- Location
- Salem, OR
-
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The Nail Salon
- Thread starter TORX
- Start date
I dont even know where to start with this post but one word I can use to describe this thread is EPIC! I've noticed myself reading this at home at work, at work some more, in the middle of convos and it kept pulling me back in. Well done Sir! Many many great ideas have been going thru my head for my build because of your documentation. How's she holding up seeing how its been a few months? Also a little side note... A HUGE reason why I kept coming back to this thread was the simple fact that all of your pictures still work and show up and are excellently described.
Thanks, man! It's getting to be a read, but it's nice being able to look back at the progression of the build over the years.
I've been slacking on the updates, but really nothing major to report on other than just using it for what it was built for.
I got my knuckle put back together with new hardware as a temporary fix. Headed out Christmas night with Ruger81 up into the snow.
The snow wasn't the greatest, and really pushed our limits when we got into the uncut stuff. It was still a fun run until I decided to put the Jeep on it's side in the middle of the road. Lapse in judgment on my part (it was a long day), and I drove off a small embankment which tipper her over. Recovery was quick, and it only cost me a mirror, window, and some pride. $hit happens I guess.
The following weekend, I headed to TSF for the day to meet up with the NWC for a little day trip. Conditions sucked, but it was still a good day in the forest. Had myself a little winch fest above Crushers as gravity wanted to pull the Jeep down the mountain. (photo by PaddlerNate)
At the end of January I took some vacation time, and headed south for King of the Hammers. This was my third year going down there, and as always it was a total blast. Read more in the TORXreport.
After returning from KOH the Nail Salon still sat for a few weeks. I did take it out again my birthday weekend to TSF again. We had a solid group, with great conditions. Jeep did great all day.
After TSF I had some planned upgrades to take care of so the Nail Salon got parked. If I only knew what I was getting into... more on that later. Until then here's some sneak peaks.
Borrowed a wheel and tire off the 4500 MJ. Liked what I saw!
My current living room situation.
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As a long term fix for my steering, I ended up ordering a Reid passenger side knuckle in the Ford flavor. This is a beefed up version of the stock knuckle, cast and machined for four high steer studs instead of the traditional three. I figured this would be a great peace of mind after shearing my high steer this winter on my current setup. I also added a new Ballistic Fab four bolt arm to the mix as well.
The Ford Reid knuckles are reamed bottom to top for the standard "one ton" TRE's. I run my tie rod over the knuckle, so I chose to drill out the taper for an insert to convert to OTK. Rather than waiting to chuck the knuckle up on the mill at the shop, I decided to do it the hard way and drill it by hand. Not fun, but it worked.
Tapered insert installed with a little bit of sleeve retainer.
Spindle studs, and new ball joints pressed on. New vs old.
I lost some pictures of the install, but it all went together pretty smoothly...
... until I tried to put the tire on. Reid bases their Ford knuckle off the Bronco D44, which apparently is a bit different than my late 70's D44 (SpecFab might have warned me about this...). The cast steering arm where the tie rod connects is the same length as my stock knuckle, but it's off set further outboard. This then made my TRE for the tie rod contact the inner lip of the passenger wheel (converting to OTK probably didn't help either). My wheels at the time were a 15" with 4" of back spacing so there wasn't a lot of room to begin with (about 3/8").
I could have bought some wheel spacers and called it good. I could have converted to hiems on the tie rod, and called it good. Instead I chose the most expensive option, and used this as an excuse to buy new tires and wheels. :thumbup:
Picked up a set of five Falken MT's from Avanteone at the swap-meet. These aren't available to the public yet, and are made in a pre-production compound. The Ultra4 guys are having great luck with them.
The Jeep is lucky to see one trip a month these days, so I'm not too worried about wear. I can't wait to try them in the rocks!
With tires taken care of I then called up Greg at Raceline Wheels, and picked his brain about some wheels I was after. They did a limited run of some Monster 232's in a 17x9.5 4"BS awhile back. It turns out they had 12 left, so I snagged five from him at a great deal. These are the same wheel we're running on the 4500 MJ, so it'll be nice to be able to swap tires if needed. After a quick FedEx delivery came the job of mounting them. Being able to do this in your living room while watching TV helps the monotony .
