Rubicon "buggy" build...

[Exalted 4x4]

I read about your rip off dana 60 on pirate, that sucks man. I just got jipped on a "rebuilt perfect tranny" I know how you feel. Good luck on the build and i am excited to see the rest

 

[waynehartwig]

I read about your rip off dana 60 on pirate, that sucks man. I just got jipped on a "rebuilt perfect tranny" I know how you feel. Good luck on the build and i am excited to see the rest

Thanks!

Today I pulled the front end out of my Rubicon and put it in the other Jeep and modified the front driveiline to fit the new axles (shortened and a 1310/1330 joint).

I cut the day short, and didn't get near what I was hoping done. There's always tomorrow right!?

Tomorrow I'm hoping to strip my Rubicon (parts and plasma off the stock brackets), make the other Jeep road worthy so it's owner can pick it up (and I can get paid ), and mock up the rear axle and links so I can get the rear driveline ordered. Oh, and the front 60 should be done (knuckle welded up) as well....

 

[Gravy]

WOW Wayne you're really making progress. Take some pics will ya?

 

[waynehartwig]

I've been taking pics - not a lot, but I have some key and progress pics.

Customer picked up his completed TJ Tuesday? I think it was. No exhaust, so I took part of his old one, and cut a elbow off then welded it on to his creating a turn down right after the crossmember. Surprisingly enough, a stock TJ driveline is the perfect length for a 6" lift and a D44 swap. When I took it apart, it was way too short - even with the Skyjacker 4" lift already on it! So this was kind of surprising to me... Customer really likes the 'new' Jeep - says it rides really good. One of his original complaints was the jarriness and feeling every pebble on the road and vibrations. So I got paid

My Rubicon got completely stripped - all of the control arm mounts, slinky holders, etc.

The front D60 turned out great and is ready now...

BTF came through big time on the truss kits that I ordered back in March. After explaining the urgency of them, they sent the 2nd day air to me (at no cost to me) and I received them today. I hear some badmouth BTF, but I've never had any issues with them. They've always been great with their service and support. Granted, slow at times, but...

I took the front and rear D60's, installed the truss kits and tacked on the control arm mounts. At full stuff I'm able to get a control arm length. So now I'll make some temporary ones out of some junk C channel instead of using expensive DOM tubing. Shorter is easy, but longer means new tube.

I did get the axle mocked up and ordered a rear driveline. We'll see if if it works The front driveline should be fine to make it road worthy.

The last two days I haven't gotten much done. Weather has been terrible (windy and rain) and I've also been sick and not feeling like working my butt off.

Tomorrow I'll finish welding up the front truss kit. If you've never welded up a BTF truss kit, there are certain steps that need to done first. Otherwise you won't be in a good position to weld some of it. Part of the truss welds to the spring pad that is cast into the diff, so I'll need to have that welded up. I have an old Lincoln Idealarc 250A?, but I'm not a stick welder. I'm not a mig welder, either, but stick..I'll let someone else do it

Tomorrow I should be able to get the test control arms made so I can move the axle around and make sure I like the lengths. If so, I'll pull them and actually build the rear control arms. After that, I will go through the rear D60 and set it up - lockers, gears, axles, hubs, brakes, etc. I haven't done that yet, becuase it makes it heavy and hard to move around. But hopefully tomorrow I will have a complete D60 under the rear and bolted in with actual control arms. After that happens, I can start making the coil over mounts and get them in.

I'm trying to only raise my Jeep 2" and have it blocked up right now at that height. I might have to raise it, though. Right now it gives me about 3-4" of uptravel before the axle actually hits the crossmember above it. I was originally hoping for 6" of uptravel... We'll see where this all comes together. I'm also using some pnuematic 2" travel bump stops. I'm also afraid at 3-4", am I going to hear that back there clicking? And since it's makign contact, will it hinder my shocks/springs to adjust my ride. If so, that could make my ride brutal. We'll see......

 

[waynehartwig]

The rear is done, other than mounting the coil overs (mounts are in) and bump stops (still need the mounts). Oh, and the gas tank needs to be installed. But all of the arms are welded up, etc.

