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The Jeep in my door yard

Thanks, something interesting, I measured the ID/OD of the 14B and the walls are 5/8" thick. That is pretty amazing.
 
I got the 14b taken down and cleaned out. I pulled out the diff and welded up the spider gears. There has been a spider gear seizure at one point and there was a lot of wear on the cross shaft. I plan of a full re-gear/locker install but this will work for now.

Onto the 14b by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

After cleaning all the parts and assembled the diff in the carrier (with cup bearings) and clamped it all down to force the gears together before tacking then flipped and tacked again.

Onto the 14b by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

once it was well tacked, it was removed from the carrier, cup bearings removed I TIG'd around the outside and used a big .035 MIG welded to weld between the gears.

Onto the 14b by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Make sure none of the welds show proud on the outside of the assembly or it won't go back together properly.

Onto the 14b by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I did a slight shave on the housing and gained may be 1" or so. I know a lot more could be removed but this is fine for now. I used a portable band saw and it went very quickly.

Onto the 14b by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I have seals and all the stuff for the brakes so I just need a diff cover and I am done with this for now. I have enough saved for nice set of Clayton leaf springs and I should get back under the body now that the weather is good and get the rockers and frame bracing completed.

I have been thinking about the amount of lift I am going to end up with in the front (my guess is too much) with RE 4.5" springs and the little I gained with the spring pads and how I should proceed with the rear. The rear spring mounts are rusted and the floor is gone all around so as of now, I am thinking about building a new brackets that have multiple mounts and potential adjustments. There isn't much point in welding everything around the spring mount and leaving it stock.
 
I have a few things to add. I put the front axle in and my panhard/track bar angle was really steep. Too steep. You can see a bit of the Panhard bracket down level with the axle tube. I am not sure where I came up with this but I ended up cutting it off. Here is the old.11_2014 021 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I did some figuring and ended up taking the knuckle off again and adding another pile of stuff up above and relocated the Panhard rod mount and changed the axis as well.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

since is was all low carbon steel no preheat or BS required. I decided to never get near a school bus with this thing. :explosion

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Once I did that most of the stuff looked like it was going to work. Back when I rebuilt my Durango box I removed the spacer and turned down the end cap for a full 90 degrees of rotation. since I had to source a pitman arm that would work out I went backwards and started at the the suggested limit to spicer u joints. I forget now but I think I chose 45 degrees as my objective.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I made some more assumptions and fabbed up a Pitman arm.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I took note of all the angles and after my headache went away I drew some flat pieces on manilla folders and made a few bend samples in a really crappy 3 way sheet metal press thing. Once I had the angles, I used one of those 55 ton presses you buy off the back of the pick up trucks down in industrial zones to bend the plate. To start I cut the hub out of the stock Pitman arm and turned it round. I made a 1/4" thick "washer" with an ID that matched the hub diameter. This was my back-up strip and spacer. I attach it to the hub with Full-penetration (ground out so the front welds touch the back welds) welds that I nail with an industrial size needle gun when the welds are still hot to confuse the molycuties on the surface.

I then welded on the actual important parts. I turn a spacer that is .030 longer than the width of the bearing so when it's welded it fits perfectly. For the record, I ream and chamfer all the holes to the bolt size +.002. and don't use undersize bolts.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I think the offset was pretty moderate for the length. It comes really darn close to the tie rod but doesn't touch anywhere in the cycle. The rods lined up properly and are the same length also.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

The next thing was to set the bumps and mark the fenders for cutting. I don't think I showed images of the inner fenders so I tossed some in with some tube to support the fender. and radiator.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr


Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
 
Here is the before and after.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

This may not seem like much but seeing it for the first time with the tires and cut fenders really got me fired up after dragging the axle back and forth. I was fortified.

I needed to turn the truck around so I charged up the cooling system and bled the power steering. A shout out of thanks to west texas off road for the tech and steering box rebuild kit and solid customer service. The power steering works really well even with no ram..

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I snagged a set of unibody rails from Ruffstuff and modded them to fit. Keep in mind that I had already plated the front of the frame inside and out all the way back to my LCA brackets right in front of the cross member. Once that was done installing them was about as easy as anything could be. My shackle and spring mounts were rusted so I cut them off and extended the plating up to the cargo area.

Stuff by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

a couple of months ago I got in line for a set of the new leaf springs from Clayton offroad. I got in early in the process and received my parts as soon as they were ready to sell. They look to be really well made with tapered ends and burly straps/hardware. They were super easy to deal with and kept me updated. Thanks

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I chopped up a piece of 4X1/4 square tube and made some inner mounts for the front anchor of the leaf spring. I have some plans for a rear cross member that ties into the future cage and the "in process" cross member.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

one of the other things was to make pin tubes to access the skip plate mounting hardware. since the floor was crap I decided to box in the frame rails with some fancy skid plate mounts with removable nuts rather than nutstrips.

I am going to have Melansons in Keene NH shear up some 1/8" HRPO to box in the rails.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

the next thing is to settle on a leaf set- up. I am thinking to move the front mounts back 4" and 1.5" lower than stock for some stretch and boost and running the leaves not flipped. The rear shackles are going to be really long with the upper pivot somewhere in the cargo area. also thinking on a little wider spring spacing than stock. Not sure till the paint goes on.
 
Thanks, I need more steel!!! Once the spring mounts are in, I am going wheeling. The cage will have to wait till winter. I think I will need the anti-wrap with the darn 5 speed.
 
