Rusty's 6.5" Long Arm Help. Yes, I searched.

Hello to all!

I am brand spankin new to forums. First off I just want to say that this forum is AWESOME! I have found a new home to come to when it comes to XJ help and opinion. It seems very well maintained with a LOT of knowledgeable people. Anyways, on to my question.

I have purchased a Rusty's 6.5" Long Arm kit. I am waiting on several factors to install it; i.e. Install helper is at college and can't get in town for a while, saving for a SYE, have more tools to buy etc etc. I was going over the install instructions and came to a somewhat screeching halt when it said drill 4 holes (1" big heh) on the inside of the uni-frame. Drilling doesn't scare me, drilling into a car doesn't scare me... but the problem I ran into is drilling on the INSIDE of the uni-frame. This is only because I got up under my Jeep and looked. On the passenger side there is an exhaust tube in the way. On the drivers side, there is the front driveshaft, and the transfer case. I realize i can remove the transfer case and axle, but I'm looking for minimal work here hahaha. If ANYONE knows anything or has an ideas or suggestions or has the kit and installed it themselves, I would greatly greatly greatly appreciate feedback. The only idea I had was to get a long enough 1" hole saw, and drill a 1" hole through the outside all the way to the inside wall... But I'm somewhat amateur when it comes to mechanics.

Also, For those of you who have threads coming out of the uni-frame and securing the crossmember to the frame with a nut... I've read numerous write ups on those and what not and now know it's a threaded stud... but I was curious as to HOW you get penetrating oil up in there. People stated they soaked it in penetrating oil for a few days before and THEN tried to get it out. Just asking.

Once again Thank you very much for taking time to read this!

I have this set up... all I did was use an extension on the 1" hole saw and drilled all the way through from the outside. This will also help you line the hole up from outside to inside.

An extension? Could you take a picture of that or send a link? I saw black drill bits that fit inside the hole saw at home depot... but none of them mentioned anything about being an extension. Did you drill a 1" hole on the outside of the frame too?

Thanks!

The hole saws have a 1/4" hex drive (most of them anyway) this is typicaly what "drill drivers" use, use an extension from that set and there you go. as far as through both sides, I think thats what the instructions say (its been awhile).

No,the instructions say only to drill the inside of the frame.
http://www.rustysoffroad.com/instructions/605lt.pdf

Yeah. That's what I read with the instructions supplied with the kit. But without removing the exhaust, front driveshaft, trasnfer case et cetera; (and without a plasma cutter) the only alternative I could think of was to drill all the way through. Do you think a 1" hole on all the outsides will be much weaker than a 1/2" hole?

I found the extension that Brian was talking about and plan to use that unless anybody has any other suggestions. :-D

Did you have any other tricky parts with the lift itself? It says to use a sawzall to cut the control arm brackets off, but I looked at those. It seems like if you cut right on the strips of welded metal, there wouldn't be a problem. I'm not too worried about that. The only other part that i'm worried about is getting the darn threaded studs out of the frame haha.

Thanks

RCP Phx said:

No,the instructions say only to drill the inside of the frame.
http://www.rustysoffroad.com/instructions/605lt.pdf

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Those damned instructions wouldn't load on my work computer earlier..... I seem to remember using a couple extensions on that side, I even borrowed a right angle drill. good luck and let me know what you end up doing.

As for the studs you can double nut them, or weld a nut on.

can you get at it with a right angle drill and a short bit? Removing the drive shaft shouldn't be a big deal and lower the exhaust shouldn't be that hard either.

I suppose you probably could use a right angle drill for it with a shorter hole saw. Only problem is that I don't have access to one of those and I don't know anybody who does.

i just installed this kit on an XJ last weekend. why do you have to remove the driveshaft and exhaust? theres ton of room to do this without removing anything!

..... what year did you do it on hahaha!?

I have maybe... 2 inches in between the inside of the uniframe and the exhaust pipe, and maybe 3 on the drivers side between the driveshaft/transfer case and the uniframe. I can't fit a drill up in there at all!

BRIANHO13 said:

I have this set up... all I did was use an extension on the 1" hole saw and drilled all the way through from the outside. This will also help you line the hole up from outside to inside.

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I agree with BRIANHO13. I didn't go all the way through from the outside but it would have made things line up a bit easier.

it work for us. screw it and go from the outside, just make sure you dont cut the gas lines!

this probably won't help much but I used a plasma torch. Also, if you heat the studs a bit, they come right out. I actually just used mine. It makes it alot handier to line up the crossmember with the arms attached if you have to drop the tcase.

Yes, a plasma torch would be heavenly to use, seems like it would go a lot quicker that way. Unfortunetly, lack of knowledge and one kinda puts that idea away lol.

When you said heat the threads.... Just take a hairdryer to them or something? I got so frustrated trying to get them out one day I was wishing for a hand grenade. I'm sure that would have worked!

BRIANHO13 said:

weld a nut on.

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x2

not only does it allow you to use a socket, it also heats up the stud at the same time making removal easy

heh. Is it hard to learn how to weld? I don't have any experience in that at all. I called 4 wheel parts, and they said they'd charge me an hour worth of labor to get the flippin things out. I'm just really sketchy about taking some vice grips to them. I already tried screw extractors and I already tried the double nut thing. I was un-successful with both unfortunetly.

xj² said:

heh. Is it hard to learn how to weld? I don't have any experience in that at all. I called 4 wheel parts, and they said they'd charge me an hour worth of labor to get the flippin things out. I'm just really sketchy about taking some vice grips to them. I already tried screw extractors and I already tried the double nut thing. I was un-successful with both unfortunetly.

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how about you go to sears and get a stud remover? Also I think you get the reverse torx setup as IIRC there is the reverse torx head on top of the stud (the part that sticks out). The stud remover is about $15~$25 IIRC and the reverse torx setup is about $10 (both available @ sears, the latter they might have a hard time finding, but it's in their automotive tools section, and it's made by some company which name starts with an L).

xj² said:

heh. Is it hard to learn how to weld? I don't have any experience in that at all.

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practice practice practice maybe a class practice practice practice.......I might have missed one.

But as far as welding a nut on would be pretty easy.

There might be somone near you on this board that can help with the install.....ask for some help, you would probably be surprised, what kind of help you might be able to get.

Yeah, I'll definitely consider that. I think that I'm probably over-reacting and just asking so many questions that I can go into "battle" prepared lol. I'm sure it's not as difficult as I'm making it sound. Don't get me wrong, it won't be easy. I just like to get as much feedback and as much advice as I can so that I can make a decent decision ya know? Thanks for all your guys' help! I might go check out sears and their stud removers. I didn't have any idea those existed. :-/

Anybody that's read this live in colorado near the aurora area?