This weekend's long arm buildup

Well, just finished last night after a whole weekend of cutting, griding and welding, but so far(the ride home from Poulsbo to Fed Way) it's a success, and works great(we flexed it out in my buddy Derek's backyard before I went home).

We started with a Tomken crossmember. After getting that thing installed, it was time for the lower arm mockup.



After installing the johnny joint(currie) and measuring to the lower axle mount, we came up with 29 1/2". Then we placed the pre-made lower bushing ring in place and marked where to cut our cutout in the arm to accomodate the bushing ring. Then with a hole saw, we made that cut, and welded the ring on.



Here's the completed arm, before install.



Then it was time for the upper mockup/build. With some work from my buddy Derek, he got the brackets mocked up, and we ended up with an upper tube length of 13 5/16".



Here's a shot of them drying.



Then it was time to get rid of the stock mounting brackets! What would we do without the beloved saw zaw?



A picture of the finished product, left side at least. Then we repeated the process on the other side. We did run into one problem though, with the tomken crossmember. Maybe it wasn't designed to hold the currie johnny joints, but we had to cut out the back of the pocket of the crossmember mount for the joint, because the joint was binding, so it couldn't rotate back and forth. If you look close, you can see the missing material behind the johnny joint. Anybody else have this problem? Anyway, we cut it out enough, then reinforced it again at the end with some 3" .25 wall square stock, cut in half.





And finally, the test. Everything works well so far. The paint was barely dry, but I had to get back home Sunday night. Didn't even end up going to school today cuz I was so exhausted/tired, but had to try Let me know what you guys think, good or bad.

if thats the 4 stock XMember bolts holding all that, thats not good. arms look good.

how's the ride?

lookes good nice work.

good stuff. you may want to take the advice about the x-member mounts, on mine the inner section seperates, and the outer tabs are welded as well as bolted.

oh, and question, how tall is your lift and how long are your shocks?

Looks good! Just wondering how much it cost you to make that whole set up from buying the cross member to long arms.

Looks great, how much did all the materials run ya?

Sweet work Adam! :thumbup:

Ill have to check it out next time I see ya. Coming to the snow run this weekend?

long arms look bitchin! but that crossmember scares me. just doesnt look very strong to be holding the entire front end. i built mine to be overkill but at least i wont have to wory about it failing.

How much for the crossmember??
I think I saw them for like $330??

HEY GUYS - What are you supposed to do to the stock crossmember bolts to make them more sturdy???

Anyone modify their STOCK crossmember making rear long arm mounts part of it, similar to the tomken set up, except homemade??

Nice work Adam. Flex looks great. Cant wait to see it in action.
Ryan

Yeah, that's totally not gonna werk. Waaaaay ttoooo light weught,bf,SKJb

----Mushefgiuzhgb-----

How does it ride compared to the Drop Brackets you were running? (first pic)

skyjackedxj96 said:

if thats the 4 stock XMember bolts holding all that, thats not good. arms look good.

Click to expand...

He mentions somewhere....6 bolts, 4 welds. Plenty strong, but removing will take grinding.

I love how Beefy the currie Joints are. i just got some of their 1.25" threads that I will be using in my 2"x.50 dom tubing. I plan to just drill and tap the tubing and screw the joint in. I am going full width and running ford radius style arms. Looks like those joints flew well. Looks like there is 6 bolts holding in the crossmember. Only 4 showing in the pic but you can see another hole.

that's pretty sick, makes me think more about a long-arm setup but I don't think I have the know-how to build one myself.

Your fab work looks awesome but that cross memeber still scares me. The upper mounts just dont build confidence w/ me even if it's tomken. 3/16" steel is good for body armor...

The stock crossmember bolts are too small. When I installed my T&T kit the front and back holes stripped out. I tapped them out to 7/16. The weld nuts must have been wide enough. They tightened up real good with 7/16 bolts. The T&T kit has 6 other 1/2 inch bolts to hold the crosmember on also. They go through the frame rail area with pinch sleeves so the rail area wont collapse. I know the center stud didnt amount to much either. If the original holes didnt tap out good to 7/16 I was going to make a hole in the rail area and use a piece of wire to fish 1/2 inch bolts or nuts up in the box. Trailer hitchs sometimes come with long spring like wires for fishing bolts into tight places. Idealy I would want 6 - 1/2 inch bolts holding a long arm xmember on. This is an area for overkill.

Well, just finished last night after a whole weekend of cutting, griding and welding, but so far(the ride home from Poulsbo to Fed Way) it's a success, and works great(we flexed it out in my buddy Derek's backyard before I went home).

We started with a Tomken crossmember. After getting that thing installed, it was time for the lower arm mockup.



After installing the johnny joint(currie) and measuring to the lower axle mount, we came up with 29 1/2". Then we placed the pre-made lower bushing ring in place and marked where to cut our cutout in the arm to accomodate the bushing ring. Then with a hole saw, we made that cut, and welded the ring on.



Here's the completed arm, before install.



Then it was time for the upper mockup/build. With some work from my buddy Derek, he got the brackets mocked up, and we ended up with an upper tube length of 13 5/16".





Then it was time to get rid of the stock mounting brackets! What would we do without the beloved saw zaw?



A picture of the finished product, left side at least. Then we repeated the process on the other side. We did run into one problem though, with the tomken crossmember. Maybe it wasn't designed to hold the currie johnny joints, but we had to cut out the back of the pocket of the crossmember mount for the joint, because the joint was binding, so it couldn't rotate back and forth. If you look close, you can see the missing material behind the johnny joint. Anybody else have this problem? Anyway, we cut it out enough, then reinforced it again at the end with some 3" .25 wall square stock, cut in half.





And finally, the test. Everything works well so far. The paint was barely dry, but I had to get back home Sunday night. Didn't even end up going to school today cuz I was so exhausted/tired, but had to try Let me know what you guys think, good or bad.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I had to re-post this cuz my buddy alerted me to the fact that the original pictures weren't showing up anymore.

Anyway, I'm gonna run more weld along the crossmember to help the bolts hold everything on. As far as the 3/16" bracket metal, they made it, so I trust it, until it breaks