40 front coil over/radius arm advice

[darwink1]

Hey!

Im about to cut off the front suspension on my 69 fj40 and replace it with modified ford style radius arms and fj60 axles. The radius arms retain the ford axle mount but have been extended with 1/4" wall dom tubing and have a johnny joint at the frame end. The rear end consists of 60 series leafs/axle and a (hopefully) low soa.

I was planning to try to use a set of zj 4' lift coils that I got with the arms but due to space restrictions (fj60 steering box will sit where the coil would have to be) Im thinking that coil overs mounted behind the axle center line (where the shock would have been) would be the ticket.

The question. Im no coil over expert and I was hoping to get some advice on the co's themselves and the spring rates I would be after. The fourty will be retaining its 2F/4spd/xfer and would be essentially a full bodied rig with some minor cutting here and there. Id like it to be capable off road but still drive decent on the road. By no means is this thing gonna be a hard core rock buggy but on the other hand it will not be a back to stock resto either. Just a fun summer toy.

Heres a few pics to hopefully clarify my disjointed ramblings. Rear soa is just bolted and tacked together, pinion angle and shackle angle have yet to be determined.

Any advice and or suggestions are appreciated.

D

 

[yOHda]

Spring rates will be the last thing you need to do. Get your suspension set up and your coilovers mounted where you want them and then give a call to whoever you buy your shocks from. They will help you with what spring rates to buy. Do you know which coilovers you plan to buy? i went with 14" FOA's on my 40.

FWIW, i was headed your route with using modified 80 radius arms with 80 axles on my 40. After beating my head trying to make it all fit and in the end still having the horrible traits of the radius arms, I ordered a Ruffstuff 9.5 axle housing and their 3 link kit. I figured if i am already swapping out the suspension, might as well do it the right way.

This is a very good read:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/1074029-spring-tech-thread.html

 

[Tin basher]

Knowing the weight the coils need to support
Is one of the first ? On coil rate

 

[Tapage]

your spring rate it's the most flexible item you have in your build list, phone call away you can pic from great variety of 'em .. but you have limited space for bracket place, link length and CO place/angle

Are you familiar with link calculator

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...ease-critique-my-front-3-link-calculator.html

 

[darwink1]

Nope, not familiar w links at all. Ive been searching and trying to learn though. That link calc link only has 3 link info as far as I can see..

Now that Ive realized I need co's to make this work everything should fit. Im gonna get going on cutting more of the front end crap off today and maybe have the 60 axle slid under there tonite.

As far as the actual co's go I dont have a clue as to what Ill end up with. I know they probably wont be FOA's though. I bought 4 of their 2.5" remote res. shocks for the sixty and didnt end up running them. Every shock had different compressed/extended lengths (2 14" tra, 2 12" tra.), the c clips that retain the eyes at the mounting points were all bent to s*** and wouldnt seat, this is on top of getting them looking like they were used and dinged to s***. That is on top of on top of waiting quadruple the quoted time to get them. Overall I wasnt very impressed and now totally understand why they sell at such a cheap price point.

D

 

[yOHda]

Every calculator i have ever seen is for a 3 or 4 link.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with FOA. They have definitely had some complaints in the past. I have just bought my shocks recently and have nothing but good things to say. They have definitely made some improvements to my shocks compared to old ones I've seen.

Why Ford radius arms? Are your tires going to get into your links at full lock?

 

[darwink1]

Yeah the foa's were a miss man. None of the shock bodies were even cut the same length.... I was disappointed seeing as though they are decently priced compared to the other brands.

Why ford radius arms you ask? Because they came up lol. My buddy tore apart his dodge raider he had rolled a couple times (soft rolls at slow speed). The body was just too tweaked so he junked it and was nice enough to cut off all the good stuff for me.

And...

Everything fits.... Got the 40 axle out and all the perches cut off today then slid in the 60 axle with the arms loosely bolted on . Theres room for the zj coils, the buckets/shock hoops are gonna work with some minor tweaking, and theres a plan for the coil perch on the radius arm. I was happy. Now I just have to do the measuring and tweaking and remeasuring part.

Thanks for all the replies.

D