Project: Argoceptor

[great white]

Working on the firewall:



I was planning to a completely new firewall out of diamond plate aluminum, but I think I'm going to do a combination of the original firewall and aluminum pieces.

Basically, I decided I don't want aluminum edges rubbing against the plastic tub walls and possibly wearing them away or thinning them over time.

[great white]

I can’t believe it took me nearly the whole day to make this one plate on the firewall:



That stupid diamond plate did NOT want to form at all.

Now I have to decide what I want to do for the shifter. I could just re-cut the horizontal slot and put the stock shifter rod back on, but that just seems so much like a “cop out” after all the other custom work I’ve done....

[glen1971]

Lotsa great pics and it looks like you're doing a great job at thinking outside the box with your machine.. I've gotta ask though.. With all of that diamond plate, won't it be like driving a mirror down the trail? I'd have visions of getting a sunburn in November from the reflection..

[great white]

Lotsa great pics and it looks like you're doing a great job at thinking outside the box with your machine.. I've gotta ask though.. With all of that diamond plate, won't it be like driving a mirror down the trail? I'd have visions of getting a sunburn in November from the reflection..

As previously mentioned, I’m considering paint colors....

[john swenson]

it looks classy with the diamond plate. there are anti glare spay on products you may want to check out . '' glarebuster '' is one and rustoleum makes a spray on anti glare product . just punch in '' spray on anti glare products '' .... johnboy va.

[great white]

it looks classy with the diamond plate. there are anti glare spay on products you may want to check out . '' glarebuster '' is one and rustoleum makes a spray on anti glare product . just punch in '' spray on anti glare products '' .... johnboy va.

I'll check that out.

I do like the diamond plate, but like I also mentioned, I've had cars with things like chrome steering wheel centers and such and when the sun hits it.....Kablam! you're blinded. It's not something I care to experience ever again, so paint might be my only option....

[great white]

I've been going through various linkages for the shift mechanism, but it just isn't going to work.

The problem is the Argo transmission needs such a wide arc to shift fully from reverse to high gear that there's just not enough room to make the linkage fit and have the shifter not protruding into the driver/passenger leg/knee space.

The alternative is multiple rods and bellcranks to make it work and that just gets needlessly complex and introduces more places for "slop" and looseness. Not a feeling of quality to say the least.

So I think I'll look at a push/pull cable shift mechanism. That give me the option of putting the shifter nearly anywhere I want it. For example, I could even put it on the left side of the seat if I need to.

My back is pretty messed up today (as well as my shoulder) so I'll probably limit myself to just designing it until everything calms down a bit.

[great white]

sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you......

I'm admitting defeat with the shift lever. I've tried rods and levers and cables, nothing is working out. Only thing that seems to shift the Argo transmission (at least acceptably) is a lever directly connected to the shift shaft.

So, I'm just going to make a new lever, cut a slot in the firewall and be done with it. I've got better things to do with my life than fighting with a shifter that just....won't..... work....

[great white]

Been taking it easy the last couple days and haven’t touched the Argo.

Thinking I’m going to pick at getting the firewall done today.

[great white]

Getting there on the firewall:



Still some work to do making the bits look nice, but its in, it fits and it’s functional.

I still want to do a few things with the shifter. I’ve go the old shift ball on there, but I want to rig up a brake for the driven clutch. Sometimes, there just enough belt drag to rotate the driven clutch, even when the drive clutch is fully disengaged. Shifting with even this light rotation makes it hard to shift and grinds gears. My plan is to use a bicycle rubber stopping caliper to grab the driven clutch and hold it while shifting. A small lever on the shifter lever will actuate it, which means a slight redesign of the shifter lever end in the cockpit. Nothing complicated, probably a “grip” style shifter handle and the cable lever. Something along these lines, although nowhere near as fancy looking:



I’m also tired of looking at that open engine bay, so I’m starting the work on the fiberglass hood...

[great white]

Not my best fiberglass work, but for the first lay-up, it’s a decent enough start:





The basic shape is at least there. Now it’s layering in some reinforcing layers and building up the outside to where I can shape it properly.

Not sure what color to paint it when done. I’m thinking orange like the argo, or maybe a flat black. Dunno, thats a long way off. Lots of time to think about it....

[great white]

Decided to just ‘glass back in the center piece rather than make the hood “buldge”:



The buldge was for the vf750f engine and now that I’ll orobably be running the Kohler for the next couple years, it didn’t make sense to bother with it for now.

It’s coming along ok. Still lots more work to do before it will be ready for paint.

Of all the things I have to do, bodywork has to be the most sespised for me. Sooo much dust....everywhere.

