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[jerryg79]

Damn, grandpa grayson trolling facebook and tamor yesterday!

They must've got wi-fi at the local luby's!

[Graystroke]

Damn, grandpa grayson trolling facebook and tamor yesterday!

They must've got wi-fi at the local luby's!

No, actually the 3G was humming right along on my flip phone.

[KrazyKarl02]

Quick Update, got the YJ running, here are some crappy pictures. Front Leaf Spring mounts had to be moved to just outside of the frame to match my dana 60 perches. The front is pretty basic, I gusset'd it to the frame. Rear I used a mount with 4 holes so as the spring sags I can adjust or I can play with shackle angle. I gusseted this one to the frame like the front also.

Front Front mount with gusset



Welded out



Front Rear Mount

[KrazyKarl02]

I got the atlas shifters installed and put in a B&M Mega shifter for the TH350. I'm still not sure if I like the shifter, but I'll give it a try. The drivers drop atlas makes driver's side a little tight, but it's not too bad.

[KrazyKarl02]

I took it to Hot Springs last weekend and got the jeep back out on the trail. All in all considering it was it's first time out and we were following buggies with 43" sticky's I think I kept up ok....



Couple of issues I need to work out:

1) The throttle is pretty miserable. I bought a universal throttle kit from auto zone, I think it is a piece of ****. The pedal without a cable is not bad. The throttle body is not bad, but the cable makes it stiff as ****. I think I am going to order a stock 1994 truck throttle cable and adapt it. The issue is where the stock chevy 350 cable connects to where the jeep hole in the firewall is requires you to bend the cable 90 degrees twice in a very short space.
2) Rear shocks, I had not put any on, I wanted to see what clearance I had when the jeep was flexing and I ran out of time. I found a spot to put them. You guys have an opinion on shock brand?
3)Front springs, I bent both front springs. they are rancho 44044's (according to pirate the best spring ever made....) The springs from rancho have like an "add-a-leaf" with a half military wrap under the main leaf. These springs sell for under $200 for a set. I ordered another set and I am going to take them to Heitman's in Houston. I am going to take out the add-a-leaf it comes with and have Heitman's make a true military wrap second leaf. I am hoping this will prevent the main leaf from acting alone. I called Alcan and they want $550 for a set of springs plus shipping. Also I think my shackle angle was too flat, this allowed the spring in full compression to be in a bind. I am going to move the shackle point back to the next hole. I am hoping these changes will prevent the problem from happening again. Picture below of bent leaf springs.



And one Mall Crawler shot, at current setup with bent spring, I can stuff the spring all the way up in the front to where it touches the front fender. Rear end only has a few inches of up travel, but a lot of droop.

[tommy53002]

Good to see you got it on the trail!

I'm running bilstien shocks and don't have any complaints.

While i'm sure having a true military wrap will help solve your spring bending issue, I think just adding a spring clamp closer to the end of the spring would accomplish the same thing. I did it with mine. I just took some 1/8" plate and wrapped it around the 2 main leafs (in the shape of a "C" then put a bolt through the plate to hold it in place. I haven't had an issue since.

[KrazyKarl02]

While i'm sure having a true military wrap will help solve your spring bending issue, I think just adding a spring clamp closer to the end of the spring would accomplish the same thing. I did it with mine. I just took some 1/8" plate and wrapped it around the 2 main leafs (in the shape of a "C" then put a bolt through the plate to hold it in place. I haven't had an issue since.

I was going to do that also, I only want to buy one more set of leaf springs.

[tommy53002]

So you get some shiny new knuckles yet?

[KrazyKarl02]

So you get some shiny new knuckles yet?

Their not shiny, but yes, I got some new ones. So at the 2015 Clayton trip I broke the driver's side knuckle on Friday, replaced it with my spare (spare was from a '79 truck, so who knows what all had been done to it), then broke the spare I had just put on Saturday. Luckily I had given Slim my broken one to weld and he was able to patch it just time to put it back on. When I got home I looked at the passenger side and it had cracks all over it, like it was about to spontaneously explode.

