Build thread White '99

[Jeepedo129]

So, in my spare time this week I got a small part of the WJ steering done.

I bought new unit bearings, I used 2003 TJ unit bearings, got them for 130$

Then I cleaned up my knuckles, and the cheap ass in side of me didn't want to go get them blasted soooooo I decided to try electrolysis. Yeah science

I went to school to be an Aircraft mechanic, so part of that was metallurgy, and learning about how to heat treat and clean certain metals. I did a quick online refresher to check my knowledge and gathered my supplies.

First I got a 6/12v battery charger, washing soda (soda carbonate) a 15gal tub, wire and some random scrap pieces for my anodes.

I mocked up how the knuckles would sit in the tub, then wired the anodes in series to the positive side of the charger. Basically, this works line of sight, so the more anodes you have the better your results will be. I have 4 of various sizes. I put the knuckles in the tub so they are off the bottom and not touching the anodes.

Next, I mixed up my electrolyte. I mixed about 1-2 tablespoons of washing soda per gal of water. I've been told baking soda works too, but I don't have any experience with it so I can't say much about that.

I turned the charger on to 12v 12a. The ammeter showed about 7ish amps, if the amps are too high, then add water, too low add washing soda. It's cool because it instantly starts working. You can see the bubbles coming off the knuckles and accumulating on the anodes. One note here, this process splits the water molecules down to their elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Which can be flammable, so keep it in a ventilated area and wear proper PPE. (Gloves, Glasses)

After about 2 hours my parts were done. This is the sludgy soup that is left.

After I removed my knuckles I rinsed, then took off the last little bits with a light wire brush. This is the final product, the one on the left is before I wire brushed the sludge off.

I'm very impressed as to how well this worked, it took off 90% of the rust and grime right off the knuckle, right down to bare metal. Now time to weld on my jks spacers.

 

[Jeepedo129]

Next, I welded on my JKS spacers, since this is cast iron, it needs to be heated before you weld to it, so I put it in them bbq for about 25-30 min and got them up to 500ish. Then took the unit bearing and spacer and bolted them in. I welded a few tack welds them removed the bearing and finish welding. After that I put both knuckles in sand and let cool.

Once they were cooled down, I did a coat of self etch, and then several coats of high gloss black. I also painted my calipers with some engine paint, nice fire engine red!

I did some work on my axle as well, I took the UCA off the passenger side and cut the coil bucket off and tried to mock up how the new one is going to sit.

With coil bucket back over the axle, I have plenty of room for the steering and the new track bar the will mount to the inner C. Now just need to decide if I can fab up the old buckets to work or replace them.

 

[SkinnyRidgeMJ]

I turned the charger on to 12v 12a. The ammeter showed about 7ish amps, if the amps are too high, then add water, too low add washing soda. It's cool because it instantly starts working. You can see the bubbles coming off the knuckles and accumulating on the anodes. One note here, this process splits the water molecules down to their elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Which can be flammable, so keep it in a ventilated area and wear proper PPE. (Gloves, Glasses)

After about 2 hours my parts were done. This is the sludgy soup that is left.

After I removed my knuckles I rinsed, then took off the last little bits with a light wire brush. This is the final product, the one on the left is before I wire brushed the sludge off.

This is the coolest thing I have ever seen. How much juice would it take to do a whole truck? Ha-ha.

 

[Jeepedo129]

Theoretically, you would just need a huge tub, same voltage and probably a little more amps. Haha I wish I could have put the whole axle in there.

 

[XJEEPER]

Well done, Brandon! Love the de-rusting tutorial.
PS, nothing wrong with preheating the knuckles, but I've welded several sets with no pre-heat or post heat with zero issues.

Using PVC pipe to mock up links works well, you can slot the ends and zip tie or hose clamp them onto the TRE shanks.

 

[Jk2xj1]

Great job on taking the rust off those knuckles, and thanks for sharing. I have some brake brackets and some other random small parts that need some cleaning. You have my gears turning on maybe trying that, haha!

 

[G2WANIT]

Awesome job on those knuckles! Can't wait to see the finished axle.

 

[Jeepedo129]

Well done, Brandon! Love the de-rusting tutorial.
PS, nothing wrong with preheating the knuckles, but I've welded several sets with no pre-heat or post heat with zero issues.

Using PVC pipe to mock up links works well, you can slot the ends and zip tie or hose clamp them onto the TRE shanks.

Good to know, I wanted to be safe, but I have another set that will need to be welded so I'll try with out heat.

I will definitely be doing electrolysis on other parts, beats using the grinder or blasting. Glad you guys all liked it.

 

[Tony_SS]

Brandon... just read your whole build... awesome job!

On the rust removal... I soaked all my stuff in apple cider vinegar overnight with the same results... that stuff is amazing too.

I LOVE your front bumper.... how much for you to ship me that one and you make another one for yourself? Haha.... seriously, how much?

 

[Jeepedo129]

Haha, thanks Tony.

that bumper was a pain to make because I don't have a bender. And it was my first time building a bumper haha. But really it's super simple. I'll have to post up how I built it since I seem to have skipped that part.

I may one day rebuild it, but that may be a ways away. Lol

 

[Jeepedo129]

So, this is my build for my front bumper.

Now, this was my first time building anything like a bumper so, as I think it came out pretty dang good, it isn't perfect, and thats ok. Sorry for a ton of pictures, but I like pictures.

I wanted something simple, with good approach angles and something that I could build onto in the future. Xjeeper's bumper was exactly what I wanted in a bumper.

I learned a lot from this build, First lesson was the difference in the types of tubing. EW tubing is not the same as DOM, In strength or price. I had bought some tubing thinking it was DOM, but later found out that in fact I bought EW, which is ok.

