RCP Phx
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Phoenix,Az
That a great approach, it will let you experiment and "see" what's working!
steering overhaul
- Thread starter ehall
- Start date
- Location
- Sacramento, CA
My good friend evowheeler built his own bracket. He's running stock wheels, with spacers and 33s and a fairly out-bore track bar mount.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
Parts were ordered (minus the links). Ended up buying FK heims for all of the axle-side ends, since the JJs also seem to have return-to-center issues. Will have to get some PVC and start test fitting in the next few weeks (couple of other projects ahead of this and may take that long for parts to arrive anyway).
Thanks for the help fellas
Thanks for the help fellas
Ive found track bar length not to matter. Yes i did attempt to outboard my track bar as much as possible.
Fabbed my own brack set Parralell to drag link. Length just isnt critical but yes longer is maybe better but may also be worse since drag link isnt pivoting from same point out side tge frame.
The drag link and track bar are pivoting from different starting points so length no longer is much of a factor.
Parralell to eachother is king.
To me it sounds like you got some fubaralation going on with differing components not entended to live together being stacked on top if one another.
Fabbed my own brack set Parralell to drag link. Length just isnt critical but yes longer is maybe better but may also be worse since drag link isnt pivoting from same point out side tge frame.
The drag link and track bar are pivoting from different starting points so length no longer is much of a factor.
Parralell to eachother is king.
To me it sounds like you got some fubaralation going on with differing components not entended to live together being stacked on top if one another.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
Finally got started on this
TMR truss and Artec gussets were welded onto the axle by a nearby shop, then I removed the stock brackets, tacked the JCR front stiffeners in place (will finish later), and reinstalled the axle housing to the control arms to test travel.
The tie-rod rubs the coil buckets and the diff at full turn, and needs to come forward a bit. I need to replace those heims with off-sets.
I had to go OTK on the steering arm to get the parallel angles (more-or-less) working. Otherwise the axle-side trackbar bracket would have to go under the coil bucket, exposed and non-adjustable. OTK puts the drag link close to the oil pan, but I checked full stuff and it doesn't contact until very close, the bumpstops and the compressed coil spring will stop it before it makes contact (I hope). I am running a YJ pitman arm which is flatter than the stock arm, so I can drop the arm a couple of inches if needed.
With the track-bar set to the same length as the drag link, the axle-side bracket sits right in front of the passenger coil bucket, about 4-inches too long. The frame-side bracket hits the driver coil bucket and needs to come forward about an inch. I have room to bring the frame-side bracket out and forward without hitting the tire, but probably only move it a little and deal with any remaining bump steer (if it becomes annoying I will fab my own frame-side bracket). I am going to cut the axle bracket and mount it to the face of the truss to give more vertical adjustment so that I can compensate angle changes in the drag link if needed to clear the oil pan.
The knuckle clears the tire with the 3.75 backspacing but it's really close, might add .25" ring spacers to get me through.
Haven't tried sway bar links yet.
More or less as expected, some surprises.
TMR truss and Artec gussets were welded onto the axle by a nearby shop, then I removed the stock brackets, tacked the JCR front stiffeners in place (will finish later), and reinstalled the axle housing to the control arms to test travel.
The tie-rod rubs the coil buckets and the diff at full turn, and needs to come forward a bit. I need to replace those heims with off-sets.
I had to go OTK on the steering arm to get the parallel angles (more-or-less) working. Otherwise the axle-side trackbar bracket would have to go under the coil bucket, exposed and non-adjustable. OTK puts the drag link close to the oil pan, but I checked full stuff and it doesn't contact until very close, the bumpstops and the compressed coil spring will stop it before it makes contact (I hope). I am running a YJ pitman arm which is flatter than the stock arm, so I can drop the arm a couple of inches if needed.
With the track-bar set to the same length as the drag link, the axle-side bracket sits right in front of the passenger coil bucket, about 4-inches too long. The frame-side bracket hits the driver coil bucket and needs to come forward about an inch. I have room to bring the frame-side bracket out and forward without hitting the tire, but probably only move it a little and deal with any remaining bump steer (if it becomes annoying I will fab my own frame-side bracket). I am going to cut the axle bracket and mount it to the face of the truss to give more vertical adjustment so that I can compensate angle changes in the drag link if needed to clear the oil pan.
The knuckle clears the tire with the 3.75 backspacing but it's really close, might add .25" ring spacers to get me through.
Haven't tried sway bar links yet.
More or less as expected, some surprises.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
I got an XJ pittman arm that was tapered for 1-ton steering and as expected it brought the frame-side down quite a bit. However the track bar was still too close to the oil pan, and the geometry was difficult to match, so I brought the drag link under the top knuckle arm (as originally planned) and everything lines up better with tons of clearance on the passenger side. My only concern on that side now is that the trackbar bracket may hit the front frame-horns on full-stuff. Once I get further along I may be able to trim the top hole off the axle side bracket and give myself a couple of more inches.
