New Cage and Axles 10/2010

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In March, I broke both axles real good, so it was finally time to do a permanent upgrade fix on the axles. I am using a 14 bolt FF rear and a Dana 60 front. The 14 bolt is from a 1 ton Chevy SRW truck and the 60 is from a 1988 Ford F350. It's a kingpin style, but has the short driver side tube like everything after 1979. This is helpful for driveshaft to oil pan clearance, but makes mounting link arms more difficult. I'm running 5.38 gears and Detroit lockers in both. I'll also be switching to full hydraulic steering from PSC.

The 14 Bolt rear was basically simple and had to be done immediately to get the Jeep rolling again after the breakage since both front and rear axles were dead. No wheel drive is a tough way to go. I bought spring perches and welded them on at the approximate correct angle. Later I decided to upgrade the springs and went with a 6" leaf spring pack from Rusty's. This changed my ideal pinion angle a little, so I may change that later.		I shaved the bottom lip off the axle to help with ground clearance. Now it sits about an inch higher than my D44 rear did. I made new hard brake lines and had flex lines made to go to the calipers. I had to get a different slip yoke for the driveshaft to go to the 1350 u-joint and will lengthen the driveshaft myself by 1.5".
Since the axles are now 8 lug, I need new wheels. Also since I now have 1-ton strength, there's nothing holding me down to 35" tires.		I decided to switch to 37" Krawlers on 17" Allied Rockathon Beadlocks. The 17" wheel will allow me to run any size Krawler 37"-40".
The front D60 will require a lot of fabrication, and the fab can't start until I have steering arms. I contacted Parts Mike for his high steer arms. We went round and round on design which took a long time.		There was a lot of measuring and design changes. Most of it due to the fact that I wanted a reasonable amount of Ackermann in my steering.
During this "down time", I started picking at the bodywork. I was tired of the hammered stock body and the roof rack that I never use, so I started cutting.		Cutting most of it off was a good start, but it left me wanting to get rid of more.
So I cut more. The original cage was built within the stock body, and suddenly didn't make a whole lot of sense without the body.		So I cut a bunch of it off too.
I took it home to replace the cage. I decided to upgrade to 1.75"x.120 DOM tube since it won't be supported by the factory body this time.		I cut off the rest of the original cage so I could get a clean start. Since the bottom of the main hoop was tied in to the boat sides and the leaf spring mount, I decided to keep that and add to the top of it.
The front hoop was already tied in to the frame, floor pan and dash bars, so I kept that and tied into it with new A-Pillars.		The new tubes were a tight slip fit over the old tubes with at least 8" overlap for strength.
I decided to run a single tube the length of the side for a roof bar rather than doing a conventional main hoop or halo.		This way there's nothing to "catch" on if I'm leaning the roof or A-pillar on a rock.
I incorporated a single Beard seat in the rear.		The rear bumper got a big trim off each end as well which will be tied in to the leaf spring hanger mount later.
Finally all the steering parts came in and I am getting started on the front D60. Parts Mike made me a custom set of arms based on his Hummer offset arms, but run "backwards".		The first thing to mount is the steering ram and then work around that. The ram is a 8" stroke. The complete hydraulic steering kit came from PSC.
Laying in and doing measurements
I'm hoping to re-use this trac bar mount.		Later you'll see that I won't be able to...
It seems to work best mounted about 3.5" forward of where the old axle was. The new wheel base is 105"		Also the lower links can be re-used at this length by cutting off the Johnny Joints and adding weld-in bungs for 1" hiem joints.
The wider diff housing hit the track bar mount quite solidly, so I made these brackets to extend the trac bar mount out from it's previous location and cut off the part that interfered.		This would be fully welded in and have a new dimple die plate added to the back side if it worked... but it didn't. The trac bar hit the diff during compression. A few bars were made with various bends and axle end mounts, but it just wouldn't work.
Since there was so much interference running the trac bar the traditional direction, I cut off the frame mount and will run it the opposite direction.		This is only possible because I'm running full hydraulic steering, so there's no drag link to follow.
Since I will be mounting the trac bar to the passenger side frame, the frame needed to be strengthened.		I plated the frame rail with 3/16" cold rolled steel from the bumper to the front cage hoop. While I was at it, I finished the plate job on the driver side to match.
I built the trac bar mount narrow enough to slip between the tie rod and axle and mount the bar as close as possible to parallel to the axle at ride height.
Here you can see the tie rod handily passes the trac bar mount at full stuff.
This was a quick mock up to see where the axle end mount should be located. I toyed with a straight tube, but in the end needed the bend around the diff in order to clear the frame at full stuff on the left side.
The worst case for interference is with the pass side in full bump and the driver side in full droop. In that scenario, the trac bar hits the top of the diff if it's mounted too low.		But if it's mounted too high, it hits the frame when the left is in bump.
Reluctantly, I added a bend to the trac bar to help satisfy the interference problems.		I'll reinforce the bend area and carry a spare trac bar.
