Frame stiffeners with an RC crossmember?

[Bjorn86]

That doesn't look like the rear of the HDO stiffeners, unless they changed their design recently. What does the other end look like? No offense, but is it possible you put them on backwards? I don't know if that's even possible, but the rear end of my HDO mids didn't have this issue.

 

[travisk]

No offense, but is it possible you put them on backwards?

Yep. There were no instructions so I found a picture online where they happened to be backwards.

This should be a little bit easier now. Glad I asked. Thanks.

 

[CAPE83]

When I installed my ruffstuff stiffeners and RC longarm kit I just welded the support in. If you dont have any big c-clamps, you might wanna look into it if you have problems. They saved me a bunch of time and trouble on mine. Yours look a bit easier to install than mine though. As for the tie-ins for the bumper, my advice is yes.

 

[travisk]

For what it's worth, I've had to drill quite a few new holes in these stiffeners to make them work with the RC long arm kit, including:

Drill a hole for the frontmost of the three crossmember bolts (no idea why that hole is not included)
Drill holes for both of the side bolts on each side
Drill and jig saw the slanted openings to match the existing frame for insertion of the nutserts.

That's not even the ugly side.

 

[CAPE83]

Ewww, I definitely skipped that step. Instructions to me are just a manufacture's opinion, haha. I tried to use bolts but couldn't get it to work. I just welded the crossmember into the stiffener. Then I welded the sliders to the stiffeners. Its pretty solid now.

 

[travisk]

I just welded the crossmember into the stiffener.

So... what do you do if you need to get to the transfer case or the transmission?

 

[CAPE83]

I bolt the transfer skid to the crossmember as intended from RC. I have pulled the transfer case already to fix a leak. It came out pretty easy considering. The tranny just comes out with the engine as one piece. You just remove the tranny by separating the lower tranny mount from the crossmember itself and lift off. It worked for me after a bit of finesse. Its a little bit more work but then again Im not pulling out trannies every weekend or year for that matter. To each his own is what I say. Just sharing what I did.

 

[travisk]

Moving along quite slowly, but I'll post pictures now that I'm almost done so you can tell me everything I did wrong.

Feel free to make fun of my welds, but it was my first time welding, and it was with a 110v flux core outside in the dark.

Cleaned off all of the paint and undercoating with flap disks. I stripped the entire frame rail where the mid stiffeners go, but the it was easy enough to just mark an outline for the front stiffeners and only remove what's necessary.

I hit the bare frame rails and the inside of the stiffeners with a very light coat of galvanized weld-through primer, thinking I might be able to prevent a little bit of rust behind the plating.

Clamps and jacks everywhere to tack things in place.

Time to start welding. I get a little better with each completed piece. I won't even show you the really ugly ones. The plug welds will get smoothed out with a flap disk when I'm done. It turns out to be a fun way to learn how to weld in all sorts of awkward positions.

I hope to finish the rest this weekend. Then I will start trying to figure out how to fit the crossmember and track bar mount back onto a thicker frame.

 

[rockclimber]

doesn't look horrible.

little bit of flap disk, a wire brush to clean off the flux, and some black rattle can. they'll look fine.

 

[travisk]

I don't like how short the crossmember stud is. Can I pull it out and replace it with a 10mm bolt?

 

[rockclimber]

yes.

 

[Mach2nh]

That's what the instructions say to do.

 

[travisk]

Wait, there are instructions?

 

[Mach2nh]

If you fully weld the Rosetta holes and flapper sand them down flush then its not bad looking after.

 

[CAPE83]

Looks good man, keep at it. For a first timer those welds are not bad at all. You will be happy with the resulting ride and overall "solid" feel the stiffeners give the ol' XJ. I noticed right off the bat.

 

[travisk]

Wow. I used undercoat on mine and looks much better, but nowhere as clean as yours. Nice job.

What did you do with the parking brake bracket? I was just going to weld it back to the frame since the bolt holes got covered up.

If you fully weld the Rosetta holes and flapper sand them down flush then its not bad looking after.

 

[Mach2nh]

Its an auto so i don't have a need for it really. But i did keep it all so i could just make up a mount that would place it on the inside up high and not have it in the way of the trail any. Never liked the mounting of it.

 

[rockclimber]

Drill and tap.

 

[travisk]

Oops. Did I install the brake line clips too close to the shocks? Or should I just run it and see what happens?

 

[Mach2nh]

Way to close by the looks of it. With long arms the shock wont move back very much but it will hit that mount.