Project "why cant i leave anything alone" mj build

[jeeping99tj]

got a lil done over this last week.

transfer case in and azzy design linkage hooked up


dome lights and sound bar in


bed mock up done






took some outdoor pics before i put back on jack stands




got my reid racing knuckles. starting to install these and all my steering and track bar now




pulling my new spicer ball joints out


got damn these look good. took a break and headed to southern ill for the weekend. Had to make gf happy. Im glad she puts up with all the time i spend out in the garage lol

waiting on my ballistic fab flat top arms to come in now.

 

[jeeping99tj]

 

[jeeping99tj]

Started on cleaning up that dana 44 some. the brakcets on it are all garbage and want to redo it all. not sure if ill leave lowers but we will see. Got the shafts all together. ended up tearing a o ring on last cap, but found some at work that will work.

pics of u joints



Full clips are a blast to install

My cat wondering wtf im doing out in garage so late lol


reason #12343423 why i am redoing axle . no penetration




hours of grinding at 3am got me to this.




completed shafts look mean lol


got alot to do tonight. hoping to get the upper brackets in and bolted up.

 

[jeeping99tj]

got a lil knocked out last night and almost myself lol

driver upper almost complete




lil track bar mock up. cant do much without high steer arms for my drag link and track bar lenghts




punched myself in the head also. was trying to pry on some metal and pry bar broke. chipped a tooth and cracked glasses frame and huge knot lol


taking it easyy till parts come in.

 

[ftwelder]

nice progress!! Watch the melon dude, you may need it later.

 

[jeeping99tj]

haha ya damn harbor freight pry bars. never should trust them lol

 

[ftwelder]

You are pretty good which means you are sharp. There are people that make products for professionals that are more expensive yet more economical to use and you are someone that can see the advantage in that.

 

[jeeping99tj]

haha the funny thing is i have a full set of snap on pry bars in my tool box, just grabbed the cheapo cause it was already on bench.

 

[jeeping99tj]

I started on the passenger side upper radius last night and had it tacked it. I was having some binding issues and it ripped the tacks off the passenger side upper tho. My tacks werent that great either but was still kinda worried. when it broke lose i noticed that the upper would be about an inch or so away from where i originally had it. Flexed it other way and it moved an inch the other way.

Got to reading on radius set ups and finding out this is normal and that metal cloak makes a upper that unlocks which is pretty cool. I also ran an iron rock set up years ago on a xj and it didnt have the upper on passenger side so might just run the driver side right now and beef it up a lil. Id love to go true 3 link right now but just want to get wheeling and i already welded the crossmember to stiffeners so trying to get in there to weld a new upper on with drive train in would be a huge pain.

At first i thought my uppers were to long or my lower mount was out to far away from center line of axle and causing this problem but unsure. reason i had to make to uppers cause the rustys ones were not long enough to get the upper mount to the top of axle where i wanted it.

Maybe some gurus on here can shed some light with what they think.

here is some pics

 

[ftwelder]

I am far from a guru but four-link systems have a binding issue that you are experiencing. You also have a Panhard mount which is going to cause further conflicts. This actually what caused me to go three link. People get them to work by using soft bushings or just ignoring it.

 

[jeeping99tj]

ya im going to rethink my set up and maybe cut off my crossmember on passenger side and try to squeeze in a 3rd link. I might rock this radius crap with just one side for now. its starting to get cold here in ill and want to have it driving somewhat soon. But i def see a 3 link in near future.

 

[ftwelder]

ya im going to rethink my set up and maybe cut off my crossmember on passenger side and try to squeeze in a 3rd link. I might rock this radius crap with just one side for now. its starting to get cold here in ill and want to have it driving somewhat soon. But i def see a 3 link in near future.

I have read that the upper link on a "3" should be on the drivers side. I am wondering if with a radius set-up that may be able to try both sides enough to get a feel for the difference.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

a radius arm setup will have some bind when articulated. as said, the usage of bushings helps to combat that. wristing one arm is a common way to do away with the bind. now companies are starting to come out with uppers that have dampeners/shocks in them.

plenty of people do 3 links with the upper on the passenger side. i squeezed mine on the drivers side. i wanted to control the pinion precisely. and having it on the passenger side pretty much does the opposite of what you want the pinion to do... or rather, with the geometry i built.

