The Polar Bear - NP241 Upgrade

[downtowncb]

Paid a visit to Advance Adapters in Paso today. They are so freakin nice and helpful, I had never done business with them before but I would hands down recommend them after today.

A stack of Atlas cases!



and the adapter:

[downtowncb]

Making some progress.

Started fabricating motor mounts, I'm using the Jeep's factory bolt locations and adapting them to the Chevy motor mounts.



Finished welding up the frame rail stiffeners, inside and out.

I don't have an after shot of the outsides.




14" F O A coil overs are on the way and tomorrow I'm welding on Ballistic Fab's high clearance axle brackets on the front 44.

[UTChavok]

Really nice work, gonna be a badass zj for sure. Every day i think of putting a 5.3 in mine

[Derek33]

Very good looking work for sure.

[chadjans]

Making some progress.

Started fabricating motor mounts, I'm using the Jeep's factory bolt locations and adapting them to the Chevy motor mounts.

Are you going to plate the inside of the frame rail like the new Shaffer's Jeep Speed rig?

[downtowncb]

Really nice work, gonna be a badass zj for sure. Every day i think of putting a 5.3 in mine

Wait till I finish mine, learn from what I screwed up and do it haha

Are you going to plate the inside of the frame rail like the new Shaffer's Jeep Speed rig?

This photo was from earlier on in the day but you can see in the last photo where the motor mount is partially welded up and I have plated a portion of the inner frame rails. Where are photos of this build, I couldn't find ones of their plated frame rails?

[UTChavok]

Wait till I finish mine, learn from what I screwed up and do it haha

In a couple years when Im not attempting to pay for college I may just do that

and by then I might actually know what Im doing too, nows trial and error.

[downtowncb]

I know how that goes, I just graduated a month ago. This is all trial and error to me too, I've never done this before. I've just learned a lot from this and other forums and LOTS of questions and reading.

[UTChavok]

I know how that goes, I just graduated a month ago. This is all trial and error to me too, I've never done this before. I've just learned a lot from this and other forums and LOTS of questions and reading.

Thats awesome to hear, everything im doing now with my 4 link is basically trial and error for me. Learning a lot from casey (greyjeep93) and skerb on pirate though, without them I wouldnt be able to do 1/4 of what Im doing now. Hopefully Ill have enough info by when the time comes for this.

[chadjans]

Where are photos of this build, I couldn't find ones of their plated frame rails?

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=796863

[downtowncb]

Look no hoist!


Got the motor mounts done.






I had planned on using the CNC plasma at school to cut these out but the lab is only open one day a week because of budget cuts so I printed them out on sticker sheets, stuck them to the metal and cut them out using the grinder. Came out pretty good.

[Derek33]

Good lookin work. Those welds look great.

[downtowncb]

Good lookin work. Those welds look great.

It's good to hear that, thanks. I haven't been welding very long so I was pretty proud of those.

[chadjans]

Have you considered differential of materials for your mounts? Or are you using all poly?

[downtowncb]

At the moment I'm using all poly for the motor mounts and cross member mount. I'll see how I like them.

[chadjans]

You should considering welding on some tabs for your center limit straps to your motor mounts.

[downtowncb]

You should considering welding on some tabs for your center limit straps to your motor mounts.

I'll probably do that, I ordered several simple tabs from ballistic fab with the axle brackets to use for limit straps.

Setting up the coil overs. Here it is at full bump, there is still one extra inch of coil over travel.


The hoops will be welded to the frame rail sides.


Here is approximately where the upper mount will lie.


Here is full droop.


What do you guys think, see any problems?

[downtowncb]

The hoops looked unfinished ending the way I had them yesterday so I put them in the bender and curved them into the frame.



Also, where can I get an affordable drop pitman arm? The steering is going to contact the oil pan in its current location.

[Goosed76]

Sweet build man. Lookin awesome. Continuing the tradition of Jeeps powered by Chevy!!

[chadjans]

Also, where can I get an affordable drop pitman arm? The steering is going to contact the oil pan in its current location.

What would be the plan for your rework of the panhard bar?

[downtowncb]

Probably just going to use Johnny Joints and DOM to make my own, don't see any way around it. The KOR track bar will hit the oil pan at full bump.

[chadjans]

You would need to move mounting points on the axle or frame or both if you move the draglink. Make your panhard as long as you can.























And a waste of time using a D30.

[downtowncb]

Not entirely a waste of time, it's a 44 out of a TJ rubicon with chromo shafts. If/when I start breaking it, I'll go bigger. I know, keep the track bar and drag link parallel. What do you think about using johnny joints for the track bar? If I'm making my own I would like to stiffen up the steering while I'm at it. The old one allowed the vehicle to shift over the axle too much.

[Varkyl]

You can get a drop pitman arm and trackbar bracket from Clayton's.
Both are rather beefy items as per Clayton's normal overbuilt products.

[chadjans]

Not entirely a waste of time, it's a 44 out of a TJ rubicon with chromo shafts. If/when I start breaking it, I'll go bigger. I know, keep the track bar and drag link parallel. What do you think about using johnny joints for the track bar? If I'm making my own I would like to stiffen up the steering while I'm at it. The old one allowed the vehicle to shift over the axle too much.

Johnny Joints work just fine for a PANHARD bar. Track bars are used for controlling leaf springs. Heims would be better to control laterall movement. D44 out of a rubicon are cast tubes. Read: weak.