Mr. Green's Surgery

[aw12345]

Use 1 bolt and a C clamp so you can rotate it

[Mike]

Unfortunately, things are on hold for a bit due to work. I will be in Louisville KY until Sept. 2nd. I think that I am close to the final configuration for the front end, but I still need to adjust the Pittman arm and run it through the various angles of articulation.

I am playing with a Pittman arm that is 1" thick mild steel at the adaptation for the stock splines and 3/4" carbon steel for the reach out to the drag link joint. I am skeptical about having a weld in the Pittman arm, so I am hoping for the thoughts of the folks reading this to help guide me....

[Elusive]

Before I welded a pitman arm I'd heat a super duty arm and bend it a little allowing it to cool slowly
I have a big collection of pitman arms if you want to try a few.

[aw12345]

Before I welded a pitman arm I'd heat a super duty arm and bend it a little allowing it to cool slowly
I have a big collection of pitman arms if you want to try a few.

This, use a Asto van pitman arm is nice and flat, give it a slight twist and it's off top the races. Or build one like the genright pitman arm

[Mike]

I got back from my second trip to Louisville on Friday night, so I spent the weekend working on the Jeep. Before I left, I got the steering box in place and mocked up or made a tack-welded version of the steering components.

I was able to see where the flex was going to put the various components:




I fought long and hard with getting the Pittman arm indexed properly. It turns out that I was using the wrong thing for a center point reference. Once I finally got my head on straight, it only took a couple of hours to build the primary part of the arm and test it.

I finished welding the arm together this weekend. Yes, this pic shows the nut hitting the tie rod, but the arm is only on loosely. It should snug up and have clearance when fully tightened:


The best part is that will most like only have to notch the frame a little for the track bar. Tomorrow, I'll run the articulation to make sure that everything clears properly. Here is what full bump on both sides looks like:

[Mike]

Making some progress.

I notched the frame for the Track Bar and Drag Link to allow full motion and tire turns. Then it was time for the final tweaks on the steering mounts. I painted and fully seated the Pittman arm and I have the clearance that I need (barely!) for the nut on the Drag Link Joint.

I want a double shear for the steering knuckle side of the drag link, so I mounted a tire to see how much room that I have to work with between the tire and the steering arm. It turns out that I have plenty:


After building the mount for the double shear, I pulled both high-steer arms and painted them. I set the mounting pins with threadlock and remounted the high-steer arms and tightened down the nuts with a touch of threadlock as well. The 100 degree day definitely sped up the drying time for the paint.

I'm pretty happy with the way that the double shear mount turned out:


I checked the Drag link and Track Bar angles and they are slightly off parallel. Probably not enough to worry about, but I think that I can adjust the height of one of the mounts to bring them truly parallel.

Once I make that change, it will be time to finish building the frame and reinforcing it with plates:

[dr.dirty]

Looking good MIKE! Gonna be done for the YJ shakedown this sunday?

[Mike]

Looking good MIKE! Gonna be done for the YJ shakedown this sunday?

I WISH! Still got a long way to go.

[Mike]

Back From New Zealand!

Sorry for the long break in posts. I've been away for a bit on vacation in New Zealand, so things have been on a hiatus for Mr. Green.

It was a great "holiday" as they say everywhere but America. I got to drive Tycho's Jeep on three very Rockin' trails in the backcountry. All three had lots of deep water crossings. I even got to drive through a narrow tunnel through a hillside that was filled with water! It was a great adventure!

Before I left, I did get the front frame worked out as well as the full steering arrangement. I only took a few photos to share of the progress:






Since I have been back, I have fitted both of the front shock towers and tacked the coilovers into place. I have articulated the action through both sides to see if anything will touch but it is all very free of the frame and the hood.

This pic is with one side at full droop:


And the other side at full bump:


Checking the full articulation for both sides, everything clears the frame and hood well. I then checked full droop on both sides and even though this droops with the axle to one side by a few inches, everything is still good:


I'm feeling like things are on the right tack, so I am buying the additional front end equipment that I am going to need. I have already measured the turn distance and I know that I will need an 8-inch ram-assist.

