Accidentally building an LJ

Rnuovrcj5 said:
I got after it again this morning on this pile. Motobilt front half is all welded out and I started mocking the axle and steering back up. The axle and box need to be a couple inches farther forward than they are right now but I’m out of threads in the links to spin them out any farther. I’ll dig out the old rear links from when it was a TJ and see if they’re long enough to mock it up. If not, I’ll be breaking out the square tube adapters and tacking some thin wall 2x2 to them to get it all dialed in. It’ll get 7075 aluminum from WOD to match the rear once I know how long they need to be.

It’ll turns out that there’s way more room around the back of the steering box where the ORI needs to be than I thought. The Motobilt frame never flares back out towards the front like the stock frame did so there’s tons of space there for the shock. I’m still planning on tube shock towers though. The steering box is most likely gonna end up sticking into the back of the grille shell and possibly even out the front.

Steering drag link and the panhard bar look like they’re going to package in there very nicely. The limiting factor for uptravel now is the lower links hitting the bottom of the frame and it looks like I can squeeze a straight bar in even stuffed that deep. A slight bend might end up needed but it’s looking good. I’ve got it mocked up with T-style steering right now because the passenger high steer arm is above the bottom of the frame rail at full bump. Pushing the axle forward a bit more might get that into where the frame kicks back up though.
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You keep this up and I’m going to need a cigarette…
 
Shreddinlettuce said:
How do you like the Chris Durham hood? Did you get it shipped or drive to sc?
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I like it but I’m not sure if he’s making currently. I’m still not 100% in love with the scoops but it was what he had at the time.

I actually grew up about 15 minutes from his shop and he’s a friend of mine. My parents are still in the same house so I get down there fairly often.
 
Hokie_YJ said:
You keep this up and I’m going to need a cigarette…
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I got a burst of motivation combined with some decent weather 😂🤣. Figured if I committed and cut the frame off I’d have to actually work on it since I prefer driving it over my truck. The ford steering box seems to be falling into place like it was made for it and seeing the steering and panhard mocked up and looking good has me pretty excited to get it put back together and actually have some uptravel in the front.

Wait until you see what I’ve got in mind to make the 8274 work 😎
 
Rnuovrcj5 said:
I got a burst of motivation combined with some decent weather 😂🤣. Figured if I committed and cut the frame off I’d have to actually work on it since I prefer driving it over my truck. The ford steering box seems to be falling into place like it was made for it and seeing the steering and panhard mocked up and looking good has me pretty excited to get it put back together and actually have some uptravel in the front.

Wait until you see what I’ve got in mind to make the 8274 work 😎
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I can’t wait to see the final product! I need to get back on mine. The front axle is ready for gears, the rear still needs to be cleaned up and the truss welded on. I bounced back to the buggy and it’s been getting the attention during my limited shop time.

If you don’t have plans for those snazzy aluminum recovery points you had on it I’d be interested in them. I talked to the guy a while back about buying some, and he was waiting to get some back from machining, but I forgot to get back with him.
 
Hokie_YJ said:
I can’t wait to see the final product! I need to get back on mine. The front axle is ready for gears, the rear still needs to be cleaned up and the truss welded on. I bounced back to the buggy and it’s been getting the attention during my limited shop time.

If you don’t have plans for those snazzy aluminum recovery points you had on it I’d be interested in them. I talked to the guy a while back about buying some, and he was waiting to get some back from machining, but I forgot to get back with him.
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I’ve got somewhat of a plan to put them back on it. Looking like the bottom side of the bumper is where they’ll need to go so I’m not sure how much I like that.

Was it the guy in Utah(?) that you talked to? These are his but there’s another guy in Florida making some pretty similar ones along with a bunch of really nice aluminum armor and bumpers. He’s Flux Offroad on Facebook and Fluxor (I think) on the wrangler TJ forum.
 
Rnuovrcj5 said:
I’ve got somewhat of a plan to put them back on it. Looking like the bottom side of the bumper is where they’ll need to go so I’m not sure how much I like that.

Was it the guy in Utah(?) that you talked to? These are his but there’s another guy in Florida making some pretty similar ones along with a bunch of really nice aluminum armor and bumpers. He’s Flux Offroad on Facebook and Fluxor (I think) on the wrangler TJ forum.
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Yeah, I believe he was from Utah, Cole was his first name I believe. I’ve seen the bumpers you’re talking about. I didn’t know he had the recovery points too. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
 
Frame stands for the motor mounts are figured out in cad. Now I just need to convert them to steel.

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Getting steering figured out now. I’d like to get the tie rod up higher but it makes fitting everything else super tight with it up high. I’ll need new high steer arms too as these have the tie rod holes about 3-4” off the kingpin centers. Won’t clear the frame if it’s on top of the arms like they’re set up for and the tie rod will be through the diff if it’s on the bottom that far back. If I leave the tie rod down in the knuckles it all fits super nice. I’ll most likely need to make an “L” shaped pitman arm to make it wrap around where the frame side track bar bracket is going to be.

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I’ve been slacking on this a bit but still made a little progress. Cut the end off of a pitman arm and tacked a piece of chopped up square tube on it to double check the height of the drag link. Once I confirmed it was going to be good, I cut up a wagoneer arm that had a boogered up end on it to use as the base for a fabbed double shear arm. I sleeved the splined end with a piece of .188 wall DOM and welded the length of the arm to the top plate. Little bit of a bend in the end to make better use of the angle on the heim. I’ll make a bottom plate and then fill in the sides as well as tie it all in to the wagon arm inside it. The dogleg shape is to get it around the frame side of the track bar. It got tight fast around the pitman arm, track bar, and upper link/diff cover. I also figured out where the track bar bracket needs to live and started making it from a piece of 2.5” .25” wall square tube.
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Fancy pitman arm is done and the box is mounted. I’ve still got to cut/bend a top plate for the box mount before it’s done but it’s close. 1/4” plates on either side of the frame rail with an additional 3/16” plate on the inside to fill the gap from the way the inner piece of the rail is set in slightly. Bolt holes are slugged with 3/4” .120 wall DOM. I added a bunch of speed holes to the mount plates to give me some more weld area. The large unwelded hole on the front outer plate is where I’m going to use a piece of 1 3/4” tube to land the shock hoop on.

The piece of 1.5” .25 wall that’s been mocked up as a track bar was the right length in a straight line but needed a couple bends to clear the diff and frame rail. So it was going to be too short and I was going to have to go buy another piece of it. I decided to figure out the bends with a piece of .095 wall tube I got out of the drop rack at the steel supply. I measured it before I started and kept track of what I cut off and where the bends were. I ended up using 1/8” more tube length than the “too short” .25 wall tube was so I went for it with the real stuff. It was kind of interesting getting the bend on the frame end done since I really needed about another inch of tube to grab it correctly in the bender but got it done. Bungs are all welded in place and it’s installed again. There’s plenty of adjustment in the helms to make up for the 1/8”.

@gslander , there’s all sorts of tig welds touching your old steering box. Hopefully it doesn’t freak out and self destruct 🤣😂

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Slowly making progress between teacher work days and sick kids. I’m also pretty sure this wind is connected to the power switches on my welders. Steering box mount is finished and I’ve got a shock hoop tacked in place. Steering shaft is mostly figured out too. I’ll make a mount for the support bearing off of the shock hoop.
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