About 2.5" difference between my old MTR's and the new Falkens (34-1/4 vs 36-5/8). Just for kicks the old 35" MTR on 15x8" steel wheels weighed in at 90 pounds, and the new 37" Falken on 17x9.5 aluminum Raceline weighed in at 120 pounds.
Got them mounted up, and I'm loving the stance.
Still need to figure out what to do about my wheel studs. Right now I have 1/2" studs, and they're getting about 5/8" thread engagement. Not sure how I feel about that. I'll likely upgrade to a longer 9/16" stud and call it done.
I want to do a test run in the next week or two out to Kingsley Reservoir if anybody wants to tag along.
The Ford Reid knuckles are reamed bottom to top for the standard "one ton" TRE's. I run my tie rod over the knuckle, so I chose to drill out the taper for an insert to convert to OTK. Rather than waiting to chuck the knuckle up on the mill at the shop, I decided to do it the hard way and drill it by hand. Not fun, but it worked.
Tapered insert installed with a little bit of sleeve retainer.
Spindle studs, and new ball joints pressed on. New vs old.
I lost some pictures of the install, but it all went together pretty smoothly...
... until I tried to put the tire on. Reid bases their Ford knuckle off the Bronco D44, which apparently is a bit different than my late 70's D44 (SpecFab might have warned me about this...). The cast steering arm where the tie rod connects is the same length as my stock knuckle, but it's off set further outboard. This then made my TRE for the tie rod contact the inner lip of the passenger wheel (converting to OTK probably didn't help either). My wheels at the time were a 15" with 4" of back spacing so there wasn't a lot of room to begin with (about 3/8").
I could have bought some wheel spacers and called it good. I could have converted to hiems on the tie rod, and called it good. Instead I chose the most expensive option, and used this as an excuse to buy new tires and wheels. :thumbup:
Picked up a set of five Falken MT's from Avanteone at the swap-meet. These aren't available to the public yet, and are made in a pre-production compound. The Ultra4 guys are having great luck with them.
The Jeep is lucky to see one trip a month these days, so I'm not too worried about wear. I can't wait to try them in the rocks!
With tires taken care of I then called up Greg at Raceline Wheels, and picked his brain about some wheels I was after. They did a limited run of some Monster 232's in a 17x9.5 4"BS awhile back. It turns out they had 12 left, so I snagged five from him at a great deal. These are the same wheel we're running on the 4500 MJ, so it'll be nice to be able to swap tires if needed. After a quick FedEx delivery came the job of mounting them. Being able to do this in your living room while watching TV helps the monotony .
About 2.5" difference between my old MTR's and the new Falkens (34-1/4 vs 36-5/8). Just for kicks the old 35" MTR on 15x8" steel wheels weighed in at 90 pounds, and the new 37" Falken on 17x9.5 aluminum Raceline weighed in at 120 pounds.
Got them mounted up, and I'm loving the stance.
Still need to figure out what to do about my wheel studs. Right now I have 1/2" studs, and they're getting about 5/8" thread engagement. Not sure how I feel about that. I'll likely upgrade to a longer 9/16" stud and call it done.
I want to do a test run in the next week or two out to Kingsley Reservoir if anybody wants to tag along.
muddypunk
TOOL
- Location
- Coupeville Whidbey Island washington
Looks frickin SWEET.
Got them mounted up, and I'm loving the stance.
sent by my Arse because my hands are full.
Got them mounted up, and I'm loving the stance.
sent by my Arse because my hands are full.
paddlernate
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Portland, OR
Looks stout with those 37s! I'd probably be into a Kingsley trip the weekend of the 23rd.
- Location
- Murrieta
Looks good, congrats Dustin!
- Location
- South San Francisco, CA
Those wheels look awesome. Any issues with the taller tires rubbing?
Thanks guys! I couldn't be happier with the overall stance, and performance of the new tires and wheels. It feels noticeably more stable on the trail, and the 37's just seemed to soak up the small ruts and transitions on the trails. On road they seemed to balance just fine as I was able to maintain 70mph with no issues. Surprising, considering I used nothing to balance them with.
On the trail I had very minimal clearance issues. There's slight rubbing on the back rear fender/bumper at full compression, however I need to be bump stopped before that since my springs are basically going inverted at that point (with .5" of shock travel left, perfect!). On the front there's just the usual inner fender clearance at full lock / full stuff. When I get motivated I'll probably clearance the inner fender sheet metal.
