Smokeyyank Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Looking good! When I got my truck from Troy he had some cut ZJ springs on it. For a rear sway bar why wouldnt the ZJ one work? Sucks on ruffstuff, I got the stuff I needed from Barnes a few days after canceling the ruffstuff order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 The ZJ rear bar is too wide. For where I want it to live it’d crash into the leaf springs. Originally, the ZJ sway bar ties into the control arms which are spread wider than our leaf springs. Reusing the current front as the rear just fits so much better. If handling feels weird, I’ll look into getting a WJ bar for the front. Ruff Stuff… … I just want to cancel the order but they need to pick up the phone or reply to an email for me to do that. Buddy of mine has heard a similar story from others in his fabrication circles too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Chasing more low might not be worth it. This morning I went out to put a second coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Plus on the floor and I played around with some coil options. I took the rear ZJ coils and cut one full coil off the big end. With everything back in I gained another 1/2” of drop when compared to the SCCA coils. I also took out the factory bump stops to see what was going to be the next thing to crash into something else. There’s another 3/4” between the top of the differential and the frame/engine mount. Worth it?… probably not. Who am I to question the suspension tuning of the Archers anyhow? With the bump stops out I put the SCCA coils back in to see if they’d settle at all. In the past, I’ve tried rear ZJ coils and they’ll net about a 3” drop. With cutting a full coil off they’ll get you about 3 3/4” drop. The SCCA coils drop about 3 1/4” or so. Good to know, but I’m sure I’ll just leave well enough alone when things get finalized. Finally, poking around I found a couple of bad tie rod ends. I ordered everything from the steering box to the knuckles to just be done with it and not have to worry about knocking loose stuck threads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted February 7 Author Share Posted February 7 I wish I had more to report but I’ve just been very busy. Today I received the last of my Ruff Stuff order though. Two full months to get two control arm mounts, leaf spring perches, u bolts, and a couple bushings. I’m grateful that towards the end I did get an email response from them, but overall I wish I would’ve been completely done with this project a while ago. Can’t say I'm mad, but I definitely have that disappointed dad feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 With all the parts here, I finally pulled the 4.10 Dana 30. The control arms needed to get reworked, however after pulling them I found that the lower bushings were completely wasted. I think these were Rubicon Express arms and they had a flex joint at the frame side that were noisy since the day they went in the truck. Being these had a goofy axle side bushing, I decided to just start from scratch. The uppers were fine to just cut the flex joint off. They got replaced with 2”x.250” tube so I could run a standard poly bushing. The new lowers also use 2”x.250” but I used a scrap of some fancy 1.75”x.120” DOM to connect the dots. They’re overkill for what they need to be. As for the 3.73 Dana 30 going in, the lower control arms got cut off because they were well on their way to falling off. I replaced them with Ruff Stuff 3/16” brackets and put it under the truck on jack stands. Everything needs paint then it should all just fall back into place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 Kind of a big day for the Eliminator! The axle and parts got painted and installed for the last time. Black… everything black this time. Last time the truck got a birthday the control arms got painted hammered silver and the axles were hammered gray but the diff covers were also silver… IT WAS TOO MUCH!! Younger me clearly wasn’t thinking about tasteful choices that older me might not like. Looks like 1/4” is the magic number. There’s 1/4” of clearance between the bump stops, upper control arm hardware to the frame, and from the driveshaft to the exhaust. The floor patch got painted and undercoated also. I touched up the undercoating around the rest of the truck too. All that’s left is to swap over the brake calipers, nut and bolt everything again, and double check the alignment once it’s back on the road. Then on to the rear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 Time for the rear. With everything out of the way it’s nice to see a quick turn around being there’s a third or so less moving parts. 4.10 axles out. I’ll probably hold on to these for at least a year… we’ll see. On to those nifty fiberglass leaf springs. The bushings that were at the frame side were just glued in and fell out with a little wiggle. Keep in mind that these were never mounted on anything from the late ‘80s until I briefly mocked them up in an ‘89 I used to have and then taken back out. I’m sure the glue was just fine in their prime but I didn’t trust it after this long. Luckily the I.D. was 1.5” so a standard poly bushing went in the old bushing’s place. I never had a shackle side bushing as long as I’ve had the springs. A while back I had some bronze sleeves made up but I was never crazy about how they turned out. A friend of mine purchased a lathe and was itchy to use it. He spun some delrin for me. Little bit of a difference between these and the metric ton springs coming out. Shackles are just plain ol’ stock XJ. Next on the list was figuring the rear sway bar. My material scraps are getting low but I managed to find enough to make it work. The axle side mount was an old set of shock mounts I kept from a while back and the frame side bolts on with the bump stops. Made for a good landing spot. I need to get the bar where I want it to live and then I’ll figure out end links. The axle pinion angle got measured up and some good tacks got put on the spring perches. Of course I had to throw the wheels on to see where we’re at now. Mmmmmm… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokeyyank Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Sexy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Looking great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted Wednesday at 11:46 PM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 11:46 PM On 2/12/2026 at 6:55 PM, Smokeyyank said: Sexy! On 2/12/2026 at 7:33 PM, 89 MJ said: Looking great! Thanks, gang! The rear (old front) sway bar was next. With the brackets I made to sandwich to the frame with the bump stops, the next step was to add the axle side brackets and connect the dots. A keen eye will notice that the bar was flipped upside down. Everything