Help with 1 ton axle choice for fzj80 build

[Mace]

how much lift are you expecting to need???

[Dusty]

I am going to cut all I can to limit myself to 4" of lift. I have 4" j rear springs and 4" slee fronts now and plan on running them. I want to avoid going higher.

my front is 3 link and will do more work than the rear with this radius set up. which is opposite of the factory suspension which is stiff as hell in front and cush in rear

I should be out building but the fab shop hasn't finished my front axle..promised me by saturday....Even if they were done I dont know how I am going to move these heavy axles around for the build as I have only 1 local friend who knows anything of wrenches and is willing to get dirty (thanks dan). I baught a protools hd bender and notcher last week that is free to use if somone wants to help me....

[Mace]

so where is local?

[Dusty]

lemoore ca 93245
A short 8 hour drive from Las vegas...longer in your wheeling rig. come help for a weekend and ill buy your gas to and from (sub compacts only)

[bustanutley]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Even if they were done I dont know how I am going to move these heavy axles around for the build

Mr. Rice came up with a very nice simple solution for moving axles around

[brokenparts]

Originally Posted by bustanutley

Mr. Rice came up with a very nice simple solution for moving axles around

ingenious...I have a new project this weekend.

[Dusty]

nice and easy. i will makey

Mace you still havn't answered the question

[Mace]

Personaly, I would make the links as long as humanly possible. You can get decent articulation out of an 80 series with 4" of lift tho.. It would be a compromise..

I would love to come up and help ya, but I have enough troubles getting bob, my 40 and a 63 ragtop bug on the road lol

[Dusty]

the trail gear reservoir is practically bolt on-just bend the tab a bit and it bolts right to the factory spot but in a more convenient position. I got their kit for 220 bones. There seems like a lot of slop in the brackets they supplied but the heim is tight. I am not impressed

[Dusty]

the lines fit nice. like they were made for the ram

got the rear arbed d70 back from gear dude. new 3/4 ton brakes on ruffstuff brackets. does it look right?

notice the pinion flange that tom woods made me. It allows me to use an 80 series rear shaft

[Dusty]

I wish I had more time. we have a 2 week old addition to family. (benjamin) And with work and kids I piece together an hour here and minute there. but getting closer....

[Z()LTAN]

atleast your moving

[mrqtipp]

looks sweet

[concretejungle]

i bet the wife isn't happy when you have a two week old trying to sleep and you are out banging, welding, grinding....and if working on your cruiser is anything like mine, CUSSING like a sailor!

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by concretejungle

i bet the wife isn't happy when you have a two week old trying to sleep and you are out banging, welding, grinding....and if working on your cruiser is anything like mine, CUSSING like a sailor!

correct. thats why I am farming out as much work as possible right now and buying as much preassembled stuff as possible. If the local shop was faster I would have them finish it for me but I still don't even have my front axle back.....

[Dusty]

cleaned the shop and started mock up. most all the brackets are prefabed stuff from ruff stuff and balistic.

the pics in the mock up are actually with a couple inches compression. so there should be about 6-7" between the top of the radius arms bracket and the bottom of the frame rail. so I will be limited to about 5" uptravel weather I like it or not. I may need to buy a couple of 6" springs from Slee.

note this is an 80 series rear shaft that is a direct bolt up to the pinion flange tom woods made me. look at the pics. do I need a spacer on the tcase becaus shaft is overextended or is it ok-Mr slee could you comment? I could move the rear axle forward a bit but then I will need to trim some metal off the body just behind the rear door. I dont want the rear axle comming forward much. I can have a longer shaft made but would like to avoid that.

I will use the oe track bar bushing at the frame side of track bar but will use a 7/8 shank heim at the axle side which I have. note that the trackbar will be extended 5" and is almost paralell-the extended trackbar is not represented in pic. May need a slight bend in the bar which will be 1 3/4 x 1/4 wall to clear the huge diff cover. these offset trackbar mounts from roughstuff are trick. all of their brackets are so overkill. note the offset axle coil bracket

Note the driveshaft that now must angle to the middle due to the centered dana 70. (the 80 series rear is slightly offset to pass side) should I keep the pinion level or angle to the output of the tcase? Should I just buy a slee cv shaft? Cristo comment please.

I will need to make the brackets that connect the upper rear radius arm to the lower arm. getting a plasma cutter from the local weld shop tomorow

This is the final mock up. any comments greatly appreciated

[Dusty]

picss

[Dusty]

picssss

[Dusty]

so close

[Dusty]

subliminal message: dont vote democrat

[Dusty]

another big question on my mind is whether the 9/16" summit joints are beef enough for the frame side of the radius arms. I want a pair of evo joints right now but i hear they can take a while to get here from canada. does anyone have a new pair (or 3) of the same 1 1/4 shank (left or right just make them all the same) that they can sell right now? I will pay extra

[Dusty]

last pic.

would you rather have poly rear shafts? would be a whole lot easier than this

To recap my questions:

1. is the driveshaft overextended?

2. point the pinion at the tcase or leave it flat? (the driveshaft now is now angled to the side due to using a non offset rear axle)

3. Use evo joints at the frame?

[slickrock]

we need to see how high from the bottom of the spring retainer stop to the top of the axle spring perch is with a 4 inch lift spring. Once that is figured out, the ride height can dictate where we weld everything.

See if we can get a whole day Sunday and have the wives and kids do something for a good 6 hours. Everything can atleast be tacked into place.

Ill pick up that scheduled 40 Thursday.

[bustanutley]

Use an angle finder, find the vertical angle at the t-case. Make this the same angle at the axle, this is at ride height. A CV complicates problems with an offset, although that shaft is long enough you may be able to get away with it.

Shaft length is borderline too short, but it does look like it has a lot of slip

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by slickrock

we need to see how high from the bottom of the spring retainer stop to the top of the axle spring perch is with a 4 inch lift spring. Once that is figured out, the ride height can dictate where we weld everything.
.

good point. does someone have the measurement of the compressed length of a rear j spring as it sits under the truck? what about the compressed length of a slee 6" spring?

Originally Posted by bustanutley

Shaft length is borderline too short, but it does look like it has a lot of slip

I wish I had a pic of an oe shaft as it sits on an 80 series so I could compare and see how much mine is extended

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Dusty, you want the axis of the pinion and the axis of the transfer case output to be parrallel. This will keep the u-joints happy. With your offset pinion you do not want a CV shaft as the u-joint at the pinion will be very unhappy. If you need more input on this, let me know and I'll try to explain better.

For the DS, I think you should finish setting up the suspension and cycle it w/o the springs and see how the DS is behaving. I'd imagine it's not going to slip all that much. Whatever the case, figure out what the max extension is and then how much spline engagement that correlates to. With that info we can better judge your situation. If you do need to lengthen the shaft, I'd suggest having it retubed longer with thicker tubing than making a spacer. I just retubed my rear shaft on my trail rig this past weekend and it took me all of 2-3 hours with some 2.5" Schedule 40 pipe(nice and beefy).

As for the rear joints, I don't know. I know that I used 9/16" bolts(Rubicon Express joints) for the two attachment points of the front radius arm suspension on my old Jeep Cherokee, but that rig weighs a full ton less than an 80.

Looking good so far!!! Keep up the good work, and congrats on the new addition!!!

Ary

[Dusty]

I purchased 3 evolution 1 1/4" joints today. will see when they get here