Budget YJ Build

[Dawnpatrol]

Small update. Slider boxes are slightly frenched into the frame and tacked in place. The leaf spring packs are back together and in place. Now its time to slide the axle back into place and set the caster for the new spring perches. Looking at this, the steering is going to be interesting.

 

[Monkeynono]

I only as out of stupidity but is the front of the spring too high and would this excess spring angle cause any issues?

 

[Dawnpatrol]

I only as out of stupidity but is the front of the spring too high and would this excess spring angle cause any issues?

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure. But I'm willing to give it a shot and see what happens. Worst case is that I have to redo brackets and welds. I have seen in OEM applications on small pickups where the leaf spring mounts are not on a horizontal plane. However that is in a rear axle application without steering. I don't have measurements on me right now, but later I can pull the measurements on how much higher the front mount is than the rear, for record.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Over the past few weeks, I've been able to get the axle set in place and caster set.

Due to the thicc leaf pack, it's made the high steer a bit of a pain. The WJ knucke was not quiet tall enough for the drag link to bolt to with out concern for contacting the leaf pack. I looked at what others had done for aftermarket high steer on a D30 and found the MORE high steer arm. I wasn't crazy about the price, and also not knowing 100% if it would work for me, I decided to build my own out of 0.25" plate. It utilizes 2 of the unit bearing bolts, similar to the MORE arm, but I welded it to the knuckle instead of drilling and tapping. Its not the prettiest thing, but I'll see how it works.

Next up was the steering box. I knew that with my new front bumper/crossmember, the stock YJ box would not work as the box would need to be pushed too far forward. I was planning to source a astro box, but a club member had a JK box lying around and the price was right (free). I went ahead and drilled, tapped, and plugged the box for future hydro assist. The JK box wanted take up the same space as the air box, and the back of the grill. To accommodate this I'll be going to a cone filter, and the back of the grill was cut out for clearance. The frame was drilled and sleeved, I also welded a plate to the inside of the frame for extra strength as well as to space the box slightly.

Next up will be adapting the steering shaft to the JK box using the end of a WJ steering shaft. I'll also need to modify my pitman arm slightly, see if my drag link has enough adjustment for the new dimension, and check for clearance with the frame. Hopefully that will wrap up steering. Then I can jump over to shocks, and bump stops.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

I picked up some FOA 12" shocks on marketplace at a decent price. Only catch was that one of the misalignment spacers was missing. No problem I thought, until I realized FOA wanted $30 just for shipping. So I brought in some scrap steel I had at home, and learned how to use the lathe during lunch today.

 

[adamk]

In all of the front slider box mock up, are you at full bump? I ask because it looks like the slider is maxed out to the rear which would yield zero up travel.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

In all of the front slider box mock up, are you at full bump? I ask because it looks like the slider is maxed out to the rear which would yield zero up travel.

I did the initial mock up with a single main leaf and it had about 1/4" to 1/2" clearance. The slider box is much longer than it needs to be. I'm going to mock it up again at full bump to set bump stops and shocks. I'll check the clearance again.

 

[adamk]

I did the initial mock up with a single main leaf and it had about 1/4" to 1/2" clearance. The slider box is much longer than it needs to be. I'm going to mock it up again at full bump to set bump stops and shocks. I'll check the clearance again.

Gotcha. To me it looks like the slider box needs to move to the rear 1-2” but photos don’t tell the whole story.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Gotcha. To me it looks like the slider box needs to move to the rear 1-2” but photos don’t tell the whole story.

I took another look using a single main leaf to check. It was around 0.25" or less. Since I have the room, and I'm uncertain of how it will change with a full leaf pack, I'm going to move it back 1". It was only tacked in, so not the end of the world to redo.

 

[Buddy Holly]

Digging the sliders. Hope they work well!

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Getting a good bit of work done this week. I was originally planning on using the cheap ford truck shock towers, however the body of the FOA shock wants to take up the same space as the shock tower. I thought I could modify it to work, but in the end I gave up on it. Now I'm moving to typical shock hoops made out of 1.5" tubing.

I also finished up the bump stops and steering this week. Getting the pitman arm and heim joint to fit was a major pain. In order to get it to clear the leaf spring at full bump, I took a yj drop pitman arm I had lying around and reformed it to clear. Now that the pitman arm was above the leaf spring, I had to create a pocket in the side of the frame to clear the full swing of the arm.

