04 LJK Repair, Redo, Recycle - The 3 R's of a First Build

[B00mb00m]

First thing was to pull the axle and remove brackets. Y'all don't need to see that. It's messy and tiring.

Second was to fit the truss. The savvy truss didn't quite fit the Jk44 so had to lift the stanchions on the side by remaking with some 4.5" bar.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to tie the cast mount into the truss. If I had been smarter before cutting it down too low (before lifting the truss) I could've tied it in but... You know I've mentioned I'm an amateur.

 

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Glad to see you taking the time to do it right! Excited to see updates

 

[B00mb00m]

Midarm brackets otherwise fit quite well. I don't have anything to note beyond the UCA Mount is very close to the firewall so use the measurements precisely from the instructions.

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/savvy-mid-arm-install.16426/
I painted everything with weldable primer prior to fitment and tack welding. You can weld these complete now but I waited until everything was done to complete weld just in case.

I also had to notch the truss for the pad in the housing on the JkR44. I removed the connector spliced in wires and RTVd around the wires. I filled in the lug holes with metal / weld. At the end I added a brace between truss and leg around the notch I made. Last image shows that.

 

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Did you use steel-it? Or a different brand?

 

[S.McArthur]

pre-built JK44 axles from ECGS

How do you feel about them now? I've been eyeing a set, but I've read a few things I have concerns over.

 

[B00mb00m]

Did you use steel-it? Or a different brand?

I picked up this stuff from the auto body paint supply store locally. It seems to weld just find and provides good corrosion protection also as there are places I haven't covered the primer (inadvertantly) and its not showing rust.

 

[B00mb00m]

Next up I got the PSC steering box in (pitman off).

When i ordered parts i really had no idea how I was going to figure out how to put the coilover hoops in just right. I count it a huge blessing to have stumbled onto @toximus thread and to be in contact with the master of TJ @mrblaine . With the help of Toximus's write-up and specific guidance from Blaine on how to un-fuck myself on a few occasions it pulled through. So what I'm trying to say is this has all been done before to a similar extent and I'm not the source but I will tell you what I did and why in case it furthers your knowledge, confidence or build.

With steering box in and frame and axle link brackets on next comes rough axle placement. You have to decide what limits or locates your axle. If you're starting from scratch like with coilovers you could essentially set the pitman arm location, push the trackbar forward till it clears, move it up to let the diff cover slide under and align with the pitman arm. From here I could make rough links and start some cycling to see what my possible up-travel limits are.

If you're not doing coilovers then what will probably located your axle is the coil buckets. If i were doing a JK swap without coilover i would center the coil on the axle tube JK-esque not offset to the front TJ-esque. THis will allow you to run steering as is pictured.

1. Pitman arm.
I went with Reid knuckles which lift the drag link (highsteer) and raise the tie rod also. With a stock pitman arm and the raised tie rod. It was immediately clear the tie rod would be contacting the pitman arm first. In order to pick up the pitman arm i ordered a Parts Mike PM536FPA. They will drill it for you also. The method of choosing a hole location will be described later.
2. Trackbar.
For me, I liked my existing Trackbar mount from the first JK swap. It is a poly performance bracket and I wanted to try to preserve this mount. My goal here is 6" uptrave at <22" frame height on 37's. So it's not real aggressive in gains. This is my locating feature for the axle. At the end of this I could've moved axle forward maybe an inch and up 3/8" if i had moved trackbar mount. It was worth it to me to leave as is. Still got my 6.
3. Diff Cover.
I had the Dana finned diff cover and it had to go as it a limiting feature. Went with a currie high clearance diff cover. I can't find the link right now. It has the integrated lower skid. This allowed me to snug up the axle real close to the track bar.
4. Rough links.
I went with steel lower links and re-used the metal cloak joints I had on my short arm lift to save a couple bucks. First cycle showed I going to lose some uptravel by contact between UCA and the motor mount, so for the upper i switched to Currie 9113 1" thread joint with aluminum 1.75" OD link from Wide Open Designs. Both Savvy guys and others have huge dislike for MetalCloak joints. I am still running them but will consider swapping them in future to curries and see if theres a difference. I am planning to run all currie joints when i get around to the rear 4-link. Now... pictures!