I received some tube and sheet stock a couple of days ago. I got 2X4X1/8" for the rear frame rails and some 2X3X3/16 for a rear cross member. I remember Vananimal did one that was below the floor and level with the frame that came up and over the tunnel and I started wondering about adding a cross member to support the bottoms of future cage main hoop. The thing that got me started on all this was trying to support the front leaf spring which are half-way tacked in now. Check out this goofy set-up with V-block and angle plates.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I got all ready to nail it all down and no MIG welding gas on the 110V machine. I nursed it along enough to get both front "inners" tacked in. It seemed OK.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

The next day (sometime last week) I started boxing in the frame tubes with 'eighth sheet. Those tubes are the top ends of the front cross member bolting system.

I figure I will box the tubes in then make the floor skin some other time. May be start with foot pegs welded to the frame tubes :eek:

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I also removed some body putty. It looks like snow.

I did a little lay out on my cross member plan. Right now I am thinking 6" forward of the rear threshold piece which should be (according to my calculations) about where the main roll bar hoop should be. Room for a 6' dude with a helmet.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

The fact that it's so far from the spring shackles makes me wish I went with longer Chevy springs. The fact that my XJ springs already in the shop makes me look for a work-around. My current plans have my cross member welded to the top of the frame rail. I wonder if I should lower it down so it has purpose supporting the skids, level with the bottom of the rails. More room for fuel?

The "frame" is over 4" tall. May be turning the tube up and lowering it down between the rails so the top of the 2X3 is at the floor skin? I could also move it back so the main roll bar tube eventually attaches to the front of the cross member and moves it rearward to support the front shackles. Box them in rally style. :wow:

I have all day tomorrow to figure it out. It only has to go between two rockers that aren't in yet and support an imaginary roll bar and invisible skids. No problem.
 
'made a little more progress today and added the cross member I mentioned earlier today. It went pretty easy and I feel a little better about the overall structure. I ended up doing the 2X3 X3/16 from the rockers to the tunnel and 1X3 over the tunnel. This should integrate with the cage and 2X6 rockers at some point and also serve at a platform for future links and cage. The short story is I am confident with the front leaf spring brackets now. I hope to have those done tomorrow. I boxed in the frame tubes also.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
 
Thanks! I finished boxing in the frame rails and sent them home. I also removed the stock rear bulkhead. That happened over the weekend, the bigger news is I figured out how I am going to do the forward leaf spring mounts. I should have it done in paper tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
 
I welded up the spring mounts today. I ended up changing the shape a little bit but I still hate them for some unknown reason. I do like the tubular gussets to the new cross member. Here is the original spring mount.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Then I made some slight changes to the shape, tacked them in and sent 'em home.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Added the 1.5X120 wall brace in. Sorry about the poor lighting..

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Some primer.
Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Once that was done, I moved the stands to under the spring mounts and removed the support from the rear cross member. I took a few measurements and cut the rear frame away. It was good to see that POS stock piece that mounts the shocks go away. It was pretty cool that that all the crap I cut out was less than 30 lbs.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

It looks like there is a convenient place to attach the new cross member and I got the area all prepped. I wanted to make a place for a rear winch so I have to do that before I weld the new stuff in. Lanie is out of town this weekend. Now that the back of the Jeep is "walk in", I put my welder under the hatch to keep it out of the rain for the night.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr


Tomorrow should be a big day also. Thanks for looking.
 
I got a few more things done in the past week. I cut out the rear floor and added 2X4 X1/8" frame rails and rear cross member. I added a port for the winch cable to run through so that the winch is under the rear hatch out of the weather. I originally wanted a hitch mounted winch that could be moved front to back but they are too heavy. I broke my back some years ago so I will start with one in the back. I can still add one to the front but I am more worried about it getting swiped or rotting out.

Here is where I am at now.
Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr


The round tube in the middle of all that is just a spreader. I am going to add a 2X1/4" sq/tube cross bar just on front of the winch and 3/8" plate underneath and may be some tubular triangulation going forward. Speaking of going forward, I am going to place the shackle mounts pretty high and use a long shackle. I may "capture" the shackle or do something else to allow a long shackle with some control. The idea of the long shackle is to offer a function like a slider box with unlimited room for the spring length to change with suspension travel. It may have been better to do a 3 link in the back but I didn't do it that way for some unknown or forgotten reason.

I decided to relocate my shop to a restored mill building along the Sugar river in Claremont NH. I will finally be able to keep my Jeep indoors! It comes with nine acres of riverfront!

:spam:

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I have to get the rear axle in before the move so I can roll the rig around then there may be a little delay while I get powered up at the new address. Stay tubed er, tuned.
 
another big weekend on the XJ. I finished boxing in the frame rails and formulated a plan for the shackle brackets.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I started the shackle mounts using ruffstuff 3" wide poly bushings which I don't have yet but I was able to do all the fitting with a short piece of pipe that was just under 2" diameter.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I also dragged the axle under the rig and got it positioned. The housing is pretty narrow and the brake flanges (for dual wheel) are now in the way. I really want to just keep going on this and screw work.
Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr
 
I welded up the brackets on the axle housing. I need to find a way to attach the springs. Either U-bolts or some other method.

Since I am using 15" rims the brake pins need to be very close to the rotor so a little grinding was required to the caliper brackets. I use a piece of 3/4" thick cold rolled steel for the spacer between the bracket and rotor.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I also installed the upper shackle brackets and made a recess for the hatch release mech.

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

Untitled by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I need to drag the 110V welder out there and finish boxing in the base of the D pillar. I hope to do that and install a filler cap on the rear diff cover tomorrow..
 
I love seeing updates to this thread.

:party:

Nice work.
 
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