I should be able to finish mounting shocks, figure out a new front body mount, and finish welding everything this week.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Big thanks to @BRUISER for some of the parts to this, as he found some shock hoops while cleaning up his garage. I was able to get the shocks mounted with the traditional shock hoop style, and @ScottR was kind enough to charge them for me.

In addition to the shock hoops, I rerouted the brake lines and tore everything back apart for finish welding. After finish welding and reassembly, I was finally able to move the jeep out of the garage and clean up some. I'm not sure who was happier to move the jeep, my kids or me. I took the kids for a lap around the neighborhood to make sure everything felt fine. Other than a little bit of a Carolina squat in the rear, the jeep drives good. The rear needs to raise up about 2". My simple fix for the time being is just to move the shackle mount from the original position (middle of the frame), to the bottom of the frame. That will at least get me on the trails for the summer.

Once the rear suspension is moved, next will be to lengthen the front drive shaft.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

In order to get rid of the Carolina squat, I relocated the rear shackle mount. Its really not an ideal solution as now the leaf spring and shackle hang really low behind the rear tire. Ideally I need to get some FSJ lifted front leaf springs. It is still slightly too low to do SOA in the rear without heavily modifying the rear frame, which I don't have time for right now.

I drove it to a friends house with a ramp to check for clearances and measure for the front drive shaft. It looks like my original front drive shaft will have enough spline travel, I'll just need to have it lengthened around 4". I did find some issues with flexing it out. The rear shocks are limiting me on droop in the rear, so I have some used Bilstein's sitting in the corner of the garage to try out. Also, the drag link hits the frame just before the bump stop, so I'll be notching the frame up front slightly.

 

[BRUISER]

did sliders work well?

 

[Dawnpatrol]

did sliders work well?

They do. It feels more stable on the road then my last setup, and it felt like normal when I was crawling up the RTI ramp. As far a flex and performace goes, I think they are around the same as shackles. I'll put them to the test at GER in June. You definitely don't need as much travel as you think you do, which is what I had original read on the innerwebs anyways.

 

[benXJ]

Now this is a proper build! Love seeing the homebrew solutions!

 

[Dawnpatrol]

I've been working here and there on the YJ. Made a notch in the frame for the drag link to clear. Also the new u bolts I had were not long enough and the original u bolt plate starting bending. So I ordered up the 5/8 u bolts from Barnes and new plates. I should have done this the first time, as the Barnes u bolts are hard to beat on price and quality; if you are on poor people leaf springs like me.

Next up is figuring out the front drive shaft.

 

[Pennsylvaniaboy]

They do. It feels more stable on the road then my last setup, and it felt like normal when I was crawling up the RTI ramp. As far a flex and performace goes, I think they are around the same as shackles. I'll put them to the test at GER in June. You definitely don't need as much travel as you think you do, which is what I had original read on the innerwebs anyways.

Lies....the interwebs told me iIl need 1/4 eliptical springs and revolver shackles for all the travels....

 

[Shreddinlettuce]

I've been working here and there on the YJ. Made a notch in the frame for the drag link to clear. Also the new u bolts I had were not long enough and the original u bolt plate starting bending. So I ordered up the 5/8 u bolts from Barnes and new plates. I should have done this the first time, as the Barnes u bolts are hard to beat on price and quality; if you are on poor people leaf springs like me.

Next up is figuring out the front drive shaft.

View attachment 396643 View attachment 396644

View attachment 396645 View attachment 396646

Have you been digging through your wife’s underwear drawer again?

Nice work, love your K.I.S.S. attitude with the build

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Update on this build... I was able to modify my old front driveshafts to get the extra 4" of length. The first one that I modified, I cut the stub and yoke end off and replaced the 2" tube. On one end I ended up only having 0.008" run out, however the other end had over 0.100" no matter what I did. So on the next drive shaft I just cut a 4" section of 2" DOM and sleeved it with 1.75" DOM.

With the new driveshaft installed I went and flexed it out on the RTI ramp to do a final check. Everything looked good, however I learned that the RTI ramp does not simulate all the real world forces/movements seen during wheeling. This past weekend I went to GER, and learned that I didn't have quite enough slip on the shaft. the first big ledge I went up, the driveshaft came part due to not enough slip engagement. So it looks like I'll need to order a long slip driveshaft.

Another issue I ran into this past weekend was the steering. I used a WJ steering intermediate shaft coupler to mate to the JK double D steering box input. However, they seemed to be a close fit, however when on the trail under heavy load, it would become loose and work its way off the steering box input. So the solution to get through the weekend was to apply JB weld, and tighten the coupler down as tight as possible. I also applied duct tape to the steering shaft slip to try and prevent it from collapsing.

