axle wrap and RE1462 leafs

anyone else got this problem? On our last wheelin' trip a friend of mine said he noticed a lot of axle wrap as I was trying to climb up a ledge. So, the other night I had Jennifer hop in the XJ and gas it from a stand still while I watched the back axle from the side. Daaamn... that pinion rolled up and looked like it was pointing at the bottom of the back seat! Definitely not good. And these dang leafs aren't even a year old yet! :naw:

So, what are my options here? Traction bar? New leafs? Rebuild my current leafs? Convert to coils, haha!?

I'm kinda leaning towards a traction bar as that seems to be the "best" solution, but the only traction bar "kits" I know of are from MORE and Sams OffRoad, but both are about as expensive as buying new leafs from RE, and those kits look too short for an XJ anyway. So who all actually has a traction bar on their XJ, got pics?

btw, searching right now... :jester:

try longer spring perches

Kejtar

Kejtar said:

try longer spring perches

Kejtar

Click to expand...

Hmm, hadn't thought about that. The perches on my XJ D44 are pretty tiny...


The search on here yielded some good info/threads, I'm still hoping to see more pics though... Also, I seem to remember a thread long ago about a guy that put on a traction bar, only to have the mounts on the axle tube rip open the housing... borton, was that you?

So has anyone had problems with the axle housing due to a traction bar? I think that's really my main concern.

i had the same problem with my old d44. the perches were tiny. kept breaking centering pins if i used steel shims and if i used aluminum shims they would break. i got some re anti-wrap perches on the new rear axle, although it really hasnt been wheeled much since that, i do hammer down a lot and the perches help a pretty good amount.

Hunter

Jeepin Jason said:

Also, I seem to remember a thread long ago about a guy that put on a traction bar, only to have the mounts on the axle tube rip open the housing... borton, was that you?

So has anyone had problems with the axle housing due to a traction bar? I think that's really my main concern.

Click to expand...

That was CRASH. Also, on our Rusty Nail run in Moab he spun an axle tube and broke the driveshaft end yoke, further results of the added stress of the traction bar. Take the stress out of one area and add it to the next, not to say a traction bar(anti-wrap bar) is a bad idea but you have to think of the results when executing your idea. The simple fact is leaf springs wrap when under load but I don't think it's really a problem untill you get into the big rocks with big tires.
Here's a pic of his setup...


Jes

Why are the D44 perches smaller? Were the springs a different width in '87-'89?

BillR said:

Why are the D44 perches smaller? Were the springs a different width in '87-'89?

Click to expand...

The perches are the same width, they're just not a long as those on a D35 (though I bent the perches on my D35...). The D44 mounts are cast pieces, and barely longer than the axle tube itself.

I think my first pass may be to add a leaf to my spring packs to beef them up a bit, and replace the factory perches with some of MORE's anti-wrap ones.



I've been wanting to redo the perches anyway so I don't have to use shims to correct my pinion angle.

If that doesn't help as much as I'd like, then I guess it's traction bar time.

Jes, thanks for the info and pic. Do you know of anyone else that's had a problem with their traction bar damaging the housing? Just wondering how much of a concern it really is.

Jeepin Jason said:

The perches are the same width, they're just not a long as those on a D35 (though I bent the perches on my D35...). The D44 mounts are cast pieces, and barely longer than the axle tube itself.

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That's interesting...
The "35" has thinner tubes and a longer perch??
"What were they thinking..."

I have one on my 9". It's been in there over a year with no problems.

re has the same anti wrap perches for cheaper if your interested in going that route.

Hunter

Hunter-Lynchburg said:

re has the same anti wrap perches for cheaper if your interested in going that route.

Hunter

Click to expand...

Yeah I know (we're RE dealers) I've actually got a set of those perches at home (what I'd originally planned to use), but they aren't as long as the ones from MORE (RE's are 6" long vs MORE's 7"), although RE's do look taller, which was something I liked... I don't know how much difference it would make being 6" long vs 7" though...

edit: The MORE perches also come sized for specific axle tube DIA's, wereas RE's are "universal". I'll have to see how well the RE perches fit my XJ D44 when I get home...

The perches may help, but probably not much. I think the wrap is one of the main reasons XJ springs seem to wear out every couple of years, and wrap also makes hopping worse which can lead to carnage.

I also no a buddy that routinely breaks u-joints because his wrap is so bad in his wrangler.