[great white]

So two things I’m planning to do to the Kohler M18:

1. Add a remote oil filter
2. add an oil heat exchanger

The Kohler is a little unusual for a small engine in that it has a full pressure oil system. Thats a nice feature, it even though you could have bought it with a filter and cooler, mine does not have them.

The filter is desirable because, well, it’s an oil filter. Any time you add a filter to a system, its a good thing.

The oil cooler/exchanger I have two purposes for. The first is obviously cooling engine oil, but the second is to use the oil cooler to dump heated air into the cabin area. Simple enough to build with a fan and some ducting.

The filter isn’t a problem, I’ve got a remote filter kit thats been ha ging around for a couple years now. The cooler isn’t a problem either as I’ve got a couple different sized coolers lying around from various projects.

The engine itself has a block off plate where the factory oil filter woukd bolt on. The adapter is prety hard to come by, only popping up on places like ebay infrequently and expensive when they do. So plan is to grab a 1/2” block of aluminum and machine my own adapter plate. Thats a pretty easy little piece to spin out.

[great white]

Been a while since doing anything to the argo. Got some tig welding done and more wiring.

Welded up a guard/splash shield:



It’s not crooked, it’s the angle the pic was taken at that makes it look “off”. Now when I’m crashing through the bush, the winch has some protection. The diamond plate also serves as a splash shield on water entry. Water won’t really hurt the winch, but no need subjecting it to more than needed. The shield will also help prevent water from rushing in through the grill opening. Any that does make it in will be easily handled by the bilge pumps. I have one pump set on “auto” and it turns itself on via a float switch. Theres a second pump on the other side of the engine and that is tied to the manual switch on the bilge pump control panel. “Auto” only arms the float switch pump, manual I have rigged to run both pumps. Reason being; the float switch pump deals with whatever small amounts finding its way past the axle seals, but when it’s obvious something has gone very wrong and theres a large leak, I hit “manual” and both pumps start chucking water out as fast as they can. My reasoning is if I’ve got a big problem (like punching a hole in the tub), two pumps going at 2500 lpm might give me enough time to make it back to shore. I’ve got a big deep cycle battery in the back (group 24, agm), so the pumps can run for a good long time before running the battery down.

Then I went at making an exhaust shield:



I just tig-ed a piece of 1/8 flat stock to the existing 1/4 flat stock that already formed the lower cap. No moreleaning over the side and burning my legs.

Then, made the housing for the switches, installed the speedometer and wired it all up:



The honda rubicon switches on the lh bar don’t work right now, except for the “up/down” shift buttons, which I repurposed to work the winch “in/out”. Works nicely and its right at hand when I need to winch while trying to drive out of a “stuck”. The rh bar has the “thumb throttle” from the rubicon. Works ok, maybe a little better than the twist grip. But I do need to make a lever for the front of it so you can run the throttle either by pushing on the thumb throttle of pulling on the lever. The thumb throttle can get a little tiring on the thumb and it would be nice to be able to let go from time to time to rest the thumb. The rest of the switches will eventually get wired up to their intended purpose, which will free up some dash switches for more functions.

Also tidied up the engine bay wiring and added a fuse panel:




Nice and neat and the fuse panel still has 6 slots open for future “add ons”.

Theres lots of other small things that have been added/finished. Tomorrow I’m going to take it out for a burn. Time to get a little payback from it. Then I need to work on things like the side and rear search light, the tail/brake lights and stitch up some seat covers.

Still a long way to go, but making progress...

[great white]

Well, I "repaired" a wheel that was consistently going flat. It was rust on the bead surface and a round with a flap wheel and some paint sorted it out.

But, it made me think about something I've had in the back of my mind for a while now: bead locks.



Welding isn't an issue as I recently picked up a 250 amp tig:





Between the tig and mig, no issues putting them together.

But, there's 8 wheels on the argo, which means 16 rings to cut out and weld. If you want to be really picky about it, it's actually 32 circles to cut. One for each ring and another cut inside the plate to make the inner ring:



Waaaaay too much work to do that with angle grinders or jig saws. Checking prices on having them cut out just gets really foolish, really fast.Finding anything "ready made" just doesn't happen for the tiny rims on the Argo.

So, rather than spending lots of money and only getting a set of argo bead lock rims, I bought one of these instead:



Chinese plasma cutter, 50 amp. Supposedly good to 1/2", but I won't be cutting much more than 3/16" mild steel. Reviews on the machine are mostly good, with a few "Chinese junk" or "worked for a week" comments. I won't be using it much, but when I do it should be for fairly long periods (ie:cutting

So set up a circle cutter, buy some steel and go at it. I might end up spending a little more than I woudl have if I'd had a local shop cut them out, but now I'll have a plasma cutter I can use again and again.

Will probably come in handy as I'm going to have 16 left over 3/16" round circle plates..... rofl