frame plating/panhard

[rockclimber]

I am planning on plating the front section of my Unibody.

I have a clayton Frame side mount.

is there any reason why I shouldn't put a couple of stitch welds on the frame side trackbar mount? I'm tired of the bolts coming loose and it moving.

I am also planning on fabbing up a brace for it across the unirails under the oil pan.

if I do weld it on, should I leave it where it is? should I move it forward?

obviously If I move it and cannot use the stock bolts, I will either re-drill it for the bolts, or add some plug welds, or both.

thanks.

 

[foxwar71]

Just weld it solid to the frame plating, that's how my current setup is. 3/16 plating with a RuffStuff outside bracket welded directly to it, I'm not worried about it. I thought about adding a brace to it, but I doubt ill ever get around to it.


My old bracket setup used to loosen up and stuff, once I changed brackets and added a brace to it the bolts never moved again on me. Having a brace really stiffens the front end up and prevents the lever action on the bracket better. A couple of stitch welds wouldn't hurt either.

 

[MoparManiac]

Once the front unibody is plated, go ahead and stitch weld it.

A brace would help if you have a steering box too. That area gets beat on a lot.

As for placement, it's basically whatever works for you. I'm sure it messes with certain handling characteristics, but I don't know what/how.

You want a flat (or even negative angled) track bar at ride height, or as close as possible to that.

Mine is flat at ride height. Axle mount is like 8 inches off the axle onto the ram mount/tubework. Frame side is up where the steering box bolts were.

 

[RCman]

Run the bolts through anyway even if you weld it.

As a few people have found out (5spd_xj for one) if you only weld it and don't have that area boxed in then the sheetmetal in that area will separate from each other.

Then you end up on the trail doing this:

 

[Vanimal]

i was planning on tacking mine to the frame just to keep it from shifting enough to loosen the bolts. i figured a few tacks should do it as long as it penetrates.
as for position, i ended up moving my front axle about an inch forward to get more uptravel before it hit the firewall. this caused the track bar bracket to hit the diff in full compression (from hitting bumps at speed, not flexing). i think i'm going to move the bracket about an inch forward as well to help with this as well as the angle of the trackbar.

 

[rockclimber]

sounds like welding it is the way to go.

I'm not planning on re-doing my steering, or axle side panhard mount, I am really happy with the currie steering and have no desire to change it.

I did notice that my panhard will touch the diff at full stuff if I can get the full amount of uptravel in my shocks. I will try to move it forward slightly, but I'm not sure how much room I will have before the pitman arm/ DL.

 

[rockclimber]

finally got around to doing this

moved it forward ~1" plated the bottom of the unibody with 3/16" (side has HD offroad stiffener)


ran a brace across


plated the opposite side and tied that into the HD offroad stiffener


the plan is to fully plate the bottom of the rail with 3/16" and tie that to the HD offroad stiffeners with some 1/8" on the angled section, but this was all I had time for now.

 

[JohnX]

Personally I like to have the cross brace removable in case I need to drop the pan or get in there for anything else. I have always had my brace mounted on the passenger side by some existing holes using four bolts....never had them come loose yet, but I did loctite them in.

Not exactly anything a sawzall wouldn't fix in about 20 seconds though.

 

[rockclimber]

Personally I like to have the cross brace removable in case I need to drop the pan or get in there for anything else. I have always had my brace mounted on the passenger side by some existing holes using four bolts....never had them come loose yet, but I did loctite them in.

Not exactly anything a sawzall wouldn't fix in about 20 seconds though.

yea. I fully plan to use some tube couplers like you see used in engine cages to make it removeable.

its just kinda low on the priority list...

 

[souske]

.

How did a seagull manage to poop upside down onto that weld joint?

 

[rockclimber]

How did a seagull manage to poop upside down onto that weld joint?

it looks boogered in the picture, but I assure you it its not.

come over and see it in person.