Control Arm Fab Q's

Oh man am i freaking out ! I just got my superflex joints today & there pretty damm cool. But now I have a couple of questions for ya guys.
1.) is there a pre load on the joint & what is it ?
2.) Do I gut the joint before I weld , or can I weld it assembled (worried about the Teflon races) I know to put zerks in before I weld so I do don't screw up the threads.
3.) & for 6-7 inches of lift what is your center to center distance of your arm? Im going to make them solid & I calculated 17.5" but I wanted to double check that, should they be a 1/2 inch longer or shorter ? ( have adjustable uppers) :canada:

Congrats on joining the ranks of the hopelessly hook on fab'n club. Do not weld with the guts in the joint. It will melt the delrin insert. I can't help you on the length because its been to long since I had stock type arms. Do you realize that it's not that much harder to make a long arm setup? Sorry, just trying to tempt you. As for preload, I tighten them down until there is no slop, then grease them. After running a few days you will want to tighten them again and then at regular intervals, check that there is no slop in them. Don't worry about getting them too tight, as that is not a fatal condition, they will just work the delrin around and loosen up on their own.

If you are interested in doing long arms or making your arms adjustable, check out a page I am working on. It's not done but may give you some ideas.

http://www.4x4getaways.com/LongArms.htm

Lots of luck.

Old Man, great article! very informative.

btw, you win the award for naxja's oldest xj...1885 model :rof: j/k

Thanks for the info Tom, Well fabing is always fun & once I finish my Millwright ticket I think machining is next on the cutting block. As for long arms Im not sure yet. It dosn't seem like a whole heck of a lot more work, but what about lenghths & proper angles for LA ?

Aw, heck, just fake it.


Actually the lengths are pretty easy. My only problem with my long arms is that I need even longer brake lines now due to the flex. Hopefully I can complete that writeup in the next couple of days. I've already taken all the pictures. I came up with a neat, clean, and cheap way to do the frame brackets as well. I've beat on the arms a few times now and will run some fun trails this weekend to try and break them.

The funny thing is that I'm getting rid of the long arms in the next couple of months because I'm finishing up building a D44 for the front and I am going to use radius arms on it. As it turns out the frame mounts are the same so the swap will be easy. I had just wanted to do long arms for so long that I went ahead and threw them together to wheel until the axle swap happens.

As far as the oldest XJ, I just helped a buddy swap a tranny in his 84 XJ and the build date on it was July of 83. He's had it since it was new.

Why not do LA's on a 44?, Im really looking forward to your write up, my hampster is starting to run a little faster now

As it turns out the Ford radius arms can be modified so easily to work that I can't see the effort of adding all the brackets for long arms when you end up with basically the same geometry and benefits. Check out Farmer Mat's rig.

old_man said:

As far as the oldest XJ, I just helped a buddy swap a tranny in his 84 XJ and the build date on it was July of 83. He's had it since it was new.

Click to expand...

i was referring to what i think is a typo in your writeup. it says you have a 1885 xj.

that's a pretty impressive story though.

I thought you made a typo :dunce: Since I never make mistakes

What would the CtoC distance of the LA be for 5-6" of lift. Im going to make LA's now & make them adjustable . Man your evil :gee: anyways this should be fun :woohoo:

Here is a link that should help.

http://www.ilovejeeps.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12524&highlight=control+arm+length

old man, is that for stock brackets? (referring to lengths chart) I would also like to know what you used for brackets for the LA's. One more thing, did you place the upper arms on the lower's like the re kit?

ooh, ooh! What length did you use and what size lift do you have? thankyou sir,
brad

I will need to measure the length. I really don't remember any more.

are those 8" skyjacker coils? thanks for the pics. looks really good. lookin forward to the review.

Actually they are the 6" coils. It works well.