Got the front mocked up and the lowers tacked together. I need to figure out a way to get the upper control arms from the axle to the frame, without hitting the exhaust! Leaving the exhaust there, the uppers will only be about 20-22" long and going against the ~40" lowers, that's wayyyyy to short. but I think if I can reroute the exhuast down the drivers side of the motor and cross under the bell housing, instead of going forward and crossing under the oil pan, I can get at least a 30-35" control arm. So now I need to pull the header down and see what I can do there.......

Right now I'm sitting at 99". I lost about 2" in the rear becuase of control arm length - bought too short of tubing Actually, it was correct when I was goign to put the mounts where I thought I was. But now I'm going to use the Rubicon Express crossmember, which changed my mount location forward about 9". The new mounts, I could not get the numbers to come out. So for the heck of it, I tried the old mount (RE crossmember), and the numbers came out nearly perfect! 0* roll and about 87% anti squat. Before I couldn't get less than 9* roll and less than 107% anti squat. So now I have too short of arms

Pics to follow!!

 

[waynehartwig]

Here are some before and after shots of my Customers TJ.....

 

[waynehartwig]

Here are some pictures of the front axle and it's narrowing...

You can see some chalk lines and punch marks. What I did was take a measurement from point x on the knuckle to point y on the tube, both got punch marks and they are both exactly 12" apart. I then took roughly 2-1/8" out, put the knuckle back on and clocked it. In one of the pictures on the floor, you can see my 'special clocking tool'. You can't see the 4' handle on it, though...

The other pics are of the knuckle after I plasma'ed the weld off, cut/cleaned up the axle tube and put the knuckle back on.

 

[Bart]

WOW, it's really coming along. Keep up the great work and good luck.

 

[waynehartwig]

Here is a picture of my stripped Rubicon, sitting up on blocks....

The other pictures are of the rear axle with the truss kit and mounts tacked into place. And of the axle sitting under the rig mocking trying to figure out where to put the mounts.

In one of the pictures, you can see where I was going to have the new mounts. All you can see is the bolt and part of it. This mount is on a piece of 3/16" that is C shaped to fit the frame. It also has some upper mounts welded on it.

 

[waynehartwig]

Here was my excitement for the day.... Cutting the lower's to size....

Kids, don't do this at home!!!

Oh, in the background you can just see part of the new tires...

 

[waynehartwig]

Since I was using the RE crossmember, I had to modify it to work. I needed it to be able to accept the larger 2-1/2" johnny joint and angle the uppers inwards for the triangulation.

The plasma did not do very well at getting the old brackets off. Time for the torch!!! So I torched/melted evertyhing off, then ground it down to look good. Worked much better!!!! Since I got the plasma, I haven't used the torches much, even started to think they were obsolete - no longer!! There is just some things that plasma can't do and you must use the torches.

You can also see the new mounts welded in place and the arms in place.

In these pictures, the axle is at full stuff. Right now the bumpers are at 2" above my old ride height. With about 4" of up travel. I'm actually looking for 6", but we'll see how this works, as I'm only hoping for 2" taller bumpers. I'm really wanting to keep it low......

 

[waynehartwig]

Now comes the fun part - frenching the rear coil over mounts into the frame!!!

The first picture shows it only partially inset. I had a hard time convincing myself to notch the entire frame. But after partially doing it, setting the CO and springs in there, I just did not have the clearance. The tire would have rubbed, the coil spring would have rubbed the mount, etc. So I ended up cutting it all out.... To keep some of the strength, I bud welded some 3/8" holes to the frame. Getting in there to weld across the top, in the back, I just couldn't get in between the tub, frame and mount to weld. I did try though!!! I could get the stinger in, but I couldn't see what I was doing. So I watched my burn on the front side of the shock mount.

..There are no pictures of the full cut. Basically I cut all the way back to where the 'corner' of the metal is on the top and bottom of the frame.

 

[waynehartwig]

Here's where I'm at now with the front axle.... I'm waiting on steering arms so I can see where my drag link, etc is goign to be before I put too much weight on how far forward my front axle would be.... This picture is also of a stuffed axle...

