GM 5.3/4L60E/Klune/Stak 300

[Root Moose]

Another option for making clearance around the master cylinder is converting to hydroboost. It adds to the PITA factor and I'm not sure if the extra few inches of length are worth the effort.

I'm really wondering about clearance around the air compressor. Surely you are not the first to encounter this problem. Is it possible to locate somewhere else, say under the alternator or another location away from the coil over?

 

[cracker]

Jeff, with regard to the placement of the cross-brace for the coil-overs, you mentioned needing room to remove your MC.
Do you have a dual diaphragm booster on there now? I can't tell by the picture. If not, and your brakes suck, the logical upgrade is the dual diaphragm booster, which is significantly longer than the single diaphragm booster.

Looks like the newer dual diaphram one.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Yes, it is the dual diaphram booster and master cylinder unit from a '97 I think. It's not a problem to fit the coil over in front of it, I just wanted to be sure I left enough room to remove it if and when necessary. As for the York, I don't believe ANYBODY has been in this position yet! I think mounting the bottom of the coil over offset a bit from the axle tube will provide enough clearance between the coil over and the back of the york and at the same time provide additional clearance for the track bar in front of the coil over, so, it's really a win win situation the way I see it. We'll see for sure when I get my dummy coils fabbed up. What I am a little concerned about is what this whole axle position is going to look like once I get some tires on this thing. I see no reason why it won't work, but I am concerned that it's going to look goofy pushed so far forward. I'm also concerned about how long the wheel base is going to end up once I place the rear axle where I wanted it. Oh well. Jeff

 

[Root Moose]

Don't worry about it looking goofy - it's "just" bodywork at that point.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

How about a mount something like this?

Jeff

 

[RCman]

Looks good to me as long as it satisfies these two things:
1) Clearance for the lower spring retainer and the coil from the knuckle and steering arm. It is kinda hard to tell, but the first picture looks like it would be tight it you went straight up.
2) Which side were you planning to mount it on? The colored side or the white side? If it is the white side you should look into something other than a taco shell box.

Darn you, I was one here looking at rod ends for steering and got side tracked again. I'm going back downstairs before I "waste" more time.

 

[Sponge Bob]

what about double shear instead of the single shear for the lower mount depending on what side you plan to mount it taco side or or white side

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Boy, you guys are picky. Now I've got to make my taco cardboard mounts in double shear! I had planned to mount the coil over on the taco side and slip the double shear side mount in between the two parallel sides. Holding the shock in position and sliding the coil slider up and down looks like it would clear everything. I'm making some mounts out of 2x3x1/4 box steel right now. We'll see how they fit after grinder work and more shock holding work. Till next year, Jeff

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Here are some pics of the tentative coil over mount at the axle. The top of the coil over is propped into an approximate final position and the double shear lower mount is not in double shear yet.

Overall from the side

Overall from underneath the front

Overall from top front

Rear of shock mount

Front of shock mount

Top of shock mount

Slider (approximating the coil OD) near back of York

Jeff

 

[cracker]

Looking good Jeff!

 

[Root Moose]

Looks great!

With suspension travel in jounce (upwards travel of arms) is there any fear of the coils rotating towards the front (around the top mount) and hitting the accessories?

It looks like there isn't but I'm just throwing that out there.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I didn't quit! Too many -20 degree days in a row though. I finally went out and got the steering box mounted.

I also took the axle out and attempted to weld the end C's permanent but found one to be pressed on with the caster a bit different than the other side. So, I tried rotating it, but can't get it done. So, I decided I have to press it off and then press it back on oriented correctly. However, I can't figure out how to get it in the press. I'll have to work on that more. Jeff

 

[Paul S]

I didn't quit! Too many -20 degree days in a row though. I finally went out and got the steering box mounted.
Jeff

I guess it's all relative, I haven't been working on my junk at all this season on account of the cold, which has been around 55 or so at night.

Keep up the good work Jeff.

P

 

[GSequoia]

I guess it's all relative, I haven't been working on my junk at all this season on account of the cold, which has been around 55 or so at night.

Keep up the good work Jeff.

P

I know what you mean Paul.

Doesn't it suck when you have to put on a light jacket just to work on the Jeep?

 

[asp]

I guess it's all relative, I haven't been working on my junk at all this season on account of the cold, which has been around 55 or so at night.

Keep up the good work Jeff.

P

the build looks good, but i had to contribute my .02 because i'm about to do my 4th weekend in the garage this winter. should be the warmest one so far... high of i think 39 on saturday. it gets damn cold at night.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I didn't do much recently, but I did get the steering shaft done. I first set the steering box to the center of it's travel and put the Astro van pitman arm on pointing straight back (after filing the indexing nubs into individual splines).

Then I installed the steering column, wheel, and put the wheel straight ahead.

Then I put the steering shaft in place and determined it was too long. So, I cut the end off the rectangular shaft, set the travel of the collapsible shaft to the middle and then installed it to measure where to cut.

I also marked the orientation of the square shaft to the end knuckle with everything pointing straight ahead. Then, when I went to put the two back together I found they were 90 degrees off!

I decided keeping everything centered was the way to go, so I ended up grinding the shaft a bit to square it up, inserted it in the end knuckle and welded it back together. This is with it installed:

I removed it once more to finish welding it and paint it. This is when I noticed that the yokes are 90 degrees off as well which would be a no no in terms of driveshaft yokes, but it seems to work just fine in slow speed revolution of the steering shaft.

Jeff

 

[Goatman]

Nice work, Jeff.

Are you going to want to go tear it up after you get done doing all that work?

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Well, I doubt it'll ever run, so there's not much chance it'll be getting torn up! Jeff

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I made a tiny bit more progress. First, after I had pressed on the D60 inner C's on the axle but before welding I found out they were not sitting at the same caster. So, I tried in vain to rotate one side. I finally decided I would have to press it back off, rotate it and press it back on. Well, I had much difficulty getting the thing to fit in a big press and had to build risers to press on that would in turn press on the presses table. After the first plan failed miserably, the second go around had a LOT of pressure on the end, but it still wouldn't budge. The uprights began to fail instead. So, I reinforced the uprights but by then access to the big press was denied. After working the channels, I finally got access to the press again for a limited time and had to use heat as well as all the pressure the press could put out before the end was removed from the housing tubing! It didn't actually slide off. It kind of ripped off. The tubing and the inside of the inner C had gobs of metal peeled up! I cleaned that up with a die grinder and an angle grinder, realigned things correctly this time and pressed it back together. This time the press fit was not as tight as I would have liked it, but it was still a light press fit. I'm going to weld it up and I'm sure it will be fine.

On another front, I got access to the lathe again for an evening and made a couple aluminum spacers to be used on the York mount and drilled and tapped one end of my steering setup. I decided to go with something kind of unorthodox here. I used 1 ton Chevy tie rod ends on my last Jeep and they wore out and broke quite fast, so this time I decided to try rod ends. I'm using a 1 ton tie rod that has a 1 1/8" OD and tapers down to 1" fine thread left and right hand threads with a clamp style adjuster. I just wasn't impressed with the 3/4-16 adjusters on the market. They seem too puny and prone to bend sitting out there between the two rod ends. I cut the tie rod ends off and will drill and tap either end for 3/4-16 rod ends. I got the adjuster end done last night.

I plan to make the rod ends mount in double shear, but that hasn't been done yet. Jeff

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I got the pitman arm double shear done.

Jeff