The Silver Mullet:

[FortCollinsZJ]

Time to create a single thread to document my ZJ progress.

I am just going to start with what I have now, and not get into many details of the past.

Current:



1993 5.2 ZJ, 242, HP30, 8.8, 4.56, 35" KM2's, bumpers, Claytons radius arms front, double triangulated four link rear.

And here are a few pics I took throughout building it.

Trussed 30



Steering .250 link, BTF highsteer piece.



.250 panhard



Panhard mount



8.8




Rear bumper before tire carrier

[FortCollinsZJ]

Continued.

Plans:

Here is where I am now,

I very much dislike the rear welded crossmember for the lower link mounts, so I built a new crossmember to weld in, difference being a removable center section.
This piece is all 1/4" material, 9/16" hardware. 9/16" ID tube act as bolt through's for the belly skidplate. 6 bolts will hold the crossmember in.
After the rear is done (again) I am moving to the front. Ditching the Claytons in favor of a true four link with pan-hard. I am going to bee trying to keep up to date with this thread, and actually take a few more pictures than I normally have.

Here is the crossmember work this week. Should weld it in this weekend, my hobart hood decided to shi the bed this week, time for a new helmet.

[paulkeith]

That is some excellent fab. Clearly putting thought into it.

I'd just suggest to put a little more time (move slower)/heat into some of those welds. This one in particular the bead looks a little small/narrow to me but its obviously always easy to webweld.



lookin good, keep the pics coming.

[Schwarttzy]

WOW that is some amazing fabing right there

[Jeeptech01]

Cool. I'll be looking forward to updates.

[FortCollinsZJ]

Thats a weird angle for that web weld, I also practiced welding it in one single pass. I usually have a couple start-stops in a weld that long, and wanted to practice doing it in one single string. I'm shopping for a new welder soon as well, something that will handle thicker plate with more heat. Burning 1/4" all day with a 110 doesn't cut it.

Thanks for the good words guys.

[SirFuego]

Very nice. But with all that fabwork, why did you leave the LCA and shock mounts below the rear axle?

[FortCollinsZJ]

Very nice. But with all that fabwork, why did you leave the LCA and shock mounts below the rear axle?

That picture is from when the 8.8 first went in, I used stock brackets off a 35 (Thanks again JFowlz) Then later when I built the triangulated lowers, I had to add 22.5* offset mounts, went with ballistic pieces. Flush with the bottom of the tube now.






Here is one pic of the installed crossmember (camera crashed and dumped all the pictures, I'll get some good ones soon), it sits at the same height as the trans crossmember. I need to clock the case and build a belly skid, then it's on to boatsides! I also ordered a gallon of gray durabak for my fenders and where the cladding was, I trimmed and welded the rear fenders big time, and needed something besides gray primer to go over it.

[jfowlzj95]

That picture is from when the 8.8 first went in, I used stock brackets off a 35 (Thanks again JFowlz)

I forgot about those rusty old stock brackets. Glad you were still able to use them.

[FortCollinsZJ]

They worked well for what they were, I am actually using the spring cup still, just welded to the top of a piece of 5" C chanel.

[FortCollinsZJ]

Here are a few pictures of the finished crossmember and rear suspension. In the realy dark picture, the top of the camera is pressed against the bottom of the Claytons crossmember, you can then see on the right, how far the T-case hangs below the 2 crossmembers.

EDIT: I didn't attach the pics.

[MoonWorks]

Hows the ride with the new rear setup? Feel any sway or rear steer at all?

[AgitatedPancake]

I don't know from experience, but in theory doesn't roll steer reduce as you triangulate the lower links (assuming the uppers are already triangulated)?

I have heard about the increased sway possible from double tri, like you said

[FortCollinsZJ]

Well, the only other experience I had was with a stock five link with trackbar, then a triangulated upper - wishbone lower setup, it swayed quite a lot on road. I definitly prefer the double tri four link. It is very stable on road, and doesn't sway.

as for flex steer, a double triangulated setup will steer less than a four link with parallel lowers. The arms on the double triangulated setup bind less, and when flexing, a lot of the movement is rotation on the bolt axis of the Johnny Joints, and not flexing them so much.

Suspension steer decreases, as well, when the frame side lower link mounts, and the axle side uppers mounts, are close to the same height.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have skipped the wishbone setup (duh) and gone straight to the double triangulated with the removable crossmember. I am very pleased with how it all turned out. Currently building another crossmember for my brothers ZJ too.

[1fox2go]

How do you like the mud trac mud terrains?

I think they have too hard of a rubber compound. Mine don't like to grab anything, the tire either breaks off chunks of rubber or slips...

[FortCollinsZJ]

They were about as good as the old KM1 BFG's I had on before the Duratracs, they were take off from a rolled jeep, I managed to cut up two of my KM1s on the rocks, and replaced them with the freebee Duratracs. They were too hard like you said. I have KM2's now, and they work very well.

[Sporer65]

I think its time to bring back the wood.

http://www.stripeman.com/mm5/merchan...egory_Code=WGD

[FortCollinsZJ]

That's one expensive sticker!

I'm still mulling the brown durabak idea over.

[FortCollinsZJ]

Did some wheeling and camping this weekend, had some issues with the flex joints in my rear Claytons uppers, they keep side loading and popping out the snap ring in the johnny joint, leaving me sitting there to press the joint in and re seat the snap ring, PITA. I heard replacing one end of each link with a fixed bushing will prevent, or help prevent this from happening, I had three joints pop in one hour, one joint popped twice. I also need new front shocks desperately, and am thinking about King air shocks or FOA coilovers because its what I can afford, the jeep sucked at speed.


I got a bit crazy with the sawzall last weekend as well, cut a pretty big hole in the floor, and patched it with 14 gauge, its all going to get tubed in around the bottom of the tail light. Going to plate the bottom and outer faces of the frame rail with 3/16" then the cage tie in will come through the floor, where the patch is. The fuel tank is getting lifted 5 or so inches aswell. I was building a rollbar for a honda s2000 this week, so that kept me from the jeep, but helped with funding for it.

I will get better pictures soon, these are almost just teasers because they are so crappy.

[FortCollinsZJ]

Found my camera, took a few pictures of the last few projects:

Raised fuel tank, Chopped out low hanging fender portion under tail lights, re-routed filler hose, chopped out HEAVY ass 2x2x.250 box sliders, replaced with tube "boat side" sliders, will be skinned with 1/8" plate and 1/2" UHMW. Finished trimming rear fenders, cut rolled, folded and welded them closed, took off shitty plastic trim molding and rolled on the Durabak. 11" travel reservoir Fox shocks will be ordered next week.

Next project will be the inter/exo cage and possibly tube front fenders.

















A view from the bottom of the gas tank, plenty of room here now.

[Jeeptech01]

Nice work. Alot more room there now. Also the rear fender lips look awesome.

[paulkeith]

Looks a little tall?...but your arms are practically flat already. hmm.

Looks great though.

[ATL ZJ]

Looks a little tall?...but your arms are practically flat already. hmm.

it's because of the tall subframe and the lowers being mounted at axle centerline

[Sporer65]

Did you hold onto those plastic trim pieces or did you trash them?

I could use one or two of them if you held onto them.

[Poser 5.9]

Nice job, I really like the side rails.