Here's some pictures from our past trip to Kingsley Reservoir. Photo cred goes to Andy who was riding with Josh for the day.
All in all, the Kingsley shake down run was a success. Team
has Oregon Trophy Challenge in two weeks, and the Nail Salon needs to be at 100% to defend our two year reign as champions. I don't have anything major planned between now and then other than some basic maintenance items. If the Jeep survives another year, I have some upgrades in mind before Northwest Fest in June.Goddamnit Dustin I can't can't help but applaud you on this beast. I'm finally piecing all my "box and sticker collection" right now and the more parts that take up space in my apartment, the more I itch to get it all on
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
Took the Nail Salon out to the Pick up the Burn event in the Yacolt Burn State Forest. It was a great day to be out in the forest, and the event seemed to have a good turnout.
Today I hit it hard prepping the Jeep for Oregon Trophy Challenge. The big project I wanted to tackle was figuring out a rear bump stop solution. Something I've neglected since the Phase2 transformation.
I brainstormed for awhile the different ways of adding a strike pad, and in the end I decided to build off my spring plates. Started by cutting some .188" plate to shape, and glued two pieces together to double the thickness.
These were then butt welded to the sides of my spring perches. Extra gussets were added to the bottom to prevent deflection under hard hits. These gussets will rest on the sides of the spring packs.
I reused my old upper rear bump stops I made for my old setup with the 8.8. Reinstalled the spring plates, shock, and added a 1" spacer to dial in my bump height.
Cranked out another one for the other side. I found some JKS solid aluminum spacers in my parts collection, and decided to use those instead for the bling factor.
It'll be nice knowing when I sack out the rear suspension I'm not stuffing tire and killing my shocks. This is something I should have done a long time ago. We'll see how they hold up over time, but I plan to put them through the paces next weekend.
Today I hit it hard prepping the Jeep for Oregon Trophy Challenge. The big project I wanted to tackle was figuring out a rear bump stop solution. Something I've neglected since the Phase2 transformation.
I brainstormed for awhile the different ways of adding a strike pad, and in the end I decided to build off my spring plates. Started by cutting some .188" plate to shape, and glued two pieces together to double the thickness.
These were then butt welded to the sides of my spring perches. Extra gussets were added to the bottom to prevent deflection under hard hits. These gussets will rest on the sides of the spring packs.
I reused my old upper rear bump stops I made for my old setup with the 8.8. Reinstalled the spring plates, shock, and added a 1" spacer to dial in my bump height.
Cranked out another one for the other side. I found some JKS solid aluminum spacers in my parts collection, and decided to use those instead for the bling factor.
It'll be nice knowing when I sack out the rear suspension I'm not stuffing tire and killing my shocks. This is something I should have done a long time ago. We'll see how they hold up over time, but I plan to put them through the paces next weekend.
Update time!
Got the Nail Salon as prepped as I could for Oregon Trophy Challenge this year. Met up with the rest of Team6 Friday night, and we got started as soon as we tech'd in.
During Saturday's run I was following Nick through the top part of Dog Leg trail. I managed to clip a stump or log at speed with my front driver tire. Things felt okay, but my steering wheel was now 180 off. Upon closer inspection my steering box was now dumping fluid out the sector shaft seal. The force of impact basically hydro-locked the box and blew out the seal.
On borrowed time as my box puked more and more fluid, we decided to limp back to camp. Scott offered up the steering box out of his daily driver MJ, which we tore out and swapped into the Nail Salon Nascar pit style. With only two hours of down time we were back up and running where we left off.
The Nail Salon performed well the rest of the weekend. I'm very pleased with how the 37" Falkens are performing, even in the slick stuff.
Sitting atop Mini Rubicon. It was a slop-fest all weekend.
Overall we placed 2nd place this year, which with all things considered our team was pleased with. We'll be back out again next year to bring the trophy back to the station wagons.
Read about our time at OTC in the TORXreport.
Got the Nail Salon as prepped as I could for Oregon Trophy Challenge this year. Met up with the rest of Team6 Friday night, and we got started as soon as we tech'd in.
