Inside-Out Build—2006 LJ
- Thread starter freedom_in_4low
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Finally getting the Black Max put on.
They're uneven in the photo because the right side is on a jack stand but I have 5" of shaft showing out of 11" travel (part number B8563). The Rockjock bumps touch about 1/2" before the shock bottoms. These are about an inch longer than the Ranchos I took off, so that's with a hockey puck added to each side. With just the Rockjock parts which worked with the Ranchos, the shock would have bottomed 1/2" before the bumps touched.
I love how much room there is under here with the fuel tank out of the way.... it's out because I'm doing the fuel burping fix and replacing the pump module to address a failed level sender.
And last but not least, part of the reason for new shocks is that the right rear was blown, suspected heat damage from being in direct contact with the tailpipe. I had put the exhaust together with u-bolt clamps which worked for a while, but sometime later on the tailpipe started shifting at the muffler outlet and allowing the tailpipe to sag and rest against the shock. So it's now welded into one piece. Hope to get it painted later today and reinstalled.
They're uneven in the photo because the right side is on a jack stand but I have 5" of shaft showing out of 11" travel (part number B8563). The Rockjock bumps touch about 1/2" before the shock bottoms. These are about an inch longer than the Ranchos I took off, so that's with a hockey puck added to each side. With just the Rockjock parts which worked with the Ranchos, the shock would have bottomed 1/2" before the bumps touched.
I love how much room there is under here with the fuel tank out of the way.... it's out because I'm doing the fuel burping fix and replacing the pump module to address a failed level sender.
And last but not least, part of the reason for new shocks is that the right rear was blown, suspected heat damage from being in direct contact with the tailpipe. I had put the exhaust together with u-bolt clamps which worked for a while, but sometime later on the tailpipe started shifting at the muffler outlet and allowing the tailpipe to sag and rest against the shock. So it's now welded into one piece. Hope to get it painted later today and reinstalled.
Would some rear upper shock relocation brackets let you keep your old bump amount?
I'm running the b8528 rear for the 4 inch lift and it's near 50/50 split. I had to add a 5/16 spacer to the currie set up and springs.
Like @Rickyd said, could you space the upper mount up to remove the puck?
Like @Rickyd said, could you space the upper mount up to remove the puck?
Yeah, I thought about that while I was putting them on. Haven't ruled it out. Is there somebody making brackets for that now? Think it would just be a spacer to put the bar pin on top of the mount instead of below. Someone around here did it with sockets.
Damn i think you're right.Now i can't find the bar pin eliminator type that moves the bolt above the crossmember. Looks like a diy job now
I have a set of JKS bar pin eliminators that I had originally planned to just relocate the Ranchos, before I'd discovered that one was blown. That would probably work as well, though the sockets would save me the trouble of pressing the bar pin out of the bushing.
If you move it to the top,consider running a bolt up from underneath with a nut on top to capture the bracket. That way the weld holding the frame nut to the crossmember isn't all that keeps it from punching upwards
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Excellent callout on that. I've heard rumors of some of those nuts only having one tack each.
Sorry about the run on sentence. I'm a few modelo's into a window regulator replacement in this damn heat
first time welding exhaust. They turned out ok. I cleaned about 3/4" from where the weld would be with muriatic acid to remove the rust and the aluminization, so I didn't have any issues with porosity, but I've decided I've just about had it with this $90 120V harbor freight flux core welder. It just doesn't have enough adjustability, at least for me, to do a range of materials. It's only got "min" and "max" for voltage, and 1-9 for wirefeed speed. As long as I'm working with material thick enough to call for "max" voltage, which is about 12-14 gauge or thicker, I do ok. The chart calls for Min and 2 for this thickness, which was popping and spitting like crazy burning up the electrode, so I turned it up to 3 and got it to at least sound ok but still was making the nastiest ropey convex beads. Turning up the voltage just makes it burn through. Only way I get something that looks tied in at the toes is if I weave and I'm not good enough at weaving consistently to get it to look good.
Oh well, it's under the rig and to be honest, I've seen worse from "professional" muffler shops anyway.
Seeing my overspray in the section between the welds makes me wish I'd have just painted that whole section, but whatever.
Oh well, it's under the rig and to be honest, I've seen worse from "professional" muffler shops anyway.
Seeing my overspray in the section between the welds makes me wish I'd have just painted that whole section, but whatever.
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thinking this over and taking some measurements.
the mount and nut are about 0.675" tall and the bar pin is about .2". So just using a washer between the top of the nut and the bar pin would get me right at about an inch, taking me from 5 up/6 down to 6 up/5 down and ditch the hockey pucks. It's obviously not any closer to 50/50, but as long as downtravel is enough (which I think it is), maybe having the extra inch on the topside is better.
A 17mm socket fits perfectly over the top of the nut as well, but it's an inch tall by itself, and added to the double thickness of the mount crossmember would shift me by almost 1.4", which I think is too far in the other direction.
