High travel, high clearance & high octane, a streetable adventure LJ story

[B00mb00m]

Yes that was me. Didn't have a welder and hired the front end work out to some redneck Fab guy. Was wheel able but drove like shit and wore out ball joints in 5k. So I have a welder now and doing a do-over.

@B00mb00m I think I just remembered who you are. Did you buy a ECGS axle 2 years ago?

 

[B00mb00m]

When you cycled axle with such close clearances how did you account for the rubber bumper on the fox shocks? It will compress further in real world conditions vs cycling loads.

 

[toximus]

When you cycled axle with such close clearances how did you account for the rubber bumper on the fox shocks? It will compress further in real world conditions vs cycling loads.

The main concern is that they can fall off and not provide any spacing. You need to account for that. The axle must stop before bad things happen.

I either used my air bumps, measured very carefully to simulate the shock, or they are parts that I'm fine having some contact between. Another option is to cut off the bumper for mockup and have your shock tuner put it back on. Depending on what you're doing, you might end up putting more cushions on during shock tuning anyway.

 

[B00mb00m]

So it just aint right that a zirc fitting limit up travel. Do people just put a bolt / screw in?

 

[mrblaine]

So it just aint right that a zirc fitting limit up travel. Do people just put a bolt / screw in?

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Low profile needle type grease fitting.

 

[toximus]

So it just aint right that a zirc fitting limit up travel. Do people just put a bolt / screw in?

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A little bumping is fine with the flush style. The tierod will bend. Worst case if the fitting shatters you replace it.

 

[toximus]

The gussets that come with the Genright hoop kit don't fit front to back like I wanted so I made my own gussets from 1/4". At the same time I made sure they clear the steering.

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I fully welded the hoops and gussets and cut out the temporary spreader I had used.

Going back slightly, one thing I forgot to mention is that the front hoop gusset on the passenger's side extends over top of the notch by about 1/2" where I had cut into the frame for the steering linkages (and the gusset was copied to the driver's side — pictured previously). This is so that winching forces don't end up ripping the front of the Jeep off and will transfer them safely into the rest of the Jeep.

 

[toximus]

With the steering bolts out of the way the 3/4" thick antirock arm now clears.

I made the axle brackets off of the templates I mocked up earlier out of 3/8" steel. I went thicker on these because, like the arms, there will be a lot of forces trying to fold them over at full flex. The bracket on the passenger's side also braces the lower track bar mount.

I started with an 18" TJ length AR arm (which is actually 16-1/2" center to center). I found that if I use a short enough link that the arm doesn't hit the grill at full bump, the link limits the travel at full droop and possibly will invert the arm.

I considered an idea to make the arm into a "U' to wrap around the grill and effectively change the angle of the arm but ultimately the concern is that this will further increase the stresses on the arm and bend it.

I ordered a longer 20" arm to place the link in a vertical orientation at ride height and will place the arm at a shallower angle full bump. The air bumps are in the way so I choose to start with Currie's 20" bent arm (CE-990420B) and if I needed to bend it more or less I can. Although it ended up being nearly the perfect arm. I was able to shorten the links some and cycled the suspension to test. Once I put the axle in for the last time I may take a little more length out of the links if possible.

As a result of having longer arms they will have more leverage on the torsion bar and effectively make the sway bar a lighter rate. Currie's TJ antisway bar (the one I have) is their .770" rate bar. After I put on some miles, if I find that the bar is too light I can swap it out for a firmer .850" bar (CE-99001D) but that introduces additional force and concerns with bending the arms.

The sway bar needs to be set up at full droop to be sure the sway bar links clear the track bar:

Full bump:

I grabbed thin nylock nuts at the hardware store for the upper heim to better clear the air bumps:

 

[toximus]

Before moving any further towards painting, I wanted to test fit the bumper and steering skid.

I decided to go with Savvy's aluminum front bumper to get as much weight savings as I can. My old Rokmen bumper has held up great (aside from needing to be sand blasted and a fresh coat of paint) but it must weigh around 100lbs. Savvy's weighs in at just over 40lbs with everything included.

