Gone Postal : Mail Jeep Build

[95yjjeep]

Well I haven't gotten a ton done on my postal this weekend. I thought I found the issue I kept having with the slapping sound that was coming from the transfer case so I tore the t-case apart again and put a new heavy duty chain in it. Well....it didn't fix my problem so it looks like it's the driveshaft and/or steep driveshaft angle that is causing the noise/driveline vibration. The shaft I'm running in the rear is just a cheap shortened XJ shaft. I'm going to call Oliver's Driveshafts on Monday morning to see if I can get a high angle shaft from them for it. If they offer a quick turn around I can still have it ready for Uwharrie this coming weekend. Even though it's looking like Uwharrie might be closed from this stupid gov't shutdown mess.

Any of you guys had to deal with driveline vibration from a steep, rear short driveshaft? Any input is greatly appreciated. I'm not sure how to fix it. My pinion angle is set to accommodate the less than 2* difference in the shaft like it's supposed to. I can post up pics if you would like me to.

Once I got the t-case back in this morning after the rebuild. I helped my buddy get his rig ready for some fall wheelin' too. I started fabbin' some frame plates and front shock hoops for my buddy's TJ. Yep it's got leaf springs! My last shock hoop design failed so I made sure we overbuilt the hell out of these. Hopefully no more issues! Here are some photos of the sequence of building his hoops. I was happy with how they turned out.

Frame prepped and ready to go.

Frame plate I made, cleaned up then tacked in place with holes welded.

Welding circles is fun!

Another.

All done ready for paint.

 

[95yjjeep]

QUICK UPDATE:
I spoke to the guys at Oliver's Driveshaft this morning. The chain issue I thought I was having wasn't the chain. I put a brand new heavy duty chain in the t-case on Friday and it's doing the same damn thing. It seems to me that is has to be the extreme angle of the driveshaft (30*) and it's causing severe driveline vibrations. The guys at Oliver's agree that the angle I am trying to run is way too steep. I could drop a ton of cash on some crazy high angle shaft that they didn't recommend because it wouldn't live on the street very long, stretch the rear with a 4-link and redo all the rear suspension with coilovers, or redo all the rear suspension with different leaf springs.

My solution (let me know if you think this is a terrible idea): Cut all of the suspension out from under the rear, ditch the XJ springs (I will bastardize the YJ pack with some of the XJ leafs worked in), pick up some YJ springs (already done), push the rear axle back another 3-3.5" and try to get my rear driveshaft angle to 25* MAX. I am going to outboard the rear spring hangers this go around too because they are currently too far inward, the rear suspension wasn't optimal in my opinion anyways so I might as well fix it right and get on with it. That will make the rear more stable, get the perches sitting flat on the axle tubes and then add a longer rear shackle and moving the bumper mounts up and over allowing me to push the rear spring more rearward to put a steeper angle on the rear shackles allowing for the additional stretch and possibly getting the rear suspension a little lower to the ground all at the same time. Total cost...$40-50 ($20 for the YJ leafs + (2) DOM poly bushing sleeve kits from MarsFab). Oh and about 25hrs worth of work.

I really hate to have to do this but it looks to be the only solution other than dropping serious money on 4-link, crazy angle driveshaft or high pinion 9" 3rd member. I like $60 and 25hrs worth of work vs $1000 or more. I plan to start cutting everything out from under the jeep this week after work every night. I am going to attempt to re-use the spring hangers I'm planning to cut off. Everything else will get put in the scrap pile.

 

[95yjjeep]

Well tonight was night #1 of the rear suspension rework. I got the whole rear suspension out from under the jeep, cut off all the old mounts and cleaned everything up so it's ready to have the new mounts welded on...once I fabricate those.

Couple shots. Naked!

So fresh and so clean. My elbows hurt from all the time behind the grinder but it's worth it. Gotta get them clean so welding the new mounts is seamless. Some people don't like a ford 9" but I'm pretty happy with it. I'll let you know if that continues in a few months/years.

Last one for tonight. Tomorrow I'm picking up my new to me YJ springs and some poly bushing sleeves. I will be ordering a set of leaf spring perches too. It is too much trouble to try to re-use the ones I cut off.