 

[jeeping99tj]

ya i seen metal cloaks set up for the radius set up. Im going to rock this for a few trips and they start on a true 3 link on the driver side. NOt much room in there is there haha

 

[jeeping99tj]

started on some steering last night. got my ballistic set up in. my angles look good but tie rod touchs track bar mount on axle just a lil so going to move that and also need to add a couple inches to it. Track bar is 26 and drag link is 31in right now.

Here some basic ideas of what im going to run i think with some track bar adjustments. angles look decent


no way to double sheer i guess




shouldnt be banging rocks this hi lol


could be my pcv having some curve to it. prolly mess with it a lil tonight to

 

[jeeping99tj]

i need to burn in the upper and get this back on its own feet so i can determine all this at ride height. prollly work on that tonight . Need to move spring perches over the wedges. right now its riding on frame stiffener and just to far in.

 

[jeeping99tj]

my frame mount for track bar needs to go in toward the spring but its already about touching it and not sure if i go under frame that ill be able to make up the lenght of the track bar to be same as drag link. as u can see in pic it isnt straight and out to far. guessing my axle is pushed out a couple inches.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

ya i seen metal cloaks set up for the radius set up. Im going to rock this for a few trips and they start on a true 3 link on the driver side. NOt much room in there is there haha

its tight... but there is room. my crossmember ended up basically being a carbon copy of the clayton kit. i dont know how people stuff the upper on the passenger side, my exhaust would not allow it.

with such a tall trackbar mount at both ends i cant believe your still using a pitman arm with drop to it. for my highsteer setup i had to go with a waggy arm. interesting though. it also shouldnt matter a ton that the trackbar isnt perfectly strait cross car. the control arms will control for/aft movement, the trackbar will still do its job cross car.

i built everything at full bump... and let me tell you, it was a nightmare packaging everything. mostly because i established where i wanted full bump and was not willing to sacrifice. trackbar and tie rod wanted to blow through the oil pan. tie rod and pitman arm wanted to collide (with a waggy arm mind you), tie rod was hitting the bolt for the track bar frame side mount, pitman arm running into the frame, ram couldnt live where i wanted it to (under the track bar)... but after all was said and done, i could cycle the steering lock to lock with no issues. and when i drooped it to cycle the suspension and steering together, everything was awesome.

the only thing i wanted to do but wasnt able to was outboard the frame side mount for the track bar like you did. the high steer would just not let me do it, and i would have had to relocate the steering box to push the whole axle forward.

shouldnt be banging rocks this hi lol

highsteer is awesome isnt it?

 

[MoparManiac]

Radius arms are causing the binding, as stated above. If you can't/don't want to squeeze a true 3-link in there, than just lose the passenger side upper and run it that way for now.

Not sure if the pictures above are at ride height or full droop, but if they're at ride height than this thing looks super tall, and probably why you wouldn't have an issue with high steer. I ran an HP44 on my old XJ years ago and never wanted to do full high steer as I would have had to lift it at least a few inches due to where the tie rod ended up. Sure I hit the tie rod a few times, but still never enough to make me want to lift the rig.

I wouldn't worry about the single shear bolts if you're not running any sort of assist. Even if you were, those look like 3/4" bolts, so I still wouldn't be worried.

Also not sure what the angle finder is being used for? I wouldn't assume that the coil plate is a good spot to measure for caster...I'm guessing you're just seeing if the coil buckets will be level?

 

[jeeping99tj]

thanks for reply guys. that angle finder was for making sure coil buckets are level. Im going to put axle together tonight and start setting it all up at ride height. this is a lil drooped right now.

I dont think that track bar bracket will work on outside but not sure. ive havent had alot of time to mess with it all together yet. Will have a better understanding tonight i hope.

Also that pitman might not work but we will see once its at ride height. Need to slap shafts in and make or order some coil and bump stock parts. the way it was set up before the coil was pushed in to the inside and was rubbing the stiffeners and when flexing the shock hit it also. i plan on goin hydro assist soon.

Thanks for the input never done this before and been trying to get online as much as possible and read up.