Dual purpose crap hauler

[88GMCtruck]

Ah. Nothing of mine is drilled either. I kept the stock front LCA mount/crossmember but cut it flat to the bottom of the frame and flat plated it with 1/4" plate. I also have a 4x6 1/4" box crossmember at the very front of the frame welded all the way around. My rear leaf mounts had a plate welded to the V at the end of the boxed frame and mounts welded directly to the frame as well.

It's good knowledge to know though, I'll be keeping an eye on mine at least.

 

[Horns]

The plates look good.

 

[jps4jeep]

I got some time to work at the shop tonight.

Finially got around to getting the stock pitman arm off. I had three other pitman arms to try out, stock 93 XJ, stock 98 Durango, Stock 97 ram 1500, I ended up going with the XJ, it offered the best drop as well as slipping onto the sagnaw box with out a single mod. It actually was clocked exactly the same as the stock arm. The axle is about 2" over ride height so tie rod angle should be very tolerable that I can package the track bar easily and reduce bump steer to nothing.

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I also got the rest of the brackets tacked together, and started mocking up where the coil buckets will go as well as the axle end. Still need to weld on a spring retainer for the upper mounts, just waiting for some stock ZJ spring isolators to come in.

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[Horns]

Looks great. Are those brackets from ballistic?

-Via Mobile-

 

[jps4jeep]

Looks great. Are those brackets from ballistic?

-Via Mobile-

They are, I got these for pretty short cash, they F'ed up an order so I had a credit, plus my local club has a discount.
I have updates, but I am having issues with Photobucket.

 

[jps4jeep]

OK photobucket issue fixxed, I got the links all tacked together, I have no cross section photo's of the links, but they are 1.75 -.120 DOM sleeved around 1.5 - .25 DOM. This is just a pic of some of my scraps to show thickness.

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I was having issue with where I wanted to mount the frame end link mount, I initially thought I found a good spot on the frame where the front box frame meets the C-channel frame, but the surface is not completely flat and the lower link length would have been 23" total. I made a link at this length and was very displease with how it looked. the geometry was not ideal. So I enlarged the one of the holes in the mounts and offset it 1/2" (was a 7/8" hole, used a 1.5 hole saw to offset.) that would allow me to off set the mount slightly to line up with the axle mounts (non-flex joints at the axle end) and allows for the trans cross member bolt to be accessed and the cross member to be easily removed. this also allowed me to change my overall link length to 32.25"

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You can see where the one link was lengthen from 23" to 32".

 

[jps4jeep]

Upper radius arm links are 12.75" center to center and are just 1.75 - .120 DOM.

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Here are pics of the mounts after hogging out the hole and a rough idea of where they ended up

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[jps4jeep]

Mounts mocked up for final measuring.

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and a picture of everything tacked up, ready for final measuring, any needed tweeking and then burn it home.

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After I took this picture, I sat looking at the links, The upper link heim is bottomed out, which will limit my adjustability to dial in the front end, So I am going to cut off the mount, unthread a couple turns and re-tack it. The other side is at the same point as this side but I have yet to mount the upper to the lower, I ran out of time, had to run home for a family issue.

Another thing I will need to do is, those upper link mounts on the lower links, I will cut about 1" off the top of them to ensure they do not contact the frame during compression.

 

[jps4jeep]

Was able to swing over to the shop today after work for a couple hours. I cut off and moved the radius arm mounts, also was able to get the upper coil spring retainer tacked up. Tossed the springs in and started to see how things are lining up. I am very please with how it all looks. Also started mocking up the track bar, going to have to put it just behind the axle, but works out better. I did not compress the spring a whole lot since everything is just held together with a tack weld here or there. I anticipating it squat another 4 inches which should be pretty close to where the rear is sitting. The coil mounts are as low as I have currently trimed them to go, they can go up several inches. if I can not get these springs to work, I also have a set of stock ZJ coils sitting in the shed if I need to try them out. (these are Clayton 6" springs)

People like pictures.

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[Horns]

The updates look great! I'm interested in seeing where you plan on mounting your shocks.