Project Unicorn - a light duty trail rig

[cal]

Dallas built a nice fixture for putting knuckles in the mill, which compared to using a hand drill does not suck at all.

He's able to pre-set the depth for TRE's and DRE's to get the taper correct. In this case we did the draglink hole a bit extra shallow which i'll cover later (but may be light on photos on).

A spacer to set zero height

And then cut away.

Finally bolt it into the car and see if things actually fit. I didn't get photos but we did the draglink end light the first cut and then cut a bit more - we didn't want to go too deep and have the nut get close to the tie rod. Turned out not to be a problem there is miles of room.

It looks snug but there should be plenty of room, this should do nicely.

 

[cal]

While checking this out I noticed something not great.

that looks snug in there..

Yup that's no bueno. WTF?

Turns out we... sigh.. welded the mount on backward. You'd think of all of the people in the world Dallas and I would have gotten *THIS ONE* right.

This is what it *SHOULD* look like, with miles of room.

Oh well. I'll grind it to fit and weld a unicorn on the flat plate to cover it up.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Is this still a "light duty" trail rig?

 

[Anak]

Nice.

I want more pics of the fixture to hold a knuckle in the mill. I don't have a mill, but I have a big drill press with a large and well slotted table.

And I am looking forward to the rest of this process. I getting very close to starting down the same path.

 

[cal]

Mark (Sidewaystarion) hooked me up with a deal on 10" shortbody 7100's, and i found a second set cheap on ebay so those are going on all 4 corners. JKS makes great bolt on upper mounts and we'll build our own lowers.

The directions say these have to go in with the bolt facing forward or they won't fit. I couldn't get the bolt in and out in that position and ended up turning them a few degrees and installing the bolt from the rear, which works for me.

And picked up some cheap reservoir clamps off Ebay. "Supreme Suspension" brand.

They kind of look too short don't they?

Lowered everything down to what should be bumpstop height. The axles not centered so the trackbar mount is in the way here, but it won't be when there's actually a trackbar.

This will be OK. We'll do the mount at coil seat level and should have just about 5" up and 5" down. I could probably get away with stuffing 12" shortbodies in here, but if my measurements are right we'll juuuust use all of the coil travel with 10" of shock.

And we stopped here for the weekend because we're both exhausted and need a day off before Monday.

More next week!

 

[cal]

Is this still a "light duty" trail rig?

yes. it still has 4.10's, 2x limited slips and a 4" lift with 33's.

 

[cal]

Nice.

I want more pics of the fixture to hold a knuckle in the mill. I don't have a mill, but I have a big drill press with a large and well slotted table.

And I am looking forward to the rest of this process. I getting very close to starting down the same path.

All of my images are here:

https://cal.advlifestyle.com/index.php?/category/1

 

[maxbraketorque]

On an XJ you will be hard pressed to make a 4 link outperform deaver leads. We just don't have room to outboard the coils enough. Add a trackbar and you can get there but it has its own downsides

Stroker will come back. I just need a running jeep while I work on it, and engine swaps really aren't that hard

How much wheel travel do you have at the rear with the new SFR SRBs and Deaver springs?

 

[cal]

How much wheel travel do you have at the rear with the new SFR SRBs and Deaver springs?

My experience with G9's in the past is you can get 10" if you don't invert them and 12" if you're prepared to invert them 2" at full bump.

Inverting them that far causes a huge amount of rebound so the rear wants to kick up and also shortens the life, so I'm setting them up at 10" of travel, with the bumpstop at or very close to flat.

On the race car we ended up going to Q80 Deavers which are for an OJ bronco. We were able to get 13" on them there without inverting them very much and I have heard of bronco guys getting 15" out of them, without shortening their service life.

 

[maxbraketorque]

yes. it still has 4.10's, 2x limited slips and a 4" lift with 33's.

Seems like the most heavy duty light duty trail rig I've ever seen. Definitely a sweet build, but how much of it is really needed for light duty trail work? Its actually a serious question because I am trying to make my XJ a light duty trail rig. My biggest concern is ensuring longevity of the XJ body. I'm wondering how much plating or other frame reinforcement are needed.

 

[cal]

Do frame stiffeners and a C-Rok style steering brace and it should last you a long time.

When I say 'light duty' that is obviously relative to the last rig or two I've had under my butt, but in this case when I say it i mean "not for the rocks". I want to go explore death valley and the deserts in Utah, but some of those trips can be hundreds of miles of bad dirt roads per weekend - which I want it to hold up to and still drive home, and I want it to be comfortable and not shake my teeth out.

