Flop resurrection

[garrett83]

So after more than 10 years of wheeling XJs, the inevitable happened, I flopped my XJ...

I not only flopped it, but had to drag it 100 yards down a trail to get it back over!!

After all this, it wasn't looking to pretty anymore..

I guess this is the point where you strip It and part it, or you chop it a wheel it some more. I decided to go with the later. I got one more weekend trip out of it before deciding it was time to build a hybrid buggy.

So last weekend I started with this...

And after a weekend of stripping it down I was left with this..

With some help from a local club memeber, we got it pretty much stripped of the bolt on stuff that isn't going back on.

Now time for the plan of attack. My fist plan was to put a Dana 44/60 combo, and run 37" tires. After some research, I figure this just wasn't the direction I wanted to go. So I picked these up from another club memeber..

This is a early 90s Dana 70 rear, and a 95 F350 Dana 60 front. I decided to go with the 70 because I didn't want to deal with having to bore out the hubs to fit 35 spline shafts. I also decided to go the one ton route because I can build both front and rear axles, with lockers, for the same price I can build just a Dana 44, and I won't be limited on tire size.

I am going to keep these full width And run a set of 39.5" TSLs. I am keeping the rear leafs for now, which are 6.5" rustys with 2" shackles. In the front I am keeping my 8.5" rustys coils, and turning the rustys long arm y link into a three link by reusing the long arms, cutting off the y link, and building a custom upper third link. I will be running the upper link on the passenger side.

As far as the body goes, well, I plan to get rid of most of it. I want to keep the windshield and pretty much tube the back half on top of the floor board. I want to dove tail the rear with keeping it a 3 or 4 seater, um, reverse dove tail the front...? And run some removable vinyl and mesh doors and top.

I have a ton of other plans, but that's pretty much the gist of it. Nothing really all that new or far out, but kind of my own take on some things.

 

[garrett83]

Busted out some work today. Got the axles stripped down this week and cleaned up a bit. Started fabbing my take on u bolt eliminators by using perches from ruffstuff, and cutting up some 4"x4" 1/4" square tube for the bolt flanges.

I still need to drill the holes and make the top plates for u bolt eliminators, but you can kinda get where I'm going with this. I have the axle set 1" back right now, but will be drilling another hole to give me abouta 2" stretch. This will allow me to reuse my rear drive shaft. I am already set up with a SYE and a Tom woods drive shaft. This also will give me a little more room to stuff those 40" tires and still try to fit a rear seat.

Off to the front. I picked up some tabs and coil plates from ballistic, a upper link tower from Barnes, and a couple 7/8 Heims from ruff stuff. All these companies by the way have really easy to use web sites, all three orders got to me within 3 days, and all the products are of great quality. I could have fabbed some of this stuff, but for the price, you really can't go wrong saving the time and energy of making your self. I also got a frame mount for the upper link from Barnes. I was able to get the axle mocked up at ride height from the frame, centered under the chassis, and got the lower links tacked on. I also did some grinding to the housing to squeeze the coil plate in further toward the center. Coils will be about 3/4" outboard on each side.

Monday I have to order some nickel rod so I can braze the inner tab onto the housing on the driver side, and braze the coil plate to the old spring perch. I do plan to keep the passenger spring perch a well and just weld the other coil plate to that a well.

That's it for today. Tomorrow I will finish the upper link and mount tires on it. Then I can measure and mark for all my cuts to the body.

And by the way, I will not be cutting the body until I get my frame stiffeners fabbed and welded on. I'm sure it would be ok, but last thing I need is for this thing to fold like a taco before I even get in out of the driveway!!

Pics of the tires I got a deal on...

 

[MoparManiac]

Finally.

The adv fab section was kinda dead.

Good choice on skipping the 44.

 

[rockclimber]

Finally..

Good choice on skipping the 44.

X2

 

[ROBZ95Xj]

X3, have you thought about lowering it 2ft

 

[garrett83]

Thanks guys!

And yes, I do plan to lower it in the next phase of things. I plan to run coil overs on all four corners with a 4 link rear. But budgets do get in the way, and I am using what i have for the moment.

At this height, it does get quite light, quite often. Some of the guys I wheel with have been calling me tripod because I'm usually on three wheels going up or down something.

So we will see, I am talkin to another member about trading me his 5.5" springs and coils.

 

[Vanimal]

looks good bud. maybe next weekend i can come up and lend a hand.

 

[kastein]

Yow, that looks like it hurt... probably wouldn't have flopped with 3-4" less lift.

Can't wait to see where this goes. Probably know this already but make sure the weight of the vehicle is on the suspension when you set up your rear pinion angle / weld the perches on.

 

[garrett83]

Yow, that looks like it hurt... probably wouldn't have flopped with 3-4" less lift.

Can't wait to see where this goes. Probably know this already but make sure the weight of the vehicle is on the suspension when you set up your rear pinion angle / weld the perches on.