During Saturday's run I was following Nick through the top part of Dog Leg trail. I managed to clip a stump or log at speed with my front driver tire. Things felt okay, but my steering wheel was now 180 off. Upon closer inspection my steering box was now dumping fluid out the sector shaft seal. The force of impact basically hydro-locked the box and blew out the seal.
On borrowed time as my box puked more and more fluid, we decided to limp back to camp. Scott offered up the steering box out of his daily driver MJ, which we tore out and swapped into the Nail Salon Nascar pit style. With only two hours of down time we were back up and running where we left off.
The Nail Salon performed well the rest of the weekend. I'm very pleased with how the 37" Falkens are performing, even in the slick stuff.
Sitting atop Mini Rubicon. It was a slop-fest all weekend.
Overall we placed 2nd place this year, which with all things considered our team was pleased with. We'll be back out again next year to bring the trophy back to the station wagons.
Read about our time at OTC in the TORXreport.
Since OTC the Nail Salon has been parked. I've been dragging my feet on fixing the steering box, mostly because I wasn't sure which path I was going to take on the repair. I didn't want to gamble on a rebuilt and tapped stock box, and I was worried about flow issues with my stock pump and box with assist. So in the end I pulled the trigger on a complete assist kit from PSC.
It was a thing of beauty once un-boxed. Big bore box, high flow pump, remote reservoir, and 1.75" ram.
With a three day weekend ahead of me I got started on install. Start by removing old junk.
Said old junk.
I took this opportunity to de-grease, and clean up the engine bay. The stock air box would be gone for good at this point.
Installed the new high flow pump, 4.5gpm. I know plenty of people run assist with stock pumps, but since this jalopy still sees plenty of road time I wanted a solid steering setup with no lag.
The supplied reservoir bracket mounted the reservoir can at an odd angle, tipped back with the hose outputs pointing up. To get a better fit under the hood (there's not much wiggle room), I scored the bracket with a cut-off wheel, heated, bent, and re-welded to get a more "square" fit under the hood. I knew this wasn't going to be a bolt on kit, so I was prepared for a few modifications.
With the reservoir mounted, I then mounted the new box, and torqued the pitman arm nut. Also replaced the ES2027L TRE at the pitman arm as it suffered in the collision with the stump.
The last major component to mount up was the ram. I stared at my few options for a bit, and decided on fixing the axle side to my UCA mount, but first needed to fill in one of the speed holes. Found a hole saw remnant in the scrap bin which would be the perfect filler piece.
Once welded and ground flush, I positioned the ram and burned on the mounting tabs.
It was a thing of beauty once un-boxed. Big bore box, high flow pump, remote reservoir, and 1.75" ram.
With a three day weekend ahead of me I got started on install. Start by removing old junk.
Said old junk.
I took this opportunity to de-grease, and clean up the engine bay. The stock air box would be gone for good at this point.
Installed the new high flow pump, 4.5gpm. I know plenty of people run assist with stock pumps, but since this jalopy still sees plenty of road time I wanted a solid steering setup with no lag.
The supplied reservoir bracket mounted the reservoir can at an odd angle, tipped back with the hose outputs pointing up. To get a better fit under the hood (there's not much wiggle room), I scored the bracket with a cut-off wheel, heated, bent, and re-welded to get a more "square" fit under the hood. I knew this wasn't going to be a bolt on kit, so I was prepared for a few modifications.
With the reservoir mounted, I then mounted the new box, and torqued the pitman arm nut. Also replaced the ES2027L TRE at the pitman arm as it suffered in the collision with the stump.
The last major component to mount up was the ram. I stared at my few options for a bit, and decided on fixing the axle side to my UCA mount, but first needed to fill in one of the speed holes. Found a hole saw remnant in the scrap bin which would be the perfect filler piece.
Once welded and ground flush, I positioned the ram and burned on the mounting tabs.
To attach the ram to my tie-rod I went custom. Got a piece of 1.75x.250" tubing (ID of 1.25") which I faced up on the lathe.
I then milled some slots into the wall of the tubing for some .375" pipe to sit in.
All TIG'd up.
I split the clamp with a cutoff wheel, and then welded my ram mounting tabs on once I settled on a positions. I kept them slightly off square to neutralize the heim angle.