was initially mocked up with the bar mounted as it was up front (however flipped with the arms facing forward) but I didn’t like how the arms swung downwards. The bend in the end links made sense when the bar was mounted that way. What I mainly didn’t like was the length of the links so the bar was turned upside down. I might straighten the links… I might not. I don’t think there’s any benefit one way or the other. I did see a benefit to having them adjustable though. Should the truck ever change ride height in the future (because of my track record with this truck) I’ve got room to work with it and keep the sway bar. There’s plenty of space between the sway bar and the differential cover and spare tire. Granted, that’s a 30” tire stuffed under there too. I might clearance the cover once I’ve got the axle out for final welding to be on the safe side. Otherwise, I like how everything tucks up there! Just for kicks, I also put on a 2” spacer to see if I could flush out the rear tire to match the front. Nice. I noticed that the wheel isn’t quite where I want it in the wheel well though. This will get addressed once the axle is out also. The rear driveshaft length is fine, but moving the axle back couldn’t hurt that either. Should be able to pull it all part again for welding and paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle_SX4 Posted Thursday at 12:43 AM Share Posted Thursday at 12:43 AM Very good work with the sway bar. It makes a world of difference. It is cool that you used a front bar in the rear, defiantly a better fit width wise than the WJ bar I put in mine. I know the front bars came in a few different diameters so you could tune it by swapping bars. Also moving the axle is fairly easy. Just measure 3 times before drilling the holes in the leaf spring perches. I moved the rear axle in my Eagle last weekend for the opposite problem my axle was to far back and needed to come forward to clear the mudflaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted Thursday at 12:56 AM Author Share Posted Thursday at 12:56 AM 9 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said: … moving the axle is fairly easy… Yup. The perches I used have some adjustability but I think the hole spacing might be too far apart. If I need to weld up a couple holes and redrill between them, then so be it. Probably pull the axle tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted Thursday at 10:35 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 10:35 PM Lots of painting little parts today. I pulled the axle to make up the brake lines but moved it back one hole in the spring perches before completely removing it. It’s maybe a shade too far towards the rear of the truck, but I’m going to run it. Unfortunately, the sway bar wants to now live in a shared space as the spare tire. Really, I should replace it with an appropriate sized tire instead of the very old 30” that’s been living there since 2005… and it was an old, used tire then. Otherwise I’m happy with the brake line routing although I should’ve gotten an 18” instead of a 20” for the left side. I added a small woopdie-doo around the u bolts to make up for the added length. Maybe assembling tomorrow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle_SX4 Posted Friday at 12:08 AM Share Posted Friday at 12:08 AM 1 hour ago, neohic said: It’s maybe a shade too far towards the rear of the truck, but I’m going to run it. It looks a lot better than before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted Saturday at 01:39 AM Author Share Posted Saturday at 01:39 AM Big day in the shop! The old axles made their way outside. Jury is still out on what to do with those. Everything got reassembled and gone through again. Then the exhaust got tuned up. We’ll put this one on the “I’ll return to this in the future” list. For the past week I’ve been so sick of my dirty shop but the truck needed to get out before I could take a clean up cut. First time on the ground! With giving the shop a quick sweep, the truck also got a quick trip to the car wash… and of course it started to snow! There was another guy there that had a super nice fox body Mustang. We were looking at each other and shaking our heads like, “why bother!” Unfortunately, but not very surprising, I’ve got some issues to sort out. First off is the front driveshaft and exhaust header trying to share the same space. Turns out I didn’t have enough clearance. Can’t say I’m super happy with that, but I’ll also put that on the “I’ll return to this in the future” list. A quick heat and beat made for what I think is enough space. I need to droop the front axle out to get in and do a nicer job. In the meantime it’ll stay as-is until I know that it’s for sure fine. Otherwise… … I dig it! Question for everyone: what are your thoughts on a silver front bumper? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchamakalit Posted Saturday at 02:05 AM Share Posted Saturday at 02:05 AM I think it looks good. Not sure the fog lights fir my taste, but not my truck either. Lol. I was never a lowered truck fan but they are growing on me. This is probably the best version ive seen, except maybe a street manche...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted Saturday at 10:22 PM Author Share Posted Saturday at 10:22 PM 20 hours ago, watchamakalit said: I think it looks good. Not sure the fog lights fir my taste, but not my truck either. Lol. I was never a lowered truck fan but they are growing on me. This is probably the best version ive seen, except maybe a street manche...... They definitely aren’t for everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted Saturday at 10:27 PM Author Share Posted Saturday at 10:27 PM I drove the truck some today. It’s awesome! Can’t believe the difference in suspension feel. I’d say that it’s stiff, but it’s not jarring. The steering wheel can get sawed around and the hood line stays completely flat. I still have a to-do list but I couldn’t resist mocking another part on it. I’m leaning towards painting the valance black and the bumper silver. Open to opinions though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokeyyank Posted yesterday at 01:03 AM Share Posted yesterday at 01:03 AM 23 hours ago, neohic said: thoughts on a silver front bumper? With red? Absolutely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted yesterday at 01:23 AM Author Share Posted yesterday at 01:23 AM 17 minutes ago, Smokeyyank said: With red? Absolutely! Your truck was one that got me leaning back to silver. When I first got my truck it had a silver bumper. Kind of leaning towards a silver bumper and maybe a graphite gray on the valance? I’m concerned that having it black might make it disappear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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