I am guessing the high steer and the 2.5" full hydraulic steering ram were not a good combo for stock knuckles. Supposedly the Ford knuckles are weaker than the chevy knuckles. I looked online at my options and found essentially 3 choices, Crane, Deddenbear (Reid), and Solid. The Crane's were pretty pricey. The Deddenbear/Reid seem to be the industry standard and lots of people run them with great reviews on the internet. The Deddenbear/Reid have holes for 5 studs for high steer arms. The Solids had less reviews, but the ones I found were positive. Additionally the solids came with holes for 6 studs. My high steer arms already had 6 studs in them. Also the solids were over $100 less than the Deddenbear/Reids, so I decided to go with the solids and they are beef. You can get solids with a key way on top, but my existing arms did not have this key way. I could have milled a slot in the arms, but it just seemed like a lot of work for something I did not really need. No doubt the key way is stronger and if I was buying new knuckles and arms I would go that way. In the end I bought the solid knuckles with no keyway.

Everything went together smoothly with no fitment issues. I went ahead and replaced my u-joints in the axle shafts while I had it torn apart. Not sure if I should have done this, because the next weekend I went to wolf caves and promptly broke the passenger side u-joint

A picture of the solid knuckles compared to the stock plated passenger side knuckle, it's hard to see in the picture, but the solid knuckles are way bigger and way stronger.

[Sparling]

Are your inner Cs cracked at all?

[KrazyKarl02]

Are your inner Cs cracked at all?

There was no damage to my inner C's at all, they looked good. I know when Cook had his explosion it took out an inner C or bent it, mine looked fine and everything went back together. I think most damage occurs to inner C's when you break it and then continue driving. For me both failures I was going 1 mph, and just stopped.

[kyle]

I had the same luck this past weekend...Friday night i was giving the jeep a once over getting ready to pull out Saturday morning for Clayton and sure enough, both passenger and driver were cracked in the same spot...Luckily I was in my garage and not on the backside of the mountain.

Ordered a plate kit from Rydel fab to plate the spare set of knuckles I already have. Just bought a Bent fab chassis and don't really have the extra funds to pony up for the Reids/Solids. But they do look nice!

[KrazyKarl02]

When mine cracked you could see where it was rusted and opened up. Who knows how long they had been cracking for.

Either way plating and a spare set is a good idea.

[KrazyKarl02]

Update before Clayton, I have been having some overheating issues, I have tried a couple different fans, my setup is a sbc350 with brand new aluminum radiator. I have changed the water pump, thermostat, verified there are no blockages, etc.... The kicker was I went to Marble Falls and burned up my alternator and overheated.

So, I put the CS144 alternator on, this is a 140 amp charging at idle alternator, upgraded the alternator charge wire to handle the power, and installed a Taurus 2 speed fan. The Taurus 2 speed fan is the internet god of all fans. The 2 speed fan I set it up where when the ignition is on it is low speed, then put a thermobulb relay fan control in to kick high on when it reaches 190. I wheeled all over hidden falls again, and granted the outside temp maybe got to 80, but the thing never got over 205, so I feel pretty good about it.

I also did a few other "mods", the simplest was new seats. Some of you might have seen the Beard Racing Seats I've had sitting in my garage for like 4 years, Jimmy, I think you slept in one last time you were down. I put those in, which required cutting the B pillar side bar and putting a new one in. Overall they are very comfortable and hold you well. They are a grey cloth which is ok, but I wish they were vinyl so I could clean them easier.

[KrazyKarl02]

Now onto the bigger "mod", I have been squirreling away parts to 4 link the rear. A friend in the neighborhood who is a welder got laid off and was looking for work to do. I asked if he wanted to 4 link the jeep and we came to an agreed price and I let him have it... Kind of a weird thing to me because I am not used to paying other people to work on my ****, I usually just trick them into working on stuff... I'm glad I did, because I hate laying on my back grinding and welding. Go ahead and insert Mike or Jones's token comment about my welding.

Anywho, double triangulated 4 link
Fox 2.5" X 14" air shocks via Pirate
1-1/4 heims on the lowers, 7/8's on the uppers left over from Shaun of Crosby's build
Lowers are 2-3/8 extra heavy wall drill pipe, it is 7/16" thick sourced from some redneck for free.99
Uppers are 1-3/4 X 0.250 wall DOM
Axle Truss is a barnes 4WD truss that Jones had for some reason
I had to buy a few brackets, bolts and misc. ****....

Stretched out, we moved the axle back about 2"

I wanted to keep a back seat and I did not want to back half the frame, so he sectioned the frame. It might seem like this makes the frame weak, but with a 4 link there is nothing that needs supported behind the shock for suspension.

The height of the jeep and the length of the shock mandated the shock mount had to be up in the cab. He cut a neat little hole, we bent a piece of tube and this what we came up with.