Anyone Made Your Own Front Control Arms?

[JasonM]

I have done my fair share of fabrication, and am thinking of making my own front contol arms, similar to the Slee 5"-6" kit.

Has anyone attemted this? I am trying to figure out lengths and the angle/degree to bend in the control arms?

 

[Beowulf]

Tools-R-Us fabricated front control arms for his 80. There is a thread in the archives with pictures and design tips. I saw them in Moab and they work very well. Let us know if you can't find his thread and someone will help with the search.

(Apologies.... early on-set of Alzheimers or something. Toys-R-Us would be a cool forum name though. )

-B-

 

[JasonM]

Thanks for the reply, I will do a search and see what I can find.

 

[notyourmomslx450]

Nothing to add, other than I'd be interested to see what you come up with. Make sure that if you do make some control arms, you take plenty of pictures.

 

[JasonM]

I took a look at Tools-R-Us, he made some beautiful front control arms. However, I had a hard time trying to figure out the lift he designed them for? I was wondering if anyone had some Slee arms for the 5-6" lift that could take some measurements? I will attach a sketch. Having these would make it easy to ensure proper caster would be built into the arms.

 

[Nay]

If you can do this kind of fabrication work, why replicate the stock design?

It would be a lot easier to do a 3 link with new axle brackets and balance the front and rear suspension. Make the upper arm adjustable so you can adjust pinion angle as needed.

 

[JasonM]

Well, good point. I have done that kind of work on my FJ 40, I use that truck for the rock. I want to keep the 80 as close as I can to stock. This way I do not have fabricate mounting brackets and can still utilize OEM bushings etc. This truck will be my daily driver and I would be concerned with a 3 links handling on the highway.

 

[NW-sickboy]

its been mentioned but here are mine... when i did this i never thought i would have needed/wanted a 3 link. in fact i went back and forth and back and forth. I came up with this mostly for cater correction, i get some better articulation but its not a 3link. if your doing it for caster its coo... if you see yourself having this as a trail vehicle go 3 link.

 

[LandCrusher'70]

I believe the relation of the 'eyes' to each other is more important than some of the angles and lengths you're requesting. In addition, knowing the caster angle in relation to eyes.

I would be willing to do some Solid Works models if someone could provide dimensions.

 

[kennyv0826]

Check out Shawn Jacksons page. He has done a very slick setup for the front. If you do end up making your own links, let me know and I'd like to talk to you because I am thinking about doing it too.

http://actionjackson.com/cruiser/

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

its been mentioned but here are mine... when i did this i never thought i would have needed/wanted a 3 link. in fact i went back and forth and back and forth. I came up with this mostly for cater correction, i get some better articulation but its not a 3link. if your doing it for caster its coo... if you see yourself having this as a trail vehicle go 3 link.

Have you ever tried removing the upper link off just one side?

 

[NW-sickboy]

actually was going to do it my last time out but wanted to wait till i ruibuild my Joints as they are sloppy right now....

 

[NW-sickboy]

always refining the thought process, if i were to do it again i would

A. 3 link it

B. tie my mounts into a skid plate similiar to pic. if i wanted a longer arm this would allow me to mount back a bit but it wouldnt really need to be much longer.

C. would have mounted differently to the axle as to not affect clearance but i was a noob, what the hell.... meh

D. Ran a bushing instead of a joint. something like what Metaltech has in the works.....

 

[JasonM]

Man- their is a lot af fabrication talent in this group! I thought of one more possible problem with a three link? The center vertical bracket that would be placed above the pumkin; if you get to high with this brack, or are considering an alternate engine, you might have problems with the bracket hitting the oil pan on hevy compression of the suspention?
I am very serious about making these arms, just need measurments.

 

[NW-sickboy]

Man- their is a lot af fabrication talent in this group! I thought of one more possible problem with a three link? The center vertical bracket that would be placed above the pumkin; if you get to high with this brack, or are considering an alternate engine, you might have problems with the bracket hitting the oil pan on hevy compression of the suspention?
I am very serious about making these arms, just need measurments.

looking at 80's that want to 3 link are most likely running a six inch spring. 4 link would be tight but not as tall, so if you wanted to stay low that may be the route you have to go.....

 

[clownmidget]

If I were you I'd do what John Henley(can't remember his screen name -sorry) did to his stock arms. That way you don't have a crazy amount of time invested in what could likely turn out to be a "step" and not the final solution. One of the harder parts of completely fabricating arms that use the stock mounts is the clearance between the two front bushings for the axle housing. Take a good look at Slee's arms and the stock arms and you'll see. This was a weak point in the predecessors of Slee's arms - the OutBack ones - and required some re-welding, gussets/bracing to deal with breakages at those two front bushing mounts. Take your stock arms and cut them and then weld them back up at the correct angle for your caster or close to it and see how you like it. Also, for the amount of lift you're talking about you could just use caster plates along with the OME off-set bushings and do fine - especially if it'll see a lot of paved road time.

As it has already been pointed out, a lot of folks have dinked around with the front control arms trying to balance travel, articulation and caster (driveability) while keeping it balanced with the rear 4-link. It can eat up a lot of time and effort so maybe go with an easier mod to the stock arms before you break out the complete fabrication. At that point you really would be better off going 3/4-link up front. That will net you more than you'll be able to get with the stock axle mounts/stock frame mounts in all regards. Good luck.

 

[MaddBaggins]

z80 is John Henley's screen name

 

[Tools R Us]

To determine the angles I parked the truck on the level shop floor, I removed the front bushing bolts and using a couple of .5" bolts as jacks moved the axle to the angle that I wanted, measured from the floor up to the bolt hole centers and tie rods, transferred the measurements to paper. Then drew arms around the measurements.

Mine are too big and beefy, the plate blanks could be made from 3/8" or maybe even 1/4"? The height of the I beam section could be reduced gaining clearance. Measure the tie rod clearance carefully, mine just touch at full flex and steering lock. The main part of my arms are 1.5" wide and touch the rear of the sway bar just enough to rub the paint off when flexed, not an issue, but the next version will have small notches to clear.

I believe that most of the flex gains resulted from the narrow axle end bushings and holders, eliminating the contact, bind with the axle brackets. The 3 bushing setup has some minor handling issues and is eating bushings on the long arm. When the weather cools to welding season I will make version 2, they will be narrow 4 bushing conventional arms optimized for maximum ground clearance.

This set was made as an experiment, I consider it a success, the trail handling, ride comfort is very much improved. But I see ways that it can be improved so there will be a V.2 and see what can be learned from that. This set cost ~$200 plus tons of welding time.

 

[landtank]

How much do you need as far as caster goes. I made some plates that lock into the axle where the bolts go and then you drill new holes through the plates and the axle bracket to reposition the axle on the arms. This escentially rotates the axle in place and you can go over 7* in 1* increments to fine tune the DS angle.

I did this for my 4" slee lift which needed 7*. There is a thread out there detailing the making of them.

 

[JasonM]

Tools-R-Us,

What size of springs are you running? I sure appriciate the information! Your work is very clean.

Just curious, would you consider a Tube style arm if the wall thickness was stout enough? Or is the I-Beam style the way to go?