My front d60 experiment.

[yellowxj]

http://img119.exs.cx/img119/6048/DSC03403.jpg
http://img119.exs.cx/img119/106/DSC3405.jpg

Its a d60 from a 97 ram...4.10 gears...spent a lot of time measuring and I can use a lot of the stock brackets...maybe all...and most of the steering and I'm even going to try and modify the stock track bar...yah I know its no ford high pinion 78-79 blah blah blah...but its still a couple times stronger than my d30...cant wait to get the long arms on this baby and ride again my xj looks sad, neutered, in the garage

http://img123.exs.cx/img123/2479/mjpitride0027.jpg

[JeepFreak21]

http://img119.exs.cx/img119/6048/DSC03403.jpg
http://img119.exs.cx/img119/106/DSC3405.jpg

Its a d60 from a 97 ram...4.10 gears...spent a lot of time measuring and I can use a lot of the stock brackets...maybe all...and most of the steering and I'm even going to try and modify the stock track bar...yah I know its no ford high pinion 78-79 blah blah blah...but its still a couple times stronger than my d30...cant wait to get the long arms on this baby and ride again my xj looks sad, neutered, in the garage

http://img123.exs.cx/img123/2479/mjpitride0027.jpg

So you're ditching the front leaf springs?
Billy

[yellowxj]

the leaf springs were great for something I could fabricate myself at that time/place I was at...they worked great, flexed good, gave big lift, and it was easy to set up, (I was never happy with my steering though) and I enjoyed it for a couple years, another thing was I never had to butcher the body to put leaves on it so I could always go back to stock suspension....then I started checking out bigger axles or shafts and steering options and found that a nice hp 44 or 60 from a old ford would be the next cheapest improvement I could make, but finding them started to look hard and not that cheap. So i'm in the drive way of my shop one day looking at my buddies dodge and I'm staring at his suspension and it was a whole lot like a stock xj, so I took some measurements, guestimated a bit, and was able to find this d60, with stock 4.10 for $500. I plated my subframe with 3x3x1/4 angle iron (wound up costing about $225, didnt have time to do it myself)
http://img123.exs.cx/img123/7507/mjpitride0025.jpg
and I have to spend a couple more hundred on steel, bushings, and heim joints

[BrettM]

don't the dodge 60s have 32 splines and a disconnect? :puke:

[Goatman]

don't the dodge 60s have 32 splines and a disconnect? :puke:

Do they? Never followed D60 stuff close enough to hear that. Since all other front D60's are 35 spline (inners) why would a Dodge be different? Still, it's the axle joints that usually break, or the stub shafts, and the D60 joints and stubs are better than D44 stuff, even with 30 spline stubs.

The only negative to me when I was going to install a front D60 was the size and the weight.

Looks good.....glad to see someone coming to their senses and ditching the leaves for coils. :laugh3: :laugh3:

:D :D

[OT]

Looks good.....glad to see someone coming to their senses and ditching the leaves for coils. :laugh3: :laugh3:

:D :D
Yeah, but he'll be going with longarms.

From the frying pan into the fire. :laugh3:

[yellowxj]

I'll take pics as I go... :wave:

[ChiXJeff]

Do they? Never followed D60 stuff close enough to hear that. Since all other front D60's are 35 spline (inners) why would a Dodge be different? Still, it's the axle joints that usually break, or the stub shafts, and the D60 joints and stubs are better than D44 stuff, even with 30 spline stubs.
I can't speak to the spline count, but my 99 Dodge 2500 CTD D60 front is a disconnect.

And blowing up the first pic, that one looks like a disconnect as well.

[90KrawlerXJ]

I'm going with a custom(converting rear housing) D60 up front in my 90. I used to have an '01 Dodge 2500 and I never made the connection with the suspension geometry. I probably could have saved big $$$ pulling one of these so-called "wimpy 60s" out of a bone yard. Let everyone know how it turns out.

[yellowxj]

yep its got the disco...never been much of a problem for me with the d30's and I've enjoyed the easy change axle shafts...i did do the solid axle conversion on my disco 30 but that was cause I tore up 2 outter shafts when the ujoints popped...its wide though...I've got a line on some H1 rims and I'll be trying them on to see if they'll clear the steering

[yellowxj]

Ok so its in now...32" radius arms...coil spring perches mounted on the old dodge coil perches...6" skyjacker coils cut down a hair to keep the lift at about 8 or 9"...I've got the stock steering hooked to the xj pitman arm and I think I can make that work good...got the stock dodge track bar mounted to my stock xj track bar mount too...mounted my radius arms to the stock dodge link brackets...pretty easy as far as d60 installation goes...still got tons of stuff to do, and then the testing, breaking, rebuilding etc...got a D70 for the rear out of the local salvage yard for $150 and it has the 4.10's to match the front...yippie...$650 total for my axles...got lucky with that part...

[yellowxj]

http://img187.exs.cx/img187/6100/1ton00147bv.jpg

[Codeman]

sweet man!

[Sprink669]

the leaf springs were great for something I could fabricate myself at that time/place I was at...they worked great, flexed good, gave big lift, and it was easy to set up, (I was never happy with my steering though) and I enjoyed it for a couple years, another thing was I never had to butcher the body to put leaves on it so I could always go back to stock suspension....then I started checking out bigger axles or shafts and steering options and found that a nice hp 44 or 60 from a old ford would be the next cheapest improvement I could make, but finding them started to look hard and not that cheap. So i'm in the drive way of my shop one day looking at my buddies dodge and I'm staring at his suspension and it was a whole lot like a stock xj, so I took some measurements, guestimated a bit, and was able to find this d60, with stock 4.10 for $500. I plated my subframe with 3x3x1/4 angle iron (wound up costing about $225, didnt have time to do it myself)
http://img123.exs.cx/img123/7507/mjpitride0025.jpg
and I have to spend a couple more hundred on steel, bushings, and heim joints




How is the sub-frame attached to the unibody? It is all welded?

