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

toximus said:
One more short coming I've found is my turning radius. It's bothered me ever since my second wheeling trip through the woods. Back when I built the steering I should have figured out a way to get more steering angle out of it. Right now it has a touch under stock steering angle. With the longer wheelbase it's just not cutting it. I've been in a few situations where I need to backup on a turn to make it into a multipoint turn and everyone else with a shorter wheelbase is able to swing right through the turn...It's kind of embarrassing.

Before I fit the LS in I want to improve the steering. I took a preliminary look today and I should be able to do it fairly easily by grinding down the steering stops until right before the RCVs bind, lengthen the pitman arm, and move the trackbar rearward. Right now the track bar and drag link just kiss the diff cover at full stuff so I need to check how close they are to the actual ring gear to see if I can modify the cover, go with a different cover, or need to bend the linkages so they go around the diff once I move them back. Once I have that set, I'll know how far back to set the LS since the track bar will stuff right in front of the harmonic balancer.
Click to expand...
I removed the front diff cover to see how much room I have to move the track bar back for a longer pitman arm but actually it turns out that I'm using all but 5* of angle left on the RCV shafts. It's recommended to leave 3* left on the RCVs, so I'm not going to redo my steering to gain 2* of steering angle.

I'm excited to see if front dig with the Atlas gives me everything I'm wanting. If not, I'll have to look into other options.

20210310_ring-gear-to-trackbar.jpg


20210310_ring-gear-to-trackbar-2.jpg


Existing stop vs RCV bind:
20210310_rcv-steering-angle-remaining.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fouledplugs, Chief Brohician, taylormade73 and 3 others
toximus said:
One more short coming I've found is my turning radius. It's bothered me ever since my second wheeling trip through the woods. Back when I built the steering I should have figured out a way to get more steering angle out of it. Right now it has a touch under stock steering angle. With the longer wheelbase it's just not cutting it. I've been in a few situations where I need to backup on a turn to make it into a multipoint turn and everyone else with a shorter wheelbase is able to swing right through the turn...It's kind of embarrassing.

Before I fit the LS in I want to improve the steering. I took a preliminary look today and I should be able to do it fairly easily by grinding down the steering stops until right before the RCVs bind, lengthen the pitman arm, and move the trackbar rearward. Right now the track bar and drag link just kiss the diff cover at full stuff so I need to check how close they are to the actual ring gear to see if I can modify the cover, go with a different cover, or need to bend the linkages so they go around the diff once I move them back. Once I have that set, I'll know how far back to set the LS since the track bar will stuff right in front of the harmonic balancer.
Click to expand...
Get yourself some cutting brakes! You will be owning switchblocks with style.
 
B00mb00m said:
Get yourself some cutting brakes! You will be owning switchblocks with style.
Click to expand...

I've been watching your build and thinking about it. Packaging it is my biggest concern. And I'll still have to put the rear in neutral to use cutting brakes which doesn't solve my concern with front dig also.
 
toximus said:
I've been watching your build and thinking about it. Packaging it is my biggest concern. And I'll still have to put the rear in neutral to use cutting brakes which doesn't solve my concern with front dig also.
Click to expand...
Whats your concern with going front low, you certainly got the axle strength? Being that i don't have cutting brake yet i can't speak to it, but with appropriate brake pressure you can open rear diff, leave it engaged and turn around the braked wheel.
 
My LJ has a very wide turning radius. So much so that I tend to only lock the rear when I need it and disconnect it completely quite often to help with the turning. Then I will front dig if that is also necessary. I've just gotten used to it. It sucks when your buddies fly through a turn an you have to stop to do a 3 point or more turn. I should probably do something about the geometry of my steering, but the damn thing does everything else so well I'm not super motivated to change it.
 
IIRC we are close in travel in the back end. but did you need an extra long spline driveshaft?

i am not in a spot to mess with drooping my axle out right now to see if there is a significant length change to warrant a long spline. but i'm trying like hell to be ready for the end of april.
and as i type this, T Wood probably already knows the answer for me.

TBH i don't think i'm gonna make............ it but i'm not givin up yet.
 
someguysjeep said:
IIRC we are close in travel in the back end. but did you need an extra long spline driveshaft?

i am not in a spot to mess with drooping my axle out right now to see if there is a significant length change to warrant a long spline. but i'm trying like hell to be ready for the end of april.
and as i type this, T Wood probably already knows the answer for me.

TBH i don't think i'm gonna make............ it but i'm not givin up yet.
Click to expand...
If you need to send the shaft back for resizing after the stretch, TW only charged me $20 to convert my shaft to an xspline...
 
