It's An OCD Thing, You Wouldn't Understand

[inVERt'D]

I went this route for bracing 3 years ago has been happy ever since. Only change I made after that was dropping the rear arms at the
crossmember about 1.5". Which made it climb and hook significantly better.

Looks good and strong, Art. I remember when you added those braces. Looks like those LCA brackets are taking a good beating. I'm glad to know that you're glad you're did it, because mine probably hang down just a bit more. I just couldn't get the numbers I wanted with them higher or I would have put them out of the way. Same with my front LCAs.

All this talk about rolling steers. All I can think of is cow tipping

Been there. Tried that. I have the scars to prove it

Delinquents! At least you're not trolling on the internet.

ARSS™.

Is that pronounced "arse"?

Why yes it is! Silent 'e,' in the best English tradition, of course. In fact, if I change my mind and decide to run with the ball, I'll call my company Adjustable Redneck Suspension Engineering. I'm just afraid people would pronounce it "arsé," and I would have to constantly inform them that it's not French.

[inVERt'D]

You know guys, I've been thinking...

What if that holey 2x2 crossmember isn't strong enough?



















:cactus::cactus:

[aw12345]

Then you simply add more holey stuff till it all holy, maybe that will work

[inVERt'D]

When people look under my Jeep they'll say "Holey, holey, holey!"

[6spdYJ]

Holey cow tipping!

[inVERt'D]

Holey cow tipping!

I understand holey cows tip a lot easier.

[inVERt'D]

Front LCA Crossmember

Still more to do to the rear suspension, but I had to prioritize my argon and I really want to get rid of those Teraflex arms up front. On to the front 3-link.

I've already dropped some hints, but my 3-link is going to be a little different than your typical TJ's. I'd looked forward to following convention and doing things fairly simply. Just some typical LCA brackets on the frame rails. Some extra holes in the UCA brackets. The more I thought about it, though, the more I wanted to take the roll-oversteer out of the front suspension, and that meant moving the frame-side LCA mounts inboard. What I needed to do that was a front crossmember. With that big ol' 4500 under there, there's only one place to put a crossmember without it doubling as the transmission mount, and that's right in front of the transmission, and under the neck of the bellhousing. So the crossmember had to be bolt-in.

It's a tight affair, but there's room. Gonna have to re-route that exhaust, though. Wouldn't you know it, though, there's a dog-leg in the frame right where my bolt-in crossmember needed to go.


Well, I got to designing, and calculating and reckoning. Force will be coming from the front and from below. First thing I decided was that the bolts should go fore-to-aft (or aft-to-fore) so they wouldn't be in sheer. The crossmember would go in from the bottom. The bracketry would hold the crossmember in place securely front, back, and top. The basic crossmember would be a piece of 2”, .250” wall square tubing. Would have preferred completely fabricated out of 1/4” or better plate, but I didn't have what enough, let alone what I wanted, so I'd just have to reinforce the 2x2.

From there I played with a number of variations of design, both in my head and on the computer. Two bolts, three bolts, five bolts (adjustable height), different dimensions. Again, my entire design was built around the materials I had on-hand that I could spare for it. I also designed for the future when I may build a replacement crossmember or two.

Here are a couple of drawings of the bracketry that are pretty close to what I've made in steel.

First the the top view. This is pretty accurate, except that this shows the 2x2 crossmember with two 1/4” laminates for a total thickness at the brackets of 2-1/2” . If and when I make another crossmember entirely out of steel plate, I want it to be 3” thick front to back, so I modified the design for two additional 1/4” laminates to take up the space. None of my drawings reflect that, however.


Now the front view. The two main bolts are 5/8”. Lower bolts are (to the bottom of the frame) are 3/8”. Drawing is to scale. The location of the exhaust and the shape of the adjacent radius are subject to change.


By now some of you may be thinking “That's great for the exhaust, but what about the your ever-loving driveshaft?” To which I say, this is a redneck rig, it has no front driveshaft, silly! Just kidding. The driveshaft will be a two-piece affair. Here's a diagram. I paid a professional to do this.

[RAT]

Here's a diagram. I paid a professional to do this.

Is his name by any chance Rube Goldberg?

[6spdYJ]

You can also do a double-double cardan between the t/c and the hanger bearing to maximize the re-directing while allowing the shaft to the pinion to stay as long as possible. If the front section of shaft has the rear u-joint in line with the lca mounts, you should have no issues.

Man, it sure is fun to tell you how to spend your money and time

[inVERt'D]

Is his name by any chance Rube Goldberg?

Ha ha. Even my Chebby as a two-piece drive shaft. I wanted a fixed yoke setup and was pleased to find I'm not the only one who's crazy.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/misce...ing-mount.html

[inVERt'D]

You can also do a double-double cardan between the t/c and the hanger bearing to maximize the re-directing while allowing the shaft to the pinion to stay as long as possible. If the front section of shaft has the rear u-joint in line with the lca mounts, you should have no issues.

Man, it sure is fun to tell you how to spend your money and time

Sorry I missed your reply earlier. I'm kinda out of it today. More out of it tonight. A double-double cardan?? Are you serious?

Well, I'm really tired. I'll try to figure out what you're saying tomorrow.

[RAT]

So how far along with this project are you? I really want to be there for your break in run. Ooops! Sorry, used the word BREAK. I meant inaugural...

[inVERt'D]

You can also do a double-double cardan between the t/c and the hanger bearing to maximize the re-directing while allowing the shaft to the pinion to stay as long as possible. If the front section of shaft has the rear u-joint in line with the lca mounts, you should have no issues.

That drawing is sorta conceptual. It's not a contract drawing if you know what I mean. I may clock the t-case a notch to move the front output down. Would be a good thing for a number of reasons. At any rate, I don't anticipate the need for a double cardan on the t-case side, and the pinion side should be sufficiently long. I plan to stretch the front eventually anyway.

So how far along with this project are you? I really want to be there for your break in run. Ooops! Sorry, used the word BREAK. I meant inaugural...

Smartass. The front crossmember is pretty much done. The frame bracketry is probably 3/4 done. I'm screwing with the HP30 now, but I've been putting more time into unrelated projects. I expect it all to be solid, but I can tell you this, if the front crossmember breaks, DON'T follow me

[6spdYJ]

Sorry I missed your reply earlier. I'm kinda out of it today. More out of it tonight. A double-double cardan?? Are you serious?

Well, I'm really tired. I'll try to figure out what you're saying tomorrow.

Yeah, a double cardan at each end of that section of shaft. It allows you to wrap the driveshaft into multiple compound angles without vibrations. Look up LP magazine driveshaftology. They have a good example on an offset diff being fed from a Dana 20.

[aw12345]

Worth on the street is that two piece driveshafts on the front suffer from reliability problems.