- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
Not much has changed. My work schedule changed and Anthony getting married kinda stopped all progress. Hoping to take some time off next month to get it finished and installed.
A custom axle for Anthony's TJ
- Thread starter Hickey
- Start date
- Location
- Eagle Mountain, Utah
Stinking marriages!
astjp2
Active Member
- Location
- Riverdale/Alaska
Getting married is just another reason to go out to the garage...
- Location
- West Haven, UT
Yep, marriage will do that.
My son got married in June and we haven't touched his Jeep for nearly 2-months now. I hope to be able to get back to it in the next few weeks. All he's been doing is driving it.
Looking forward to seeing your son's TJ come along.
Mike
Im missing a rock crawling Comp in Idaho september 1st due to being married...... Sometimes I wonder if its even worth it.
LJTim
Active Member
- Location
- Herriman, UT
Im missing a rock crawling Comp in Idaho september 1st due to being married...... Sometimes I wonder if its even worth it.
uhh, I miss wheeling every week and taking trips to cool places every other week due to being married. For some reason she thinks we need more than roman noodles and cereal to eat. I just don't get it.
I shouldnt complain, the weekend of that event my wife booked us a trip to NYC for our 10 year anniversary. Other than that she knows not to get in the way of rock crawling.....
- Location
- Eagle Mountain, Utah
Ironically my new wife isn't the problem. She's all for getting it fixed so that we can go back to cruising the mountains every weekend like when we were first dating. Like my dad said the hardest part is lining up our schedules and getting time off. It's my daily driver so the jeep can't be left in the shop for more then a few days.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
OK, we have progress!
Anthony and I managed to arrange time off at the same time. The axle is installed but there are still a few things left to do. We still need to have the shafts shortened, and install the JK knuckles, hubs, and brakes. We ran into a few snags and decided to put the WJ knuckles, brakes, and TJ hubs on the JK axle to get it back on the road while we nail down the rest of the parts.
I want to retract everything I've ever said about WJ brakes fitting on a JK. I was completely wrong. Furthermore, WJ knuckles will in fact bolt up to a JK axle, but the camber is not correct. The steering is also not the same between the WJ and JK knuckles. It is similar, but when the knuckles are next to each other it is easy to see the difference.
JK knuckle on the left, WJ on right. You can also see why the brakes won't work. The rotors are different as well. Different rotor thickness and hat height. You can't see it in this picture, but the JK knuckle has a lot more meat in the tie rod area that makes it nice for drilling or reaming them out for larger parts.
We set the steering up and mocked up the track bar with the JK knuckles on the JK axle. We were able to extend the track bar to within 1/2" of the length of the drag link, so bump steer should be less of an issue, even though it wasn't really bad before.
These pics are at full bump.
Anthony and I managed to arrange time off at the same time. The axle is installed but there are still a few things left to do. We still need to have the shafts shortened, and install the JK knuckles, hubs, and brakes. We ran into a few snags and decided to put the WJ knuckles, brakes, and TJ hubs on the JK axle to get it back on the road while we nail down the rest of the parts.
I want to retract everything I've ever said about WJ brakes fitting on a JK. I was completely wrong. Furthermore, WJ knuckles will in fact bolt up to a JK axle, but the camber is not correct. The steering is also not the same between the WJ and JK knuckles. It is similar, but when the knuckles are next to each other it is easy to see the difference.
JK knuckle on the left, WJ on right. You can also see why the brakes won't work. The rotors are different as well. Different rotor thickness and hat height. You can't see it in this picture, but the JK knuckle has a lot more meat in the tie rod area that makes it nice for drilling or reaming them out for larger parts.
We set the steering up and mocked up the track bar with the JK knuckles on the JK axle. We were able to extend the track bar to within 1/2" of the length of the drag link, so bump steer should be less of an issue, even though it wasn't really bad before.
These pics are at full bump.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
We got SUPER lucky with the control arms, since Carl planned ahead when he built the front radius arms for a couple of crazy people who might get a hair-brained idea to swap in an axle from a totally different application.
We moved the coil buckets back a few inches from the standard TJ location on the axle. This effectively moves the axle forward, but we hadn't planned on the lower control arm mounts being in different positions... We only measured side to side for CA mounts and they all looked great.
Look at the difference in these lower control arm mounts.
There is 1.5" difference in the CA hole position relative to the axle centerline.
As I said, Carl planned ahead by using Teraflex Monster joints which have a ridiculous amount of thread. We were able to keep 1.5" of thread engagement after adjust them out for the new axle position. We can probably turn them back in another 1/4" without making the springs bow.
We moved the coil buckets back a few inches from the standard TJ location on the axle. This effectively moves the axle forward, but we hadn't planned on the lower control arm mounts being in different positions... We only measured side to side for CA mounts and they all looked great.
Look at the difference in these lower control arm mounts.
There is 1.5" difference in the CA hole position relative to the axle centerline.
As I said, Carl planned ahead by using Teraflex Monster joints which have a ridiculous amount of thread. We were able to keep 1.5" of thread engagement after adjust them out for the new axle position. We can probably turn them back in another 1/4" without making the springs bow.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
The upper control arms now needed to be shortened, but that was easy enough.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
We performed a bar-pin delete by using JK style lower shock mounts on the axle. That was a nice touch and we just used the mounts we had cut off the Tera 44 when we moved the coil buckets since they are beefy units.
Lastly, we cut the old style Teraflex away bar mounts off the D30, chopped them down, and welded them to the new inner C's. I'll be honest and tell you that my vertical-up welding is rusty as can be, so I performed a "cover pass" over the not too pretty vertical up weld. I'm not worried at all about it failing, but I do need to practice my vertical-up game.
Lastly, we cut the old style Teraflex away bar mounts off the D30, chopped them down, and welded them to the new inner C's. I'll be honest and tell you that my vertical-up welding is rusty as can be, so I performed a "cover pass" over the not too pretty vertical up weld. I'm not worried at all about it failing, but I do need to practice my vertical-up game.
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
We finished bolting the WJ knuckles and hardware back on the Jeep and adjusted the toe, which, thank God for Carl for building a tie rod that adjusted just barely enough for this goofy conglomeration of axle parts. They guy is a real thinker-aheader.
Anthony drove it around a few blocks and over a few bumps and pronounced it good. You can see in the next pic that the camber is off.
Anthony drove it home 80 miles and no parts fell off. So... success?
Anthony drove it around a few blocks and over a few bumps and pronounced it good. You can see in the next pic that the camber is off.
Anthony drove it home 80 miles and no parts fell off. So... success?
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
Yes. Between the added length of the D44 pinion, the driveshaft adapter flange, and going from low pinion to high pinion, his driveshaft length and angle are perfect.
You can barely see it in this pic, which is at full droop.
- Location
- West Haven, UT
Very nice job.
Mike
Mike
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Great work!
Did you say why it's cambered in (did I miss that)?
Did you say why it's cambered in (did I miss that)?
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
Yup. The WJ knuckles are installed on the JK axle and they are quite different.
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
So what's the plan? Are you going to do offset taper ball joint inserts like on old XJ knuckles?