Before I order one, what diameter of ram do you guys recommend? I can get rams in 1.5", 1.75", and 2.25" diameters for the stroke that I need. Which one should I order?

[dirtman13]

Looking good Mike. I think 1.75 is plenty for your rig. That's what I'm running.

[aw12345]

1.75 is fine any bigger and the steering response gets to slow

[Mike]

Thanks guys. I'll order the 1.75 then. I plan to place the order tomorrow.

[Mike]

PSC will be sending me a ram assist and a new pump for the steering. Not sure when they will arrive. I have a heat sink for the power steering fluid on the way from LowRange Offroad as well.

In the meantime, I adjusted the Blue Torch front diff cover to allow for the tierod to have full travel:


It is surprising how much room there was inside the cover. Both the tierod and the ring gear still clear the diff cover.

I also picked up Fox air bumps and cans from Kartek in Corona for a great price:


I have the article from BillaVista on changing the travel distance of the shaft. I was thinking of setting them to 1.5" or so. What do you guys suggest?

Also, did anyone make their own internal spacers? Is there a trick for making sure the ID is the right size and smooth enough?

[Mike]

I got my new toys from PSC, but I am still working through some other aspects before I start installing the ram-assist.

The FOX air bumps that I bought were 4" travel and I wanted them shorter. I opened the housings and found the spacers that set the travel for 4 inches:



I removed them and cut longer ones to set the travel to 2" instead:



I played with several places to mount the front cans and found that things are getting pretty tight. I found decent spots and created landing plates for the bumps to push against. Everything is just tacked at this point, just like the rest of the front suspension and steering.

I had been planning on using Currie AntiRock Sway bars in the front and rear, but when I started checking the Currie site, the price has gone up from $480 to $520 for the front. I know that I can find other re-sellers that can get me a fair discount, but that kind of price increase when the government is telling us that there is no inflation made me rethink my plans.

I would like to try to find a way to avoid using Currie for the rear too, but there isn't much of an option that I can find. I'm open to any ideas that you folks may have....

I am not planning to run the trails connected in the front anyway, so I am reusing my original Jeep front anti-sway bar. It needed some modification to work. The outrigger arms will need to be a little shorter to fit the new configuration. This means that the ride will be a little stiffer in the turns, but I am hoping that it will be acceptable:



I am reusing the "not-so" quick disconnects from ProCrap that I already have for now. They should do the trick for the moment. I am already noodling a better design on the same framework. Here is what the passenger side looks like for now:



I'm looking forward to this weekend. I want to adjust the front UCA mounts so that they turn outward a little more. At full droop, the Johnny Joints are being hard pressed at the current straight position.

Afterwards, it will be time to design the ram-assist configuration. I'm looking forward to that.

[Mike]

I've made some solid progress. It feels like I'm on the downhill side of things finally.

The front suspension and steering are welded in and painted. I'm not happy with the ram assist set up, and even though it is burnt in, I plan to cut it out and rework it. Things are just too tight for comfort. Plus I don't like that I can't adjust the toe with the design that I have. Regardless, the rest seems to be ready to go:



RAT (Kurt) stopped by Wednesday and we knocked two items off my list by getting the Hydro Boost and the pedal tree reinstalled. We also played with the PSC pump and reservoir and found that I really need to get the fenders installed before I can fit the reservoir properly.

I tackled the steering rod extension and (finally) got it in place. Just a note, make sure that you have the steering wheel and steering box aligned properly before you do anything more than a tack weld.... Just saying:



Next I tackled the planning for the new fenders. I wanted to make sure that I have plenty of clearance for the 40's. If I wasn't planning to have (mostly) street legal fenders, I really wouldn't need to cut the hood for the high lines. I could just narrow the tubes to fit inside the wheel lines:



But I want fenders for the street (and mud, snow, etc). Therefore, I am planning to high line the fenders, but I found that I can reuse my old tube fenders if I alter the hood to high line just the front portion. Hopefully, I can work this out soon and share some pics of the re-purposed tube fenders.