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different crossmember idea

whitneyj

whitneyj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Mayville, WI
so I'm in the middle of building a new crossmember for my tcase and my radius arm mounts, I'm also going to be building a full belly pan while I'm at it. I want to keep my tcase crossmember mount separate from the radius arm mounts and I want to keep it as flush to the frame as possible. Can I run a piece of flat 3/16 plate from rail to rail to hold the tcase mount? I understand it's under an incredible amount of torque, so I'd want to fold the metal up between the rails and mount it to the inside and bottom of the rails. My radius arms are 48 1/2" long so even with the axle pushed as far forward as I feel safe with the steering (about 3-4"), my mounts are still going to be behind the tcase. I know that's too long, but it's what I have to work with for now, when I have access to more equipment I'll shorten the arms to 36-38"ish. Can someone help me with the tcase mount? Will my idea be sufficient?
 
the only issue i see is that the tranny mount is at 1" lower height than the unibody rails. i'm in the process of making a heavy duty x member for mine, and i started with 2x6" 1/4 wall tubing and am cutting it to fit, will drill and weld as necessary. pictures... eventually. don't hold your breath :guitar:
 
that explains why I haven't seem it done yet. . . obviously I wouldn't want to push the drivetrain up that one inch for clearance reasons for drivetrain angles. I need the tcase xmember to sit as high as possible so the radius arms will clear it on full stuff
 
You are able to fabricate cross members, but you are not able to shorten the control arms? Seems easier to just go ahead and shorten them.
 
they're extend ford radius arms with twisted customs extentions. They took solid stock and drilled and tapped one end to go over the stock ford threads, then welded, the other end was turned down on a lathe and threaded for a female hiem joint. I figured I'll just use them as is until the hiems wear out then I'll cut the extentions and drill and tap them and run a male hiem. I'd hate to cut the arms up and not be able to use $90 worth of hiems that'll sit around and get rusty.
 
whitneyj said:
that explains why I haven't seem it done yet. . . obviously I wouldn't want to push the drivetrain up that one inch for clearance reasons for drivetrain angles.
Click to expand...

yep. i viciously bent my first stock one upwards at least an inch. my drivetrain wasn't happy with me for a while. hence the fab of the heavy duty one, but then i got another stocker for 10 bucks and the fab got put on hold :banghead:
 
I moved mine up, flush with the frame rails and has ~1" raise in the middle. No driveline issues and works fine. It's been on atleast a year and holding up fine.
 
whitneyj said:
My radius arms are 48 1/2" long so even with the axle pushed as far forward as I feel safe with the steering (about 3-4"), my mounts are still going to be behind the tcase. I know that's too long, but it's what I have to work with for now, when I have access to more equipment I'll shorten the arms to 36-38"ish. Can someone help me with the tcase mount? Will my idea be sufficient?
Click to expand...
I definately want pics of this!You dont even want them that long(not that I believe you could even do it).The "numbers" will tell the real story!
 
Weasel said:
I moved mine up, flush with the frame rails and has ~1" raise in the middle. No driveline issues and works fine. It's been on atleast a year and holding up fine.
Click to expand...

How did you move it up? Custom crossmember, or did you install a spacer between the crossmemeber and the tranny mount? Have you had any clearance issues between the tunnel and the transmission or tranfer case (rattling, knocking, etc.)?
 
rcp phx, yeah I know, I want them about a foot shorter, but I got a smokin deal on them and I guess I don't have anything better to do than to build a bunch of stuff I'm going to change in 6 months anyhow. . .
 
This is a rough, really rough, idea of what I'm shooting for for the crossmember.
crossmember.jpg


The outside lines are 2x2x1/8 angle running the outside of the rails, they'll be bolted bottom and side to the rail. (using a nut strip on the inside of the rail) The lines running horizantal will be 1x1x1/4 angle used to reinforce the the skid/crossmember. Both front and rear lips will be folded up as well. The tranny mount will be mounted flush with my rails. With the 3/16 on my rails, the 1/8 angle for the mount, I'm only raising my tcase 1/2 inch, maybe less. I'm not to worried about the driveline angles, they won't be far off and I've got a double cardon front and rear anyhow. I'll be using 1/2 plate on the bottomside of the xmember/skid for the tranny mount to "hid" the bolts and that should be the only thing hanging from the bottom of my jeep. The skid will run from where my lca mounts used to be to directly underneath the output shaft from the tcase. The only thing that'll be difficult will be the exhaust re-routing and the skid underneath the lowest part of the tcase. Thoughts?
 
So. . . after starting to mock up the whole shebang I had to change quite a few things. . . I've got a couple pictures to show what's I've got so far. this is looking front to back. The notch cut out is for the beginning of the tcase skid for the front output.
STA70672.jpg

This is a quick layout of what I've got, it's all tack welded in for now.
STA70673.jpg

These next ones show how I'm routing my exhaust. I' took 4x4x.25 and cut it to 1.75 tall to "catch" the tubing. I'll be building a strap onto that to hold the exhaust tight.
STA70674.jpg

STA70675-1.jpg

That's basically what I have for now. I've got a couple issues to figure out, primarily when I cut the front left for the driveshaft to go through. I've got to figure out a way to mount the two sides together so they're not flexing and cracking everything. . . Maybe a driveshaft loop?
 
Solid, but it will be heavy!!

Try just using 1" strips facing upwards for bracing.

My recommendation would be to basically try to mimmick a TnT setup, only make two seperate sections, one up front for mounting the radius arms (so you can drop that and not the Xmember) and then the Xmember. Hell, fab it as one piece at first, cut it, throw 1" stripping on the edges and then bolt the two together. Drill some holes large enough that you can access those bolts.

There's no harm in having the Xmember drop down an inch below the 'frame' rails. It will be solid, and if you're up high enough, you won't hit it much!! Just angle it down in the center a bit with two bends (again, mimmick the TnT setup, or a DPG skid). If you have two angles in the belly, and then brace it, it will be stronger!!

Good luck!!
 
It is definately heavy. . . I definately should have put a couple bends in it, but I was in a bind with sheet metal, that and I wanted to keep it as flush as I could. The radius arms will be mounted behind the tcase, not what I wanted, but it's what I have, so I'm going to have to make it 1 piece. There'll be another piece behind it to finish off the tcase skid, though. I was thinking of just running 1" strips perpendicular to the skid, but I thought the triangluation (?) of the 1 1/2x1 1/2" angle would make it conciderably stronger. I appreciate the info, I'm pretty new to the whole fabing thing and am in the middle of huge project I made for myself.
 
Here is how I'm doing mine. It's far from done, but you can get the idea from this. I also started with Ford radius arms, but I cut them and tirangulated them to mitigate the anti-sway effect inherent in the design. I made a removeable crossmember that will double as the t-case mount (when I get that part built). The lowest part of the crossmember is 3/4" below the bottom of the frame rail. Not quite flat, but pretty close. Hope this helps some.

img4137smallsd3.jpg
 
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