Nothing I need, everything I want (2005 TJR, impact orange)
- Thread starter psrivats
- Start date
The shock mounts will be the lowers out of the Polyperformace 5003 kits. They won't get installed and fitted up until the front "outboard" is done.
The topic of which is the ideal control arm joint comes up often. "Ideal" is sometimes relative. Johnny Joints have their share of fans and there are also very valid debates about their shortcomings when used in some parts of the country; while they are rebuildable, maintenance is definitely some level of effort (see @Mike_H's threads for details).
After some thoughtful deliberation, for the orange jeep, it was decided move away from the Johnny Joint for this build and go with Clevites. One of Blaine's mantras is to build something with very low maintenance, high durability, and any item that does need maintenance, be very easy to work on. Given my low skill level, the fact that it rains here a lot and there is some mud in the early spring time when I like to get out to explore, that the jeep will see some salted roads in the wintertime when I go snowshoeing and such, Clevites seemed the right choice. Even if one wears it out, press out, press in new, done and back on the road without ever having to take anything apart. No maintenance, joint type does not affect ride quality.
So, we ordered actual Clevites made by Tenneco (Clevite 47855D, Clayton sells them). We looked for joint bodies and discovered that there was no manufacturer that made and sold both RH/LH threaded ones. Synergy only has all left hand threaded shanks and Clayton only has all right hand threaded shanks which is just silly. Nothing was to be found at Teraflex etc. After some time searching, Blaine simply decided to build his own using joint barrels from IRO made with 3/16" wall thickness DOM steel. Weld on threaded studs were ordered from Choppin' Block chassis products. There is some additional detail here regarding the size of the clevites and also the taps that we purchased. Instead of butchering the details with my less than perfect understanding, I will tag @mrblaine to talk about that bit.
After some wizard welding magic that I picture in my head like this (and I am sure I have the wrong type of welding but just run with me here folks) ..
This was the result
The entire set ..
.. and after Zinc plating. I cannot wait to see them in person.
I told Blaine if he had sent me that picture after plating and asked me to guess where they were from, I would have 100% guessed wrongly as to how they came about. And yes, those clamps for the BMB tie rod and they got plated too. Because Blaine thinks of everything.
And finally this was the result after all the Clevites were pressed in. Jam nuts you see are the "FK Rod Ends" brand that Blaine ordered from Poly Performance. If you look carefully, you will see that Blaine sanded down two flat spots in each of them .. this is so that joint barrel can be supported when replacing the bushing to make removal easier. No detail gets overlooked, nothing is done without very careful and thoughtful deliberation.
I will remember to come back and talk about how long it is before I replace once of these. The technically savvy amongst y'all can argue misalignment and all that fun jazz
I trust Blaine's word and it's all that I need.
Just don't mention "kevlar" or talk about that utter bullcrap dishonest tabletop misalignment video and we can be friends.
After some thoughtful deliberation, for the orange jeep, it was decided move away from the Johnny Joint for this build and go with Clevites. One of Blaine's mantras is to build something with very low maintenance, high durability, and any item that does need maintenance, be very easy to work on. Given my low skill level, the fact that it rains here a lot and there is some mud in the early spring time when I like to get out to explore, that the jeep will see some salted roads in the wintertime when I go snowshoeing and such, Clevites seemed the right choice. Even if one wears it out, press out, press in new, done and back on the road without ever having to take anything apart. No maintenance, joint type does not affect ride quality.
So, we ordered actual Clevites made by Tenneco (Clevite 47855D, Clayton sells them). We looked for joint bodies and discovered that there was no manufacturer that made and sold both RH/LH threaded ones. Synergy only has all left hand threaded shanks and Clayton only has all right hand threaded shanks which is just silly. Nothing was to be found at Teraflex etc. After some time searching, Blaine simply decided to build his own using joint barrels from IRO made with 3/16" wall thickness DOM steel. Weld on threaded studs were ordered from Choppin' Block chassis products. There is some additional detail here regarding the size of the clevites and also the taps that we purchased. Instead of butchering the details with my less than perfect understanding, I will tag @mrblaine to talk about that bit.
