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Shocks attached to LCA's

ZPD

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Modesto Ca.
I am nearing the end of my front HP D44 and 3 link project and I have a question about shock placement. As I was looking at it last night the ideal place for me to place my shock absorber on the axle end would prohibit me from removing the LCA bolt. So I was looking for alternative locations and wondered why it can't go on the LCA itself? I am not talking about putting it 12 inches away from the mounting point like some Chevy mall cruiser but more like 2 inches behind the axis of the bolt and on top of the arm. I haven't seen anyone do this before so I am wondering if there is anything fundamentally wrong with this?
 
its been done alot actualy and increases the amount of travel you get , but it also puts more stress on the control arm axle end joint. thats about all i know on the subject, youd probably get a better response at pirate since im sure theres people that have actualy done it there.
 
you will need to take into account how far you move the shock as you will need a stiffer shock as you move it further away from the axle. i belive ford mounts its shocks to the radius arms on some trucks.
 
I had a set up like this on my trail-beater 89 XJ... they were hand-me-down LCAs from Ron Stevick's XJ... and had 1/2" tube sleeves welded through the 2"x3" box steel arms for the lower shock bolts.

I had to cook up a pair of "spacers" to keep the shock bodies away from the arms...

All in all a pretty good setup... flexed like crazy and with the upper "eye" conversion mounts, they let me run (and use) really long shocks
 
bj-666 said:
you will need to take into account how far you move the shock as you will need a stiffer shock as you move it further away from the axle. i belive ford mounts its shocks to the radius arms on some trucks.
I am only planning on putting them about 2 inches behind the axis of the front bushing. I haven't decided if I want to put them on the side of the LCA or on top. I also haven't decided which direction to have the axis of the shock eye.
 
thats how my 3 link was set up, i loved it, mine was about 5" behind the center line of the axle, but i also had my axle pushed 4" forward
 
One thing that may be an issue, but may not be is if you have superflex type joints on both ends of the lower arms, the shock may try to rotate the arm to the joint max travel. Might not do this too, but it was just something I thought of. I built a long arm 3 link for my rig and chose to use the existing control arm mounts on the 44 axle which pointed the arms directly at the stock frame end mounts. On the new arms, I used RE large flex joints, set them parallel with the mounting bolt, and then welded the long arm to them at an angle to put the frame end in the new mount which is quite a bit inboard from the stock mounting spot. The suspension works well, but because the lower arms come off the axle end RE joints at an angle, they naturally end up twisting to the max joint travel in one direction. It kind of bothers me, but it works fine. Jeff
 
Jeff 98XJ WI said:
One thing that may be an issue, but may not be is if you have superflex type joints on both ends of the lower arms, the shock may try to rotate the arm to the joint max travel. Might not do this too, but it was just something I thought of. I built a long arm 3 link for my rig and chose to use the existing control arm mounts on the 44 axle which pointed the arms directly at the stock frame end mounts. On the new arms, I used RE large flex joints, set them parallel with the mounting bolt, and then welded the long arm to them at an angle to put the frame end in the new mount which is quite a bit inboard from the stock mounting spot. The suspension works well, but because the lower arms come off the axle end RE joints at an angle, they naturally end up twisting to the max joint travel in one direction. It kind of bothers me, but it works fine. Jeff

Most of the time when a shock or coilover is attached to a control arm, a solid joint (rubber, poly, etc.) is used on one end to prevent this.
 
seems to me a big issue would be the joint at the lower end of the shock...

I mounted my shock mounts on my HP 44 on top of the LCA perch so that the bolt going through the bushing was 'pointed' to the front / rear of the jeep.

putting the shock on the arm that changes angle as it travels would require either a bunch of spare bushings or some other joint that flexs a lot in both directions...
 
XJ_ranger said:
seems to me a big issue would be the joint at the lower end of the shock...

I mounted my shock mounts on my HP 44 on top of the LCA perch so that the bolt going through the bushing was 'pointed' to the front / rear of the jeep.

putting the shock on the arm that changes angle as it travels would require either a bunch of spare bushings or some other joint that flexs a lot in both directions...
That is my concern because the shock eye would need to rotate to follow the arc of the CA when viewed from the side and the arc of the axle when viewed from the top.

Also I do have rubber bushings in the axle end and flex joints on the frame end.
 
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