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Does one of the y arms on the radius arm need to slip

Idaho-88XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Lewiston, Idaho
I am building my own radius arm suspension up front my cousin was looking on rocky road (for the zuki) and saw that there radius arm on the drivers side had a slip in it. The caption to the right confirms this and they say that this slip is in place to keep the arms from binding as one tire goes up and the other goes down. while this makes sense (the binding) I have not seen RE or for that matter any other company use this idea. That or they do a fine job of camoflaging the slip part of the link. My question is do i need to use this. will the links bind in articulation if I use no slip. Does any of your long arm suspensions have this slip. Note the radius arms they use at rocky road have a fixed y arm at the long arm. where most of the kits I see sold have a joint on both ends of the y arm. My simple brain tells me that this is how RE and such get away with out having a slip. Look guys I know all of this is confusing. I Thought I new how I was going to do all of this but now my cousin has got me all confused so please some one set this debate straight Thanks
 
there is a certain amount of binding in radius arm setups such as re and tnt, but it has proven not to be too much a problem as long as you utilize rubber bushings to deform and take a certain amount of binding.
 
Typically jeep radius arm setups use rubber or poly bushings instead of spherical joints or rod ends. The bushings have enough play to keep the bind from really being a problem.


A slip upper arm might as well not be there. It serves no purpose. Other than it looks symetrical.


Do you need a slip arm (or no arm)? Nah. It might flex better without it. But, it actually seems to worsen the hop/unloading problem. I wouldn't recommend running say heim joints and two uppers - you can twist the tubes in the housing from the bind.
 
my original plan is to use jeeps stock rubber bushings at the axle (all four locations) and RE's super flex joints at the frame. After talking with my cousin (dustin) we thought why even have a y link on the drivers side if it really serves no purpose except to look symetrical. This sound good to me because I am swaping in a Dana 44 from an 83 FSJ This jeep was of course leaf sprung and does not have a mount on top of the diff to mount the upper link to. So a cross over tube would be needed to attach the upper link to. being on how I lack the required experince in welding mild steel to cast. So do ya all think a single long arm on the Driver side and a radius arm on the pass. side would be a good route or should I go ahead and do the cross over tube and radius both sides. Note my jeep is destined for the trail and the trail only.
 
Idaho-88XJ said:
So do ya all think a single long arm on the Driver side and a radius arm on the pass. side would be a good route or should I go ahead and do the cross over tube and radius both sides. Note my jeep is destined for the trail and the trail only.

Thats exactly my setup. The only downside is you need to really trust your welds and make sure your link mounts can take alot of force. If you lose one then your axle will be all over the place.
 
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