I run a traction bar similar to Andys. I think its the easiest most effective way to control the wrap, and it helps protect the DS to boot. If you use an 8.8 you need to weld the housing to the tube all the way around. In response to the tube tearing just make sure that the rotational force is spread over a reasonable area. Andys bracket did not have a bottom on it around the tube, so all the rotational force was applied to the thickness of the material and weld so probably about .5 inches total.

Also on Andys spun tube, he was climbing slickrock which has a nasty habit of letting you halfway up and sliding you back down on your butt. I heard this is what happened essentially the clutch was engaged and it slid back down and put nearlly all the weight on the rearend at once, this would of busted both shafts in a dana 44

Ladder style bars are pretty simple to design, just build an "A" and lay it on it's side. I built mine almost a year ago. The bigger problem is how to attach to the chassis. That kept me from installing the finished traction bar for almost a year.

Just the past few weeks, I finally got around to finalizing a design for the bracket and building it. I ran it unpainted for a few days to prove out the design. Now it's off for paint and a little undercoating. You can see how it attaches against the floor under the rear seat foot-well. To spread the load, it grabs the frame rail and curves up the driveshaft tunnel. Both ends of the shackle have rubber bushings to hold down NVH as does one of the axle end joints. The other is a hiem for pinion angle adjustment.

Seems to work quite well. I use to have some spring wrap taking off in 1st gear on the street, but my biggest concern was saving the rear u-joint when bouncing around in rocks, roots and such.



and the traction bar for those who haven't seen it before

MaXJohnson said:

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Holy cow!! That's a heck of a bracket! If was thinking that if I did end up building a traction bar, I'd just mount the front to my t'case skid from Rusty's OffRoad. I don't think the extra length would cause that much of a problem, and it seems some other folks have run traction bars that far forward as well. Definitely a good idea of having one of the arms of the bar being adjustable to help account for pinion angle, I hadn't thought about that yet.

BTW, where did you get the brackets you welded to the axle housing?

Short term I'm going to canabalize a spare set of 1462's I've got in the garage and cut up the main leafs to make full length 2nd leafs to go on the packs on my XJ right now. That should help beef up the springs and net me a bit more lift too, which I've been wanting anyway (keeps me from adding some 1" blocks).

I've had the axle brackets laying around for some time before finally starting this project so I can't say for sure, but A&A mfg is where I get most of the pre-cut brackets and gussets. Otherwise it would have been Midwest Motor Sports in KC Ks.

A&A mfg rocks

dig it! for future reference: A&A's website and online catalog/store: http://www.aa-mfg.com/pdshop/shop/ (gotta love google!!)

Nice work Max. By putting the shackle mount under the rear seat area, I'm assuming it is fairly close to the front eye of the leaf spring. How is that mount holding up being bolted to the floor? How much ground clearance did you lose? It looks like it hangs down pretty low.
The fab works looks nice.

Spring perches

I used the RE ones for SOA on my MJ, then used MORE when I converted the same axe over to XJ specs.

I never had any 'bad' issues with the RE, but the MORE are quite a bit beefier, longer, seem to sit higher on the tube than the RE, and they have the 3 'wheelbase' pin holes (if one needs to shift axle fwd or rwd)

I'd spend the little bit extra for MORE when I build another axle...

flexj said:

By putting the shackle mount under the rear seat area, I'm assuming it is fairly close to the front eye of the leaf spring.
How is that mount holding up being bolted to the floor?
How much ground clearance did you lose? It looks like it hangs down pretty low.

Click to expand...

The shackle mount is under the rear passenger floor, forward of the seat and about 12" forward of the spring eye. Using a shackle eliminates the need to locate the forward pivot in-line with the spring eye.

Having driven a 1,000 miles or so after the install, the mounting scheme is working out fine. Just missed getting it installed in time for a wheeling trip to Joplin Missouri so no off-road time yet. No signs of stress or fatigue anywhere. When mounting to a uni-body structure, you need to spread the load. My bracket grabs the frame rail and the vertical part of the driveline tunnel as well as a wide area of the floor so I don't expect any problems.

The bottom of the forward bushing doesn't hang as low as my transfercase skid which is flush with the stock crossmember. I purposely built the lower part of the arm with rock rash in mind. You could invert the shackle which would allow the traction bar to be several inches higher, but then the bracket would still be as low, if not lower. If I built another one, I would probably add a slight dog leg to the lower part of the arm for added clearance.

The black on the bracket is undercoat. I sprayed all upper and forward facing surfaces and let it dry for a couple of days before the final install.