 

[zombhntr]

Man it sucks driveline vibes got ya down.one thing I hate is having to do some thing twice.I personally would have went with the four link. Every time I look at the budget samurai im building I can't wait for it to give me a reason to do away with the leafs and link that junk .as always I respect and admire your patience an fab skills looking good

 

[95yjjeep]

Man it sucks driveline vibes got ya down.one thing I hate is having to do some thing twice.I personally would have went with the four link. Every time I look at the budget samurai im building I can't wait for it to give me a reason to do away with the leafs and link that junk .as always I respect and admire your patience an fab skills looking good

Thanks zombhntr! Yeah sucks I have to do it twice. I hate that too. It'll be worth it because I plan for this rendition to turn out better than the last. The springs will be wider apart and the mounts should look a little better...hopefully. AND I'm getting rid of those DAMN XJ springs! My buddy Joe told me to never put anything from an XJ under my jeep, well the driveshaft and rear springs are the only two parts from a Cherokee and it looks like both of those are getting the boot so looks like he was 100% correct in his words of wisdom.

 

[ReedyMsc08]

Pictures of the finished shock hoops...very happy with the look of them and hopefully they won't get ripped out tomorrow at Uwharrie!

 

[95yjjeep]

glad you like them Mitch. Those better not break!

 

[95yjjeep]

I've been working like a mad man for a few days. Wednesday night was a late night getting everything prepped. Then Thursday night I worked all night trying to get my jeep ready so the guys at Universal Service could knock out my gears today (great guys to deal with BTW).

First. I wanted to outboard my rear spring hangers this go around since my old setup was too narrow and there was a ton of body roll when you cornered. Outboarding the rear springs put my rear spring outside width to outside width at 37" wide which was about 6-8" or more wider than they were originally.

Start of the outboard spring setup I made.

Mocked up you can see how they are no longer welded under the frame.

Springs are stock YJ springs I picked up from Chris at Marsfab. THE XJ SPRINGS ARE JUNK SO ANYONE LOOKING TO DO A SOA REAR LEAF SPRING SETUP. This is my opinion solely but I was not happy at all with the XJ springs. I don't know if you can tell.

I welded the shackle mounts for the rear bumper setup. Super simple stuff. This was my go juice for thursday night. Never been much of a energy drink fan but that shit helped me stay up literally all night to get it ready for Uwharrie.

Next up. I talked to Chris at MarsFab this week about my rear suspension setup and we talked about what kind of shackle would work best for it. Well I sent him a basic drawing of what I wanted and he made these BADASS prototype shackles for my rear suspension that are night and day better than what I was originally requesting. I did tell him to do something he wanted because I believe you have to let creative minded people use their mind. What is the point otherwise?! I am absolutely floored with how cool they look. No more ugly old straight 2-piece shackles. I always say, I won't pay someone to build me something if it's not better than what I could build. His work and creative design is top notch and is 10x better than what I could build so it's money well spent! He even welded them up for me too! If you guys like these I think he is considering selling them as welded sets. Mine are still the first ones though.

I welded the mounts to the bumper and got the rear of the suspension bolted together.

Rear outboarded spring hangers all done. I tied in some 1.75" DOM tubing to the frame and the rock slider. It should be super strong...I hope!

Side #2.

All done!

 

[95yjjeep]

The pics continue (PART 2). I got gas this morning on the way to the gear shop. I thought this photo showed the new and improved rear suspension much better. I'm in love with those custom shackles! So much better looking than anything else I've ever seen. (Again, I didn't build these shackles - these are some prototypes I bought from Chris at MarsFab). I'd love to take credit for these but if I did, he might not ever make me any other cool shit! In all seriousness, he builds some super nice stuff for very fair pricing.

Random shot.

I took my jeep to Universal Service this morning to get my front ring & pinion and locker installed. When I got there they didn't think they could get it all done today so I freaked out because I wanted to take it to Uwharrie this weekend but they re-arranged some things and really went over the top to take care of it today. Couldn't be happier! Great group of guys to work with. They're all a bunch of 4wd and gearheads too and they even let me park my pile on their RTI ramp. This photo is of my jeep patiently waiting to get torn down and put back together with better parts!

