2X4 frame for my CJ2A

I had not planned on a tie rod flip. I did that on a D25 and I wasn't happy with it. There were other issues too. I know I could have used inserts and welded them in, but since the knuckles are cast, I was concerned about the welds cracking. I think If I were to do the tie rod flip, I would just go high steer knuckles. For what I do though, this should be fine. I do want to make a drag link out of DOM to get rid of that junky split adjuster sleeve. It just isn't very strong. When fully tightened I can grab it and make it move. I will do that when this project is done.

I have a piece of 3 inch or so tube that is going to be used for the steering shaft. That should allow all kinds of movement, that is if I have the right hole saw to kill. I did a half moon on the old setup and that worked well. I will get that jack out from under the trans crossmember and let it all sit down and take a look.

The turning radius with the d25 and 31 10.50x15s was bad too. This was better when I went to a d30 then I went to those big tires because it was basically the same price as 33's and got bad turning again. If I could get affordable 35's that were 9.5 inches wide I would be happy. Interco doesn't let their tires go cheap, so these are what I got. Costco!!

Thanks a lot guys!

 

Clamped the trans crossmember to the frame and dropped that jack down to see how it sits. The body is sitting on the frame, but no fenders, rad, hood etc. Should be close to where it will sit.


I think I am going to tack the mount, cut out the tacks on that crossmember and cut that steering shaft hole.

 

The Gear box looks OK at that height tucked in behind the bumper in the last picture...........and I would do the flip..........getting the tie rod up out of harms way and getting a little better angle or no angle on the Drag Link is a plus............Welding a tack on each corner of those inserts is no big issue. I've welded on those spindles many times before...........before you get to far along I would weigh that down with some sand bags.........that steering input shaft should also be angled towards the column at the firewall......you may then only need 1 u-joint.

For those U-Bolts hanging down I do have 2 sets of U-bolt flip kits here for the YJ springs........if your interested.

 

I laid out the steering shaft from the column to the box and its all in line. Mission creep is already in full force on this project, so I will wait to do the flip for another time. Why were the tie rods put in that way anyway? Seems counter intuitive but whatever.

This is my old crossmember I made. Not using it of course.

This is my new one. The piece of round tube I had was 1/4 wall but was about 3 3/8 OD and my biggest hole saw around that size is 3". I had to cut a section out of the tube to get it to fit. It was ugly and kind of a PITA. I would have made it pretty, but it was too ugly to start, so it got MIG welded and ground flush then blended with a flap disk.

 

I think the front drag link being angled down a bit as seen in pic is a good thing.
That angle is very mild.
Think about what's going to happen if the left front tire starts to climb up a big rock.
The drag link will already be angled up and away from that rock as the tie rod begins to angle that same direction.

Besides later on if you decide to do a draglink flip at the knuckle then the drag link will near flat level.

 

This is as close to a garage as I can get. Looking to get as much as 10 inches on saturday, not including the rain we got yesterday and will get today and tomorrow. The only reason I built the pergola was to drive my jeep under something, so to that end I screwed up corrugated clear plastic to the underside. Just looks like a decorative pergola. Today it looks like a plastic shack. There is no rain falling inside though. Wonder if my wife will notice...

 

Ugh. I'm so envious. Send that rain our way. 10" of precip is almost our annual total. We're as dry as a popcorn fart.

Just spray paint "I love you honey!" on the plastic. How could she get irritated then?

 

Bwahahhahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That kills me!

I remocked, yes i said that, the steering gear, crossmember and steering shaft. To get it right, I had to tilt the gear up toward the column a quarter inch and raise it about an eighth.clears everything just fine including that motor mount. There is another universal right behind the hole in the crossmember. I am happy I didn't go with the 1.5 inch pipe for the hole. Its really amazing how great the plastic tent is. I better like it because i might have to live in it for a little bit.

 

I have 2 universals. I made my spud shaft and its not perfectly straight and my front frame horn on my old frame was bent out of square 1/2 inch, so it got a universal. My steering shaft needs to be longer, so I will be redoing it and I will fix that.

