Pics Pics Pics of more nine inch stuff. How's my welding/setup/etc?

[Lucas]

Holy Hell this past week has been busy! Try finishing a 54 page thesis, building four axles, trying to swap them using a new suspension design, moving out, saying bye to all your friends and buring the proper bridges, applying for scholarships, AND try to move to NYC all at the same time...enough bitchin' though, time for some pics.

First, went to the steel shop to pick up some plate/tube. 22 feet of 1.5od .25" wall tube. This stuff was WAAAAAAY beefier than I had expected. I think when I get to steering it will be practically unbendable. Cut some up and stuck it on the end of the radius arms:

Those are big RE joints. The problem withth the radius arms are that the factory studs are a little less than 7/8". My tube has a 1"id, so there was a lot of play. I didn't want to trust a single weld between the arm and the tube, so I welded material onto the factory studs, turned down the weld blob until it was uniform, then pressed the plug into the tube. No pics because I suck, but it was pretty tech I think.

that night I finished around 2am, went to a party and drank too much too quickly, and walked face first at full speed into a glass door:

this was after I cleaned up. Tip of the day= drunk college girls think idiots walking into doors are adorable
Anyway, loaded up 4 38"s and my 4 35"s and rims and went to the shop to get them mounted:

#$#$#y^%$in' tire shop chunked rubber ouut of one of my 35s on the machine. I didn't find out until much later though. No time to correct it now though

 

[Lucas]

Once I had the arm mounting straightened out, the front end began to come together: Booyah!

then finally I get the tires on:

differnt angle:

At this point I worked like a madman for the next 30 hours straight to get everything squared away, but it just didn't happen. I had to catch a flight to NY, so my friend came to load her up on a trailer (total BIIIIAAATCH), and take her to a friends shop where I will finish her up over winter.

 

[Lucas]

In the meanwhile, this will be my new home:

It's a pretty crappy pic of campus, but today at orientation I had a horrible scratchy feeling in my eye so I didn't feel like taking snapshots. Went to the student clinic and they told me I had a piece of metal lodged into my cornea:

see that little white speck to the bottom left of my (hugely dialated) pupil? That's not a speck on my glasses. Its a chunk of missing eye they cut out to get at the metal. Hurt-like-hell.

Oh, and again, for kicks, here is another special helper that took me to the steel shop, being special when I was inside :slap:

I miss my jeep already!

 

[hadfield4wd]

Ok, working on this same swap myself. 9" & HP44 Looks like you kept the pring perches (maybe flipped them). Will the angle of the springs hurt you, or should I make new mounts, so the springs are vertical.

Matt

 

[Lucas]

I think coil bow is more of a cosmetic concern than anything else. Check out Crazy4mopar's setup. very trick.

 

[sarvermr]

I think coil bow is more of a cosmetic concern than anything else. Check out Crazy4mopar's setup. very trick.

don't the coils rub the upper spring mounts? mine rubbed before when the axle was stock. there was no way i was going to run my coils at that much of angle. i figure they would rub all the time. i know others have said its fine, but i figured if i'm going to all the work, might as well make some spring mounts in the correct location too.

matthew

 

[Lucas]

I had *zero* time just to get the front end together, so I didn't mess with perfecting the mounts. The coils do rub the bumpstop towers, but its nothing a little grinding and welding won't fix.

 

[XJ_ranger]

gonna reinforce the radius arms at all?

i would...

what are your plans for steering?
what about trackbar?

 

[Lucas]

I didn't have time to do anything but mock everything up, so I definitely didn't have time to reinforce the arms. It's definitely gonna happen this winter though. Probably out of 1/4" plate.
The knuckles have already had the TRE holes welded up and redrilled. Now I have to retaper them from the top. Inverted T using fullsize chevy stuff. All the links are going to be made of 1.5" OD .25" wall tube. PSC tube inserts.
Cut down a stock TB mount already and plated it with 3/8". Using a small RE joint on the frame end, might end up keeping the factory ford TB mount on the axle.

 

[Lucas]

hey,sarvermr. Did you ever go alloy with those axle shafts? I already egged the hell out of my last set of D30 shafts on 31"s. My 35s are sooooo much heavier than my old rim tire setup that I'm aftraid the shafts agre gonna blow just rolling around town.

 

[XJ_ranger]

hey,sarvermr. Did you ever go alloy with those axle shafts? I already egged the hell out of my last set of D30 shafts on 31"s. My 35s are sooooo much heavier than my old rim tire setup that I'm aftraid the shafts agre gonna blow just rolling around town.

probably not going to happen - as i drive without front shafts

 

[Fullsizexj]

definatly looks way different from when I saw it out at Shredder Canyon

 

[Lucas]

Guess what I found out. Making custom steering SUCKS. If I ever do it again I'm going 3/4" heims and buying a few extra for spares.
I basically spent an entire day trying to drill/ream everything out. I lucked out b/c my tapered snap-on reamer crapped out on me on the very last taper I made.

Draglink and trackbar are within a degree. Used half of a stock solid Ford trackbar, extended with DOM and ended with a small RE joint. The modified trackbar mount is super beef, but I forgot to get closeups.
Everyting was made with 1.5"od .25"wall DOM, spyder customs inserts, some cromo-threaded rod from McCarr, and of course, fullsize chevy TREs.
Comparing each link with stock stuff is a joke. It even made the Rusty's stuff that was on there before look wimpy (it was).


Assembling the 9" took about an hour. Tossing it in place and tacking it up took half that much time. This was actually the smoothest part of the build.

Here's a pic of how much ground clearance there is with the shaved housing.

So that's all the work I'll be getting done for the next few months. When I get around to It all I need to do is fully weld the suspension/axle, do the brakes (which will be totally different than the factory system), and figure out what length shocks I'll need.
At least she moves under her own power again. I only moved a couple of hundred feet (w/no brakes!), but 5:13s in the axles is NIIIIICCCCEEE. I thought something was broken, but in 4lo you have to give it a suprprising amount of gas to get the wheels movin :rock: