Nashville TJ's Build - Continued

AMS417 said:

I got the set of 4 “blem” 43” stickies for a price I couldn’t believe. Someone bought them from the wholesaler I work for and sent them back for warranty and they sat in the warehouse for 1.5 years. I got them for a crispy Ben Franklin as “scrap”.

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That’s an insane score, Dude.

Well, the Atlas shifter cables I ordered from Advance back in November have now been delayed three times, first to 12/15, then until 12/26, and now until I don't know when.

So, I decided to go ahead and install my spare, and then whenever the new cables get here they will be my spares - so I tore into that today.

First, out with the console and then pull the tcase shifter.



As expected, sure enough after I got it apart I found that the cable end had broken off at the cable.



After getting the front driveshaft out of the way, I was able to pull off the case end of the broken cable...



...and install the spare cable.



After just a bit of fine adjustment, the console is back in, and I have four-wheel drive once again.

hamhawk said:

How do you like that 4 speed? And what ratios you running?

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One of the best things I’ve done to the rig. I run the 2.0 case, with the 2.72 planetary, so 1:1, 2:1, 2.72:1, 5.44:1.

When I wheel, I almost always put the case in 2:1 and leave it there. Great ratio behind the Hemi for trails and most rocks. When I hit something crazy technical, it’s an easy two-fingered shift of the planetary into low. Much, much easier than shifting the case. And just as easy to shift back into 2:1.

RINC said:

Wait just a minute sir, you have a stock console?!!!

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I’ve actually had building a custom console as my next project for many years. I have a Winter’s shifter (like Rick’s) sitting on the shelf waiting. One day…

Apparition said:

View attachment 485746

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Man, even if it was that easy, you’d never catch me shifting that way…..

I posted this over on the 37's vs 40's thread, but since it is a precursor to my next post I've reposted it here in case anyone following has not seen it.

mrblaine said:

Maybe an easier way to understand it. If you look at the upper and lower balljoints, you will notice if you were to draw a line through the center of them, it inclines or leans inward at the top when viewed from the front. That is the steering axis inclination. If you then extend that line down to the surface that the tire sits on, it should roughly intersect that surface near the center of the contact patch so the patch rotates around that point when the tires are turned.

Because of the inclination, as the axle moves up due to a larger tire, the line's intersection point moves outward. That means as a "general" rule of thumb, as tire size increases, you can shift it outward with less back spacing to semi-retain the relationship.

One thing to be very aware of is there is nothing on a front axle steering wise that sucks much more than tires that have to roll to turn. I've seen several cases over the years where the steering wheel will lock up on pavement hard if you apply the brakes hard and or lock up the front and then try to turn.

As the tires are compelled to turn via input to the steering knuckles, one tire has to roll forward, the other has to roll backward. When the slack gets taken up in the splines etc., the system just locks up. If you have good brakes, that can be as little as a quarter turn of the steering wheel. The obvious should also be pointed out which is the leverage against the ball joints is now through the roof and however long they were expected to last with a good relationship is now compromised by more than a little.

Another thing to be aware of is the increased wear factor to just the steering bits. At highway speeds, any impact load the tire sees will be magnified greatly into the steering links and steering gear due to the increased leverage against the system. If there was ever a case for multiple steering dampers to help slow that down, that would do it. Even then, the tie rod ends, ball joints, knuckle tapers, etc. are going to suffer.
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OK, for once Blaine knows what he is talking about....



I'm kidding, of course. But here is a little real-world experience to demonstrate his point. There are many things wrong with my rig - and here is one of them.

When I built the rear 14 bolt a few years ago, I added 2" spacers to my front '60 to match the track width of the 14 bolt (Yes, 2" spacers).

(Blaine - please look away from the post at this point)

Mea Culpa - Here it is:




This of course destroys my scrub radius. My plan has always been to build a new front axle, or retube the pro-rock, to correct it.

As Blaine said, sometimes (maybe always, and I'm just used to it) when stopping it will pull just a bit to the passenger side, and I have to correct. I've never had a problem with the steering locking up as he described - but I run hydro assist which would hide that.

The other issue is that when I really get on it (which with the big Hemi, is saying something) and the front end comes up, it will also pull just a bit to the driver side, and I have to compensate. Then when you let off quickly and the front end comes back down, I have to compensate the other way. It's not horrible, but it's close.

I always thought that I had some kind of steering issue causing this, perhaps bump steer. But my geometry is good, and it does not bump steer over bumps, so I've been at a bit of a loss.

The light went off when I read Blaine's post, so this morning I pulled the spacers for a little science. Here is a before:





And the after:





I took it for a long drive with lots of stops, and lots of lighting it up (which never gets old...). And sure enough, no more crazy steering behavior on stopping or when lighting it up.

But, the fodeez rub without the spacers, so they had to go back on - and the steering issues returned. So I guess I need to reprioritize the new axle...

Before today, I thought my biggest issue with using the spacers was that they keep me from going to a 42, as in a full lock turn at full articulation the spacers would push a 42 into the rear of the wheel well (the 40's clear, but just). That would not be so on a 4" wider axle without spacers.

Thanks for that great post, Blaine.

So after my little test, I'm putting the spacers and tires back on and I noticed I've got just a bit of looseness in the tie road ball joints. Not a lot, but there should be none.

So the first thing I check is the torque on the castle nuts. Sure enough, the passenger side takes a few tugs and snugs right up. Win.

Then I did the same thing on the driver's side - and snap it right off:



I was not worried about hawsing on it and breaking it off because I keep spares for all these joints. So, no worries.

Except when I checked my spare joint bag in the trailer - I did not have this one. I have spares for every other joint, so I must have used this one at some point. So I ordered two. In hindsight, I'm glad this happened in the shop - and not on the trail only to find out I did not have a spare.



You'll notice the length of the new one vs. the broken one. My tie rod was originally from Dynatrac, and although the rod is drilled deep enough, for some reason it was only tapped a couple of inches. Typical of Dynatrac, I guess they originally used a proprietary TRE. No surprise there.

I've replaced this thing a few times, but never had the correct tap to fix the actual problem, so I would just hack off the rod end and install it. Well, the last time I did this I then went ahead and ordered the correct tap for the next time - which was this time. So this time, I fixed it correctly.



And then I double checked that I actually do have all the spares I think I have...

Mike_H said:

So…you’re next phase of the build is a wider axle and 42’s?

I dunno. Wontons and foedees sounds better than wontons and forty twos

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Mike - please don't say "wontons"...