Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts

What goes around, comes around. 05 Khaki TJ Build

241 is in, and a sorta "free to me" cross member support. Some square tubing my shop had and a set of JK Upper control arm bushings.. I splurged on a Savvy cable shifter.

I didn't want to blow $600 on shafts.. I ended up grafting a set of Rubicon shafts with a set of sport shafts, transfer case to axles, respectively. Not perfectly balanced but good enough for a trail rig. I'll spend the money on shafts when the stretch & 44's go in.

Time to template a flat belly skid out of some 1/4" plate.

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I ran into some nice folks from Tyri Offroad lighting, while at NJ Jeep Invasion. We talked about how my Red stretched TJ boasts all KC daylighter LED's and how much I liked their products. They told me that while KC makes nice products, I should try theirs. I got a BOGO deal on a set of 1010 4600 lumen LED's and while I haven't tried them at night, the manufacturing of these is quite impressive.

https://tyrioffroad.com/collections...4600-elumen-w-lens-cover-and-off-road-harness

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The rear driveshaft was bad. It was fun determining what parts were needed to rebuild the double-cardan. Thankfully the guys at Denny's driveshaft helped me out. This driveshaft was a mixed bag.. It does have 1350 joints at the case! The centering ball, while the center yolk is greasable, the centering ball style was originally non-greasable. There is a difference in seals.

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It's the 241. Even with the body lift and Rough Country long arm center brackets (which make up 3/4"), the case was pushed up as high as possible. I even massaged the tub a bit.

I have a feeling I'll be adding some angle to the top of the skid to reinforce a bit.
 
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Started working on the front axle over the weekend. Got it cleaned and all the brackets removed. I was concerned this axle had leaf "wedges" but turns out this was taken care of by previous owner so there's plenty of room on the axle for coil buckets. Also, I have a set of AEV pintler 5x5 beadlocks that have been collecting dust. I looked into "drill and fill" to have the Pintlers re-bore to 87mm and have them re-drilled to 5x5.5 but it would have been cheaper to buy new beadlocks. Additionally, the backspacing would not work well with the size tire I want to run. So, I decided to run 5x5.5 to 5x5 wheel adapters and bore the center of (2) pintlers with a 3-1/2" hole saw.. Yes, it's not perfect but for a woods beater, it will do.

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sierradmax said:
Started working on the front axle over the weekend. Got it cleaned and all the brackets removed. I was concerned this axle had leaf "wedges" but turns out this was taken care of by previous owner so there's plenty of room on the axle for coil buckets. Also, I have a set of AEV pintler 5x5 beadlocks that have been collecting dust. I looked into "drill and fill" to have the Pintlers re-bore to 87mm and have them re-drilled to 5x5.5 but it would have been cheaper to buy new beadlocks. Additionally, the backspacing would not work well with the size tire I want to run. So, I decided to run 5x5.5 to 5x5 wheel adapters and bore the center of (2) pintlers with a 3-1/2" hole saw.. Yes, it's not perfect but for a woods beater, it will do.

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Hubs, hi steer, and a truss that’s a nice way to start a HP44 build.
 
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Wheels came back from powder. I "acquired" these AEV pintler beadlocks so hard not to treat them to some color. The Dana 44's might scream with 39.5's.. Well, maybe the front. Rear JK Dana 44 has a 35 spline spool.

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The Jeep is in the garage bay for stage-2. I'm going to start with the front.

Axle was "placed" at ride height.
PartsMike flat pintman installed, drag link and tie rod cleaned up.

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More progress today. I set the axle at full bump and started planning link mount locations. I'm going to have to notch the bottom of the frame to clear the drag link, due to high steer knuckle and the flat pitman. Additionally, I'm going to use skyjacker black max B8549 front shocks. They have roughly 12.5" of usable travel. After setting the axle at full stuff and generalizing the lower shock mount, It will need 2.5" taller shock towers.

I scrapped a LJ last month but salvaged part of the factory towers, knowing I was going to use them for this build.

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I made good progress on the front end within the last week. This build thread should be relabeled as "reduce, reuse, recycle".

1. I tried placing an order for 1.5" DOM, which apparently is hard to come by. I ended up reusing some old 1.5" square tube links pulled from another build. I also recycled it's round DOM upper link. Many of the joints were still tight so why not?
2. Lower links are set around 8 degrees.
3. Upper link is 75% length of the lower and is set at 0 degrees.
4. 9" of separation @ the axle, 7.5" @ the frame.
5. @ Full stuff, around 1.5" of bump stop extension.

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Shock mounts are complete. Cycled and so far, everything clears except the drag link. As suspected, it touches the bottom of the frame rail when passenger side is stuffed into the fender. Historically, I notch the frame and I plan to do the same here.

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Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ engine mounts
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