HP44 full width and TnT truss

[87xjco]

Last one I did i checked the camber by bolting the knucle on before I burned the inner C's home.

One side was a little more positive than I would have liked, .9 degrees IIRC.

I tried to adjust that one by beating on the top of the inner C before welding it, but it wouldn't budge as far as the camber went.

I haven't corrected it but I do have an offset upper ball joint sleeve that I may put in someday if I ever get around to having the alignment checked, there are also the wedge shaped shims available for behind the spindle and offset ball joints, but I've heard the strength of offset ball joints is questionable.



I didn't seem to have near as much trouble getting these inner C's off, but this is the first time I used a 10 lb sledge. There are some pretty good hammer marks on the C though, so I'll have to see what happens when I get those knuckles bolted on, this is the first time I have re-used the Ford knuckles, so I don't know if that will make a difference.

Should just be a few days until I have new ball joints and can bolt it together.

 

[87xjco]

I set my pinion angle to allow for proper drive shaft angles, and had to clearance my truss the same way you did. I'm running RE short arms and drop brackets, the pinion yoke gets pretty close to my upper control arm when I have the front left wheel stuffed. I have been thinking about making a new control arm for that location with a slight bend to clear the yoke, but I would only gain another 1/2" of uptravel.

The guys at TnT said they have moved thiose uppers outboard a little since the earlier trusses, They also recommended me moving the lowers out about a 1/4" from stock on each side, that was before I ran into the issue with the cast center section tha I cut a chunk out for clearance. So being a total of 1 1/4" wider is not too bad I think

 

[87xjco]

Truss is welded, I took my time and moved around to different areas of the truss, stitch welded a few areas, then let it cool some before welding more.

 

[xjeepers2]

well i just got back and the axle looks great.

 

[Los Lobos]

What did you guys do for your front driveshafts?

I just got mine almost buttoned up except for steering and I went to hook up the DS and it's to long. I'm planning to head for Six States Monday I guess.

Oh and tomorrow is shortening the track bar.

 

[87xjco]

What did you guys do for your front driveshafts?

I just got mine almost buttoned up except for steering and I went to hook up the DS and it's to long. I'm planning to head for Six States Monday I guess.

Oh and tomorrow is shortening the track bar.

Yeah the center section of a HP44 is bigger then a HP30 and about 1" closer to the transfer case, so usually the driveshaft will need shortened.

I'm pretty sure Daniel will have to on this one too.

On the one I did in my own rig, I built my own truss and brackets so that the axle would set forward a little more then the stock bracket positions, so I didn't have to shorten mine.

 

[Los Lobos]

I should have welded the LCA's back more but I still don't think I could have cleared the driveshaft. I did finish shortening the trackbar this morning and it turned out good, I will have to grind down the weld later due to time constaints at the moment. I got to looking at my steering last night and realized the holes in the high steer are back to far and need to be redrilled.

 

[rcmf5525]

I just put one of these TnT trusses on a 44 and installed it. I am having some issues with the upper control arm brackets and the coil seats having more stand off than stock. I think the coil seat is farther forward of the axle centerline than the D30's. I could not get the coil seat to line up with the bumpstop tube and had a large bow in the spring. I know that is typical when the lower arms are too short and the axle has to be rotated so the arms reach, but with out the lowers attached and the truss level, the coil seat was about 2.5" farther forward than stock. it has really been a pain in the arse. I had fixed length uppers and lowers from the RE 5.5 w/ drop brackets. I upgraded to the RK 3 link with hopes that the adjustable arms would help but I ended up having to redrill the frame side upper mount about an inch rearward so the axle placement was 'OK'. Can you check on your truss and see if this is typical or do I have a "special" one? I sold my 30 before install of the 44 so I have nothing to go off of. I wish I would have kept it around a little longer for this sort of thing, but I figured that the truss being one piece I would not have any issues like this...

 

[rcmf5525]

Yeah the center section of a HP44 is bigger then a HP30 and about 1" closer to the transfer case, so usually the driveshaft will need shortened.

I'm pretty sure Daniel will have to on this one too.

On the one I did in my own rig, I built my own truss and brackets so that the axle would set forward a little more then the stock bracket positions, so I didn't have to shorten mine.

My DS fit, but did not have much compression left. I guess I will take about an inch out. I put a 60 under the rear and the DS could stand to be almost 2" shorter...

I talked with the local drive train shop about shortining the sticks and they quoted me $75 to shorten and $75 to balance. How critical is a balanced DS? $300 to shorten and balance both DS is a lot of coin...

 

[Dave41079]

My DS fit, but did not have much compression left. I guess I will take about an inch out. I put a 60 under the rear and the DS could stand to be almost 2" shorter...

I talked with the local drive train shop about shortining the sticks and they quoted me $75 to shorten and $75 to balance. How critical is a balanced DS? $300 to shorten and balance both DS is a lot of coin...

I'd leave the front unbalanced since you can unlock the hubs. It will only be spinning in 4wd.

