traction bar project progress (mock-up and fitting)

Well, I've finally made a little progress on my traction bar project. I ended up buying axle brackets from DIY4x.com for $23 shipped. They've nice pieces.

Here's the mock-up to see how everything will fit.









The lower link is made from a section of our TJ's rollcage that we had to cut out long ago (long story). I don't remember exactly what it is, but it's about 1 11/16" OD and btwn 1/8-3/16" thick. Our friend who did our TJ's cage uses this tubing for his exo cage and all his suspension links (his old rig: http://jeepin.com/gilmer/03sept20album/images/DSC02792.jpg ).

The upper link is my old SkyJacker RockReady trackbar, mainly because I had it and it was already threaded to fit the MORE Boulder Bushing I had. I'm going to cut the bushing off the trackbar of course, and weld the bar solidily to the lower link, the add the obligatory gussets and crossbars.

I'd originally planned to do the whole traction bar out of 1.5" x .25" toob, but the section of rollcage and the SJ trackbar were laying around in the garage, and they were the right lengths, so why not make use of them.

Lemme tell ya though, it's a real PITA to fishmouth tubing with just an angle grinder...



Loss of ground clearance should be minimal.



The front shackle will use two RE SuperFlex joints (one on the traction bar and one on the base) and mount to the back of my DPG belly skid which I've reinforced with some 1/4" plate.

More pics at http://jeepin.net/photos/tractionbar

photoshop of final bar w/gusseting:

Does it matter how the axle bracket is mounted? Say if it was rotated around the axle tube?

Be careful with twisting of the axle tubes. Never happened to me, but seems common. I welded the bracket to the housing to hopefully cure that. I preheated no inner seals on a D44), and haven't had any problems, or noticed any cracking of the weld. Looks good though...those are pretty brackets too.

Starboard M said:

Does it matter how the axle bracket is mounted? Say if it was rotated around the axle tube?

Click to expand...

It won't matter, You can mount it any way you want, just get adequate seperation. The only thing that will affect the characteristics of the traction bar is where your frame end mount is. Frame end to axle center line, is the imaginary line.

Are you going to do a shackle at the transfercase end? Just having a JJ at that end with out the shackle wont prevent binding. I didnt see any pics of the attached bar to skid. On my traction bar I have a JJ on the "frame" end of the traction bar attached to a stock XJ shackle which attaches to my t-case skid and there is absolutly no binding. Just something to watch out for if you havent caught it already. The axle brackets look pretty sweet though Have you thought about a truss that links the traction bar to the diff with a rock ring? I have seen brackets rip off the axle tube similar to what you have.

AARON

gearwhine said:

Be careful with twisting of the axle tubes. Never happened to me, but seems common. I welded the bracket to the housing to hopefully cure that. I preheated no inner seals on a D44), and haven't had any problems, or noticed any cracking of the weld. Looks good though...those are pretty brackets too.

Click to expand...

Is spinning a tube that much of an issue on a D44? I thought that was mainly a F8.8" thing? I've thought about butting the bracket right against the diff and having a friend (who's got waaay more welding experience than me) weld it to the housing there. I was actually more concerned with tearing the axle tube, so I was also thinking about some gusset ribs that would run down the tube for a few inches toward the wheel. I've also been toying with the idea of a full truss that would tie into a mount off the top of the rear diff cover ala the Poison Spyder Rock Rings w/link ear.

https://www.spydercustoms.com/rockrings2/dsc02374.jpg

If I did that, I'd probably also tie the traction bar brackets into the truss.

MrShoeBoy said:

Are you going to do a shackle at the transfercase end? Just having a JJ at that end with out the shackle wont prevent binding. I didnt see any pics of the attached bar to skid. On my traction bar I have a JJ on the "frame" end of the traction bar attached to a stock XJ shackle which attaches to my t-case skid and there is absolutly no binding. Just something to watch out for if you havent caught it already. The axle brackets look pretty sweet though Have you thought about a truss that links the traction bar to the diff with a rock ring? I have seen brackets rip off the axle tube similar to what you have.

AARON

Click to expand...

Yeah, shackle with SF joints top and bottom. If you look at the first 3 pics in the photo album in my first post, you'll see the lower SF joint setup in a cradle, and the 1/4" bar I used to reinforce the rear edge of my DPG skid.

See my post right above about trusses and stuff.

You got it covered. I did the truss and Posion Spyder Customs rock ring with link ear on my Ford 8.8 when I did the traction bar. So far its been doing great with the power of a stroker and my right foot

AARON

gearwhine said:

Be careful with twisting of the axle tubes. Never happened to me, but seems common. I welded the bracket to the housing to hopefully cure that. I preheated no inner seals on a D44), and haven't had any problems, or noticed any cracking of the weld. Looks good though...those are pretty brackets too.

Click to expand...

Twisting of the tubes isn't much of a problem on a 44 with a track bar, its the explosion of the center section you have to watch out for. When this happens you have to swap in a junk yard 9 till the wee hours of the morning, install your overnighted gears and weld up the spiders to keep wheeling while on vacation in Tellico.

I have a similar setup on my sprung over CJ7 with a Dana 44 Rear. It's home made very much like yours. Here is what I learned the hard way.

