Mr. Green's Surgery

[aw12345]

You actually want to clock it one bolt hole down from flat, to help clear the trans tunnel with the front driveshaft

[nwoods]

40x13.5x17 Maxxis Trepadors. They are sitting in the garage waiting patiently for their turn.

Mike, honest question here: why so big? I have always enjoyed your trip reports of all the exploration stuff you enjoy. Sure, dusy and the hammers are much easier on 40's, but is easier actually better? Is it as much fun rolling through everything without challenge? Can you still take long trips to the Sierra's or Colorado and so forth? My advice is not to go too big. Keep it challenging, don't make the majority of trails a bore. But that's just my opinion. Heck, I don't even have a Jeep anymore!

[Mike]

You actually want to clock it one bolt hole down from flat, to help clear the trans tunnel with the front driveshaft

That's where I am right now. You have a good point, but I think that I am going to play with putting flat just to see what happens. Since the front driveshaft is going to be so close, I will probably have to put it back to the way it is now.

Mike, honest question here: why so big? I have always enjoyed your trip reports of all the exploration stuff you enjoy. Sure, dusy and the hammers are much easier on 40's, but is easier actually better? Is it as much fun rolling through everything without challenge? Can you still take long trips to the Sierra's or Colorado and so forth? My advice is not to go too big. Keep it challenging, don't make the majority of trails a bore. But that's just my opinion. Heck, I don't even have a Jeep anymore!

Mostly, I got a killer deal on the 40's. But that being the trigger, the justification that I told myself was that pretty much every JK on the Rubicon last year was on 40's. For a change, I would like to be ahead of the curve. I have no intention of only running hard trails like JV. In fact, I am really just trying to fix the crappy suspension design that I have to repair regularly. I have always had the philosophy that if it breaks, then upgrade it. I'm just skipping to the best upgrade available right now.

[Mike]

So here we go! Mr. Green will be traveling the Upper JackStand Trail for a while:



I still have a few more things to unbolt, but soon after it will be time to start cutting off the old mounts and cutting into the tub.

[aw12345]

We want pics of the carnage lol

[daniel_buck]

So here we go! Mr. Green will be traveling the Upper JackStand Trail for a while:

Be sure and keep a look out for my little jeep, it's somewhere along that trail.

[aw12345]

Mike if you need any ideas on how to hack up your Jeep come visit, working on my projects today

[Mike]

Mike if you need any ideas on how to hack up your Jeep come visit, working on my projects today

Damn, I wish that I had seen this before now. I would have swung by. I have stripped all of the parts that can be unbolted, so it is time to start cutting stuff. I think that I can get to a flat belly and still use my original seats, but I have to start cutting to find out.

[aw12345]

Will be home tomorrow too. Might go to Currie for a bit to see if I can pick up an anti rock.
I ran my old TJ seats for awhile

[Mike]

Well this week has been busy. Between work and answering way more Craigslist inquiries than I wanted to, no work to Mr. Green was done until today. Even so, I spent many hours related to sales with only one thing actually being sold today.

But at least I did get some work done. I pushed the drive train up against the pan and traced the areas that I knew that I would need to cut. Then pulled the Atlas to get room to work.

While I had the Atlas out, I checked to see if I could clock it any flatter and the answer was No. The only set of pin holes left in the direction that I wanted to go would have clocked it up past the level point:



This is the first of the areas that would need to be cut:


I found that the up travel needed was more than the engine mounts wanted to allow, so loosened them. Then found that the mounting points for the exhaust will need to be changed to allow the lift as well. So then the exhaust was unbolted and set to the side for now.


Finally, I can lift the drivetrain to the upper limit:


I will still need a good bit of lift to get the belly flat. So it looks like that I will be cutting out most of the front of the tunnel. I think that I can lift the whole section and add extra sheet metal to make it sit higher:



Looks like I will be building a custom center console before this is over.

Any advice from the folks that have done something like this before is always welcome!

[mrchips]

Is this going to be a daily driver? Adding the 40's bigger axles and so on, you are adding allot of weight, and that will make a difference to the performance from the I 6 engine and also the braking will suffer.
I noticed a difference on my LJ after I put 37's and Dynatracs in it running 5.38's.
Have fun with the build.

[Mike]

Is this going to be a daily driver? Adding the 40's bigger axles and so on, you are adding allot of weight, and that will make a difference to the performance from the I 6 engine and also the braking will suffer.
I noticed a difference on my LJ after I put 37's and Dynatracs in it running 5.38's.
Have fun with the build.

Thanks for the heads up. I have been a little concerned about that. I've been told that it doesn't seem to effect handling much, but your statement makes logical sense.


Well, today I have officially reached the Point Of No Return. I have sold both old axles and have started cutting a big hunk out of the tub.
Sold the axles to a nice guy close by. I told him about MJR and I hope to see him on the trails when I get Mr. Green rolling again.

[Mike]

So rather than watching the Super Bowl, I spent quality time with Mr. Green today. I also sold both axles and the tires today, so there is definitely no going back. That relevation was actually a good one for me. Time to get this thing on!

So, I cut a big ass hole in the tub to find the right height for the drive train:


Even so, this hole was not quite big enough and needed some additional trimming. After I got the opening big enough, I lifted the drive train high enough to get the Atlas 4-Speed to clear the frame for a 100% flat belly. Unfortunately, this had several issues; not the least of which was that the invasion inside the tub would be higher than allowable to reuse my current seats. The Atlas cannot be higher than the corner of the board in this pic if I stay with my plan to reuse the seats:



The other problems with this height are that the rear driveshaft angle will be quite steep and that there isn't enough room for the Catalytic Converter to fit between the new cross member and the tub.

So, I dropped it down a bit and did some more measurements. Even at this level, the Cat still didn't fit into the planned space:


I dropped it down a bit more and found a level that would work better for the seat and the Cat. I hope that it works for the drive shaft angle once I lift the motor mounts. For now it would look like this:


This level would give me clearance to the front and back driveshafts as well as for the seat and Cat. Unfortunately, it drops the lowest part of the drive train, the 4-speed Atlas, to 1 inch below the frame. Looks like I am not going to get my totally flat belly after all.

At this level, the drive train will be 3 inches higher than stock. I am sure the the drivetrain angle can be improved a little by adding some blocks under the engine mounts, but it still will be at a steeper angle than it was. This is what the drive train would look like at this level under the Jeep:


Any thoughts from the folks reading this on how high I can lift the engine before I run into trouble with the DT tunnel or the hood?

[Mike]

Tonight I bolted the Atlas securely back into place, trimmed yet more floor pan for clearance, and started determining how I want to put a transmission cross-member into place. I think that I am going to recycle the ProComp cross-member. It is already fitted for the need and has proven its strength. I am not a fan of the control arm design of this lift, but it does have a few strong points that I am willing to borrow from.

I worked out the details on paper and I will start cutting and welding soon. But before I do, I think that I need to do some adjustments to the motor mounts. The distance in positions between the stock drivetrain position...:


And the planned drivetrain position...:


...Is pretty severe. There is a three inch lift. I feel that I need to lift the motor mounts to get the angle closer to the stock line. If I do this, the geometry that I am looking at now is going to change.

Therefore, I think that the next thing that I should do is to bump up the height of the motor mounts. It looks like I can only get 2 inches or so of lift and still clear the tunnel. I plan to pick up some steel to work with tomorrow.

[dr.dirty]

Looks good man!