After some wizard welding magic that I picture in my head like this (and I am sure I have the wrong type of welding but just run with me here folks) ..
This was the result
The entire set ..
.. and after Zinc plating. I cannot wait to see them in person.
I told Blaine if he had sent me that picture after plating and asked me to guess where they were from, I would have 100% guessed wrongly as to how they came about. And yes, those clamps for the BMB tie rod and they got plated too. Because Blaine thinks of everything.
And finally this was the result after all the Clevites were pressed in. Jam nuts you see are the "FK Rod Ends" brand that Blaine ordered from Poly Performance. If you look carefully, you will see that Blaine sanded down two flat spots in each of them .. this is so that joint barrel can be supported when replacing the bushing to make removal easier. No detail gets overlooked, nothing is done without very careful and thoughtful deliberation.
I will remember to come back and talk about how long it is before I replace once of these. The technically savvy amongst y'all can argue misalignment and all that fun jazz
I trust Blaine's word and it's all that I need.Just don't mention "kevlar" or talk about that utter bullcrap dishonest tabletop misalignment video and we can be friends.
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The topic of which is the ideal control arm joint comes up often. "Ideal" is sometimes relative. Johnny Joints have their share of fans and there are also very valid debates about their shortcomings when used in some parts of the country; while they are rebuildable, maintenance is definitely some level of effort (see @Mike_H's threads for details).
After some thoughtful deliberation, for the orange jeep, it was decided move away from the Johnny Joint for this build and go with Clevites. One of Blaine's mantras is to build something with very low maintenance, high durability, and any item that does need maintenance, be very easy to work on. Given my low skill level, the fact that it rains here a lot and there is some mud in the early spring time when I like to get out to explore, that the jeep will see some salted roads in the wintertime when I go snowshoeing and such, Clevites seemed the right choice. Even if one wears it out, press out, press in new, done and back on the road without ever having to take anything apart. No maintenance, joint type does not affect ride quality.
So, we ordered actual Clevites made by Tenneco (Clevite 47855D, Clayton sells them). We looked for joint bodies and discovered that there was no manufacturer that made and sold both RH/LH threaded ones. Synergy only has all left hand threaded shanks and Clayton only has all right hand threaded shanks which is just silly. Nothing was to be found at Teraflex etc. After some time searching, Blaine simply decided to build his own using joint barrels from IRO made with 3/16" wall thickness DOM steel. Weld on threaded studs were ordered from Choppin' Block chassis products. There is some additional detail here regarding the size of the clevites and also the taps that we purchased. Instead of butchering the details with my less than perfect understanding, I will tag @mrblaine to talk about that bit.
After some wizard welding magic that I picture in my head like this (and I am sure I have the wrong type of welding but just run with me here folks) ..
View attachment 551291
This was the result
View attachment 551283
The entire set ..
View attachment 551282
.. and after Zinc plating. I cannot wait to see them in person.
View attachment 551286
I told Blaine if he had sent me that picture after plating and asked me to guess where they were from, I would have 100% guessed wrongly as to how they came about. And yes, those clamps for the BMB tie rod and they got plated too. Because Blaine thinks of everything.
And finally this was the result after all the Clevites were pressed in. Jam nuts you see are the "FK Rod Ends" brand that Blaine ordered from Poly Performance. If you look carefully, you will see that Blaine sanded down two flat spots in each of them .. this is so that joint barrel can be supported when replacing the bushing to make removal easier. No detail gets overlooked, nothing is done without very careful and thoughtful deliberation.
View attachment 551287
I will remember to come back and talk about how long it is before I replace once of these. The technically savvy amongst y'all can argue misalignment and all that fun jazz
Just don't mention "kevlar" or talk about that utter bullcrap dishonest tabletop misalignment video and we can be friends.
I'm watching this one very closely...
deadbeat son
TJ Addict
Excellent finished product, as expected. I can't believe there isn't enough of a market for these that someone isn't already producing them. Likely too much manual labor to be a BMB menu item, but perhaps given enough interest a short production run could be contracted?
We purchased Right and Left dies to adjust the threads for a nice fit after plating. The studs were a bit tight on the jam nuts and that would only get worse after plating, so we ran a die over all the threads to clean them up and make them just a tad smaller that the plating would make up for. It worked well and the jam nuts are now just right.