 

[B00mb00m]

With axle centered side to side, and pushed as far forward a I wanted now the track bar mounts on axle could be tacked in and hoops / coilover added.

This was the really intimidating and exciting part. The telescoping trick was a life saver here. Coilover hoop is the genright kit with removable bent crossover hoop. I ordered the kit with a straight bar but due to my hoops being kind of low the straight bar wouldnt work. This is where Blaine's guidance and Toximus thread helped so much.

This is an iterative process. Tack & Cycle. Maybe that should be the name of this project because I did this A LOT!!

I initially was planning to mount lower CO mount behind axle like the stock shock mount but from a structural perspective I thought inducing a moment on the axle from shock forces is less efficient of a load path and additionally seeing toximus's trials with the mounting locations made it apparent on top of the axle should be easiest. I considered mounting the CO mount on the C but due to the JK44 c strength reputation and the fact that I was planning to mount trackbar on C also I put the mount on top of the tube as close to C as possible but with enough clearance to clear spring at full articulation. TACK & CYCLE! had to untack those and move them ever so slightly inboard.

I chose to start with 2 deg of lean in for the coilover. Had to start with something and this was near where tox had started. It worked for me but had I leaned in farther the cross over and fender cutting / mounting would've been easier. due to 12" CO and near vertical you'll notice the hoops stick outboard farther than lots of builds.

Check all your important positions:
1. Full stuff straight up. Turn left right.
2. Full up pass full droop drive. Turn left right
3. Full up driver full droop pass. Turn left right.
4. Full droop turn left right.

Check drag link, trackbar, coils to frame, coils to tire, upper control arm to motor mount, tie rod to pitman arm, driveshaft to exhaust, driveshaft to transmission, check all misalignment joints that they aren't maxed out.

 

[B00mb00m]

Once shocks were in acceptable position, I redid all the sweeps to find good locations for the air-bumps, hydro-bumps whatever you want to calll them.

I chose air bumps because i always like the racer style air-bumps, because i got a good deal on them, and i thought i could probably set my CO valving a bit lighter to give me better ride on the road and rely on bumps to control my bottoming.

For bump installation, my near vertical CO's made bump mounting very easy. I had lots of room to mount the cans off the side of the frame. I wanted to keep the bumps close to the frame just for mounting strength. I used the poly performance can mounts + gussets.

The driver side mount i did have to put at a different height on the axle due to the truss ending in the location i wanted to put the bump. I previously had the Artec swap kit brackets on and i was able to salvage the axle bump pad that sits inside the spring and re-use it here. I hung it off the front of the axle slightly and gusseted it back to the LCA mount. I was also able to tie in to the top of the truss which I liked as well instead of having all the torque in the truss reacted at the tube weld only.

Pass side mount was just a piece of flat plate that i cut and bent. I tacked all the pad mounts in and then moved onto the sway-bar and hydro-ram mount documented in the next post.

I set my coilovers and bumps to essentially bottom at the same time when going full up. I probably should have set my air bumps to set full bump then set my CO 1/2" or so higher so I could've taken advantage of the highlines fully. As it stands I have good clearance on articulation and can easily turn full lock at Max articulation.

 

[B00mb00m]

Fastforwarding slightly to the complete welds. Burning in the can mounts and the hoop gussets for real was a real challenge as my first major welding project. The position welding is something I haven't really practiced. From having to keep my head 2 feet away from the weld due to access to weak hand welding, upside down, vertical and all the access problems
that make it a different animal than table welding. I think I got good penetration on everything but pretty it was not. The good thing is the second side usually turned out a lot better after I practiced for score on the first side. I haven't popped any welds yet anyhow

 

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I’m assuming you just have the bump cans loose in those pics of bump checking? I just figured you’d want them to bottom out before your coil over does.

 

[B00mb00m]

I’m assuming you just have the bump cans loose in those pics of bump checking? I just figured you’d want them to bottom out before your coil over does.

Top pic is at articulation, notice the angle of the axle. So when articulating the CO will bottom first but at straight up bump the can stops slightly first but basically at the same time as the CO.