I previously had (very real) concerns about deer jumping onto the road and taking out the radiator but the grill is now 9" higher than it was back then so I think the deer will go under instead.

This bumper is wonderfully designed and every point has been thought out:

1) The deck extends to tie into the factory antiswaybar nuts. This provides additional structure needed when winching.

2) On the bottom there is additional reinforcement to prevent the bottom lip from getting smashed upward into the frame crossmember.

3) The bumper sticks out no further than necessary and places the winch as far back toward the grill as possible.

4) I got the the optional front hoop for 2 reasons 1) if the Jeep slides into a rock there will (ideally) still be room to get the winch line out. 2) when dropping off something like a waterfall if the Jeep decides to go nose first it'll help prevent the Jeep from going end over.

I also purchased the bumper reinforcement corners that I'll get into later.

I had been planning on reusing my old steering skid from Rokmen but it doesn't fit the PSC steering gear. Instead I picked up Savvy's minimalist steering box skid. It's everything you need and nothing more.

The Savvy skid ties in to the bottom of the steering box mount on the frame. My larger recessed tubing was in the way of this bolt so I carved out part of the tubing with a bur.

Since this new bolt blocks the only drain hole for this area I drilled 2 new ones on each side.

 

[Chris S]

I love that front bumper! Are you going to have it powdercoated or anything, or leave it as is?

 

[toximus]

I love that front bumper! Are you going to have it powdercoated or anything, or leave it as is?

I'll spray the steel hoop to prevent rust but will probably wait on coating the rest until after a few shake down runs in case I need to modify things.

 

[toximus]

I've lost several of the front bumper nuts over the years so I decided to replace them and get a fresh start.

From the factory, the nuts are held in the frame with a strip (like a flag nut). The strips can be removed by drilling out the plug welds and using a hammer. I think the main reason for failure was that, before I started doing all of my own work, there was no antiseize applied to the bolts and the bolts rusted into the nuts. When they seized up they'd either break the nuts off the strip or twist the strips.

I went with a slightly thicker 18ga steel strip and used extra wide (and taller) grade 8 nuts. They are made from 18-8 stainless steel so hopefully that helps keep future rust to a minimum. In the sway bar positions, I replaced the M10 nuts with 3/8-16 nuts.

 

[B00mb00m]

To prevent the hoops from folding into the engine I am placing a spreader bar across the hoops and over the engine. The hoop I have came from Genright and is made from 0.120" wall 1-1/2" DOM with prebent ends.

To prevent any warping during welding, I welded on a temporary spreader bar between the hoops across the front of the engine. I then fully welded the hoops to the frame.

View attachment 104524
(spoiler: air bumps are happening)

I roughly mocked up the hoop spreader bar stacked on sheets of cardboard and held in place with tape to clear the supercharger and I found that the hood wouldn't close by about 1/2" due to the reinforcement down the center of the hood. So much for being easy! I'll be cutting and sliding down the center section about 1" to make room.

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I want the bend in the tube to be centered over the supercharger but that places the hoop off center. I also want to keep the grill support rods (which aren't symmetrical to each other... I've been looking at them for 10 years and I never realized that...) Rather than only choosing either/or, I decided to have it all and cut the spreader bar in half to stretch it. There's not really a great place to cut it that won't waste the section so I just cut it right in the middle; I have new DOM that I'll be cutting to patch in the center section.

With the center section cut, I placed a sleeve over the 2 ends so they could slide but still be straight. I also raised the hoop up 1/2" off the supercharger to take into account the engine moving around in it's mounts.

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I then notched and cut both "extensions", welded the flanges on at the table. Before welding the extensions onto the hoops and spreader I made sure both halves of the spreader were at the same angle.

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I unbolted and removed both halves of the spreader and replaced the sleeve with a smaller one. I then welded on a temporary girdle to prevent movement while I worked on lowering the center.