Next was tube, or should I say, pipe bender. I borrowed a buddy's hobo freight bender thinking that I could easily bend my bumper and quickly found out that this "bender" wasn't what I thought it was. But having my stock bumper already tore off, and set on never putting it back on, I set forth to make this work.

I went to the web and sure enough I ran into several videos and forums on how to bend EW with the pipe bender.
Basically, the tube needs to be packed tight with damp sand for you to be able to bend the tube without it kinking. Also, there was a video on Youtube that showed a simple mod to the bender's rollers to make it more effective. Ditch the rollers for these and the tube is held in place instead of sliding.

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I did a test run with the bender by bending up the Hoop. I duct taped one end then started by filling out the tube with water, then sand. I packed it down by using the flat side of a steak as a ram Then I taped up the other side and bent away.

The hoop as well as the main tube are all 1.5x.120 EW from what i can remember. I used my crappy Craftsman bubble level degree finder to bend it with two 45ish degree bends.

Turned out ok. Next I set on making the main tube. This was much harder to pack with sand since its a good 12 feet long.....

The frame brackets I used were from an ebay company called Roxoild. CNC cut 3/16" plate that has holes for the stock bumper location and steering box. I cut a rounded slit in it for the main tube to tie into the brackets. This way there is nearly 50% of the tube welded to the bracket for strength.

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this is a shot after i welded the tube to the bracket.



After I got the main tube welded to the brackets and the hoop tacked to the main, I cut and welded in a 1/8th plate across the front of the bumper and welded in lower supports. I didn't get many pictures of this as I was in a hurry to get ready for WOTR.




I really like this bumper, and It worked really well Down in St George, it has really good approach angles and I even got to use it as a tow point to help a broken jeep limp home. So it is a solid bumper haha.

 

[Tony_SS]

Nice work! I'm going to copy this design, with a few tweaks.. I need recovery points up front somehow.... thanks for sharing.

 

[Jeepedo129]

That is something I need to add. When I used it as a tow point I put my strap on the lower support and it worked, but a hook or D ring would be better

 

[Jeepedo129]

Got a set of JK 17" wheels with some BFGs on them. The spare tire was brand new, but the others are gone. So I'm lookin for 3 to replace the bad tires. But I have to say she looks good.

 

[Jeepedo129]

I had an interview in CT for a new job. So I didn't have as much time to work on my axle as I wanted this weekend.

I drilled my wj rotors to 5 on 4.5 which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I mounted up my wj steering and brakes. I'm getting excited for this axle.

The Ruff stuff steering kit is pure beef. It's 1.5x.25 dom with GM one ton TREs. On the tierod I have off set TREs. I reamed out the knuckles, cut and welded the tire rod.

I started mocking up how the TB will mount and I'm starting to see what kind of clearances I have. I think I'm going to remove the misalignment spacers on the axle end of the TB and use a 3/4 bolt instead of a 5/8.

I have about a 1/2 of clearance from the diff to tierod at full left lock

I still have a lot to get done, but I'm gettin there.

Next on the list are coil buckets, gussets, and when ever 4 wheel parts gets my truss in ill be putting that on...... I don't know why I continually buy from them....

More to come.

 

[Jeepedo129]

I'll get pictures back online as soon as I can. Damn photobucket.

 

[Jeepedo129]

Alright, so since I accepted a job in Connecticut, Project Dana30 got put into high gear. I worked on as much as I could just to get the axle into the jeep, so I wouldn't have to drag it across the country. I didn't get to do a few things that I had planned on doing just because of time constraints.

I did want to rotate the knuckles to help with the caster, but with the jeep at the height that it is now, I can get 4.5* or more of caster with little to know driveline vibes. Also, i didn't get to have my enough dough to have gears set up for it, the front is 4:10s and the rear is 3:55s, so I left the front DL off.

However.... I did get the best part done

 

[Jeepedo129]

So here she is!



My parts list:

Dana 30 from '87 Xj with 4:10s
Truss from Artec Industries
1 ton steering from Ruffstuff
bushing sleeve from IRO

Wj Brakes and Steering Conversion:
'00 WJ steering knuckles; Junk Yard
'00 WJ calipers and bracket; Junk Yard
'00 WJ ball Joints Upper and Lower; O'reilly's
'00 WJ Rotors; O'reilly's
'03 Tj unit bearings; O'reilly's
JKS weld on spcaer
Reamed for OTK

Custom Made:

Upper control arm bracket
lower inner C gussets
upper inner C gussets
Inncer C gusset track bar mount.
Over-the-axle Coil buckets
swaybar mounts and links

 

[G2WANIT]

Holy smokes, what happened, you wake up one day and say, "You know, I've been here, done that, I'm out... OUT!"

I suppose you could have moved farther away, but you'd have to really try!

 

[Jeepedo129]

I had spent a lot of time researching different builds for dana 30s and I really liked the Idea of mounting the track bar to the Inner C to obtain perfect geometry with the track bar and the drag link.


I moved the coils back about 2 inches in order to clear the track bar. I fabbed up my own coil buckets which wasn't to hard to make out of some 3/16 steel.



Once the axle was under the jeep I fabbed up shock mounts, which are a 5/8 grade 8 bolt welded to the coil bucket, which eliminated the bar pin.

I decided to go with a bushing sleeve from IRO instead of using Artecs Daystar bushings just because I wanted to use the OEM bushings.
I fabbed up the UCA mount with some 3/16" steel cut to fit the sleeve.
the Artecs truss have 4 small cut outs where their UCA is supposed to welled on so I used that As a guide.