 

[waynehartwig]

WOW, it's really coming along. Keep up the great work and good luck.

It's going very slow... I spent way too much time on my customers Jeep. But I have been busting my butt every day on either one. So much so, I have lost 15 lbs in three weeks

 

[Exalted 4x4]

OOOHHHHHHH very nice!

 

[GOAT]

Looks good Wayne!

Those poly performance shock towers are nice. I wish I would have gone with them instead of my POS Ford brackets.

Look forward to seing it on the trail in Idaho.

Marcus

 

[waynehartwig]

Looks good Wayne!

Those poly performance shock towers are nice. I wish I would have gone with them instead of my POS Ford brackets.

Look forward to seing it on the trail in Idaho.

Marcus

I'll never buy anything from Poly Performance again - their customer support/service is terrible!! They ship differently from what you order, too, without calling to see if it's ok. Etc...etc..etc.... Gen Right is a 'large' PP distributor, and they are a ton more helpful, quick to get your order out, etc..etc...etc.. I'm not saying PP products stink, I'll just never buy anything from them again, I'll buy their items from Gen Right before anything else.

The shock towers are nice and I'm very happy with them. They ship way too long, meaning you need to cut off some to use them. Making it great, so that they can be more custom for your job. Even with my 1" body lift, I cut probably 6" off the end.

My only gripe with them is there is no way to get behind to weld, without taking the body off. One thing I could have done, that I ddint' try, is remove the body mounts and lift one side of the tub off the frame. I attempted to weld up the driver side, but I didn't feel good about it, so I came up with the bud welds. I didn't even attempt to weld on the backside on the passenger side.... I did make sure to run my weld around from the sides to the back as much as possible though - to keep it from 'tearing' as much as possible.

My other fear is since you cut out all of the frame, strength issues... So much so, if you look in the pictures, you will notice I had stands just under the bumpers. After notching (before starting) I added jack stands just under the door to keep the weight off the bumper stands for fear the frame would buckle.

EDIT: I think that initial order had some problems, but since then they have really gone above and beyond. Definately worth a second look. It's just too unfortunate that most 4WD shops don't give a rat's a$$ anymore. So when you find one that does, but have a bad experience, you get to fast to pull the 'screw them card'.

 

[GOAT]

My only gripe with them is there is no way to get behind to weld, without taking the body off. One thing I could have done, that I ddint' try, is remove the body mounts and lift one side of the tub off the frame. I attempted to weld up the driver side, but I didn't feel good about it, so I came up with the bud welds. I didn't even attempt to weld on the backside on the passenger side.... I did make sure to run my weld around from the sides to the back as much as possible though - to keep it from 'tearing' as much as possible.

My other fear is since you cut out all of the frame, strength issues... So much so, if you look in the pictures, you will notice I had stands just under the bumpers. After notching (before starting) I added jack stands just under the door to keep the weight off the bumper stands for fear the frame would buckle.

Thats too bad about their CS.

Don't sweat the frame being too weak. I've cut and rewelded the crap out of mine without any issues. To gain welding access, I ended up getting some large screw jacks from a trailer supply store (state trailer/$30) and placing them under the rockers and lowering the frame down with a floorjack. Works like a champ!

HTH -Marcus

 

[waynehartwig]

Thats too bad about their CS.

Don't sweat the frame being too weak. I've cut and rewelded the crap out of mine without any issues. To gain welding access, I ended up getting some large screw jacks from a trailer supply store (state trailer/$30) and placing them under the rockers and lowering the frame down with a floorjack. Works like a champ!

HTH -Marcus

Yeah, see.. I thought that would work.... I would have just used a hi lift jack under the rocker if I was going to do it. I might still... Just so I can get in behind the shock mount. I'm actually not real worried about it, those bud welds should hold fine. Next time I think I would do 3 - 1/2" instead of 4 - 3/8" though.....

 

[moabrangler]

Keep going Looking good. an you'er going to have this ready for PRICE??