I think the answer is that the window is smaller around the shock eye, but why is it that i never seem to see anybody doing this with the lower shock mount on the front instead of focusing on the upper mount? I'm pretty much in the same situation there...5 up 6 down, could go to 6 up and 5 down and STILL have another inch I could take out before the track bar gets too close to the diff cover.
There are smarter people than me here but it seems like the less bump you have the more the jeep will settle and plant on obstacles instead of teetering?
Interesting observation on the front too
I always feel like I'm running longer shocks than most, or when I run the same shocks I have less downtravel. I was originally considering the 8528 but once I put the new Rockjock springs in the rear (4" TJ springs in my LJ) it raised my ride height enough that they would have left me with 3.8" of downtravel which I didn't like the sound of.
I think there's a lot of variables to say definitively. I would think drooping out the shock and hanging a tire in the air would be just as teetery as having the opposite side on the bump, so having a relatively even amount of travel on either side of ride height is probably good, but if you design for 50/50 on flat level ground, it's not going to be that on an obstacle anyway. If you're climbing, the weight transfers rearward and unloads the front so you're gonna be something more like 30 up and 70 down in front and the opposite in the rear. Or if you're descending, they swap. There might be an argument for biasing each end more toward up or downtravel, within reason, based on vehicle dynamics such as the momentum of coming down off a rock or the tendency of driveline torque to lift the front left tire. But it's beyond splitting hairs at that point which is probably how 50/50 became the standard.
I found this in my photos. The window is much tighter around the shock eye. If I could even fish the bar pin through that, I think the body would be either in contact or close enough to do it with any compression of the bushing.
ok, $14 worth of metric class 10.9 hardware and one side done.
There's about 1/8" between the shock body and that washer, some quick geometry suggests it might move about .03" so I should be fine. (the arc of the track bar with 5" of droop should pull the axle toward passenger by 1.2", and 1.2" on the end of a 27.3" shock translates to .035" at 0.8" from the pivot point)
Sorry for the poor focus on this one. Doing this without a body lift MIGHT be ok but you'd have to clearance the bottom flange on the tub (even more than it already is) and the best access to the bolts would be from in front of the crossmember.
Parts list:
(4) M8-1.25x40mm 10.9 hex head machine screws (would have preferred flanged but those weren't threaded all the way to the head which would not have worked with the factory nuts)
(4) M8-1.25 10.9 flange nuts
(4) 5/16" grade 8 washers to go between the bolt head and the mount crossmember (because their diameter was larger than the M8 - though at this point I question whether the diameter was really necessary since it reaches out into the open space)
(8) M8 washers - two for each bolt go under the bar pin to provide another .125" of height, for a full inch of added uptravel
There's about 1/8" between the shock body and that washer, some quick geometry suggests it might move about .03" so I should be fine. (the arc of the track bar with 5" of droop should pull the axle toward passenger by 1.2", and 1.2" on the end of a 27.3" shock translates to .035" at 0.8" from the pivot point)
Sorry for the poor focus on this one. Doing this without a body lift MIGHT be ok but you'd have to clearance the bottom flange on the tub (even more than it already is) and the best access to the bolts would be from in front of the crossmember.
Parts list:
(4) M8-1.25x40mm 10.9 hex head machine screws (would have preferred flanged but those weren't threaded all the way to the head which would not have worked with the factory nuts)
(4) M8-1.25 10.9 flange nuts
(4) 5/16" grade 8 washers to go between the bolt head and the mount crossmember (because their diameter was larger than the M8 - though at this point I question whether the diameter was really necessary since it reaches out into the open space)
(8) M8 washers - two for each bolt go under the bar pin to provide another .125" of height, for a full inch of added uptravel
this math was wrong, somehow. just disconnecting the bottom end of the shock and moving it by hand didn't show that clearance to allow for as much misalignment as I hoped it would, so I ditched the washers under the bar pin and trimmed the edge of the offending washer with a dremel.
That's strange but I guess every jeep is different. I have currie lj springs with the 8528s and have 5.5 up at ride height with the gas light on at the moment and the soft top. That's 4.5 down. In wheeling trim, with a cooler and more tools it should be good.
I've had some stuff going on and haven't driven it yet, until yesterday. It's a totally different rig.
The rear shocks aren't bouncing the head rest into my head on every bump and the exhaust isn't squeaking as it twists on the clamps.
The CEL is off because the fuel level sender isn't going open.
And I filled up and didn't end up with a puddle of fuel on the ground, for the first time ever.
I'm a Black Max believer. It's got me thinking I want to look into getting a pair on the front end.
The rear shocks aren't bouncing the head rest into my head on every bump and the exhaust isn't squeaking as it twists on the clamps.
The CEL is off because the fuel level sender isn't going open.
And I filled up and didn't end up with a puddle of fuel on the ground, for the first time ever.
I'm a Black Max believer. It's got me thinking I want to look into getting a pair on the front end.
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