JeepcoMJ Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 hey i have a question...i've got one comanche with stock springs that i'd like to lift. i also have a chance at a chrysler 8.25 rear end with 3.73's in it but it's from a cherokee. if i wanted to go SOA could i just put it on or are the perches different? i mean, could it be done easily with minimal fabricating? or is SOA not an easy option? also, what would that entail? if i did it how far would i have to drop my tranny and could i possibly keep my stock driveshafts? i'd like to be at about 5 inches with minimal effort...front end is no problem i know exactly what i'm doing on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 The perches are in different spots so welding on new perches is required. But you won't need a tranny drop and you should be able to use your stock driveshaft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z28superdave Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 I just finished my SOA conversion. If you reuse your shock plates and put them between the spring perch and leaves you can get out of buying new shocks, but you will need a mid 90's dakota rear brake hose. other than that it should be a breeze Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oizarod115 Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 I just finished my SOA conversion. If you reuse your shock plates and put them between the spring perch and leaves you can get out of buying new shocks, but you will need a mid 90's dakota rear brake hose. other than that it should be a breeze thanks for the tip, never knew that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Rocky Road Outfitters make a SOA kit that doesn't require any welding. And you don't have to buy the whole lift kit, just the rear stuff if that's all you want. I put one in. I don't know which rear ends it's available for though, besides the D35. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHEEP Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Rocky Road Outfitters make a SOA kit that doesn't require any welding. And you don't have to buy the whole lift kit, just the rear stuff if that's all you want. I put one in. I don't know which rear ends it's available for though, besides the D35. The RR kit only works with the stock Comanche D35 rear axle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted March 19, 2007 Author Share Posted March 19, 2007 so why doesn't anyone do it like this? what i mean is, the shock mount. this is the SOA that i put in the rear of my '86 to replace the cracked Rusty's springs. it came out of a JY comanche, and the shock plates were just flipped and shocks are hooked to the top of the springs...not the best way i'm sure, but is there anything particularly wrong with doing it that way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 The shocks will undertravel the leaf springs. Which can cause them to explode, bend, or generally just stop working. That and it won't flex as well. I think Pete's is like that though. Mine isn't, I put new mounts on both the axle and frame side of things so that the 12" (travel) shocks give about 15" becuase of their angle. Now the only thing hindering flex is that the tires hammer the frame on up travel. And that I've got leaf springs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokhound Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 Pete I hope you don’t mind me using your pics but these is how Pete did his...he went between the leafs same thought I guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted March 19, 2007 Author Share Posted March 19, 2007 i was thinking of improving upon this by making my own shock mounts and mounting them with the tops more inward and the bottoms more outward at an angle so that they're "triangulated" and have better movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duner Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 My dad came up with a good solution when we did the SOA for my MJ, we never intended to go SOA as my dad didn't want to lift the truck that high but after reading about all of the pitfalls with D35 and larger tires we decided that it would be in the best intrest of the project to replace the D35 with something stouter. Fortunately on the day we chose to go get the front axle we ran across an 89 XJ with D44 so plans changed immediately. Anyway we had the perches cutoff and relocated to MJ specs. (44" cen to cen on the 89 XJ, 42" cen to cen on my 90 MJ) and bolted it in. First time we just swapped sides and flipped the spring plates over and bolted everything together. It was beautiful 6.5" of lift but 1 lap around the neighborhood said this needed modification (stock shocks were bottoming out). My dad studied the problem for about ten minutes when we got back and said he had a solution but I would have to leave the truck with him that monday so he could fix it (tough to do when your seventeen and just lifted your truck over the weekend and all your buddies are waiting to see it) besides he said he needed to measure the dshaft angle and shim the rear pinion angle. Solution: Instead of installing the spring plate between the perch and springs which is an obvious fix my dad said that it would be too weak and allow the springs to possibly twist. So he took the spring plates and notched the front and back to slide over the leaf stack. (yes we did cut up the original spring plates no turning back now) This placed the shock mount very close to the original location plus it keeps the leafs from twisting on their perches. Needless to say this works wonderfully the ride and axle articulation great plus I get to use stock shocks on the rear. I have carried my uncle's 750 LB gun safe 150 miles on some very rough roads to our ranch with no problems from the shocks or anything else other than the brake proportining load sensing valve decided that the truck was still loaded. (we just disconnected it for now) I will snap a photo and post them to this thread later when get out of class. We used a 4 degree steel shim to adjust the pinion and a braided s.steel line for the brakes. all in all SOA is definitely easy on the MJ it would be even better if the perches did not have to be relocated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 Mine leaves the lower shock mount exactly where it was when stock. Still not ideal mind you, as I lose about an inch of up travel and an inch of down travel using stock shocks. But I was able to use my perfectly good gas charged shocks. