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JeepinHank
08-18-2005, 05:12 PM
I've been searching around for some pics of what people have done for a frame side mount when triangulating or relocating the rear shocks. I've seen lots of rigs that run their shocks triangulated, but I can't find any good pics of the frame-side attachment beyond where the shocks bolt. I'm trying to figure out how the crossmember (or whatever is used) is attached to the unibody.

The reason I'm pursuing this is when I swapped in the 8.8, I raised the shock mounts to be level with the bottom of the axle tube. Unfortunately, that makes my current shocks (for a 3" lift) way too long on uptravel, and way too short on droop. Right now I'm at ~5.5" of lift in the rear. I'm thinking if I trangulate them the inside of the frame rail, I can run a longer shock, and maximize both up and down travel.

I'll lower the axle side mount if I don't have any other option, but I'd really like to have one less thing to get hung up on back there.

I've pretty much got the axle side mounts figured out. I'm just trying to come up with something for the frame side.

I've considered a couple of different options for triangulating:

1) Build a bolt in crossmember out of some 3" angle iron and sandwich between the bumpstop mounts. (I kind of like this one the best)
2) weld in a crossmember between the framerails. (gas tank)
3) Build a bolt in crossmember to put in between the framerails. (flimsy unibody)
4) attach directly to the floor with a reinforcing plate on the other side. (still not too fond of this)

I've also looked at several of the TJ writeups on shock relocation - most of which involve notching the frame and welding in F-250 towers or c-channel, but I'm not sure if the F-250 towers would work with a unibody ZJ without a lot of fabrication and reinforcing.

Just trying to get an idea of what others have done. What worked, what didn't, you know, the usual.

Thanks in advance!

JH

luvthejeep
08-18-2005, 05:27 PM
any of those ideas would wor, but i dont know about angle or c channel if ur just bolting it up, if its thin walled it will flex and may cause damage, imo id use square tube, drill through it, and atach with some grade 8. just an option

norcaljr
08-18-2005, 07:52 PM
http://fototime.com/0CB24E70D430A2F/orig.jpg



This is Cbassetts old ZJ.


Im going to do something like this with a center limiting strap to the 4 link truss.

Cue-Ball
08-18-2005, 08:02 PM
I may also do something like this when my 8.8 goes in.

ELLLLLIOTTTTT
08-18-2005, 09:33 PM
any of those ideas would wor, but i dont know about angle or c channel if ur just bolting it up, if its thin walled it will flex and may cause damage, imo id use square tube, drill through it, and atach with some grade 8. just an option

wouldnt that only be a problem if you max out your shocks though? with the appropriate limiting straps seems like it wouldnt be a problem. Maybe I misunderstood what ur sayin.

luvthejeep
08-18-2005, 10:38 PM
yea if you use a limiting strap on a thin walled angle iron or c channel it will flex or rip out, if you use some thick stuff and welded it to plate instead of the frame rail directly you could do it- with my mx-6 shocks they do have some serious forces on those, if you put those in you know what i mean-

JeepinHank
08-19-2005, 09:05 AM
This is Cbassetts old ZJ.


Im going to do something like this with a center limiting strap to the 4 link truss.

I've seen that one. I just can't clearly see how he mounted it. Now that I think about it, it appears that its welded in.

I'm thinking of going with something like 1/4" thick 3" angle iron for the brackets to bolt between the bumpstops, and welding a piece of 1" x 1/8" square tubing to them for the crossmember. Then, drill several holes in the 1" box tubing about 2" apart from the center out to give me some adjustability on the shock angles.

Anyone think I'd have a problem tearing up bushings? I wouldn't think this setup would put too much more strain on the bushings compared to the stock shock configuration...

Kraqa
08-19-2005, 02:19 PM
another posibility is to use some tube and drill a hole abotu 1/8" bigger then the tube straigth through the unibody rails then slide the tube in place and seam weld around the tube. on the inside and outside of the frame rail. that woudl be by far the strongest method. For even more strength. Get a couple of 1/8" plates make hole for the tube and weld that to the frame then the tube like a stay washer.

Either way weldign woudl be the best method. the constant up and down motion will eventually oblong the bolt holes. you wont be able to tighten them enough, the unibody will just flex.

let me see if i can find some pics of what i'm talkign about.

MassZJ
08-20-2005, 12:26 PM
JH, I'll take some pics of it when I get back on Monday. It is basically an L channel that runs right infront of the gas tank with 2 notches to go around the gas tank strap bolts that is welded in. Then two bolts were used for the shock mounts. It is key to get the angle of the shocks mounted right as to get full extention out of the shocks. I would not mount the limiting straps to this new shock mount since it isnt the strongest place, where you would want the weight of your axle hanging from. I ran my straps from the old factory upper mounts to the new lower mounts on the axle and havent had any issues. Also with this new conversion, you wont have nearly as much stress on your shocks during full flex as compaired to the stock setup. I had broken 2 shocks off before I had converted because of binding durning flex.