Front Leafspring conversion and bumpstops

[mmmkay325]

I've done the leaf conversion on the front of my xj and interested in what you people are doing for bumpstops. I've got the 3.5" BDS leafs out of YJ and running a trackbar. The way it sitts now...it looks like I have very little room for bumpstops and unless I can get creative. Just wondering if anyone w/ leafs in the front have done any bumpstops up there. Thanks guys

 

[RyleyF]

Did you hack off the spring mounts from the body? The bumpstops that sit inside of the coil springs would work just fine if you extended them a little bit.

 

[mmmkay325]

yeah they are gone....because I moved the wheelbase forward....and those stock bumpstops hit nothing when I flexed.

 

[hellbilly04]

Use air bump stops. Fox makes some nice ones

 

[mmmkay325]

I guess what i"m trying to get at... is a location mounting point for the bump stops. For the traditional place of putting them so they hit a leafspring plate or the axle housing isn't going to work. On the Driver side my Trackbar bracket on the frame side is right above the diff housing. On the pass. side the track bar bracket on the axle housing is in the way. I was just wondering if people have come up with an alternative to these locations to mount a bump stop. If it helps i'm runnin' a hp 44 full width up front. Thanks again!!

 

[Onkover]

Might be able to come up with something if you post up a pic or two.. So we can see what you are working with.

 

[mmmkay325]

Yeah I know, I know, here I go trying to write a book with no pictures....lol. I'll make it easier and see if I can snap a few pics tonight....sorry about that guys.

 

[BrettM]

look closely and you can see what I did. I built bump-pads from the axle going up over the springs using 3/16 plate on top of tube. I started with the stock bumpstops, but sideloading them tore them up a bit and I used stock rear bumpstops instead, just welded them between the coil tower and the frame rail.

works great.

 

[tealcherokee]

for starters, ditch the track bar, youll have a ton of room then

 

[caglezxj]

no, track bar needed with leafs..... And get creative and build a bracket from the unibody above the spring u-bolt plate.

 

[yellowxj]

track bar is needed sometimes with leaves. Mine handled great on the highway with a quick disco trackbar. Mostly cause my shackle mounts werent perfect...off road it flexed great and was very stable/balanced....I never worried about bumpstops though...on a really hard bounce with the 36's on it would hit the wheel well once in a while.

 

[tealcherokee]

how can you say its needed when brett posted a pic of his a few posts up w/o one?

 

[mmmkay325]

I ran w/o a trackbar for 6months....now that I have one, I wouldn't go back. I had to much play in the steering on the road than I cared for. Now that I put one on my steering a lot more response and don't allow for much roll or lag I'd get when make quick turns. Anyways I like it and it works for me. But here's the pics....I like what Brett has done and that maybe what I need to do.

 

[xj_man_646]

The way i did it, was weld some square tubing to the unibody directly above my spring perches. they lined up this way because i used the stock LCA bracket location to mount my leaves. at the bottom of the tube is a poly bushing from a set of bumpstops for a CJ.

you can kinda see it here. its the red bushing, obviously right above the spring.

 

[xj_man_646]

oh yeah, and i run no panhard and its fine for me. the bushings in my springs are totally smoked, but once i replace the leaves after spring break, with some new bushings, it should handle much better.

my current leaves are also flat at static height, so my bumpstops are much shorter than normal, because i don't care about them (stock cj rear springs) and i let them invert all they want. i should lengthen them once i get new springs, but we'll see.

 

[HTeK]

I think you could whip something up pretty easy if you just got creative. Looks like you could build something off that trackbar bracket.

Doubt this helps, but for my front leafs I just threw mine together out of a little bit of plate, a little bit of tube, and some stock rear XJ bumpstops.

 

[yellowxj]

hey tealcherokee...I dont know what your experience is with SOA set ups but I've seen plenty that have shackles that sway alot thus reducing steering response...what works great off road feels like it has a dead spot on the road...my SOA scrambler is the same way...I didnt build that one but it has the same charactoristics as my xj did when it was soa. The trackbar I built came loose with the pull of a single pin and was strapped to the top of the axle during off road trips...it worked good at the time. I kinda wish I had kept the leaves and spent the money on upgrading steering/front axle instead of going back to coils...I enjoyed the balanced flex