Took me 5 hours so far to drill the holes for the top 2 bolts for the saginaw box, make spacers and weld it up. I drilled the holes in the frame to 3/4 inch because I had a piece of 3/4 round stock.

I tried to use a drill guide to make a straight hole. Didn't work, so I had to egg it out a bit.

Bolted the bottom 2 bolts through the plate and into the saginaw box to locate the spacers I made and the top bolts that go through the frame.

welded both sides and blended with flap disk.


my plastic tent is amazing

 

Wait till the sun comes out and turns it into a greenhouse!

Nice work.

 

Even though the residents of D.C. legalized weed, congress says no, so no growing anything in my plastic jeep shack!

Had to cut off the old grill supports because they were too short with the 1.25 inch body lift I am going to run. I like to check the fitment of the hood and grill. On my last set up the hood did not overhang the grill on one side. That irritated me to no end. I want to make sure I do not repeat the basic fitment issues. check and re check. It looks like the engine sits low. It is as high as I can go without cutting a hole in the hood. It is the same level as it was before.


Thanks for the compliments and adding to my thread guys. Your input is greatly appreciated!

 

Trying to place my shock mounts. Saw that Tarry99 was selling these ford mounts and missed out, so I bought my own. They aren't particularly expensive.


I am wondering, should I mount these directly over the axle or go over the spring plate where there is a bolt for this purpose. It would be easy to weld on some ears for the shock. The travel is pretty long with these ford mounts

 

Location is judged by travel distance vs. shock length. If you need the extra room, go low.

I always make my lower shock mount with the mount (eyelet) going front to back. It allows the mount to pivot in a much more natural motion when the axle articulates, as opposed to forcing the rubber bushing to take up all the twisting motions.

 

yeah, i thought about that, looked at the shackles, saw that they go front to back and wanted to do that with the shock eyes too. What I have is the wrangler shocks that came with the lift kit. I welded on a heim joint for an application that, at the time, didn't work.

As I mocked it up, I see that with the shocks I have will work better if I lower the mount slightly and use the bottom spring plate mount. I don't want the full droop to be stopped by the travel of the shock, so I have a bit more travel even with full droop.


This is approximate ride height. It will come down slightly fully assembled.


As you can see the shock angles out slightly with these mounts. What is the consensus on this set up? I know some of you have used this exact bracket.

 

Those Ford Truck mounts don't necessarily work for every application........and with the tight area you seem to have up front they may not work at all at there current length.
You should first load your suspension with the correct weight and jack up the axle to full compression or Bump and then jack up the chassis and let the axle hang to full Droop. Measure the distance between and then buy a shock length that doesn't restrict that movement up/down.........mount it where it needs to go...........mounting the top of the shock at a slight angle towards the rear is fine as long as it does not come in contact with the tire when you turn. Most times bottom brackets welded off of the rear side of the axle are better than the stock stud off of the bottom spring plate........again caliper clearance and other clearance factors need to be looked at.

 

Dont admire my inability to sit still. Another thing is that once you start, you can't really stop if you want to drive your jeep. Its not really any different than your brake job, just a bit more involved. There are also a bunch of things that worked but poorly and I hated. This time around i want to make it better. Some things I don't care about like perfect paint, but i want to be able to use this frame for the next 20 years. Maybe someday i will want an LS engine with a TH700R4 with coil overs or some nonsense.

In full droop I have about 1" more travel to full extension for this shock. The top pic has a jack under the frame rail and the tire spins free. The bottom pic is close to ride height. I will load up the frame with a couple hundred LBS and jack it up to see how it articulates. These springs will never see flat, loads of arch. I could cut that bracket on the back side where it attaches to the frame and lessen the angle to make that shock a bit straighter. I think it will work at least as good as the last set up I had and probably better, but thats not saying much.

 

milled off some of the angle so the shock tower doesn't stick out toward the tire so far.