With the suspension at full bump, I squeezed the ram into place. It's a tight fit, but it clears with a little bit of safety margin. I was really pleased that I could fit it above the tie-rod, and not have to worry about building a rock guard.
Put the Jeep into monster truck mode, and measured for line lengths.
PSC uses some rebuildable fittings on their ram lines. First start by cutting the line to length with cutoff wheel, it's tough stuff.
Thread on the outer fitting shell.
With a little lube, thread on the inner fitting.
All mounted up.
Engine bay side. After the steering box, the fluid goes through my existing PS cooler, and then back to the reservoir. From the reservoir it's a easy downward slope to the pump, which should help prevent starvation. The reservoir is a tight squeeze under the hood. Without my hood spacers (3/4") I would have been scratching my head on how to fit it while keeping it above the pump inlet. I also relocated my winch solenoid box to where the factory air box was with a quick bracket welded to the inner fender. I'm still reworking my air filter, more on that later.
I bleed the system well and took it for a test drive. With the 1.75" ram I definitely could feel the system lag a bit on the fast corrections, and felt it was slower to respond in the corners at speed. I still street drive this to the trail, and enjoy running trails at speed, so I opted to swap in my smaller 1.5" PSC ram that I picked up awhile ago. With the smaller ram it behaves much better at speed, and has no issues keeping up. The steering power at a stop is still greatly improved. I can't wait to test out the new steering on the trail!
I then milled some slots into the wall of the tubing for some .375" pipe to sit in.
All TIG'd up.
I split the clamp with a cutoff wheel, and then welded my ram mounting tabs on once I settled on a positions. I kept them slightly off square to neutralize the heim angle.
With the suspension at full bump, I squeezed the ram into place. It's a tight fit, but it clears with a little bit of safety margin. I was really pleased that I could fit it above the tie-rod, and not have to worry about building a rock guard.
Put the Jeep into monster truck mode, and measured for line lengths.
PSC uses some rebuildable fittings on their ram lines. First start by cutting the line to length with cutoff wheel, it's tough stuff.
Thread on the outer fitting shell.
With a little lube, thread on the inner fitting.
All mounted up.
Engine bay side. After the steering box, the fluid goes through my existing PS cooler, and then back to the reservoir. From the reservoir it's a easy downward slope to the pump, which should help prevent starvation. The reservoir is a tight squeeze under the hood. Without my hood spacers (3/4") I would have been scratching my head on how to fit it while keeping it above the pump inlet. I also relocated my winch solenoid box to where the factory air box was with a quick bracket welded to the inner fender. I'm still reworking my air filter, more on that later.
I bleed the system well and took it for a test drive. With the 1.75" ram I definitely could feel the system lag a bit on the fast corrections, and felt it was slower to respond in the corners at speed. I still street drive this to the trail, and enjoy running trails at speed, so I opted to swap in my smaller 1.5" PSC ram that I picked up awhile ago. With the smaller ram it behaves much better at speed, and has no issues keeping up. The steering power at a stop is still greatly improved. I can't wait to test out the new steering on the trail!
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- Location
- Salem, OR
I can't wait to get mine mounted on also.
Jbh97009
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Damascus, Oregon
I'm sooooooo jealous!!!!
I would order up that same setup right now but I need to actually wheel my jeep before I spend any more money on it! That and I may need front shafts first
Looks stellar, as usual
I would order up that same setup right now but I need to actually wheel my jeep before I spend any more money on it! That and I may need front shafts first
Looks stellar, as usual
- Location
- Salem, OR
So Dustin do you think if you had stuck with the 1.5 ram instead of the 1.75, that getting the psc pump wouldn't have been needed?
From what I've read there's a ton of dudes running assist with stock pumps and boxes so I'm sure it can be done. In fact, this was my plan originally when I picked up just the 1.5" ram months ago. However, I always questioned how responsive and reliable that combo would be. A power steering system in the end comes down to how much flow you have. I didn't want to push my aging stock pump with the assist cylinder and bigger bore box so I convinced myself to bite the bullet and go with the complete kit with high flow pump. I knew the 1.75" ram would be slow, but it's nice to have options. I may swap it back on come snow season. Get that extra steering power for the low snow pressures.
Tap your stock box, and slap a WJ pump on. That seems to be a popular mod these days. I would be hesitant running a reman parts store pump though.
