fj80 RADIUS ARMS (1 Viewer)

[Broski]

I'll be the first to admit it was user error, but sorry for not being a metallurgy expert. I'd argue that my common sense is better than most, but apparently not yours. I clearanced them on the vehicle before a trip and cycled the suspension a few times to make sure the oversized tie rod was not hitting. In hindsight, I probably could have removed a bit less material and not left a sharp notch perpendicular to the top of the arm, which created a stress riser. Now I know. There isn't exactly a "how to" guide on this. They lasted 10 years and multiple trips on the Rubicon, Dusy Ershim, and Moab before failing when 6500lbs of 80 series came down hard on that single arm. Multiple contingencies were in place to get the truck moving again, but in this situation "plan A" worked well.

Lesson learned, fixed likely for good with the Delta Arms. Anything other than castor correcting radius arms on a larger lift and big tires is less than ideal.

My apologies if I offended you, My comment where directly related to lelandEOD insistence that the arms shouldn't clearanced. the way he was talking I assumed that it was his truck and he stated that he wasn't going to debate how much was OK to remove.

The fact that they lasted as long as the did on your truck is proof that if done correctly it's not a issue.

My common sense tells me if your clearancing a I-beam ( the arms are built like a I-beam ) if your remove the top flange of said I-beam it well lose a significant amount of structural integrity and the straight cuts magnified the issue. I can also see over cuts in the pictures. To be fair I have a 40 year back round in building.

Here's a picture of my arms Clearanced you can see very little of the top flange was removed and everything is smooth. PS I wheel the piss out of them!!

 

[DUSTandRUST]

$80 weld in drop boxes/mounts and factory arms, correct wheel base and 3.7 degree positive caster, with a ~3 inch lift. Cheapest fix around with the added benefit of a better ride than the caster correction arms, due to atm angle and weight.

But if you're fixed on buying arms, go the Superior Engineering ones, Australia needs the money.

 

[Broski]

$80 weld in drop boxes/mounts and factory arms, correct wheel base and 3.7 degree positive caster, with a ~3 inch lift. Cheapest fix around with the added benefit of a better ride than the caster correction arms, due to atm angle and weight.

But if you're fixed on buying arms, go the Superior Engineering ones, Australia needs the money.

Has already be stated several times in this thread !!!

 

[BadReligion]

My apologies if I offended you, My comment where directly related to lelandEOD insistence that the arms shouldn't clearanced. the way he was talking I assumed that it was his truck and he stated that he wasn't going to debate how much was OK to remove.

The fact that they lasted as long as the did on your truck is proof that if done correctly it's not a issue.

My common sense tells me if your clearancing a I-beam ( the arms are built like a I-beam ) if your remove the top flange of said I-beam it well lose a significant amount of structural integrity and the straight cuts magnified the issue. I can also see over cuts in the pictures. To be fair I have a 40 year back round in building.

Here's a picture of my arms Clearanced you can see very little of the top flange was removed and everything is smooth. PS I wheel the piss out of them!!
View attachment 2971055

Its ok, nothing personal and only slight offence taken. I know that there can be a bit of a difference between intentions and perceptions. My perception was "hack, lacking common sense." and I'm sure your intention was "use a little sense and don't overdue it hacking up the arms." At the end of the day, this was hopefully a good PSA and maybe a few others learned a few things about modifying stock arms. The sharp, 90* cuts perpendicular to the top of the arm were 100% the cause of the failure. Even with removing the top I beam, if it was a smoother transition, this failure would not have been as likely to happen. Had I taken a little extra time to remove the arms and clearance them from a benchtop, they would have looked more like your pic.

With the Delta Arms, I will say there was a noticeable improvement in handling compared to stock arms with LandTank castor plates. My 80 still doesn't like to go over 70mph, but I think that is mainly due to beadlocked bias ply tires running dynabeads (FYI...discount tire will now balance beadlocked wheels as long as you did the mounting). At least it wants to stay in its lane now. I'd also like to think the extra 1" or so of wheelbase for the "long" version of the arms is doing something positive.

 

[philucero]

Has already be stated several times in this thread !!!

I just ordered the ironman 4x4 drop boxes at 25% off for memorial day, they are bolt in, usually $280 which is freaking expensive but at 25% off it was kind of reasonable. I have a 2.5" OME lift that came with offset bushings but I'm still VERY close on camber, these drops should get me back to having caster adjustment but I'll have to put my factory bushings bushings back in.

 

[jaymar]

You can also cut all the suspension brackets off the axle housing, put it right where you want and weld it back on. Takes more skill but it is also cheap and can be done in a weekend vs 8 weeks wait time.

Not having the tools or the skills, I never thought of that. Perfect!

 

[jaymar]

I just ordered the ironman 4x4 drop boxes at 25% off for memorial day, they are bolt in, usually $280 which is freaking expensive but at 25% off it was kind of reasonable. I have a 2.5" OME lift that came with offset bushings but I'm still VERY close on camber, these drops should get me back to having caster adjustment but I'll have to put my factory bushings bushings back in.

Let us know how that goes. Website touts drop boxes for 3" and above (and caster correction bushings for <3"), but I've been wondering how they'd be with 2".

 

[Broski]

Member @eimkeith makes some really nice drop brackets for a 2" lift and they move the axle forward a bit.

