Flop resurrection

[mako my day]

Amazing build. But all this shimmy talk just makes me want to drink.

 

[garrett83]

That's similar to what i had for compression actually. The issue i had was i went from a stack of 12's to a flutter stack of mostly 15's and it bottomed out considerably sooner than with the stack of 12's, and i didnt notice much ride quality improvement with the flutter stack to boot. So i ended up just going to a stack of 15's in my old shocks (i havent revalved my current ones yet but i know i need to badly, and it's a stack of 12's and 10's for rebound).
Also, on bigger bore shocks, it's good to have the first rebound shim at least .01" thick. .008's are known to get sucked into the piston ports on the compression stroke.
BTW, don't bother going to anything .02" thick, if you need more valving you can double up on the .015"s per diameter. Usually that's done on the 3 biggest shims. Start with one extra .015" big shim, then add one .015" for the next biggest size, and then for the next biggest size if you need more valving. If you need even more than that, you can go to 3 big shims, and so on down the line. It sounds like a lot but is still less of a jump than going to .02"s.

disclaimer: i am not an expert.

I couldn't understand why my shocks had the 18x10 (metric) shims in them when i originally took them apart, until now. they are placed in between the largest diameter shim and the piston itself. I think these tiny shims might keep the lighter .008s from sticking like you said.

using the .015s makes perfect sense. A full stack of those would be very stiff.

I figure i will have these apart quite a few times before i say F it and take it to Wayne and pay him to figure it out…

 

[rockclimber]

I couldn't understand why my shocks had the 18x10 (metric) shims in them when i originally took them apart, until now. they are placed in between the largest diameter shim and the piston itself. I think these tiny shims might keep the lighter .008s from sticking like you said.



using the .015s makes perfect sense. A full stack of those would be very stiff.



I figure i will have these apart quite a few times before i say F it and take it to Wayne and pay him to figure it out…

He is cheaper than you think. Id take it to him before you waste too Much more energy on it.

 

[garrett83]

He is cheaper than you think. Id take it to him before you waste too Much more energy on it.

its not the money, Im doing this to learn as much as i can.

and for right now, i have to set up something that will work better than what came in the shocks. My spring rates are a complete polar opposite from what the other guys were, and his valving was way far off from what i think i need. The compression had almost a complete stack of .008s on it, this would have had given me horrible ride.

 

[Vanimal]

I couldn't understand why my shocks had the 18x10 (metric) shims in them when i originally took them apart, until now. they are placed in between the largest diameter shim and the piston itself. I think these tiny shims might keep the lighter .008s from sticking like you said.

using the .015s makes perfect sense. A full stack of those would be very stiff.

I figure i will have these apart quite a few times before i say F it and take it to Wayne and pay him to figure it out…

That is really weird, i'd have to see it in comparison to the piston to know if that's the reason. It's not so much a sticking issue, it will actually suck the rebound shim into the ports in the piston, damaging the shim. When the shock is on the compression stroke, until the compression shims crack, it is basically trying to suck the rebound shims through those ports. If the biggest shim is thin enough, it has been known to happen, according to Fox and several other people we dealt with while tuning the shocks on the class 1 car. However, that's a completely different animal.

 

[Vanimal]

its not the money, Im doing this to learn as much as i can.

and for right now, i have to set up something that will work better than what came in the shocks. My spring rates are a complete polar opposite from what the other guys were, and his valving was way far off from what i think i need. The compression had almost a complete stack of .008s on it, this would have had given me horrible ride.

are you sure the piston or shims werent installed upside down? That's really weird lol

 

[garrett83]

are you sure the piston or shims werent installed upside down? That's really weird lol

These are grims old coilovers. He was running 350/400 lb coils on the front of his Cherokee. I assume he had the factory valve them to this spring set up. I almost thought about just flipping the stacks, but the rebound stack that was in there was mostly .010s and .012s, would have been too light for my compression.

 

[garrett83]

That is really weird, i'd have to see it in comparison to the piston to know if that's the reason. It's not so much a sticking issue, it will actually suck the rebound shim into the ports in the piston, damaging the shim. When the shock is on the compression stroke, until the compression shims crack, it is basically trying to suck the rebound shims through those ports. If the biggest shim is thin enough, it has been known to happen, according to Fox and several other people we dealt with while tuning the shocks on the class 1 car. However, that's a completely different animal.

This is what the rebound side of my piston looks like. I can see where there could be an issue with the shim bending into the relief slots. I might have to run those super fancy heat treat king shims.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

fyi if those are my old coilovers they're 2 5/8" not 2.5"

 

[cal]

i haven't really been watching this build before today.. but i'm wondering, do you really expect those mattresses to soften the next roll very much?

 

[rockclimber]

How do you think he sets up camp? Just flip the rig over and go to sleep.

 

[garrett83]

i haven't really been watching this build before today.. but i'm wondering, do you really expect those mattresses to soften the next roll very much?

I was hoping the box spring would just bounce me back over.. :dunno:

 

[garrett83]

Got the lower link cross memeber wrapped up and tacked in place. I decided I would weld it to the body instead of bolting it. I used the same material as the front cross memeber, 2x4, .250" wall tube with 3x3, .188" wall tube for the brackets, then used some scrap .250", 4x4 angle for the frame tie ins.

I also tacked on the lower link mounts on the axle. I used ruffstuff brackets and mounted them so that the link will mount 1.5" above the center line of the axle tube.

 

[garrett83]

 

[mako my day]

Faking awesome.

 

[garrett83]

Faking awesome.

I want your welder, are you done with it yet?!

 

[mako my day]

Eh, still in the box. The bender I bought had missing parts. Been a little disappointed.

 

[Vanimal]

looking good man! Welds have come a long way.
One thing i will say is plate that thing to the top of the floor, over the unirails. maybe insert a piece of 3x3 square tubing into the rails and rosette weld it to the 2 sides of the stiffners so that you have a solid 3 sides to mount the crossmember to. I only say this because i had mine welded essentially in an L shape like that and it twisted and eventually tore the metal. Having your lower control arm brackets on the axle above centerline makes the axle rotate with more leverage on the links/rod ends/brackets/etc under load and which tries to twist the crossmember with it.
This is the one i eventually ended up building.

 

[garrett83]

Thank Dan, I figure by the time this is finished I will finally know how to weld.

Your cross member is bad ass. Did you plate the inner unibody rails as well?

I was thinking about running two crush sleeves and long bolts through the unibody rail to sand which the inner and outer angle metal together. I think this would solve the twisting problem.

 

[Lowrange2]

Do like the Rock Krawler 3 link does. They use a piece of C shaped channel that contours to the 3 sides of the unibody, DOM crush sleeves welded into the unibody and bolts all the way through.

Not sure why those bolts in the picture look tiny...