High Clearance Shock Mounts Writeup/Pictorial.

I know some of you all here have done this and done writeups for it, but I figured I'd post this anyway.

A New Years Eve trail ride ended with one of my lower shock mounts tearing off the axle. I knew my bumpstops needed to be extended, and it only took one unexpected dip in the trail to prove it. Since it was a time to upgrade, I figured i'd do some high clearance shock mounts, and just for ****s and giggles, I took lots of pics to write this here writeup.

Whoops...


Cool pic of the torn off bracket...



Since my Heckethorn shock was destroyed...


I picked up a set of stock length shocks - had to put that PepBoys gift card to good use


How I started the day...


To remove the old brackets, you have to grind the weld off, and break the bracket free.


Once you grind most of the way through the weld, it is time to break the bracket free. This is the setup I used. It is a 14" pipe wrench with a length of 1.5x1.5 tubing. A little twisting action and the bracket fell to the floor.



A shot of what the bracket should look like once you get it off...


And a pic of the axle tube. You can grind whats left of the weld down if you want, but I chose to leave it as is.


Up next you need to find something that has the same diameter (or very close) as the axle tube. The Mountain Dew bottle I was drinking from happened to be pretty damn close.


I cut the bottom off the dew and traced the circumfrence onto the corner where the shock stud is welded.


You should end up with something like this. I traced my line with the dremel to make cutting easier.


Repeat that step for the other side...



And connect the lines across the top...


Then you want to cut along your lines using an angle grinder, jigsaw, or like myself, bandsaw.


:greensmok



A little touch up with the 4.5"er...



And you should end up with something along these lines. You can see how I had to grind some of the back of the stud away for it to fit flush on the axletube.



Next you want to prep the axle tub for welding. I started out using a dremel to try and keep the sparks down, but ended up finishing it up with the 4.5". Here's the dremel work...


Then, weld em on.


I chose to mount mine next to the U bolt. This was inline with the origional mounting, so the shock angle is still the same.


MMmmm splatter. I need some Argon/CO2.


Add your favorite color paint (I chose textured black, but you can choose whatever color your little heart desires) and bolt the new shocks up.


Halfway there...


Repeat on other side...




You can see in this pic that I retained the typical barpin system, I'll explain in a bit.



Here's what it looks like all bolted up and ready to go.



'Nuff said.


And the reason for retaining the barpins, I welded 5/16 bolts in to act as studs. They are 1.5" long, so worse comes to worse I make some BPEs and bolt them to the studs. Here's pics just because.




That's all I got for right now. Thoughts/suggestions? :cheers:

I need to do this soon.... your pics arent working for me.

Looks like a good writeup, but the pics are not working. Try using photobucket.com or similar, or you can become a member.

hi

very nice job,two question came in to my mine could you have install the braket on top of the axle and when you weld so close from the gaz tank do you take any safety mesure, me I'm to skare of explosion.A week ago some guy blew himself in is garage doing some work on a freind's car.When you lay down under a car you dont have much chance to escape if something happen.

Zzzz

Good job Timmay, well documented. Thanks for posting up.

Have you tested the shocks under flex to see if the shorter extend or compress beyond their limits?

Good work. Nice to see an easy DIY.

Excellent write-up. Very easy to follow and the pics are great. Looks like some pretty good, layin' on yer back, welding too. :thumbup:

I moved mine up using some new brackets, but this, no parts purchase required method is probably the best way to go. Sucks to have to go back to the old stock shock length, but that's what works when you move up the mounts.

Thanks for all the replies. Welding near the gas tank is no problem. Just be careful. The shocks are a little on the short side, obviously. I am going to be running either S10 or Dakota packs in the next month so the stock length shocks are just temporary. I lost ~1/2" of up travel but retained the same amount of droop.

:wave:

Good one, easy to understand and looks pretty simple. Gotta wonder why the factory didnt do it like that...

There would be hardly any up travel if you did this at stock hieght. I think the factory just picked a shock that worked with the bumpstop and designed the bracket around it. I like making my writeups fool proof. :laugh3:

I was looking at doing this to gain clearence, and so I didn't have to mess with the d**n bar pins and break off the bolts then have to rant and rave over fixing them. Nice write-up. The S10 leave conversion was another thing for not having to remove the main spring and have to deal with the rusty bolts there. Very cool.

Only problem with doing it this way it that you have brought the shocks closer to the axle so it not in the same alignment as before. In my write up I show by cutting off the bottom part of the original shock mount off and then adding it higher up on what left of it and trimming it so it lines up exactly under the top mount. This way you are also not welding directly to the axle tube itself either reducing the chances of distorting the axle tube.

www.go.jeep-xj.info

GOJeep~

Is distortion really a factor in the rigidity of an axle when welding mounts up?
Just curious.

The welding will effect it and why alignment bars are used in shops that do this all the time. You can take steps to reduce it by welding an inch at a time and try to balnce the heat as much as possible. Placing a damp rag over the hot weld helps too but dont spray water on to it either. Have even placed a weld on the opposite side of the tube even when there is nothing to weld there as part of keeping the heat even. You can always grind it off later. the closer you are working towards the end of the housing though the less effect it will have overall.

Gojeep said:

Only problem with doing it this way it that you have brought the shocks closer to the axle so it not in the same alignment as before. In my write up I show by cutting off the bottom part of the original shock mount off and then adding it higher up on what left of it and trimming it so it lines up exactly under the top mount. This way you are also not welding directly to the axle tube itself either reducing the chances of distorting the axle tube.

www.go.jeep-xj.info

Click to expand...

this is exactly what I am planning on doing.. also easier to weld to the mount than the axle tube and get a good weld..

you also just reduced your travel

Wil Badger said:

you also just reduced your travel

Click to expand...

In his case, he only lost .5" of uptravel. not enough to mention.

I did this on my MJ as well. i made my mounts as the comanche uses lower mounts as part of the spring plates. (MJ's are SUA) I made measuremants of the droop and up travel and bought a set of shocks that came as close as possible to these numbers.



CW

I followed GoJeeps way and it worked great!

The thinner wetal was easy to weld, the cuts were straight not radius, and since I still had the old shocks my uptravel is not limited.

I like the c-clamp and front bumper being used as a bench vise... Nice write up.