 

[B00mb00m]

The ram mount and end link fab was actually super fun because it was a really puzzle. Theres about 8 pounds of shit to put into a 5 lb bag.

I tried to sneak in a tube like the track bar used but it just didn't want to fit but it would've been slick.

I ended up going the triangles of plate and it offered me some
structure to sneak in a link tab. I'll let the pics do the talking mostly. I started holding the rod end in free space. Mocked with cardboard. Tacked and cycled. Added more tacked and cycled. Cut. Tacked and cycled. You get the gist.

 

[B00mb00m]

Next step was to add hoop gussets and the cross over tube. Main take-aways are use the gussets to help support the hoop torquing around the frame not just front to back.

Had to move the crossover pretty far back on account of how low my hoops were. It worked out though. Had to do the tack and cycle to clear components and the hood.

I was also doing complete welds at this stage on the hoops.

Highlines were getting close now. I recall thinking about how the whole relocation and trimming was going to be. Kept recirculating in my head.

 

[B00mb00m]

I had already purchased some swag high clearance body mounts so I took this opportunity to cut off the OEM mount to give me better weld access to the control arm mounts. My rear mounts are taking a beating so I'm going to finish the rear 4 mounts this weekend (5months later). I was so focused on just getting the front suspension done I didn't want to increase workstatement at all!

 

[B00mb00m]

Another one of the sort of clean-up items under the jeep was to strengthen up the driver side motor mount after I cut a wee bit of it's support out. Additionally, I needed to make a new mount for my engine skid.

This was part of the eye opening portion of the project. Before talking to Blaine I would've been like oh the UCA is hitting the motor mount better stop. And he's like oh it's hitting the motor mount better cut it. Hah!

 

[B00mb00m]

Added in the rest of the swag mounts this weekend. The rear most was a little tricky due to I have the cage to slider tie in right there where the mount should be. I cut off the excess bolt thread and heavily chamfered the swag mount and rewelded to clear the bolt.

I actually had some decent looking welds buy when I added the second pass just to add more metal things got uglier. These are a fun welding project. I would encourage all fledging welders to try out this project as a good lesson In position welding.

l

 

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Looking really good so far man! I have mid arms sitting in my closet, might have to make a road trip north a bit for some help

 

[B00mb00m]

Looking really good so far man! I have mid arms sitting in my closet, might have to make a road trip north a bit for some help

Dang that's a hell of an upgrade to be sitting in a closet!

I can't speak for the rear yet, as I haven't done it but the midarm portion of the front was super easy. You should probably consider extending the shock towers to make use of the travel at the same Time as the midarm.

I'm checking off a few things before I get around to the rear midarm. I wanted to finish all the high clearance body mounts (check), upgrade brakes (still to-do), mount a non skid transmission support (still to-do), and get new cat / downtubes to do since I will have to redo the exhaust anyway. A bit of an asterisk on the rear midarm is the upper mounts / truss may require moving my gas tank back a bit. Plan there is to cut xmember and just move back as much as I need to clear the rear diff. I have the rear ox locker so the rear diff cover takes a bit more room.

 

[BuildBreakRepeat]

Dang that's a hell of an upgrade to be sitting in a closet!

I can't speak for the rear yet, as I haven't done it but the midarm portion of the front was super easy. You should probably consider extending the shock towers to make use of the travel at the same Time as the midarm.

I'm checking off a few things before I get around to the rear midarm. I wanted to finish all the high clearance body mounts (check), upgrade brakes (still to-do), mount a non skid transmission support (still to-do), and get new cat / downtubes to do since I will have to redo the exhaust anyway. A bit of an asterisk on the rear midarm is the upper mounts / truss may require moving my gas tank back a bit. Plan there is to cut xmember and just move back as much as I need to clear the rear diff. I have the rear ox locker so the rear diff cover takes a bit more room.

Absolutely, I’m planning for poly towers front and rear. It hard to see it in the closet but right now my Forest Service job has me renting (got relocated) without a garage - it’s really too bad I can’t run my welder in the parking lot For now I’m just vicariously living through your build