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comancheon33 Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 On mine when I did the flip I built my own shock mounts and welded them to the back side of the axle tube. I tossed the MJ spring plates to the side and used XJ plates. It allowed me to used a pretty long rear shock and never have bottomed them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ifixit8 Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 Mine leaves the lower shock mount exactly where it was when stock. Still not ideal mind you, as I lose about an inch of up travel and an inch of down travel using stock shocks. But I was able to use my perfectly good gas charged shocks. :D where did you get that black top plate? is that custom made? I am just thinking of doing the same thing for mine to make it easier for me. i really don't want to reweld the spring perches on my new axle from a cherokee. then i'd just have to get new springs for the front and new shocks all around. what kind of lift would doing this soa be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 Doing a spring over using your existing springs will net 5-6 inches over your current height. But since many of us have sagging springs, that doesn't necessarily mean you need a 6" lift for the front. The top plate is custom made. I needed to fab one since I was adapting the Jeep to the Ford axles in a non-conventional way and neither the Jeep nor the Ford gave me the right width. And here are the cuts I made to fit the shock mount in there and clear the axle tube. You won't need to cut the nice round edge, just another straight cut. I am actually using the shock mount as a half-spring perch. (it's complicated and not recommended) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ifixit8 Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 thanks for the info pete. So it's not really recomended. bummer. I still might do it though, it's not like I will be harping on this thing. the truck is mainly my winter beater. did you have to get longer U-bolts to do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duner Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Ok got home and got the pic. The spring plate is notched front and back and placed over the leaf creating a very secure setup and placing the shock in almost the exact location from the orig. SUA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Using the shock mount as a perch is not recommended. Sandwiching the shock mount between the leafs and axle works just fine as long as the head of the bolt (the one holding the leaf pack together) still protrudes into the leaf perch. Otherwise the leaf pack could move on you, and that would be bad. :( Reusing U-bolts is not recommended. They stretch when tightened and can break if reused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted March 20, 2007 Author Share Posted March 20, 2007 duner i think i will re-do it as yours is. that looks pretty good to me, and would be fairly simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ifixit8 Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Using the shock mount as a perch is not recommended. Sandwiching the shock mount between the leafs and axle works just fine as long as the head of the bolt (the one holding the leaf pack together) still protrudes into the leaf perch. Otherwise the leaf pack could move on you, and that would be bad. :( Reusing U-bolts is not recommended. They stretch when tightened and can break if reused. I am sorry for not clairifing, i wasn't going to use the shock mount as a perch. I was looking to do it just like you had it. and I was just curious if you had to use longer u-bolts. I know that reusing the old ones is not a good idea, heck we cut the old ones off already. Duner--- thanks for the pic I will more than likely do the same too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duner Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 The only thing my dad said about doing the mount that way was it would have been easier with a plasma cutter rather than the cutoff wheel (our small compressor wouldn't keep up with the grinder and he had already moved the big compressor to our ranch. Otherwise the whole SOA job is very easy. Now if I can just get my hands on a D44 for the front I will really be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 You can buy plates with the shock mount already on it to go between the axle and springs. Then use the spring plates for say a D44 out of something bigger. (I have FSJ spring plates) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ifixit8 Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 You can buy plates with the shock mount already on it to go between the axle and springs. Then use the spring plates for say a D44 out of something bigger. (I have FSJ spring plates) Do you happen to know where? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87manche Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 good pic duner. I think I'll be copying that when I go SOA. So you just cut the original and flipped it over? brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokhound Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 now you guys no that Eagle is going to go thru the roof with you guys cutting those spring perches up :teehee: Just playin Eagle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now