I chose that one in particular because it always pisses me off when I take a pic of a weld to put up and it looks like dogshit. I did not do anything to that weld but it does not stand out when put with the others below even though it looks terrible.
It will at least be interesting to keep an eye on.The entire set ..
View attachment 551282
And finally this was the result after all the Clevites were pressed in. Jam nuts you see are the "FK Rod Ends" brand that Blaine ordered from Poly Performance. If you look carefully, you will see that Blaine sanded down two flat spots in each of them .. this is so that joint barrel can be supported when replacing the bushing to make removal easier. No detail gets overlooked, nothing is done without very careful and thoughtful deliberation.
View attachment 551287
I will remember to come back and talk about how long it is before I replace once of these. The technically savvy amongst y'all can argue misalignment and all that fun jazz
Just don't mention "kevlar" or talk about that utter bullcrap dishonest tabletop misalignment video and we can be friends.
Not even remotely interested. I'm glad to explain how to get it done, I won't do any more unless it is to replace something that fails.
Thanks. I posted the wheels in the first page. Front bumpers and sliders will be Savvy from my old black Jeep.
Artillery wheels for when your army consists entirely of midgets and tiny little guns.
I ran into the same problem. I’m making my own mid-arm links and it’s the joints that are giving me a problem. I wanted to go with Synergy DDB, but their housings are all LH.
I didn’t realize a Clevite would be sufficient bushing for a midarm. Thanks for giving me something to think about.
We don't know that they are. I'm making some educated guesses and then we will test. If you copy what we are doing and it fails miserably, that's on you. In the event this is a miserable failure, the arms are plug and play for Johnny Joints and a certain someone will just have to do some maintenance.
Barring any of that, my next choice would be the joints that Clayton is using but only after a pointed conversation with someone there to see if they are actually worth owning.
Busy times at work .. But, continuing the build photos. Below are the mid arm mounts and raised body mounts in the front.
For those of us (like me) that is lacking in "seeing all the details in the 1st shot" department .. please notice the the outer reinforcement plates Blaine welded onto the lower control arm mount. Their purpose is to prevent the mount side from bending over and trapping the joint body. This way, the joint can move side to side freely or rotate around the long axis of the control arm without restriction. Not visible, but the the inner plate has the hex capture cut into it for the nut.
Blaine cleaned up the frame rail and made it look new with the KBS paint (same as what went on the front axle a few posts above).
For those of us (like me) that is lacking in "seeing all the details in the 1st shot" department .. please notice the the outer reinforcement plates Blaine welded onto the lower control arm mount. Their purpose is to prevent the mount side from bending over and trapping the joint body. This way, the joint can move side to side freely or rotate around the long axis of the control arm without restriction. Not visible, but the the inner plate has the hex capture cut into it for the nut.
Blaine cleaned up the frame rail and made it look new with the KBS paint (same as what went on the front axle a few posts above).
More black magic ...
Blaine removed the stock trackbar mount from the frame and moved it forward 1”. Since the frame is angled in that spot, a spacer had to be created for one side and welded in to make everything sit right. After welding the trackbar mount in place, he reinforced the back side and made a plate that transfers forces up into the frame without creating a stress riser where the weld could crack.
Blaine removed the stock trackbar mount from the frame and moved it forward 1”. Since the frame is angled in that spot, a spacer had to be created for one side and welded in to make everything sit right. After welding the trackbar mount in place, he reinforced the back side and made a plate that transfers forces up into the frame without creating a stress riser where the weld could crack.
I know that curiosity killed the cat, but I'm not a cat
Why move it?
I know that curiosity killed the cat, but I'm not a cat
More room for the steering and to keep the tires off the rear of the fender
We are going to run the JJ front trackbar which has a large barrel for the joint. At full stuff, the casting on the diff where the spreader holes are just squeaks by the barrel. That leaves very little room for any adjustment if you need to push the axle forward since that is the very hard limit. Moving the trackbar mount just gives us some leeway if needed. Plus, I can, so I did.I know that curiosity killed the cat, but I'm not a cat
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