 

[87xjco]

I just put one of these TnT trusses on a 44 and installed it. I am having some issues with the upper control arm brackets and the coil seats having more stand off than stock. I think the coil seat is farther forward of the axle centerline than the D30's. I could not get the coil seat to line up with the bumpstop tube and had a large bow in the spring. I know that is typical when the lower arms are too short and the axle has to be rotated so the arms reach, but with out the lowers attached and the truss level, the coil seat was about 2.5" farther forward than stock. it has really been a pain in the arse. I had fixed length uppers and lowers from the RE 5.5 w/ drop brackets. I upgraded to the RK 3 link with hopes that the adjustable arms would help but I ended up having to redrill the frame side upper mount about an inch rearward so the axle placement was 'OK'. Can you check on your truss and see if this is typical or do I have a "special" one? I sold my 30 before install of the 44 so I have nothing to go off of. I wish I would have kept it around a little longer for this sort of thing, but I figured that the truss being one piece I would not have any issues like this...

When I measure a stock axle, the center of the spring is 1 1/2" forward of the center line of the axle tube.

I think this picture shows about the same. The tape shows about 1 3/4" from the center of the spring seat to the edge, and the edge of the spring seat appears to be setting right over the center line of the axle tube.

But this axle has yet to be bolted into Daniels vehicle. He has the Full Traction 6" long arm kit so it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets it installed.

I don't know if the control arm mounts are all in the same fore/aft position as stock on the TnT truss system, it is designed to work mainly with their Y-link arms, and they did mention that they set the UCA mounts on the truss, a little outboard of the stock position, at least on the HP44 we were talking about. That gives a little more yoke clearance and they also suggested setting the LCA brackets outboard a little.

There is a top and bottom to the TnT LCA brackets but it's easy to install them upside down (I had to call Bob and confirm which way they went) and maybe that could adversely effect the position of the axle.

 

[rcmf5525]

2.5" might have been a little inflated, but it was too far forward for sure. I have it set up a lot better now. Just FYI, the uppers that they said are redesigned, are smaller than OEM. The RK kit I just recieved replaces the upper bushing with one of their joints, but I could not use it due to the TnT bracket being a smaller diameter hole... Kind of blows...

 

[Cruzin Illusion]

What did you guys do for your front driveshafts?

I actually got away with running a stock driveshaft. Do to the amount of lift my HP44 put my driveshaft right back to being the proper length.

 

[Los Lobos]

Well I got everything buttoned up. I ended up shortening the shaft. Now it's off to see how it does.

 

[xjeepers2]

Well I got everything buttoned up. I ended up shortening the shaft. Now it's off to see how it does.

hey there well i talked to 87xjco/terry and i should have everything in and done by the 3 or 4 but i was wondering with the full width up in OR and WA area are the trails wide enough for us?

 

[87xjco]

Well I got everything buttoned up. I ended up shortening the shaft. Now it's off to see how it does.

Congrats, post up some pics of it in action!

 

[Los Lobos]

hey there well i talked to 87xjco/terry and i should have everything in and done by the 3 or 4 but i was wondering with the full width up in OR and WA area are the trails wide enough for us?

Most trails have been run by FS rigs already but there are a few tight ones. I will have pics after I get back.

 

[xjeepers2]

Most trails have been run by FS rigs already but there are a few tight ones. I will have pics after I get back.

sounds good looking forward.

 

[87xjco]

Daniel (left) and his buddy Byron came up today so we could start fitting his axles under his 95 XJ

Once they got the old HP30 out, we rolled the HP44 underneath and started hooking it up

Before they took the old one out, we measured the springs so we would know where the ride heighth is. Then we hooked up the control arms leaving the springs out, and set the housing on jack stands so that it is at ride heighth.

We did some adjustments on the control arms to get the pinion angle dialed in to about 7 degrees, which is where I set up the housing to be when I did the knuckle rotation.

The vehicle is not setting level right now, so I had to take in to account the slope and adjust the pinion accordingly. When the vehicle is setting level it will have 7 degrees pinion and right at 6 degrees caster.

Looks like that is gonna work real good for the drive shaft alignment.

This was a good time to figure out what length drag link we needed. We figured out that and called Parts Mike so they can send us one.

We also used a plumb bob hanging from a common point on the inner fenders, and made sure the housing was centered from side to side.

Then I measured for the track bar and found we need to make Daniels shorter.

I worked on shortening that while Daniel and Byron started pulling the rear housing

I cut out a section of the track bar and then made sort of a half lap joint for connecting the two halves of the track bar together

I'll weld those together and then slide the sleeve I already have slid on one half of the track bar, over the joint and weld that on

Then a put a coat of paint on the track bar

While that dried, I installed the springs

More later

 

[87xjco]

Got this one finished up today, Daniel reports it drove good on the test drive, he's breaking in gears now.

Here's the 9" all ready to install

And bolted in

We even managed to gat sway bar brackets cut off the old HP30 and welded on to the HP44

Daniel put on wheels with 4" backspacing and they just barely cleared the tie rods up front.

Track bar and drag link angles came out pretty good

I think we got about an inch lift in the front, but he was high in the back before so it probably is pretty close to level now. Hard to tell on this little hill in front of my garage.