These '80+ housings have a really short "short side" tube. To extend the weldable area, I drilled and tapped the top of the leaf spring perch area for four 1/2" bolts.		I then bolted a piece of 1/4" plate to the top and will be welding to that as well as the short bit of tube.
Here the trac bar mount is final "tacked" in place. After the shock mounts are done, it will get another gusset and a plate connecting the two halves.
I mounted it just above the level of the tie rod to make it easier to install the bolt. This is actually a little bit high and may pose a problem at full compression.		I won't know if I need to change it until the shocks are installed. "full stuff" is still plus or minus 2" or so.
I replaced the temporary upper link tower with this one I made.		The temporary one was a little low to clear the steering ram and too wide for the 3/4" hiem joint.
Here you can see there is plenty of clearance to the ram. The gap gets smaller as the passenger side moves up.
I noticed a problem that has always been there, but was never addressed. Because there is a bend in the lower arm to clear the frame rail, and the upper arm is connected to the lower arm the pinion angle changes as the lower arm rotates.		I always had tight Johnny joints before and never saw the lower arm rotate, but had a weird axle movement particularly when spinning the front tires in deep sand. By connecting the upper and lower arms, forming a ladder bar, The pinion angle remains constant. This little piece of tube was for testing. The final will be much stronger.
I made this super trick upper shock mount/tower.		I based the geometry loosely on the 14" Bilstein shocks that I had before.
I centered the spring at ride height between all the existing tubes and frame rail.		I mounted them as high as possible with the hood able to close.
Looks pretty good, huh? Too bad it doesn't work!		I lost 3" of bump travel that I wanted. Plus the shocks swing way too far in to the frame and way too far out to the existing tubes when the axle articulates. They just don't fit.
Back to the drawing board, I started over. I cut out the existing tubes around where the shocks will pass. I swung the axle in every direction and came up with a new "ideal" lower mount.		It's amazing how much clearance the bottom needs in relation to the steering arm. I ended up an inch and a half higher and almost 2 inches farther in than my original location.
The uppers needed to be 3" above the hood.		I jigged up this piece of 1" square tube to bolt them in place above the hood.
Swung all the arcs and it all fits.
It's shown here in full compression, or bump. The shocks are bottomed in this picture.		At full droop, the brake rotors are touching the ground. I am able to use the full 16" travel of the shocks.
Here's a close up of the jig used for testing.		Now I just need to make mounts to here, cut the hood and replace the front end tubes that were removed.
Piece of cake, right?		15 hours later...
I felt that a tight bend would look the best, so I had Ray at Hitchcock bend these 1.5"x.120 tubes on a 2.5" radius. (The only tubes in the Jeep that I didn't bend myself)		Apparently that was a big deal, but they came out perfect.
I tied the existing bumper/radiator support tubes in to the shock hoops.		Also notice that the front of this hoop had to be bent forward at the bottom to clear the track bar mount.
I made the crossover tube bolt in with these cool three bolt flanges from McKenzies.
Here it is with the hood closed.		It took hours to cut the hood just right, but it came out clean in the end.
Finally sitting on it's wheels!
The ride height is good, but the spring rate seems very stiff.		This is with 300 over 350 16" springs. Net spring rate is 161.54 lb/in
The old rate was 150 and I was really happy with it, but this is WAY too stiff.		I'm going to try 250 over 300 16" next and see how it feels. It will net 136.36 lb/in rate.
Sometimes I get a little detail right.		I really like the tab gussets I made on the tops.
Here's how the 'cage is connected to the bumper on the right side. Nice and swoopy.
On the left, the brake master is in the way, so the tube had to come around the outside.		Both of these will also be integrated to the outer "fender" tube, and the towers will be triangulated to the firewall tube.
I wanted to see this for several reasons. I knew the axle would do it, but I wanted to see what the springs would do, and that the tires clear the tubes etc.		That tire is 40" off the ground with all three other tires firmly planted. Maybe the spring rate isn't so bad after all?? BTW- everything clears nicely.
I decided to mount the orbital valve where the steering box used to be.		I made this mount which will bolt in using the old steering box bolts.
Trying to get the reservoir above the pump was dificult. My engine bay is very cramped and the pump is mounted high on the engine.		I made a bracket to bolt up to the injector rail and back side of the ps pump mount. The top of the bottle just touches the hood, so I'll drill and tap the vent hole for a 90 degree fitting.
	Does it Work? On the 4th of December 2011, we went to Cougar Buttes for a shakedown run.
	I'm happy to report that nothing broke and everything worked at least as well as expected. It is very wide. This will take a bit of learning so I know where my right front tire is at all times.
	The shock valving on the Kings may be a little stiff. I expected a little more "bounce" with the 135lb spring rate that I'm running. That said, it flexes very easily front and rear.
Here's a down side- The rear diff pinion protector got hung up on this rock.		When I winched through, the spade shape of the protector cut a deep groove in the rock. I'll be reducing the size and installing a flat bottom on the skid to reduce this type of damage.
	See videos from this trip here.