Flexing out my old leaf sprung junk on the RTI ramp at Universal Service. I'm very happy with the new suspension rework. The YJ springs flex like mad and are super short.

Another. Funny story: that was my first time ever on an RTI ramp. Pretty cool! Nothing hit with my suspension either so I definitely liked that.

One last poser shot. Off to bed. Headed to Uwharrie early tomorrow for the Fall Jamboree.

 

[95yjjeep]

Well I made it to the Uwharrie Jamboree yesterday. What a great trip! It would have only been better if we'd camped but Arrowhead Campground is still shutdown so we are going to plan another trip once it opens back up.

My jeep had some minor issues getting to Uwharrie on Saturday morning because I drove it there and home. It did great though! I couldn't have been happier for it's maiden voyage. First off, my buddy (with the yellow TJ) talked me into putting my jeep in the Show and Shine jeep show they had setup to raise money for the Friends of Uwharrie. I actually won (3) trophies too which I was pretty shocked since my turd is 12 different colors and all garage built. I won "Best of Show", "Ladies Choice" and "3rd Place in the Trail Division" which was cool. I love having some cool new wall art for my garage. I'll post up a pic of them mounted when I get them all up in the garage. Okay onto some photos.

My buddy Mike (with the OTHER yellow TJ) made my junk look like a turd pile on the RTI ramp. His jeep scored a 1090! WHOA! MarsFab did some nice work on this one. Maybe one day mine will do that.

My junk. I had to measure for some bumpstops.

Onto the trails. I will say, the YJ outboarded springs I re-did made a HUGE difference on side hills and stability, and they flexed as good or better than my old XJ spring setup. It was worth all of the suspension rework and extra work to redo the rear suspension. ALSO, the SM465 granny 4spd is a monster when you shift it into granny low 1st gear. I could idle up every obstacle in Uwharrie on all of the hard lines. I was very very happy!

This was our group. Eric's YJ up front, my postal, my buddy Mitch's TJ, Stephen's black YJ and Dullon's XJ.

My brother looking like one of the Robertson men. haha!

Random shot of us taking a break at the mud hole. You better believe my ass didn't get in my jeep in there. I HATE MUD!

I feel like my 36" iroks look tiny next to Eric's 37" mtrs. My jeep looks tiny in comparison too. I guess I don't realize how small this thing is in comparison to a later model wrangler.

We didn't get a ton of action shots because we were too busy 4 wheelin' all day.

 

[95yjjeep]

Some more trail shots. Sorry they are all about the same. These are from "Dickey Bell".

This is the harder hill climb on Dickey Bell on the rocky section. Here is a sequence from bottom to top. This is the far left line. It's more technical than the pictures show.

Couldn't be happier. I drove it there, wheeled it from about 1pm-8:30pm then drove it home. So happy that it finally did what I built it for.

 

[49erRider]

Wow, I've followed this one from the start and can't believe it's finally there! Congrats

 

[Ray VanBuren]

So cool! Glad you finally got to 'wheel it.

 

[ABadJeeper]

It was cool to see it in person. Looks good.

 

[snappy]

It was nice to meet you and congrats on the wall art!!!!

 

[TJcrawler97]

Looks awesome! sorry I missed the trip

 

[95yjjeep]

Wow, I've followed this one from the start and can't believe it's finally there! Congrats

I know! It's been a long time coming. I've dreamt about how it would wheel and drive and all of that and it finally happened. I couldn't be happier. I still have a ton of things to button up but it could take another trip tomorrow if I wanted to which is a great feeling! I even forgot about all of the headaches I had with the project along the way and it felt so good to have it wheel-able, I'd build another ground up jeep again. I said to multiple people along the way I'd never want to attempt a motor swap again. The 5.3 was worth the extra work. I promise!

So cool! Glad you finally got to 'wheel it.

Thanks man!

It was nice to meet you and congrats on the wall art!!!!