I'm not sure why they are not used more there the perfect solution for people running a small lift and bigger tires

 

[philucero]

Not having the tools or the skills, I never thought of that. Perfect!

Really? That sounds absurd brother, I honestly hope nobody tries this method.

 

[philucero]

Let us know how that goes. Website touts drop boxes for 3" and above (and caster correction bushings for <3"), but I've been wondering how they'd be with 2".

The front locking axle that I bought from eastern auto salvage on ebay turned out to be bent out of reasonable straightening so I'm in the middle of retrofitting the locking 3rd member in to my original non-locked axle housing.
The brackets look great, I took out the OME offset bushing because that would be overkill to leave those in.
have the OME 2.5" lift PLUS I ordered the 20mm/3/4" coil spacers from ironman 4x4 so the front is closer to 3" lifted, once I get it back together and aligned, I'll post photos showing the brackets BUT, they are 25% off on ironman, that's why I bought them now, they're overpriced IMO.

 

[Dusten]

Really? That sounds absurd brother, I honestly hope nobody tries this method.

Cutting and welding brackets and spring perches to obtain proper pinion is quite common.

 

[philucero]

Sounds like a great idea BUT a little extreme, I guess if you're CERTAIN that you will leave it at that lifted height then go head on man, just my opinion to do the offset bushings or brackets.

 

[Dusten]

Sounds like a great idea BUT a little extreme, I guess if you're CERTAIN that you will leave it at that lifted height then go head on man, just my opinion to do the offset bushings or brackets.

If you can fabricate it's not extreme. It's quite simple.

And the number of people who lift these anough to need castor correction that decide to return to stock is pretty low.

 

[jaymar]

Now that I think about it, ICON does this with their Cruisers. I think they add additional, custom brackets to suit their builds as well.

 

[JW21]

I just ordered the ironman 4x4 drop boxes at 25% off for memorial day, they are bolt in, usually $280 which is freaking expensive but at 25% off it was kind of reasonable. I have a 2.5" OME lift that came with offset bushings but I'm still VERY close on camber, these drops should get me back to having caster adjustment but I'll have to put my factory bushings bushings back in.

I bought the drop boxes on the memorial day sell too. Finally put about 100 miles on them. They definitely fix the caster BUT....
These are a temporary fix for me. These should be reserved for pavement princess rigs. And 80's aren't for that.....
I'll enjoy the added on highway safety, but am looking to replace these ASAP due to the loss of ground clearance
I knew this going into it and just looking for a temp solution.

Edit: My rig is 2.5" ome heavies + 2" front spacer with stock bushings. Will post before and after alignment sheets when I get all the rear control arms installed for anyone interested. Definitely drives very similar to stock now tho

 

[graham5david]

I bought the drop boxes on the memorial day sell too. Finally put about 100 miles on them. They definitely fix the caster BUT....
These are a temporary fix for me. These should be reserved for pavement princess rigs. And 80's aren't for that.....
I'll enjoy the added on highway safety, but am looking to replace these ASAP due to the loss of ground clearance
I knew this going into it and just looking for a temp solution.

Edit: My rig is 2.5" ome heavies + 2" front spacer with stock bushings. Will post before and after alignment sheets when I get all the rear control arms installed for anyone interested. Definitely drives very similar to stock now

Don't stress it. They won't get snagged. I ran 3 inch man a fre drop brackets and never had an issue with clearance. Run them and see what happens. I bet you never get rid of them.

 

[Broski]

Don't stress it. They won't get snagged. I ran 3 inch man a fre drop brackets and never had an issue with clearance. Run them and see what happens. I bet you never get rid of them.

^^^^^^^ This
It would only be a issue for extreme Rock crawling which most 80 series owners don't do.
I even ran the Dusy Ershim trail with a friend that had them, they were never a issue he got hung up on the exhaust pipe running under the frame a lot with a 2" lift but never the drop brackets.

Unless it's a look thing just run them

 

[Zjohnsonua]

You can cut & turn gaining around 3*. You can’t get much more than that due to tre clearance. I have done it on an 80 and so has a good friend, with bushings and not big lift you can get good results. Its cheap and its fast if you can weld.

You can also cut all the suspension brackets off the axle housing, put it right where you want and weld it back on. Takes more skill but it is also cheap and can be done in a weekend vs 8 weeks wait time.

No idea why this isn't more of a thing. Once it gets done in a well-traffic'd thread, maybe folks will catch on.

 

[mudgudgeon]

No idea why this isn't more of a thing. Once it gets done in a well-traffic'd thread, maybe folks will catch on.

It's not without its own set of issues.
Every mod comes with compromises.

 

[philucero]

^^^^^^^ This
It would only be a issue for extreme Rock crawling which most 80 series owners don't do.
I even ran the Dusy Ershim trail with a friend that had them, they were never a issue he got hung up on the exhaust pipe running under the frame a lot with a 2" lift but never the drop brackets.

Unless it's a look thing just run them

Yeah, I know they hang a little low but so will my sliders whenever I get them built, when I can find some inexpensive tubular metal or ANY used sliders to modify for my cruiser. Cutting and welding works but you still have the axle approx. 1/2" to 3/4" back, I'll keep my brackets until they get me stuck a few times, that's why I have a winch