Picked Up A 71 For A Buddy Of Mine......

Wow. Amazing how fast you’ve gotten this back together. I’m sure your buddy would be absolutely over the moon to see this coming together! You’re a good dude and a good friend. Tip of the cap, sir!

 

Thanks for the compliments guys!
I am enjoying slapping this thing together, but man it is getting tiresome working at this pace......

 

Hang in there the reward will be in the stars above the trail.

 

A couple small adjustments were made to the shock towers before final welding.
I ended up tipping the upper mounts out just a couple degrees for clearance when fully stuffed. The left front lower shock mount at the spring under plate was cut off and relocated 1/4" further out as well.
Back out to the forklift flex we go.....

Full droop is max extension on the front shocks.






Full stuff is within 1/4" of max compression on the shock.
These shocks have a 9.88" stroke, I am using 9.5" of that stroke!!!
Some cushy XJ bump stops will be in order.





Back on jack stands for final shock tower welding.
An 1/8" plate gusset was added to the front side of both shock towers.
Brake line tabs were welded on and old shock mounts were lopped off the frame.
Of course a good sloppy coat of paint was applied. Something did not jive with the paint and it wrinkled up on the passenger side......Perhaps I forgot to wipe that side down with lacquer thinner before painting.....





This looks so much cleaner with the old shock bracket gone!
The drivers side shock tower gusset tucks behind the inner fender well.






While that paint dried I hopped over to the ram assist steering.
Hydraulic hoses were installed and routed at full droop.

 

Pulled up the pictures from the original flex test that was done when the Rocky Road kit was installed.
I took pictures in the same location with the same stance to show before and after..... wow how this jeep has been beat up since then......
The tire size and springs are the same, only difference is proper located spring mounts and shackle lengths.


Rocky Road before........



After fixing Rocky Road.....




Rocky Road before.......





After fixing Rocky Road......




If you look at the font leaf springs in the before and after photos, you can see in the before pictures that the leaf spring retains it's basic resting arc when fully loaded with vehicle weight. There is very little shackle angle even when fully loaded. The front shackle hanger location is too far forward from the fixed eye and the shackle is too short to allow the spring to flatten out/lengthen.

Looking at the after photos you can see that the leaf spring is almost flat, but retains a very small amount of arc when fully loaded. The shackle angle is indicating that the leaf spring was able to flatten out and the eye to eye length is longer than at rest.

At one point I felt that the Rocky Road YJ spring kit was a good bolt in option for someone who had limited tools/shop experience, I can no longer do that.
Improper bushings, crooked built brackets, downright wrong spring eye locations, 9/16" bolt sleeves with 1/2" bolts and 1/2" holes in shackles, poor shackle angles.....
What Rocky Road sells is not a kit, its a mess of expensive parts that will not work properly if you install them in the manner that Rocky Road tells you too.
Going forward I would recommend the BDS springs for a bolt on option. Many members here enjoy the ride quality and flex achieved with bolt in springs from BDS.
If a jeeper want's to get into YJ springs they are better off purchasing brackets from Ruff Stuff, WFO, Barnes 4wd, TMR customs..... ect. and doing the job right the first time.

 

To answer the question directly, and keep Kyle focused on the task at hand. the ram with power steering eliminates the traditional dampener.
A traditional steering dampener is a self contained piston with valves for resistance.
The ram is a piston with remote valves that only allow movement in conjunction with the steering box. The finned can is the steering fluid cooler.

My personal opinion on the manual Saginaw with electric assist is it would be simpler to swap to a power box with engine driven pump and you can tap and plug the box for ram assist later. If they make a 4x4 prius on 35s I might consider it's components but it's only advantage is not needing fluid. The biggest advantage of a hydraulic system is it's ability to sustain a stationary load and not overheat any individual component. The fluid moves the heat and keeps everything happy.

 

Wow! Good job on fixing the RR. That gets you some nice flex. How does it compare to your jeep?

 

Yes, but as we say around here, Dr. Rubicon is calling....

 

Not much to show from last nights work.
Brakes are bled..... the rear drums fought me quite a bit and really hindered progress to say the least! I picked up new bleeder screws in anticipation of the "beach adventures" continuing to haunt me..... Front brakes went great, required a vise grip to remove... but no biggie.
The drivers rear snapped off...... These wheel cylinders were replaced back when we first got the jeep on the road..... and have little use since that time....
I welded a nut on the bleeder screw as I swore at Steve..... the bleeder screw came right out with a 9/16 wrench and a 3/8" nut on it.
Passenger side didn't want to cooperate... so the welder was employed simply to make life easier.
The brakes were bled until clean fluid came out of each corner, it's nice to check that off the list!

Big thank you to Supertrooper for sending me an old set of HD diff covers!

 

The spring brackets build about 1-1/2" more lift than the brackets I used. This jeep flexes probably 2" more than mine does.

 

Worked on lot's of little things last night. I got a bit of a late start working on the actual jeep.... but I was late because I was doing jeep work!
Steve's wife finally found the title!!!!
It was delivered yesterday afternoon; signed off and ready to transfer. After work I went straight to the DMV and picked up new registration/plates!




Nutserts were installed in the rear tire carrier to mount the license plate under the spare tire. High enough that it will not hit anything, low enough to be seen by LE.




Since I was working in that area I replaced the bashed and broken taillight with one from Steve's inventory. This afternoon's project will be verifying that all lights work and function properly.
While digging through the tubs of parts, looking for the taillight, I came across this throttle pedal. Perfect little 10 minute project that made a major improvement.





Couple nutserts crimped into the floorboard.





Just like that!!!! We got a skinny pedal!





I spent the rest of the evening buttoning up the bolt in floor sections and installing adel clamps on various sections of wiring. The ECM harness plugs are hanging down because I have the ecm removed for welding...... LIL gun shy after toasting one on my jeep. The only welding I have left will be the axle tabs for the sway bar, which hopefully will arrive before the weekend.
My shop is a complete disaster..... grinding dust, oil soaked sawdust, metal shavings..... you know that feeling like everything is getting you dirty..... Tonight might just be dedicated to shop clean up.
Some critical parts are due to show up today and tomorrow, the plan is to be driving this thing by the end of the weekend.

 

Looks like a stock Willys' gas pedal(?)
Maybe a pic of your linkage por favor?

Late add edit: Just amazing how much you get done in the short time you've had this thing. Impressive to say the least.

 

That is really all the linkage. Just the stock v6 CJ linkage and the pedal.
I appreciate the compliment, I have been putting allot of other things off in order to get this thing done.

 

I've got that style linkage drawn here, it looks like that jeep originally had the hanging pedal. The only difference is the last bend at the pedal has a 45 and a set screw dimple for hanging pedal where as the floor pedal gets a 90 with a shorter rounded end for the pedal to push against.

There is a firewall bracket currently in the classifieds.

http://www.earlycj5.com/xf_cj5/index.php?resources/13/

 

Adams Driveshaft in Henderson Nevada is the best!
I ordered these drive shafts on Monday, they custom made em' and shipped on Tuesday.... I got them Thursday! This is the third purchase I have made from Adams Drive shaft, every transaction has been smooth, on time and the product is very high quality.

 

Either you have a very understanding wife or you are not married.

 

So you just phoned in the measurements for the shafts? That's pretty fast!
Impressed!! Something I should think about for when it "cools off"?

I should have been more clear on my question/comment about the gas pedal. What I meant is it looks like a Willys Wagon or Truck pedal.

 

I'm sure I've seen pics of her on here, with a rifle. Partner in crime I think, according to the schedule she is captain of the 69 on the Rubicon trip.