The rest of the weekend I took it easy, which manly consisted of a recovering a TJ out of honey hole, letting my wife cruise the easy trails, and lettings my son play down at the creek. Overall it was still a pretty good weekend at GER.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

My son and I went to Windrock this weekend with the Club. Since it was going to be a hot weekend, I installed water misters on the roll cage of the jeep and hooked it to the windshield washer pump. It worked pretty good as a simple cheap way to cool off on the trail.

My son didn't mind the heat at all and was having a ball on the trials. Thursday afternoon/night we hit trail 22, Friday was trail 21, and Saturday we did Walden's Ridge. The jeep did good other than losing air in the tire from too much mud between the bead. Running at 8 psi on steelies doesn't help either. We were able to take the tire off and clean and re-bead the tire on the trail. I guess I need to get beadlocks eventually, but for now I'll just clean all the beads after every trip.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

I got tired of looking at my temporary shackle relocation on the rear leaf springs. They hung so low that I was afraid they were going to bend the springs if I backed into a rock, and the springs were just too wore out. So I decided to buy some new springs and make it better. Ideally I needed a 2-4" Grand Wagoneer front lift spring. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they make the Rancho 44044 springs anymore, and the next alternatives were going to be $500+ for the pair. Being the cheap person I am, I went with the Pro comp 13311 (4" lift springs for 52" Chevy Square body) and planed to run SUA. I figured at $129 a piece I would give them a shot, and they will be making aftermarket square body parts till the end of time.

To keep the wheel base the same, I welded new hanger mounts 1.5" forward from the original location. The original hangers were beat and needed replacing anyways. I mocked up the new 52" springs and quickly realized that the stock rear shackle mount was not going to work.

The rear shackle mount needed to move back around 2" (guessing for the most part). This lead me to just chopping the end of the frame and crossmember. Before cutting out the rear crossmember and frame, I made a new 1.75" tube crossmember just forward of where the new shackle mount would be.

Due to the fact that the frame chop went right through the original shackle mount, I needed to plate and box-in the rear frame section.

Finally I could weld on the "new" shackle mounts and test everything out. I took apart the leaf pack so I could check the angle and clearance at bump and my 2" guess was looking pretty good. It feels good to get rid of the slight Carolina squat and have the shackle up higher and more out of the way.

I took everything back apart for final welding. Now I just need to build a simple rear tube bumper, and test it out. The first road test did have a slight vibration at lower speeds (15-20 mph), so I'll need to track that down.

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Finished up my tube bumper this past weekend. Its a simple 1.75 dia tube that has support tubes going to the side of the frame and the rear crossmember. I also put 2 45 degree support tubes on the crossmember going back to the frame. Looks a little out of place with the cheap semi-gloss spray, but I have a trip to Potts mountain in a few weeks that should help it blend in to the rest of the jeep.

 

[Shreddinlettuce]

My son and I went to Windrock this weekend with the Club. Since it was going to be a hot weekend, I installed water misters on the roll cage of the jeep and hooked it to the windshield washer pump. It worked pretty good as a simple cheap way to cool off on the trail.

View attachment 400674

My son didn't mind the heat at all and was having a ball on the trials. Thursday afternoon/night we hit trail 22, Friday was trail 21, and Saturday we did Walden's Ridge. The jeep did good other than losing air in the tire from too much mud between the bead. Running at 8 psi on steelies doesn't help either. We were able to take the tire off and clean and re-bead the tire on the trail. I guess I need to get beadlocks eventually, but for now I'll just clean all the beads after every trip.

View attachment 400675

View attachment 400676

Care to do a quick tour of the car seat mounting? Rear bumper looks awesome by the way

 

[Dawnpatrol]

Care to do a quick tour of the car seat mounting? Rear bumper looks awesome by the way

I don't have the best pictures right now, I'll see if I can remove the seat later this week to grab some better ones. However here is ones I do have. The rear seat is essentially a big cradle in the cage. It mounts/connects to the cage, not the body. I made seat mount tabs for a Corbeau seat so that in the future I could swap one in. Then a flat plate mounts directly to the seat tabs for a slightly angled flat surface for the car seat. I made tabs that the car seat latch system could connect too, however if I had to do it over again I would put them further back. So I use those, but also a ratchet strap works too. The rear "over the seat" strap goes up and over the rear cage bar and down to a mount off of the fuel cell mounting plate.