Outboarding springs question

If this needs to be moved, please do so.

OK, I'm finally gettting around to outboarding the J truck axles on the CJ frame. Orgional plan was to bolt everything on so I can eaislly remove it if I ever wanted to.

SO I'm working on it today. Here is a couple picts of the front. Each one was going to have 3 bolts on the bottom, and two on the side. One I started fabbing, I realized I could not bolt on the top of the frame due to me leaving the rivit on the bottom.




I could remove the rivit and just bolt it on.

THen it occured to me. I can not come up with a way to bolt on the rear spring hanger (also doing a shackle reversal). I guess I have to weld that on. And If I'm welding the rear, I might as well weld the front.

So can anyone figure out a way to bolt the front axle, rear outboard spring hangers on? Or do I just weld everything up?


Also, since I'm doing a shackle reversal, I swaped my springs around. Then I measured and figured the center pin is not in the center. By turning the springs around, I have moved the front axle forward a little bit.

So far, I think the axle, with the shackle reversal and moving whole spring mounting points as far forward as I could and stay on the frame, I think the axle is about 2 inches forward from stock. Any one see any real problems or issues witt this?

And I guess I'm about to start a build thread........finally.

 

Builds and Fabrication......never thought of that. He he.

I swaped the springs around to move the front axle forward. I'm going to run 39-42" tires and I want to keep them out of the back of the fenders. And I don't like the look of jeeps where the front tires sit far back in the fender wells.

They are 4" lift Superlift softride springs. If I measure from the centering pin to the center of the spring eye where the shackle is is 23.5, from the centering pin to the larger eye that bolts into the bucket it's 22.5. If I rember correctly from measuring just now to walking in and typing.

 

Patrick, they are actually 76 or later springs. Came off a CJ7 I believe. I'm putting them on an 8 frame. But a 6 tub will set on the 8 frame......

 

Awesome, I need to look into this as well. I would like to eventually use waggy axles on my CJ. On my YJ the waggy axle pads were only about an inch wider than the stock axles. But the CJ is totally different. I did snag some stock YJ leaf's to use spring over. I also have some Johnny joints for a rear anti wrap bar of some sort.

Also, moving the axle forward by flipping the springs is a pretty common practice, I can't see any issues, especially since you went shackle reverse at the same time.

Are you going spring over?

 

Build a front bumper out of, say 4x4 box tube, anything can be used but 4x4 will give you a nice flat surface on the bottom. Mount this 4x4 to your frame using plates that run back, similar to a bumper but stronger. Then mount whatever kind of spring mounts you want.
Personally I think it needs to be attached with quality welds but that is your call.

You can always buy a kit, or at least use it for inspration.

http://bluetorchfab.com/store/index.php?cPath=26

 

Good idea - that can really stretch the wheel base without looking too funny, and a nice wide area for a winch.

 

The soft rides are just that, very soft. plan on adding another leaf to each pack or they will go very flat in a spring over. You shouldn't need to outboard the rear springs, just weld on new perches on the rear axle. Buy a set of the anti wrap parches that are longer than stock. Also get a traction bar on order or you will be replacing ujoints on a regular basis.

 

If you buy the heavy duty steering box mount (like this http://store.4wheelingplus.com/proddetail.asp?prod=18003.10&cat=202 ), some of the mounts can move your steering box forward about an inch. This will allow the front axle to moved 2" (maybe 2.5") forward, much more and the tie rod start causing problems.

Also if you are doing a spring over, don't go cheep on the steering, put high steer arms on ( http://www.sky-manufacturing.com/new/detaproduct.php?id=67 ) these tall ones will allow clearance for the tie rod over the springs.

Note, these parts links are just ones I happen to know, but I do like 4wheeling plus because he does wheel and supports a lot of wheeling events in the PNW.

 

Got the high steer arms, good idea with the steering box though to keep things in order with the stretched axle.