Do you suggest using a sleeve similar to how was done for the hoops to frame? to get the length right even if I'm leaving the hoop intact. I'm worried without some means of sliding adjustment I won't be able to get the fit perfect.

 

[toximus]

Do you suggest using a sleeve similar to how was done for the hoops to frame? to get the length right even if I'm leaving the hoop intact. I'm worried without some means of sliding adjustment I won't be able to get the fit perfect.

The thing is that it's really difficult to get it perfect. Get it close and at least mostly touching and then weld the gap. Does your kit come with the 3" "stubs" that weld to the hoops before the disconnects? If you do happen to cut them too short, for looks and fitment I'd buy new 1.5" DOM to match and start over on the stubs.

 

[B00mb00m]

I'm going to use the quick disco trail gear spuds and yes it has the 2 short stubs that go on the hoop side. I was thinking cutting hoop in half and using a 1.75 sleeve like you showed in the middle would make the fitment pretty easy? But then it would be bigger OD at the tightest location

 

[toximus]

I'm going to use the quick disco trail gear spuds and yes it has the 2 short stubs that go on the hoop side. I was thinking cutting hoop in half and using a 1.75 sleeve like you showed in the middle would make the fitment pretty easy? But then it would be bigger OD at the tightest location

The larger OD isn't needed. Can the spreader fit over the engine now? There's nothing wrong with using the larger sleeve to space it out but it doesn't look as clean. If you ended up going with the bent spreader and need to make it wider, instead of doing the outer sleeve, I'd inner-sleeve it.

Take a look back at my roll cage around January where I did similar with the A-pillar. Basically, cut the spreader in half, make an extension by cutting a new section of DOM with a matching the OD of the existing spreader to the length you need to extend minus 1/2". Cut 2x lengths of DOM tubing with the OD that'll telescope inside of the spreader ID so that there's some overlap inside. Gap the existing spreader and extension at 1/4" on each side so that the inner-tubing is under the gap. Plug weld and weld around the gap, grind flush.

 

[toximus]

The front brake hardlines use the same parts list as the rear so I'm not going to go into depth on that. One addition I made is using 1/2" solid round to secure and protect the lines. I stole this idea from Blaine when I was checking out one of his builds in February. I will be adding these to the rear axle after a few shake down runs.

I drilled and tapped the 1/2" round to 10-32. The retainer clips are from Keep It Clean (KICLC3187) for the 3/16 line https://www.summitracing.com/parts/kcw-55617. The screws that come with the kit are absolute junk with mis-cut threads and the socket head isn't metric or standard (I couldn't find an allen key that fit). I replaced them with some phillips head screws from McMaster-Carr.

 

[jjvw]

Nice. I remember a mention protecting the brake line like that from many many years ago. It's good to see an example.

 

[mrblaine]

The front brake hardlines use the same parts list as the rear so I'm not going to go into depth on that. One addition I made is using 1/2" solid round to secure and protect the lines. I stole this idea from Blaine when I was checking out one of his builds in February. I will be adding these to the rear axle after a few shake down runs.

I drilled and tapped the 1/2" round to 10-32. The retainer clips are from Keep It Clean (KICLC3187) for the 3/16 line https://www.summitracing.com/parts/kcw-55617. The screws that come with the kit are absolute junk with mis-cut threads and the socket head isn't metric or standard (I couldn't find an allen key that fit). I replaced them with some phillips head screws from McMaster-Carr.

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I've moved away from the inverted flare to AN adapters in favor of -3 male x male bulk head couplings. We are making them into bulkhead fittings anyway, why not start off with that intent to begin with? That lets you use a bulkhead T at the diff, AN fittings throughout, no swapping back and forth.

 

[toximus]

I've moved away from the inverted flare to AN adapters in favor of -3 male x male bulk head couplings. We are making them into bulkhead fittings anyway, why not start off with that intent to begin with? That lets you use a bulkhead T at the diff, AN fittings throughout, no swapping back and forth.

You're flaring the hardline to 37* and using a sleeve and nut? I think that's a good update and I'm not sure how much longer the T block I'm using will be available.