Spring perch as adjustable bump-stop pad?

Here's my nutty idea of the week:

Rather than try to unbolt (and no doubt break off) the rear bump-stops on my 91 I am thinking of welding a new spring pad to the axle where the bump-stop contacts it. Before I put the pad on I will weld nuts into it so that I can tweak the bump-stop extension by bolting whatever thickness of metal I need onto the pad.

The only down side I can see is that It makes it hard to rotate the pinion if I do an SYE, but I really doubt I'll ever go to a CV shaft anyway.

Somebody sells a kit to do something similar, I just want to do it for cheap.


Thoughts?

edited...since i can't read...

get a SYE & a CV then do it 1 time instead of all of us on the board that does things over and over and over and over ok I cant stop myself here, alright back to the topic....Either do the cv and sye or do the bumpstop idea then cut/rewend it when you get a sye and cv


-Red

Couldn't you use a degree shim to make the surface level again after rotating for your SYE/CV setup? This would bring it level and then you could add whatever plates would be needed to bring it into contact with the bumpstop on compression.

What I did to accomodate the repositioned (raised for ground clearance) lower shock mounts and longer shocks was to fabricate a new spring pack clamping plate out of 1/2" plate with rounded triangles towards the differential and then install MJ 4.5" long bumpstops in place of the XJ factory originals....
What this accomplished was to have the bumpstops contact the spring plate instead of the axle tube. This allows the shock about 1" or so before they bottom out during compression.
This can be adjusted by installing space plates between the uni-frame and the bumpstop.

Charles

I did almost exactly like Charles did, For exactly the same reason. I needed extra bumpstop length because my shock mounts were cut short during the d44 install, So on top of the spring pack, I used a piece of the old bottom leaf (the one that is about 1ft long) I cut both ends off (one almost at the center hole, one farther out.) This left a spring about 8 inches long with a hole in one end, I added this to the top of the spring pack, aiming inward to the differintal. Then clamped the MJ top plate on end now My (MJ) bumpstops contact the sring/plate about 2in before they did.

I have since added even more bumpstop by drillin a small hole in the inboard end of the pad and screwing on a hockypuck on each side. More or less hocky pucks could be used for adjustment.

The best thing about this method, whether you use steel plate or the spring stock I did, is that it is always level with the body, no matter ho you axle is turned