[Ramsey]

so it all just bolted up?

[yellowxj]

the subframe reinforcement is spot welded and formed to the unibody...and it sorta bolted up...used all the stock brackets on the axle, steering, and track bar from the dodge. Just drilled out the xj pitman arm and track bar mount to accept the dodge stuff. Had to trim some of the brackets to clear the steering and track bar, and bent the inner tierod end at the pitman arm to ease the angle there, made the radius arms from 2x2x1/4 steel and other bits and pieces...

the best thing about working on it today was the 89 dodge 3/4ton d60(?) rear was a virtual bolt in...spring pads were perfect width, pinion angles good, about 65" wide but not bad considering how wide the front is...

[Ramsey]

is the front disconnect, or has that been covered.what model did it coem from

[yellowxj]

the front is from a 97 2500HD ram, yep it is a disco axle which I'll be connecting to my stock vacuum system...I know its not the super desirable high pinion high dollar axle everyone wants but it was available...and I shouldnt be breaking it

[TheManch]

in that flexed out shot posted earlier how is your rear shock attached? Or is not at all?


Mike

[yellowxj]

no the shock isnt attatched...its the only surviving rear shock and I havent found a good place for it yet...funny I never really noticed a difference having one rear shock instead of two...thats on the laundry list for this week...
front drive shaft
mount 3 shocks
get the steering centered and front end alignment
decide if I'm raising the rear an inch or so or lowering the front

[043500]

My vote is to LOWER the front (betcha can't guess who this is)

[Jeepin Jason]

more pics, I wanna see the arms and how the coils line up.

[yellowxj]

I think your right...and yer the dead beat that left a old mj in my back yard :wave1:

[yellowxj]

the coils are good at rest but when really compressed they try and bow a bit...gotta see what others have and whats acceptable...I'll try to get some pics of the arms etc soon...nothing fancy...

[yellowxj]

http://img136.exs.cx/img136/2029/dsc035048yp.jpg
there. the arms are 2x2x.25 square with a 2x2x.25 angle piece reinforcing the bend I had to make. In the rear is a F150 rear leaf spring bushing (2.5" dia or so) and the front lower has a cut down yj shackle bushing. The other side just runs a lca with a upper I can put in for the street. Still have a lot to do with trimming and grinding and an endless list of stuff to do before I take them out and break them and have to start over.

[yellowxj]

Hey. Just figured I'd update this...

I made some cross over steering for it now...its kinda funny...over the on the drivers side and under on the pass side so that drag link(?) is clear of the pass side rim. Sure turns smoother.

The stock dodge track bar is a nice length but I could never get the frame side track bar mount taper drilled out so the the dodge track bar tierod end fit smooth. Sheared the threads right off it in the pit being winched out of the rock garden. So i went back to the shop, cut the tierod end off, ground down the end of the track bar and put a 5/8" rod end on it. That worked out pretty good.

The lca's havent broken yet. Great flex from the big poly bushings. I never put the passenger side upper arm on anymore and instead installed it next to the driverside uca...still dont know how strong those tractor supply store link bars are but I figure I dont have much of a chance of breaking two.

The cam bolt on the bottom drivers side seems to always work loose. Too much stress on that side? Going to take it out and weld a washer on so it wont walk around. Dont really need it for alignment anyhow.

And...because the front was 72" wide and the rear 65" I am running Q78R16's (35.5x10.5??) on stock dodge 16x8 rims on the front and now have 35x14.5 boggers on 16x10 rear rims on the rear. Kind looks sorta normal now.

Great on the trails. Lockrites front and rear. E350 brake master w/ stock discs on the front and stock drums on the rear. My prop valve is still modified from when i had discs on the rear so the rear brakes even with the front, great on the trails and makes for some interesting emergency stops on pavement. And I found out why people run two shocks on the rear...keeps the rear from chattering and shuddering and bouncing during those afore mentioned emergency stops.

I'm happy with my wimpy 60 swap. Cost under $1000 to put the one ton gear on my heep until I bought new tires. Very stable with the extra width. Wish for better gears but if I keep it out of overdrive I can still keep up on the highway. Beat the stuffin out of it in tellico and didnt break it. The next evolution will be 5.88's and 37"+ size tires....but thats a way down the road...

[xj9140]

nice work. very nice work.

[DorkAlert]

You get an "I"....

















For Innovation.

[Mudskipper]

So the Dodges control arm brackets line up with the XJ's factory brackets? Same with the coil buckets? Or did you need to modify?

[yellowxj]

The stock dodge suspension is similar in design but the control arms dont line up exactly cause the dodge axle is so wide...so "custom" arms and control arm mounts on my subframe were in order...the xj's coils dont line up directly on the dodge coil buckets, but it was easy to use the dodge coil buckets as a platform to put the new coil mounts on...

[orvpark]

I almost did something similar but with an 01' set of axles (no disconnect) 32/33 splines. my donors were picked up from a burned truck and the front was toast. I would have spent what a HP would have cost so I decided otherwise.

[JLane99XJ]

http://img187.exs.cx/img187/6100/1ton00147bv.jpg

that is crap!!

just kiddin man..
Awesome work, i can't wait to see how it works when you bring it up to Tellico nxt year!!