This I do know. I have the perches tacked on for right now. Once I get it on wheels today I plan to throw a ton of weight into it to get it to squat back down. As it sits now I can lift the rear of the jeep off of the perches by myself!!!

Lunch break btw, my Lincoln 135 needs a break!!

And thanks Vanimal, next weekend will be a big one. Frame stiffeners and cutting the SH** out of the body!!

 

[knucklehead 61]

X3, have you thought about lowering it 2ft

no doubt!
mine is about 4" lower & on tons & 42's :scared:

if you get bored & want a good laugh, look through my gay blog to see how i did my suspension on my red p.o.s.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1042976

also, do yourself a favor & sell the crustys long arms & install a 3 link on heims for pure beef. you will also need at least hydro assist or better yet full hydro steering with those massively wide mud tires.

 

[garrett83]

no doubt!
mine is about 4" lower & on tons & 42's :scared:

if you get bored & want a good laugh, look through my gay blog to see how i did my suspension on my red p.o.s.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1042976

also, do yourself a favor & sell the crustys long arms & install a 3 link on heims for pure beef. you will also need at least hydro assist or better yet full hydro steering with those massively wide mud tires.

I have done a ton of reading on your blog, moparmaniacs thread, and many others,to get an idea of how this all comes together!! I appreciate you guys posting up so much info on your builds!!

I do plan to use a PSC assist cylinder. These tires I have should get me through the year, then I'll move onto something else.

I am only running the lower arms to help save some dough for now. In fact, I am keeping the y link tabs on so I can sell the arms at a later date when I am ready to build new lowers.

 

[garrett83]

So I got quite a bit more done today.

Plated and welded up the frame mount for the upper link. I am using the theory that the upper needs to be 75% the length of the lower link. This seems to work well as rotated the axle, but I won't really know until i get the drag link built.

I hate welding upside down by the way!!

I decided to use 2" OD 1/4" wall DOM tube for the link, along with 7/8" ruffstuff Heims.

All mounted to a Barnes 4 WD upper link at the axle end.

So after all that, I mounted the front and rear spindles, jacket it up as high as my floor jack would go, and this is what I ended up with....

An Fn mud bogger!!

So the idea of wheeling it at this height is pretty much being thrown out the door!!

I have a height of 75" to the roof gutter and 28" to the bottom of the unibody frame rail. It's just way too tall!! I think going with the 4 or 5" lift springs and coils will be the way to go.

Oh well, I can atleast knock out a lot of the stiffener work as well as the cage work while I search for some other coils and springs.

Flame on!!....

 

[Vanimal]

lol yea, that's pretty damn tall.

 

[rockclimber]

get some currie 4.5" TJ coils. they gave me about 4" of lift and they have the most travel of any coil out there. 11" of it actually.

deavers or nationals for leafs...

and don't you want the upper link to be longer than the lowers to keep the pinion pointed up?

 

[Vanimal]

and don't you want the upper link to be longer than the lowers to keep the pinion pointed up?

his setup will be exactly like i have mine right now. i did the shorter upper link because there is limited room for it in there. i also used my radius arm lowers temporarily with plans on making shorter ones eventually, but it really hasnt caused any problems so i havent done it yet. my biggest issue with the lowers are that they're so long that the brackets are constantly getting hung up and i've bent both links pretty bad from landing on a rock with them.

 

[garrett83]

get some currie 4.5" TJ coils. they gave me about 4" of lift and they have the most travel of any coil out there. 11" of it actually.

deavers or nationals for leafs...

and don't you want the upper link to be longer than the lowers to keep the pinion pointed up?

The theory with the shorter upper link is so that the caster stays put so you can keep your steering correct while flexed. At least this is what I have read.

I did base this off of Vanimals build, I have seen it in action and it seems to work quite well.

 

[Lowrange2]

Holy damn! It's even taller now!

You work fast.

 

[garrett83]

Holy damn! It's even taller now!

You work fast.

Ha! Lots of mud bogging in the near future at this rate!

 

[rockclimber]

his setup will be exactly like i have mine right now. i did the shorter upper link because there is limited room for it in there. i also used my radius arm lowers temporarily with plans on making shorter ones eventually, but it really hasnt caused any problems so i havent done it yet. my biggest issue with the lowers are that they're so long that the brackets are constantly getting hung up and i've bent both links pretty bad from landing on a rock with them.

I blame your driving style:laugh:

The theory with the shorter upper link is so that the caster stays put so you can keep your steering correct while flexed. At least this is what I have read.

I did base this off of Vanimals build, I have seen it in action and it seems to work quite well.

I understand that theory... but from what I have read the consensus is to have a longer upper in order to keep the pinion angled up. 99% of the time pinion angle trumps caster. especially considering that you need less caster the larger your tires are.

caster does not really matter at full droop since you generally aren't going fast enough to feel it.

just my .02

 

[Vanimal]

I blame your gangnam style:laugh:

fify