my own stuff now i just call trevor yeah we're just going to call trevor you know what i love about this right now he's literally two feet away from us and we're discussing this and he has no idea right he's occupied with fans [Music] that's it it's teeny tiny it's cute it's cute that's what we call it it's cute everything's cute this goes in the front axle okay that way when he puts it in four wheel drive it'll be serious this is serious it's been setting for 50 years motorists rose up if you want i got it it runs now got sparked it runs good i got to get a carburetor for it and it's a good bike it's about a 70. i've had six people on it that's awesome i come down a mountain over there at my claim at midnight with just a flashlight and in case of dynamite that's scary that's awesome i want to see you drive this thing when you get it done i want to see you driving it when it's done mine drive it okay 15 miles an hour is about top speed if i unhook the chain i can get 20 out of it i crashed one day going up the mountain and laid there half a day oh and crawl back to the cabin is about a block away it stayed there three days until i got better to get it back oh my gosh went back up the bike tipped it up started right up they're running in position exactly two strokes are awesome like that i like it yep he doesn't have a clue what we're doing to it no and that's the funniest thing is we were literally picking up parts for ed's ride ed was sitting right there seeing us kind of talking about stuff and he still has no idea what's happening i mean he knows i'm working on it yeah we told him that that was the only way ed was going to let me take that yes was that he knows i'm working on it he's super possessive even if it was junk that i took but he likes his stuff he doesn't know to the extent of what we're doing which is going to be pretty cool when he sees her again fit in this thing my head hits the roof and i see out right here that's where i look out of when me and matt are in here our shoulders overlapping each other or yep okay snug as a bug on a rug got your dog loaded up all right well i'll drill those other holes and we got this steering whipped barely cleared it barely clears but it's clear let me get the lights you can see it yep she clears didn't have to trim any fender by the way the guy that sent me this light this thing is freaking awesome thank you very much this is my new favorite light in the truck or in the shop what do you think it looks like that's turned into the world tires man that's actually i'm i'm fairly satisfied with that i like it okay well the old nugget is one step closer to being done she steers she doesn't break yet we got to get brakes that's an important part we still got to deal with this power steering pump but the one i currently have is not going to fit in that hole so we're not doing that today but the steering's on it and i'm happy with it it steers lock to lock everything seems to be good so thanks for watching

Channel: Fab Rats

Views: 298,039

Keywords: fab rats, golden nugget, LJ20, Matts off road recovery, Suzuki Jimny, we'll get em out, fabrication, build series, diy, vintage, rare

Id: 8XU6XgEqe1g

Length: 25min 54sec (1554 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 19 2021