Thanks Snappy! It was great meeting you as well. Glad our entry fees went to a good cause. I look forward to getting them hung. You guys did a great job on the trophies. I have been needing some cool garage art for a while so these is perfect! Did you have my address for the other one that you were planning to ship to me?

Looks awesome! sorry I missed the trip

Thanks man! You better believe you'll be there on the next trip. Your XJ should be bulletproof now. My "custom" clutch return spring you had the idea for worked like a champ.

 

[seed60]

Awesome work. Good to see it out in the woods.

 

[BRUISER]

Cool to see that it worked out great for you .. Very cool that you drove it there and home

 

[UncleWillie]

Next time I am in the shop you bought that thing from I will have to show him these pics.

 

[ncsutj]

Jeeps looks awesome and pretty impressive you redid the rear suspension late and drove it down there, wheeled it and drove it home.

How did it feel driving from the right side on the trails?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[XJfreakHO]

Great Meeting you Chad, sorry for drooling all over your rig. Very cool rig. Glad to hear it did everything you asked of it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

WE had one of these. it was a 1968 with the GM 153.
it has a D44 Posi with 3.73 gear.

We put a SM420 gear box 2wd with 7.4:1 1st gear and wheeled all over the place in Cali

 

[95yjjeep]

Awesome work. Good to see it out in the woods.

Thanks man! I'm so happy to have it in the woods. It sounds gay to say, but it was a dream come true.

Cool to see that it worked out great for you .. Very cool that you drove it there and home

Thanks! Your t-case worked well. 2wd low was pretty cool! I went ahead and put a heavy duty chain in it for good measure. Just in case!

Next time I am in the shop you bought that thing from I will have to show him these pics.

You have to get their reactions on video. I'm sure those guys thought I was a damn nut for wanting this ole' pile of shit. Let me know what they say.

Jeeps looks awesome and pretty impressive you redid the rear suspension late and drove it down there, wheeled it and drove it home.

How did it feel driving from the right side on the trails?

Thanks man! I was pretty thrilled. It was either impressive or really stupid. One or the other was going to happen, work well or fall apart. I'm just glad it wasn't the latter! I am having a great time driving from the wrong side. It didn't take me too long before I had it down. Only manually shifting 3 gears makes it easier since you start in 2nd gear vs granny 1st. Right at the start though I tried to drive in the middle of the road because the curb seemed so close in comparison to normal driving.

Great Meeting you Chad, sorry for drooling all over your rig. Very cool rig. Glad to hear it did everything you asked of it.

Hey man I'm just glad you liked it! Some of the guys that came up with you asked if they could take pictures of it. That was a great compliment. It's been such an in depth project, it would have hurt if you'd thrown rocks at it instead. It's great that all of you guys understand and appreciate the amount of work that goes into a project from start to finish. If I had this thing built for me it would have cost me $50k! haha! I'm glad you guys are as crazy as me so I didn't feel weird. All my co-workers think I'm one step away from being put in a straight jacket and locked away in a white room with no furniture.

Great meeting you and getting to talk to you! We didn't get to ride together so hit me up the next time you're out there. I'm hoping to wheel this thing often. I've met some really cool people already since building it so it's time to get out and enjoy having a "finished" project to take in the woods. There is still tons of work left on it but at least now, I can cancel working in the garage on a saturday and drive it down to Uwharrie instead if I want to. That was my whole goal. It doesn't have heat or a/c but it doesn't matter to me. I have a big jacket. AND I have an idea for how to get some heat in the cab. Stay tuned.

WE had one of these. it was a 1968 with the GM 153.
it has a D44 Posi with 3.73 gear.

We put a SM420 gear box 2wd with 7.4:1 1st gear and wheeled all over the place in Cali

So cool! The old 4spd gearboxes are a lot of fun. I am LOVING the SM465 in mine. It shifts like an old truck and that is part of the mystique of it. My buddies laughed about how slow it shifted and even told me I needed to put a TH400 in it until I put it in granny low. I would marry that gear (if I wasn't already engaged)! It's even more trippy when you have to shift and drive from the wrong side.

 

[GotLime?]

Can't wait to see this thing!! Now I get it!!