The tubes will spin. I welded it up to the chunk on one side like you mentioned, and my rossette (?) welds broke. It started leaking gear lube from the tube. If you don't use FAT bolts, they wil bend. Even grade 8 bolts. Those mounts look like mine, which were made from caliper brake mounts that I picked up at a race shop. If they aren't more than 1/4 inch thick, they could bend. Mine twisted up like you couldn't imagine. Your triangulation needs to extend to at least 3/4 the length of the long bar. My first try was too short, and the stress at the point where the two were welded together quickly bent the long bar at that point. That is eventually where it broke.

On my first try I used shackle bushings all the way around to mount and it worked much better than the heims at the axle end on my most recent one. I still have shackle bushings on the shackle, but the heims on the axle have really limited the flex for some reason.

I hope this helps in some way.
Kevin

the shackle will use two RE SuperFlex joints. the bushings on the axle are poly. the axle bolts are 1/2" grade 8. the axle brackets are specifically made for traction bars, and are 5/16".

What if you left the busing on the upper link? Kind of like a front "Y" link. It should still prevent axle wrap, but should provide even more flex/less bind. What would be the issues with that? I guess a bushing may allow a little defection (wrap) but a sold johnny or RE joint wouldn't....

If you hang the shackle on the crossmember end, you'll be happier with the anti-squat number. Mine is mounted like yours, and I get some anti-squat induced bounce out of it.

Jason, what you're doing looks real good to me. Mounting the front from the skid plate s best, like you're doing. Those 5/16 axle brackets are plenty stout, I've always used 3/16 and never had a problem. Just make sure the welds are real good, it takes a beating at the back edge on the top where a crack can start, maybe weld a straight piece across the top of the tube at the back of the bracket to increase the surface of the weld to the tube. Hadn't heard of twisting the D44 tubes before, but anything is possible. Since the inner bracket should be up against the housing, wouldn't be hard to put a good weld at each end to the housing. Be sure to grind a bevel on the inside of the inner bracket (up againt the housing) so you get good penetration since you can only weld it on the inside.

BTW, that's a great bracket. Wouldn't be worth fabbing your own if you could buy that one.


Have fun,

JnJ, the bushing on the SJ trackbar is at an angle, so even if I wanted to leave it on there, it wouldn't work well. There would really be no point though, since the axle-end of the bar is fixed. The only thing leaving the bushing in would do is allow for more deflection which would allow some axle wrap.

Crash, I'm not sure I follow... do you mean "hang" the shackle as in from the floorboard? ala MaxxJohnson? wasn't it him that had the shackle mounted to a bracket on the body?

Richard, the brackets are the standard ones that Kert at DIY4x.com makes, I just had him cut them for the 2.75" D44 tubes and the 1/2" bolts I'm using. These things are HUGE. I'd originally planned to use 3/16", but found I didn't have the proper tools to cut it right, so I ended up ordering the brackets. For $23 shipped, you just can't beat that! I'd actually planned to put a bridge across the back of two brackets to tie them together and to get more weld area on the tube. Prolly use some 1/4" plate for that.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to butt it up against the housing and try to have it welded to the housing though. I'd just have to have Hinkley do that kind of welding for me, which would give me a good excuse to get back out to his place. The way I've got it sitting right now, the brackets are about an inch from the housing edge, which was as close as I figured I could go and still have room to get in there and weld the outside of the bracket to the tube. I was also thinking if I did a truss that tied into the diff cover I could get away without welding the bracket to the housing (welding to cast isn't something I'm ready to try yet).

Jeepin Jason said:

Crash, I'm not sure I follow... do you mean "hang" the shackle as in from the floorboard? ala MaxxJohnson? wasn't it him that had the shackle mounted to a bracket on the body?

Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't hang it from the floor, but rather make a bracket that goes up from the crossmember or skidplate, and hang the shackle from that. This lowers the mounting point of the traction bar and helps the angle, lowering the anti-squat number.

I'm at about 7" of lift in the back, and with the bar mounted like yours, I can get the rear bouncing pretty hard under power on steep, loose terrain. I don't use a center limit strap, so I'm going to change mine to the hanging style shackle.

Or link the rear.

Because of clearance issues with the t'case, the lower shackle mount (an RE SuperFlex joint) for my traction bar was going to have to hang off the back of my DPG belly skid, and after trying to figure out a good way to cantilever it off the back, I decided to just make a 'wing' out of some 1/4 plate and put the lower mount on that. I've still got a lot of practicing to do to get my welds looking consistent, and less boogery at times.

I'd originally run a piece of 1/4" flat stock across the back, so I had to cut off part of that, along with part of the lip of the skid.


1/4" plate 'wing' in place.


I'm going to have a little cleaning to do this weekend...


SF joint in place, gusset tacked on.


everything welded up.




I'm going to run a bead along the joint there.




project photo album at http://jeepin.net/photos/tractionbar

I thought the driverside is the side people are refering to as wrong - "torque-steer"? I guess the exhaust is in the way, though.

Oh, and your welds looks like crap. :laugh3:

CRASH said:

Well, I wouldn't hang it from the floor, but rather make a bracket that goes up from the crossmember or skidplate, and hang the shackle from that. This lowers the mounting point of the traction bar and helps the angle, lowering the anti-squat number.

I'm at about 7" of lift in the back, and with the bar mounted like yours, I can get the rear bouncing pretty hard under power on steep, loose terrain. I don't use a center limit strap, so I'm going to change mine to the hanging style shackle.

Or link the rear.

Click to expand...

So you saying not to do it like this?



But have the shackle hang below the skid plate?

Thanks for letting me borrow your picture!