JOMJ87

Ok its been a week and its still not right. I spent 4 days so far after work till 10:00pm at night working out some issues and still I'm haunted. I finished it last weds night and took it for a spin Thurs after work and as some of you might have read i Had DW. Not bad DW but none is a good thing. It turns out the mesurements that were suposed to be close that i recieved off 3 diff sources on the web were WAY off. My uppers were about an inch short. so last night i adjusted them which in turn took about 2 hours cause i couldnt find my angle finder so i ended up using a adjustable level and trying to match the pinion to the output of the Tcase. Well today i drove to work and noticed a great improvement but when i got out and check i could see the tires still didnt sit right. So i looked over it all and realized I adjusted to much. SO needless to say i wasnt happy but i expected it. I went today and bought a new degree finder and tomm. on my day off i will have it right or i will nuke the truck. I have had every issue you could have with this front axle including braking a bolt off and having to fetch it out. I have had soem bad luck doing any work to my MJ so far but hopefully i can get out of the slump soon. I spent this past weekend shooting my Pistol and after 1200 rounds a 5 hours at the range i felt alot better. I will post more soon and i am getting ready to start some other small Projects along with the motor. Ill post info and a To DO list Tomm. Cole

Congrats you better look at this and go to the baby section. www.allthingsjeep.com Already ordered my soon to come daughter some stuff from the baby section. I am trying to get a MJ onesie made up for her. I will see if they can do it for me. Cole

Well my only concern is i drove last week at 65 and had zero vibs so i don't think its the balance. I also balenced the tires myself on the machine. I am going to get the alignment of all the suspension componets right first and then if there is still an issue i will find a shop to balance the tires. Thansk for the input though Cole

PERFECT thanks CW Cole

OK thanks alot guys. I was just wanting to see if the linkages COULD cause it so knowing that i feel better cause I'm sure after a few hours of work i can get it right. It isnt DW so bad as to jerk me out of the road but the steering wheel does jerk back and forth pretty good. Out of balance tires have never felt like this. I will work on the suspension links and see what i can get done with it. EAGLE where do i mesure to check the castor angle??? I have a degre finder but i don't know where they take the messurement from to check it. I'm sure its out now that i have looked it over today. Thanks again Cole

Whats this place you wheel at??? I'm originally from aorund Asheville and now I'm stationed at Shaw AFB near columbia SC. All i have ever heard of is Gulches in laurens SC, URE??don't know speeling but its up your way. and Tellico. if its closer then these do you have pics and is it Legal?? Also hows the wheeling?? Sorry to highjack but if you want PM the info or do a write up on it in the wheeling section if you don't care. Thanks Cole

OK so some of you know i am doing F/R axle swaps to a 30/44 combo with 4.88s. Anyways i have had alot of issues and most are self caused but a few were just flukes. Now i have a big one!!!! OK i got the front in after 2 long nights after work. I took it for a test drive and as soon as i hit 47 mph i got the dreaded death wobble. Now it only happens on ruff roads and at 47 mph. Any faster or slower it don't do it and if I'm on smooth road it is fine. Well First off the alignment is off and i know it is. also the pinion angle is off because of guestimated Control arm lengths and the trac bar may be off a tiny bit. I know that sounds bad and i prob wasnt smart in driving it but i needed to know if it was ok to drive to work Tomm. morning. Obviously i need to fix these issues before It gets driven any more. But Second i have only heard of DW coming from loose or old joints or linkage not misalignment. so my questions follow... Can all the alignment issues cause death wabble?? Does anyone with a good alignment know the degree setting of any nice easy to get to flat spot on there Front axle to mirror mine from??? Whats the easiest way to check the trac bar alignment?? Thanks alot for any and all replys. I just need to get this taken care of and i need to know if i need to plan to buy parts if its turns out misalignment don't cause DW. Cause i already have to get a new front D-Shaft. Cole

Short is my first thought but you may check the flashers. Sometimes a bad one will do crazy things. Cole

The best thing to use would be a body saw. they are small air saws but they use jig saw blades. Much easier to cut straight. Also tape out your line with thick masking tape to help you stay straight. If you so this please take lots of pics and do a write up. I have been wanting to do this but i can't decide if i want to cut liek your pic or just cut at the next bend in the quarter right below that one. Hope that helps some but i will say start at the tire side and go back so that it stays rigid longer. and you may need to put a bottle jack or wedge something in between the sheet metal and frame so i don't flop. When i cut my fenders i had to wedge a stick up in it so it would cut with my sawzall. Cole

http://comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1591 Here is mine in OD green. Cole

Its not the springs in the MJ its that they sit in a diff location so you have to move the perches on the XJ axle to bolt it up correctly. But the front should be ok as long as you stay around 33s with it. and the 8 1/4 is better then a D35 but for the work i would buy a 8.8.. But thats me Cole

WOW i wish i could have taken metal classes at that age. They didnt offer that till high school and by then my dad had taught me everything he could about tool and die work and welding. I even welded better then our horrid teacher but i think anyone could he was so bad we wrote a letter to the superintendent to get him removed and it worked.><><>On a second note have you really had alot of luck with the lincoln??? I had read several bad things about them and i had experienced several bad welders including a hobart that was 110. I just never cared for them. Cole