I moved the tie-rod forward with off-set heims. It clears the diff cover at full turn now, but still makes contact with the stock coil buckets. I tested moving the tie-rod back under the knuckle but it is very exposed and got close to hitting the diff cover again, so I need to keep it the tie-rod high. Also having a problem where the body-side track-bar bracket hits the coil and tie-rod on driver stuff. I think I am going to cut off the stock coil brackets and fabricate mounts that are smaller and taller to get them out of the way. I moved the axle forward a few years ago so the coils are already kinda bowed, and moving the buckets back a couple of inches would help with that too. All told, if I move the coil back 2 inches, I can move the body-side track-bar bracket back 1-inch and clear it all up. Also, I may be able to cut off the bottom hole of the body-side bracket (the same as the axle-side bracket) possibly giving more clearance to this end (or both ends).
I ordered some coil mounts from Artec and waiting for them to come in. Should be able to weld them to 2x2 square tube and cut axle notches with a hole saw. Will start removing the stock parts when the plates show up.
I moved the tie-rod forward with off-set heims. It clears the diff cover at full turn now, but still makes contact with the stock coil buckets. I tested moving the tie-rod back under the knuckle but it is very exposed and got close to hitting the diff cover again, so I need to keep it the tie-rod high. Also having a problem where the body-side track-bar bracket hits the coil and tie-rod on driver stuff. I think I am going to cut off the stock coil brackets and fabricate mounts that are smaller and taller to get them out of the way. I moved the axle forward a few years ago so the coils are already kinda bowed, and moving the buckets back a couple of inches would help with that too. All told, if I move the coil back 2 inches, I can move the body-side track-bar bracket back 1-inch and clear it all up. Also, I may be able to cut off the bottom hole of the body-side bracket (the same as the axle-side bracket) possibly giving more clearance to this end (or both ends).
I ordered some coil mounts from Artec and waiting for them to come in. Should be able to weld them to 2x2 square tube and cut axle notches with a hole saw. Will start removing the stock parts when the plates show up.
maxbraketorque
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- PDX
Resuming this thread after a year of inactive makes me feel a little better about lack-of-progress on my mods.
Mocking up with PVC pipe is a great idea.
Did you previously push the axle two inches forward? Your axle-side coil bucket doesn't look that far forward compared to the bump-stop. Also, I pushed my axle forward ~1/2" without changing any of the stock steering mounting points, and I couldn't see any way to go more forward without having to reposition steering mounting points.
It looks like the tie-rod will make contact just below the coil mounting surface. Can you simply cut off the part of the coil bucket that's in the way and then maybe beef up the bucket if needed? I seem to recall this being commonly done. I guess it will depend how badly you want to move the bucket back.
Mocking up with PVC pipe is a great idea.
Did you previously push the axle two inches forward? Your axle-side coil bucket doesn't look that far forward compared to the bump-stop. Also, I pushed my axle forward ~1/2" without changing any of the stock steering mounting points, and I couldn't see any way to go more forward without having to reposition steering mounting points.
It looks like the tie-rod will make contact just below the coil mounting surface. Can you simply cut off the part of the coil bucket that's in the way and then maybe beef up the bucket if needed? I seem to recall this being commonly done. I guess it will depend how badly you want to move the bucket back.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
No the frame-side trackbar bracket (as positioned) goes into the coil bucket where the coil spring sits. I can't bring the bracket forward much (without interfering with the tie rod), but moving the coil bucket back alleviates both conflicts.
- Location
- Southern Maryland
With the coil springs and bumpstop inserts installed, the drag link and trackbar come nowhere close to the oil pan, and the axle-side track-bar bracket is nowhere near to the frame (even with the bracket resting on top of the axle). So I can run those links high (almost flat geometry) with minimal risk (until a spring breaks or pops out I guess).
The frame-side trackbar bracket is indeed rubbing the coil so I still need to do something about that, but as with the other links it doesn't come close to the tie-rod with the spring and bumpstop installed. I could probably get away with moving the trackbar mount forward a little since I'm never going to hit the tie-rod. But the tie-rod still rubs the stock coil buckets at full turn, and the angles of the coil are still really bad, so I still need to move the coil buckets back to fix those problems.
The frame-side trackbar bracket is indeed rubbing the coil so I still need to do something about that, but as with the other links it doesn't come close to the tie-rod with the spring and bumpstop installed. I could probably get away with moving the trackbar mount forward a little since I'm never going to hit the tie-rod. But the tie-rod still rubs the stock coil buckets at full turn, and the angles of the coil are still really bad, so I still need to move the coil buckets back to fix those problems.
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maxbraketorque
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- PDX
Looks good. Interesting to see plenty of clearance to the oil pan. How much have you limited up travel?
I suppose the coils rub on the unibody rails at flex?
One other comment is I gotta wonder how well the axle-side drag link single shear heim is going to hold up. There's no ball joint option?
I suppose the coils rub on the unibody rails at flex?
One other comment is I gotta wonder how well the axle-side drag link single shear heim is going to hold up. There's no ball joint option?
- Location
- Southern Maryland
6 inches of lift with 35s, there's not a lot of uptravel available. Anyway downtravel is more important--tires need to make contact with the ground to have traction/steering, and spring pressure to keep from flopping--and this setup has all the downtravel (run out of shocks easily now), when it used to be the steering links were my limiter
There are 1-ton TREs and similar but they require tapered inserts in the knuckles and I'd rather not use them. I may end up using them at some point.
