What did you work on tonight? (4 Viewers)

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Safety 3rd!
 
Swapped squeaky UCA’s for stock UCA’s
and the dang ball joint bushings are smoked.
Grr
now 285/75’s vs 255/85s to gain some UCA clearance, they’re almost exactly the same🤔
Next step LCA bushings (like everyone else) in the pursuit of solving the squirrelly wander

View attachment 2870779View attachment 2870778
Get some good sawzall blades on hand for the lca bushings, me and @Quantumkiwi both had a seized cam on the passenger front. The 255s on the stock wheels should be pretty darn close to the same spacing from the uca as 285s on the 80 wheels
 
The 80 rims are about 1/4” shallower backspace. What I was hoping for was the 255’s narrower profile to gain a little. You’re correct, it’s almost the same but it’s enough that I’m happy with it.
The 285’s made contact.
Now to sort out whether this rig makes me happy enough to splurge on the SPC uppers. Not sure yet, gonna wheel it a little with the 255’s to decide.
Hope we get some snow for a good test run
 
Swapped squeaky UCA’s for stock UCA’s
and the dang ball joint bushings are smoked.
Grr
now 285/75’s vs 255/85s to gain some UCA clearance, they’re almost exactly the same🤔
Next step LCA bushings (like everyone else) in the pursuit of solving the squirrelly wander
Seems early for LCA bushings...well at lest in miles. It's been 8-9 years so maybe but less than 50k miles I bet
 
Seems early for LCA bushings...well at lest in miles. It's been 8-9 years so maybe but less than 50k miles I bet
I wasn’t sure if you’d done them, thanks this helps I’ll bet they’re fine. Gonna eyeball all the rear stuff next
 
Grant,

You might want to do the rear LCA, UCA and the Panhard rod bushings all at once in order to totally eliminate the rear end squirlyness. I know the cost of OEM bushings are no joke. I don't pay a whole bunch of attention to the UCAs due them not influencing the rear axle as much as worn LCA bushings do. The rear axle will experience torque steer when they're really worn and of course, they'll try to grab the ruts on asphalt.

But, one thing to keep in mind and that is the total cost of OEM bushings + effort to swap them out = often comes close to new beefy units loaded with OEM or similar bushings. That's where I was with the LCA bushings swap on the 80; the #s favored getting replacement LCAs from OZ vs swapping them out. Bonus of going this way is the LCAs are now MUCHO BEEF compared to my fortified but slightly bent original LCAs.

Just a random thought!

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Grant,

You might want to do the rear LCA, UCA and the Panhard rod bushings all at once in order to totally eliminate the rear end squirlyness. I know the cost of OEM bushings are no joke. I don't pay a whole bunch of attention to the UCAs due them not influencing the rear axle as much as worn LCA bushings do. The rear axle will experience torque steer when they're really worn and of course, they'll try to grab the ruts on asphalt.

But, one thing to keep in mind and that is the total cost of OEM bushings + effort to swap them out = often comes close to new beefy units loaded with OEM or similar bushings. That's where I was with the LCA bushings swap on the 80; the #s favored getting replacement LCAs from OZ vs swapping them out. Bonus of going this way is the LCAs are now MUCHO BEEF compared to my fortified but slightly bent original LCAs.

Just a random thought!

View attachment 2872286
Just to add on, the panhard bar mounts probably should be raised on axle side and lowered on the frame side. The stock panhard mounts won’t let you get the proper angle even with an adjustable panhard
97436932-5722-456E-A3E8-6628751D1F7B.jpeg
 
Just to add on, the panhard bar mounts probably should be raised on axle side and lowered on the frame side. The stock panhard mounts won’t let you get the proper angle even with an adjustable panhardView attachment 2872583

Good call Tanner.

A guy named Eimkeith (should be a vendor on Mud board) or something like that sells a weldable bracket that raises the axle side and lowers the chassis side. Not sure if he makes different life height.

His bracket is designed very nicely and I have one for the 4th gen but haven't installed it yet since my lift is barely 2" in the rear.

 
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I did this for the rear of mine and it made such a huge difference in ride quality.
Previously felt like the rear was moving several inches to the side each time I went over a small bump (like a bridge.)
No longer.
Also recommend the Eimkeith stuff.
 
I did this for the rear of mine and it made such a huge difference in ride quality.
Previously felt like the rear was moving several inches to the side each time I went over a small bump (like a bridge.)
No longer.
Also recommend the Eimkeith stuff.

It's amusing to be behind a lifted TJ or JK while going over hwy expansion joints 🤣. You can clearly see the rear axle doing the squirly dance.
 
Grant,
If I remember correctly the rear lowers were upgraded (one of the last part to be) and the pan hard is the adjustable unit from Sonoran. I would suspect the upper driver side as I only replaced one upper, I believe the passenger side.
 
Grant,
If I remember correctly the rear lowers were upgraded (one of the last part to be) and the pan hard is the adjustable unit from Sonoran. I would suspect the upper driver side as I only replaced one upper, I believe the passenger side.
Thanks, Steve! Yep I figured the lowers were done when I found the 2nd set in with the extra rear coils when I swapped them out. I'll look at the uppers
Swapping to the lighter springs really cured the rear
Going to stock UCA's helped the front a lot, @LX450JC has me thinking tie rod ends just to be 100%. I'll do them since I don't have any spares
And the different tires helped too
Its snowing up north so time to quit tinkering and get wheeling!!
 
It was good seeing you Onur, been a spell. Y'all got a great setup over there and Patagonia is such a cool little AZ town. Thanks for the hospitality.

In the second pic, I was drying my pillows on the hood vents! I had to close up my setup in the middle of rain so everything was moist.
 
Ali doing some work… :)

Happy NY HDC!!
I'm kind of curious what is up with your location: Patagonia, AZ. I thought you and the wife were retiring to northern NM. And what is the story with you and OLC4X4?
 

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