Which is why the limited slips instead of lockers. To keep me from acknowledging my nature and destroying it.

 

[maxbraketorque]

At the front, I've got an Ironman4x4 steering brace and track bar mount brace along with a metal steering box spacer and JCR front tie-ins attached to some beefy bumper. At the rear, I've only installed a Curt trailer hitch using a nut strip made from 1/4" thick 2" wide U-channel.

I really don't want to go through the hassle of plating, but I guess its needed?

 

[cal]

Needed is relative. If you are going to be flexing it out for many years, it will extend the life of the car. Same if you're going to be doing go-fast stuff or pounding it on the rocks.

If you're just going to be cruising dirt roads, you'd get by without them - but, saying that, just pulling out of a steep driveway you will notice the difference frame stiffeners makes.

 

[cal]

At the front, I've got an Ironman4x4 steering brace and track bar mount brace along with a metal steering box spacer and JCR front tie-ins attached to some beefy bumper. At the rear, I've only installed a Curt trailer hitch using a nut strip made from 1/4" thick 2" wide U-channel.

I really don't want to go through the hassle of plating, but I guess its needed?

The ironman brace does not actually address the real problem with our steering box setup, which is the frame compressing when you turn into it under load, and then expanding again breaking the steering box bolts.

To fix it, you plate the inside and outside of the frame around the box, as well as insert sleeves into the frame to stop it from compressing at all. JKS sells a weld in kit called the "SBS" but my favorite production kit for this can be welded or bolted on and comes from c-rok 4x4.

https://www.c-rok4x4.com/c-rok-onli...ee-XJ-Durango-Reinforcing-Frame-Kit-p38115458

Says for the durago box but its for stock+durango.

 

[maxbraketorque]

The ironman brace does not actually address the real problem with our steering box setup, which is the frame compressing when you turn into it under load, and then expanding again breaking the steering box bolts.

To fix it, you plate the inside and outside of the frame around the box, as well as insert sleeves into the frame to stop it from compressing at all. JKS sells a weld in kit called the "SBS" but my favorite production kit for this can be welded or bolted on and comes from c-rok 4x4.

https://www.c-rok4x4.com/c-rok-onli...ee-XJ-Durango-Reinforcing-Frame-Kit-p38115458

Says for the durago box but its for stock+durango.

The Ironman brace grips both the snout of the steering box and the sector shaft, so that should take care of a good fraction of the load on the vertical portion of the frame rails. With that said, my setup with the extended tie-ins is pretty close in concept to the C-ROK with the exception of the sleeves. I guess I could gin up some sleeves.

 

[cal]

I'm very familiar with how it works. I just think it's half of a solution.

 

[techno1154]

Are those JK steering knuckles I see there? If so, what calipers and rotors will you be using?

Another great build from Cal that demands my 100% attention for titbits I could pilfer later (never mind the lack of a well fitted out shop).

 

[cal]

Are those JK steering knuckles I see there? If so, what calipers and rotors will you be using?

WJ knuckles, with WJ calipers and WJ rotors re-drilled 5x4.5 I'll be using the same Powerstop calipers we used on 4643 along with Powerstrop rotors and black magic pads (the same stuff I used on the rear 44 a few pages back).

Another great build from Cal that demands my 100% attention for titbits I could pilfer later (never mind the lack of a well fitted out shop).

Don't give me too much credit here. I just spent a couple of years buying parts as I could afford it and squirreling them away, and then rambled a bunch of ideas off to Dallas to see what he can actually build for me.

Similar story to how the stroker was built. One dollar at a time and by the grace of a couple of very good friends with more skill than me.

 

[maxbraketorque]

I'm very familiar with how it works. I just think it's half of a solution.

ok. I appreciate the info.

 

[Anak]

All of my images are here:

https://cal.advlifestyle.com/index.php?/category/1

Thank you Cal.

Looking at that, I am thinking I should simply spring for an angle plate. Need to troll ebay for a decent old one. I need to measure the knuckles I have and see if 10" will be adequate or if I need 12". And it doesn't really have to be full height. I could make an adapter plate to attach to the angle plate and gain a couple inches that way if need be.

I can see why Dallas would fab something like that. If you have the tools to create that in short order it makes sense. Lacking the fancy tools I think it makes more sense for me to just spring for an off-the-shelf, most-of-the-way-there solution.