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My front frame hack up and rebuild

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so i got the front suspension just finished today. Still have to box those upper link mounts tho, and finish welding the insides of the upper mounts on the lower arms. But it is sitting on its own weight, and the trackbar was giving me fits so i cut it up some... It will work for now.

100_0945.jpg

100_0946.jpg

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As it sits now with the rear all up in the air.
100_0948.jpg

Uptravel is limited.
Oh and scored a custom hi steer arm for a rockwell off a guy over on pirate4x4.
RockwellHisteer005.jpg
 
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There really isn't a way to get a decent length on the trackbar with rockwells huh? Links look alot more level with the vehicle's weight on it. Looking good
 
whitneyj said:
There really isn't a way to get a decent length on the trackbar with rockwells huh? Links look alot more level with the vehicle's weight on it. Looking good
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That, and it's on the oppisite side of the frame if he plans on using any version of steering other than full hydro.
 
EDIT-- crap. Now i realize why the tracbar goes on the same side as the steering.... Damnit. Will have to cut that mount off and put it on the pass side axle tube. Oh well you live and learn, Im just glad folks are around to school me on my screw-ups!:looney:

And i am goin to be using hydro assist steering, a yj box tapped and a small ram.

And that tracbar was angering me so i just cut it up and slapped it home. I will make a nice one after i get this thing moving around. This one is kinda temporary. --EDIT (Obviously more temporary than i had figured):looser:
 
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Looks like it's really coming along but I have to ask what are you going to do to hold the top of those coils in place?
 
Justpunchit said:
Looks like it's really coming along but I have to ask what are you going to do to hold the top of those coils in place?
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put the factory upper spring seats in. I cut them out of my inner fenders. Havent cleaned them up to weld them in place yet. I'm also goin to find a piece of like 1/4" round stock and make some loops to weld on the spring cups to act like coil retainers.

Oh and i just ordered some 3/4" heim joints , tube adapters, and 3 foot of 1 1/4 1/8" thick DOM to make a tracbar with. And will put it on the correct side!! HA. Im retarded... Well not really just a novice fabricator i guess....
 
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With the weight of a rockwell I'd have ordered alot thicker DOM for the trackbar. That's alot of weight to sling around. There's guys on the forum that've bent that with a d30.
 
.120 wall is not going to cut it. With that axle, I'm not sure .250 will hold that baby in place, off-road; although a 1/4 wall may be OK with full hydro steering.
 
Well i decided to not get the tube, i got some 1.25" 1/8"thick pipe and i will sleeve some 1 1/4" schd 40 over it. So that will make it 1/4" thick.

And i went to the pull a part today and scored an xj steering shaft for $8 (i will be cutting it up to lengthen mine)and a lincoln mark eight 2-speed fan for $30. Supposedly those mark 8 fans are badass. Now i got to figure out where to get big enough amp relays to run the thing. I know with the taurus fans you have to use 10 gauge wire and heavy relay or solenoid. Any recommendations??
 
_MURDERED OUT_ said:
And i went to the pull a part today and scored an xj steering shaft for $8 (i will be cutting it up to lengthen mine)and a lincoln mark eight 2-speed fan for $30. Supposedly those mark 8 fans are badass. Now i got to figure out where to get big enough amp relays to run the thing. I know with the taurus fans you have to use 10 gauge wire and heavy relay or solenoid. Any recommendations??
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Heavy duty relays are sometimes called "contactors", you could try searching for that. But I doubt if you really need something like that. Good Bosch style relays go up to 30 amps, which is a lot of amps, 360+ watts. You could also run two in parallel. Thats a pretty heavy load on an alternator. 10 gauge wire isn't really that heavy, I use 8 on my ham radios to avoid voltage drop along it. On our electric car we used 0/2 welding cable :D Also check out your battery cables, those are what, 6 gauge? Although for sourcing locally, I think 12 gauge is the heaviest you can get at Radio Shack. Car parts store might have heavier.

This rig is going to be badass if it doesn't fold like a taco !!!1
 
n1ywb said:
Good Bosch style relays go up to 30 amps, which is a lot of amps, 360+ watts. You could also run two in parallel. Thats a pretty heavy load on an alternator.
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No, you can't run 2 in parallel. I have a molten blob of black plastic and wire that was once 2 - 30 amp relays that decided to become one when running a two speed taurus fan.
 
n1ywb said:
This rig is going to be badass if it doesn't fold like a taco !!!1
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HA, i assure you its not goin to fold like a taco...

And i'm looking at buying a stinger brand 80 amp relay. Looks like a typical starter solenoid but continuous duty rated. So it says... Is only $18.
 
isnt your trackbar(before you decided to relocate) a "panhard" bar if its opposite the draglink? i dunno. im hoping your rig is safe becuase i figured for every one of you that knows how to use a computer theres probably 20 more that dont, which means there might be rigs like this on the road in places where people like you live. and maybe even where i live. which scares me. it seems that if jeep took so much time to engineer the unibody and you just hacked it up and added 2x4 after plating it, it seems like without researching it, well its just unsafe. it seems your weak point is where the 2x4 meets the old unibody frame. ive seen the xj pics of a guy who welded and bolted an entire unibody frame to a ram charger frame. could that be safer, cheaper, stronger and easier for you? i dunno. now if youre a mechanical engineer and thoroughly researched this im very sorry, im not one myself, im a mathematician and an economist with degree's, but logically it seems there are serious weak points. so maybe this is perfectly safe. id just hate to see laws passed that prevented people from working on their own vehicle due to the increase of seemingly unsafe stuff like this causing terrible accidents etc. just trailer it so we can all sleep better. all that shit to the side this is a cool and interesting build and i hope it ends up being safe and streetable in the long run cuz who wouldnt want the xj frame to be stronger? keep it going i guess.
 
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