Oh and i would use RE super flex joints on all ends i could. Cole

If you look for designs for XJs and then change the pieces you want for your needs you have a very workable design. There are several write ups on how long the uppers should be compared to the lowers. Something else to look at is if your arms pivot on the frame in the same location as your Front D-shaft then the slip on the d-shaft will be null or minimal which could be a nice atribute. also do you want to run 2 uppers or 1 or do you want a wish bone upper? Also do you want your uppers to connect to the lowers as one peice or have a seperate mount for them. My design is Prob going to be 2 sets of arms that include both the uppers and lowers mounted close to the pivot point for the D-shaft on the frame using a strong Box design that is made so that rocks wouldnt catch it To bad. I did a 2 sec drawing of what the arm design would be roughly. Cole

Are you really 15 :eek: I hope thats a typo but I'm not sure. Cole

Thats a buzz box as some will call it. It runs on 110 and uses flux core ONLY wire. They are ok for thin stuff but for jeeps you need something in the 230V range. They don't burn near as hot usally and most will tell you not to waist the money. If you think about it for about 2 hundred more you will have a nice welder that can do Flux core or MIG. I would spend 450 on that just to want bigger later. Cole

https://weldingsupply.securesites.com/cgi-bin/spider.pl?K2472-1|||341 Best welder i have ever used. I love this thing. My Buddy got one for his coming home from the sandbox present to himself and when i got back i have used it several times and it is wonderful for those around the house jeep jobs. My dad has also used his welder and is thinking about getting one. Everything i have heard and seen about this welder has been supurb also. BUT i have a stick and i learned to weld with stick so i have alwasy been partial to them. I really like using them EXCEPT stopping and putting in a new rod every few inches......I say go for the MIG and i Highly sujest the one above. It is going to be my next tool purchase come sept. for my birthday and renlistment to the AF is going to pay for it :brows: Cole

On a second note>>> I pulled the YJ motor today with my the guys that owns it. and I'm so happy at what i found. The harness isnt going to be hard at all. I am going to run aftermarket gauges in the stock location (sort of) and make a custom dash bezel. I am also going to redo all the radio wires and such in a lume??SP?? like the should be and also run my fog lights and doodads on stock wires and switches. Something real amazing is how simple the harness is. hell even the lights are totally seperate from the rest. I can adapt the changes i need and it should get done with only a week of work. I will not start this for about a month but after that its Gulches time then in Jan or so i am heading to Tellico if it rides the Interstate as well as it should. Oh here is a pic of the complete harness minus the lights. Cole

I can't wait to see this thing finished. Maybe you should lay out of work and help it along. You could catch one of those summer colds. :brows: J/K but i really love what you have done. I would like to know how the propane turns out that might be a option sometime later if gas breaks 5 bucks a gallon or something. Cole

Hopefully Monday after work. I'm nervous to do it during the week now cause The wife had to go back to NC with our only other car so if i run into a snag with the axle going in i will have to ride my Bike to work. :mad: But i think i will go for it. With her not here i can work until the Cops some by and tell me I'm to loud and then some. :D I guess ill go for it and ill take some pics of them installed. everyone thats seen them thinks they are the tuffest looking ones they have ever seen so i guess ill start the plan to make a long arm kit for it. using that design. Cole

Yeah thanks and ill wait for the pics. I casme back to ask the size and seen you had replied. If you can email the pics and specs to me i will PM my email to you. I will try to see if he has anything that will work. Cole

Ill see what i can do. Ill PM as soon as i find anything out. Cole

Well mine will let me work on it but everytime i tell her how long Ill be she quickly doubles it a corrects me so I take that long instead. I gues that comes from saying give me an hour and 3 later coming in Pissed off and covered with blood,sweat and grease. Other then that she DOES NOT ride in it unles i force it. She claims it makes her stink cause it smells. I told her whe i get the new motor in and get new interior in right after that it want smeel as bad so that helps with getting wrenching time. OH and the fact she is 30 weeks pregnant and the truck is 7"s over stock hasnt been helping. I had to get a step stool and let her use that to get in when i got back from the sand box just so i could drive my poor MJ for the first time. Oh i wish i had a pic of that though yall should have seen her. :D Cole

I have seen some rigs from all kinds of wheelbases and my Favorite was a buggy that was about at 100"s. It was about perfect for tight turns and the steep climbs. If i changed mine i might go to 102 or so. but i would do as stated before and pushed the front out till the tires hit right after the bumper when you go up against a straight up wall. But Dirty is right it depends on location and wheeling style plus what you feel comfortable in. Like i would never wheel a Sami up a steep hill cause i feel like if i hit a rock it would roll on its top. Cole

If you know the thread count and pitch i can see if my dad has them at his Shop. I am more excited that everything will be sitting right after I'm done. As of now I'm at 7+" and i still am running stock uppers. :oops: Which has cause me to not have exact location on the axle. Plus I am putting in 4.88s. Hopefully that will go in Mon. with the arms. Also Tomm i am going to pull the 2.5 Motor and all the esentials for a Motor swap from the YJ. That is going to go in after My wifes Sis has her baby since i don't have anything to drive to work if the wife leaves when that happens. But then that leaves alot still to do before my wife has our baby. Tight time line there. on a good note the MJ will go back to having less then 40,000 miles on the motor 60,000 or so on the Trans and T-case and a completely rebuilt set of Axles including the rear D44 i just put in. I think it should be reliable enough to drive to the 4wheeling places that are 3-4 hours away like Gulches ORV and Tellico. :cheers: . So we can start the countdown to needing to be finished with 10 weeks from Fri if she goes to her due date. :eek: Cole