kelly klassen
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- British Columbia
Got my hangers finished and figured I'd throw out a post in case anyone was interested. Love to hear some feedback, yah, even the flames about clearance issues.
So my theory was something like this: Ever seen how much a spring twists at full articulation? That's a lot of stress on both the mount and the spring, not to mention the fatigue that the spring experiences over time. Running OMEs with a relatively light rate, these springs see a lot of flex. This inherant stress is also what gives us a pretty stable platform, so what I did is a bit of a tradeoff, I know. I decided to design a mount which articulated a little (+/-10 to 15 degrees) to free up some flexiness (is that a word?) without fatiguing the spring so much. Something along the line of those orbits for Toys, but with a different approach.
Fabrication was pretty simple. The most technical part of it was getting the 4"x1.5"x1.5" square stock bored out and bushings pressed in at the machine shop. I cut up some 3.5" SHS into the actual U-shaped spring hanger and welded in a couple of washers on the insides to take up the difference in size between the inside measurement of the SHS and the size of the spring bushing, and to give a bit more bearing surface for the bolt. This hanger got drilled and welded to a grade 8 7/8" bolt with the head cut off, and the whole thing was slid into the 1.5" square stock. Welded this onto the 6x8x1/4 plate with some 3/8" stock to space it up a bit. To mount it to the Jeep, I bolted the plate onto the frame rail with some grade 8s. I got a couple of spare spring bushings which were fed into where the spring normally attaches and welded them to the plate with some 1/4" stock. This seems to make for a pretty solid mount and nets about 2.25" of lift.
I've made some shackles which give about 2" of lift as well, and correct the pinion angle a bit as well. A new shaft is definately a necessity as the stock one popped off durring the installation. At ride height, with the hangers in but not the shackles, I had about an inch of spline engagement. Needless to say, I'm driving around in front wheel drive right now.
I did this in conjunction with my 4.5 RE zj coils and putting my winch and bumper back on. The back sits slightly higher. The ride is pretty good. The front sway bar is disconnected and the body roll is there, but not scarry like when you drive around with stock coils and no swaybar. I may hook it back up if I make some discos. The hangers don't seem to induce much more roll. As soon as I get a driveshaft, I'll let you know how it performs. I can definately tell you that my shocks are the limiting factor right now, I've got to space them out some. This sure makes my 30" ATs look wussy, though!
So, check out the pics, maybe they'll make some sense of what I wrote. Let me know what you think.
(And I plan to plate some small skids from the rockrail mounting arms to the spring hangers to help slide over things that I would otherwise snag with these hangers.)
Autocad Plans (the actual construction ended up slightly different):
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/leaf hangers.JPG
Side View:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/side.JPG
Another:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/quarter.JPG
End View:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/end.JPG
Opposite side:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/other_side.JPG
So my theory was something like this: Ever seen how much a spring twists at full articulation? That's a lot of stress on both the mount and the spring, not to mention the fatigue that the spring experiences over time. Running OMEs with a relatively light rate, these springs see a lot of flex. This inherant stress is also what gives us a pretty stable platform, so what I did is a bit of a tradeoff, I know. I decided to design a mount which articulated a little (+/-10 to 15 degrees) to free up some flexiness (is that a word?) without fatiguing the spring so much. Something along the line of those orbits for Toys, but with a different approach.
Fabrication was pretty simple. The most technical part of it was getting the 4"x1.5"x1.5" square stock bored out and bushings pressed in at the machine shop. I cut up some 3.5" SHS into the actual U-shaped spring hanger and welded in a couple of washers on the insides to take up the difference in size between the inside measurement of the SHS and the size of the spring bushing, and to give a bit more bearing surface for the bolt. This hanger got drilled and welded to a grade 8 7/8" bolt with the head cut off, and the whole thing was slid into the 1.5" square stock. Welded this onto the 6x8x1/4 plate with some 3/8" stock to space it up a bit. To mount it to the Jeep, I bolted the plate onto the frame rail with some grade 8s. I got a couple of spare spring bushings which were fed into where the spring normally attaches and welded them to the plate with some 1/4" stock. This seems to make for a pretty solid mount and nets about 2.25" of lift.
I've made some shackles which give about 2" of lift as well, and correct the pinion angle a bit as well. A new shaft is definately a necessity as the stock one popped off durring the installation. At ride height, with the hangers in but not the shackles, I had about an inch of spline engagement. Needless to say, I'm driving around in front wheel drive right now.
I did this in conjunction with my 4.5 RE zj coils and putting my winch and bumper back on. The back sits slightly higher. The ride is pretty good. The front sway bar is disconnected and the body roll is there, but not scarry like when you drive around with stock coils and no swaybar. I may hook it back up if I make some discos. The hangers don't seem to induce much more roll. As soon as I get a driveshaft, I'll let you know how it performs. I can definately tell you that my shocks are the limiting factor right now, I've got to space them out some. This sure makes my 30" ATs look wussy, though!
So, check out the pics, maybe they'll make some sense of what I wrote. Let me know what you think.
(And I plan to plate some small skids from the rockrail mounting arms to the spring hangers to help slide over things that I would otherwise snag with these hangers.)
Autocad Plans (the actual construction ended up slightly different):
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/leaf hangers.JPG
Side View:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/side.JPG
Another:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/quarter.JPG
End View:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/end.JPG
Opposite side:
http://members.shaw.ca/kdklassen/other_side.JPG