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RareCJ8

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  1. After a full summer of many trail and street miles the design is holding up strong. Zero issues. Still need to get weighed…. Went thru the spare parts/tool box and purged over 60 lbs of not needed stuff. Need to lose even more weight, lol.
  2. still need to go get weighed. am going thru the tool/spare parts box looking to shed weight. Just how many spare parts does a CJ need to carry? i am guilty of overthinking what-if scenarios. working to keep it to what can really strand me and what items needed to get me to pavement? New serpentine belt (vacuum sealed fresh with the food saver and a diagram to illustrate belt routing) ; various jeep sensors and the welding kit. Spare left turn and right turn tie rod end (these also fit the drag link for universal application) and a few other items. No need for a spare stub shaft, spare hubs or other heavy items. the weight loss plan is in effect! MIGHT DITCH THE COFFEE CAN OF ASSORTED BOLTS, ODD PIECES OF METAL FOR FRAMS OR ? REPAIRS, FLUIDS AND ON AND ON... (oops sry for the all caps). Now that rear suspension issues are ready for torture testing and the new engine is running good, added a new custom 2.5" exhaust using a magnaflow muffler. Nates precision did that for me. New engine needs larger exhaust to better expel gasses, not restricted like the old oem unit. yes, it was literally from 1981.
  3. look closely at the bolt head stamp. CAT as in Caterpillar. Had difficulty sourcing bolts with sufficiently long shoulder so the weight of jeep rests on that and not exposed threads at the nut end. Resting on exposed threads is not a good idea although it seems OEM and aftermarket suspension folks say otherwise. source Cashman Equipment Cat Dealer Sparks, NV. They have nearly every imaginable bolt u can ever dream of.
  4. The front is spring over axle with shackle reverse. the old CJ pax were bent and tired. Swapped to YJ springs that are designed for SOA. Took some fab work since the YJ pax are longer and wider. The front fixed mount was made from scratch and works well and how we set the frontbump stops. Only thing it wass sitting too high and among other things, created rear squat. So the mounting holes relocated 2" higher meaning the front sits 2" lower. and testing shows its a perfect match. Now sim,ply shorten the front chevy bump stops 2" and we have a winner.
  5. Correction: the only purchased items are the truss and diff cover and the cover had to be modified to clear the internal ARB air lines.
  6. After countless hours researching axle wrap solutions and real-world user reviews, we settled on a slip/twist design. We assembled all of this from scrap from the junk (aka goodie) pile. First was a replacement rear diff cover that incorporates a short over axle truss. This design avoids welding directly to the center section and ties in to the diff cover. The outer ends easily weld to the softer metal axle tubes. This also strengthens the axle tubes from a tendency to spin in the center section under extreme torque loads. Routing the ARB line was a slight challenge. From as close to center as we could go the mount attached the ladder bar forward near the belly pan using a left over JK style panhard 'johny jint.' . Two pieces of tube fit together (with a grease fitting) and so far experiencing zero wrap or pinion climb. no more soft take offs-- solid. More to follow.
  7. am hesitant to add more leafs to rear packs since this will limit droop and compression. More of each is why went to the chevy springs over the OEM packs. Been reading a lot about fighting wrap. the leading contenders are similar to these as below. different designs and each with pro and con. Attaching to the axle tube can bring on unwanted movement of the tubes in the center section. A bar will add to the direct torque. beefing up the tube to center is a possible plan. The other idea is to base a bar off the u bolt plate, mounted in double asheer and the fwd mount can twist/rotate to accont for articulation. With this idea need one each side. Some suggest a telescoping design to allow the bar to follow the spring arc. Still researching. Just upgraded to Yukon front hubs. pulled the trigger on this but it is 6 months back ordered. These default to lock if broken compared to open with the Warn hubs.
  8. yes, the spring/shackle hangers depicted above and in the ditch are out boarded and now the spring is free to move unhindered. observe the hanging tires are off the ground. so bumps in right place and noting fancy-- OEM GM bump stops from the wrecking yard and easy on/off with threaded studs. No need for fancy $$$ gas filled bumpstops. Will go see the spring shop guys next week. hopefully able to add to the set i have-- and from whom i bought them.
  9. once the new YJ springs were set up in front took rig to a local creek for flex testing to help locate placement of the bump stops. Using OEM GM style bumps. passenger door open is a boo boo for good photos... with the bumps installed we tested it again and its perfect. suspension cycles nicely and makes no contact with sheet metal. Nice and clean. lots of thought went into this build and the rear axle wrap is the last major barrier to getting this out on the dirt.
  10. local spring shop can add some arch to them to address rear squat. Pix show rig sitting as ready for a trail ride and 1/2 tank fuel. scales are in the works eventually. Spring guy can also add a stiffer leaf to the pack which makes sense but not too much to defeat flex and trail manners. fine balance. I've yanked the pax in and out so many times i have it down-- especially after cutting off, weld in and cut off , weld in the spring hangers. The old springs were located according to jeep OEM location and fitted to the Ford Sterling 10.25 axle. turns out the spring perches on the ford axle are a bit wider than the spring hanger locations. Careful loos shows how had to outboard the hangers to match the axle perch. No more leaf spring binding, which was an earlier problem. this is what i got before the hanger mounts were out boarded. fast way to destroy spring bushings.
  11. all rear driveline U joints are 1410 series throughout. this is side profile, red lines show where front/rear spring hangers are located.
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