Duffer's debris

Duffer's debris or the CJ 3B follies

After a long hiatus, I'm going to resurrect this thread for all my 3B projects. To try to make things easier to find in a search, I will edit this first post from time to time with an updated index. I tend to get a little frustrated looking through 15 pages of posts on some threads trying to find what I'm looking for and still not find what I'm trying to search for. Current B projects all revolve around replacing the stock front axle (a D25 with Spicer shafts) with a hopefully much more robust D44. As with most Jeep ecology projects, a lot more than just the axle assembly is involved. Stay tuned.

Index

Post 1: Winch fairlead rollers



Well, for those occasions where I actually have time for Jeep projects, I will start this thread. This first post is for those interested in building your own plastic fairlead rollers.

The material I used was McMaster-Carr 8497K413, 1.750" diameter acetal copolymer rod which was $12.71/ft and all 4 rollers used just slightly less than 24". This material is actually pretty hard for plastic and you can't get too aggressive machining it or it will chip. It took me about 1 hour measuring, lathe time, and some minor tweaking to get them built and into the fairlead frame.

My tolerances are a bit tighter than the stock steel Warn units (made from 1 1/4 sch 80 galvanized pipe/nylon bushings). The roller bores were cut to 0.630 for 0.005 clearence on the shafts, and I allowed 0.020 for the side clearence (short rollers are 4.120", long ones 7.535").

I am going to run these "dry" as I think adding some lube will only collect grit and accelerate wear. For about $25 and an hours time:





The weight of the stock rollers is 5.7 lbs (2.6 kg), the replacements 2.5 lbs (1.1 kg). And yes, that is still the 5721 on there with steel cable, but the 8274 with rope will be on it before it gets out of the garage. I should know how these hold up by the end of the summer.

 

Nice work. I am curious about the wear properties.

 

Nice! outstanding job, i bet it holds up well...