  • Like
Reactions: someguysjeep
Alex01 said:
If you need to send the shaft back for resizing after the stretch, TW only charged me $20 to convert my shaft to an xspline...
Click to expand...
the change in total length is significant, and i was just gonna order a new unit. but i will ask if it's an option to alter the 1 i have. due to the time crunch i'm under now i really wanna avoid ship backs for anything.
 
someguysjeep said:
IIRC we are close in travel in the back end. but did you need an extra long spline driveshaft?

i am not in a spot to mess with drooping my axle out right now to see if there is a significant length change to warrant a long spline. but i'm trying like hell to be ready for the end of april.
and as i type this, T Wood probably already knows the answer for me.

TBH i don't think i'm gonna make............ it but i'm not givin up yet.
Click to expand...

Tom Woods shafts don't allow any extra travel with the long spline. They only give a longer life. I opted for the short spline to save $$ since I figure I'm more likely to damage a shaft than I am to take the shaft beyond 50k miles.
 
  • Like
Reactions: someguysjeep
so i am wrong in the notion a long spline is to compensate for axle movement and it's really just to spread the torque load along a longer engagement surface.
 
toximus said:
Tom Woods shafts don't allow any extra travel with the long spline. They only give a longer life. I opted for the short spline to save $$ since I figure I'm more likely to damage a shaft than I am to take the shaft beyond 50k miles.
Click to expand...
Tox - I have one of their long travel spline shafts, and it has a lot more travel then their standard which I’ve also used In the past. if memory serves it’s like 7-8” vs 3 or 4” (But that’s from memory - I may be wrong). What was your experience?

You may remember I also have one of their crazy, crazy long travel shafts so I can carry one spare which works both front and rear. But, you don’t want to do high speed on the road with that one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wildman
NashvilleTJ said:
Tox - I have one of their long travel spline shafts, and it has a lot more travel then their standard which I’ve also used In the past. if memory serves it’s like 7-8” vs 3 or 4” (But that’s from memory - I may be wrong). What was your experience?
Click to expand...
I'm just going by what they told me on the phone when I asked if I should upgrade.

NashvilleTJ said:
You may remember I also have one of their crazy, crazy long travel shafts so I can carry one spare which works both front and rear. But, you don’t want to do high speed on the road with that one.
Click to expand...

Hmm... Maybe they have 3 versions? S (what I have in my rear), X (what I have in my front--it was the same price for some reason iirc), and long travel?

I wanted high speed, so likely that's why they never mentioned the long travel to me.
 
ok so i broke down froze my keester off for 20m to measure everything. and then built a model of my rear linkage out of cardboard scraps. and what i find is the diff yoke and the TC yoke will only deviate distance by about 1" through my travel arc.

and it's also shown me i need to stuff the axle to be sure it handle the negative driveshaft angle that will occur at full stuff.
 
someguysjeep said:
ok so i broke down froze my keester off for 20m to measure everything. and then built a model of my rear linkage out of cardboard scraps. and what i find is the diff yoke and the TC yoke will only deviate distance by about 1" through my travel arc.

and it's also shown me i need to stuff the axle to be sure it handle the negative driveshaft angle that will occur at full stuff.
Click to expand...
Cycling is always the best! Make sure you measure shaft length at ride height.

Good luck getting your build done in time. I'm jealous of you guys going to Moab.
 
  • Like
Reactions: someguysjeep
toximus said:
Cycling is always the best! Make sure you measure shaft length at ride height.

Good luck getting your build done in time. I'm jealous of you guys going to Moab.
Click to expand...
i think i'm dreaming , but trying is pushing me toward the finish of this stage............next yr it'll be tons for wheels big enough to fit the stretch i gave it.
 
did you ever disco the emissions lines when you had a cell hooked?

particularly the hoses that run forward along the frame and tie into the vacuum module i guess' it'd be, maybe.

that module and the other line are plugged into the block with what appears to be vacuum elbows.
trying to figure a good way to plug them permanently.
 
WOW I think I'm in over my head on this. I wanted a crawler for the weekends and thought that I can put a 6" long arm with 37;s on and go. In the end I want to have this all without any breaking problems. I guess I need to put it all together. I don't have the money for axles right now so can I beef up the axle shafts and add a axle truss to help till I get the money for axles? And how long will that last till I blow up an axle? Is it worth spending money on the larger breaks for the dana 44's now or should I just put that money towards the axles?
 
Turtle1776Rubicon said:
WOW I think I'm in over my head on this. I wanted a crawler for the weekends and thought that I can put a 6" long arm with 37;s on and go. In the end I want to have this all without any breaking problems. I guess I need to put it all together. I don't have the money for axles right now so can I beef up the axle shafts and add a axle truss to help till I get the money for axles? And how long will that last till I blow up an axle? Is it worth spending money on the larger breaks for the dana 44's now or should I just put that money towards the axles?
Click to expand...
There is a lot to unpack here. Tox, since this is your thread I’ll give you right of first refusal...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apparition
Top Bottom
Back