~ The Barnacle ~ [CJ-7]

[Jeep-Power]

Thanks for the tip Jay-- I'm looking ot mount it vertically-- I want to leave the floor empty for the tool/part box.

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip Jay-- I'm looking ot mount it vertically-- I want to leave the floor empty for the tool/part box.

Cool... Is your spare going to be a 35? If so beware... with it standing vertically it will stand up almost as high as your roll bar.

Another option is to angle it like ]\ where the ] is the back of your seat, and the \ is the tire looking from the side of the jeep. But either way space is limited if you do not lay it down horizontally.

[Guest]

Like Dan said could be dirty or there could have been a small breeze causing the shielding gas to be blown away.

[Guest]

Re: ladder / traction bar mount on the cj

leaf spring straightening-- it's alot harder than I thought-- which is great-- I think they will hold their shape, with the addition of the ladder bar. It is amazing to think of how much torque it takes to bend 4 leaves-- straighteing one is a royal PITA!

vise != press

i thought you had a press.. itd probably be alot easier!

[2000XJ]

Pete, I don't really understand what/why you're doing what you are with your leafs. Could you please elaborate and enlighten me a bit?

Thanks!

[Guest]

look's like he's trying to straighten them

[2000XJ]

look's like he's trying to straighten them

I got that part.... don't know why though, thought they were supposed to be arched, unless we're not talking about the arched part of the spring.

From re-reading and looking at his pics of what he was bending and the "after" pics, I'm guessing that he was straightening the part of the leaf that leads to the bushing, which got bent over time because of wheeling?

[Guest]

probably got bent in one of his fit's of wheeling rage. :D

[Jeep-Power]

Well, I'm pretty sure the porous weld was due to too much 'stick-out'. (amount of wire from tip of gun to weld pool). It was in the garage with no breeze.

Jay-- I'm planning on packing a 34 x 9.50 in there-- not as much height or width.

Well-- the vice trick was working great until I broke the jaw off the vice! #-o The heart breaker is that this was my Grandfather's vice that he left me. I've been using that thing for more than 30 years... I'm going to try to fix it... [-o< Yeah Smitty-- a press would have been ALOT easier and better-- still have to get one (my neighbor moved his out of his garage and into his shop :( )

The good news is that I had a spare BFV (big f'ing vice). :D

I ended up using a combo of body weight, the vice press, and the hammer/anvil (can't break that [-( -- it was my Great-Grandfathers-- he made it!).

The results were all to my liking-- Kurt helped me get the thing back together and it now sits where the springs did when they were new-- al little flexing on the loading docks in Middlesex should settle them in.



Dave-- the springs needed to be re-arched because they had flattened out due to excessive axle wrap. Contrary to popular belief, spring-under setups still produce a ton of axle wrap. When under a heavy torque load, the rear pinion attempts to climb the ring gear, which brings the front of the rear axle up. The leaf springs are the only thing to restrict this movement. The front end of the springs end up inverting their arch. Depending on how much/severely this happens, the resulting shape can be made permanent. This results in a loss of arch and therefore overall lift. This had happened to mine-- so I took the leaf packs apart and took the flat/inverted spots out of them.


You can kind of see it here-- especially where the spring is under the axle tube.


What I have done to prevent/limit this happening again is to install a ladder (aka- traction) bar on the rear axle-- this will act to limit axle wrap while allowing a full range of motion of the rear axle.


Here it is with the rod end bung welded in--

The home-made 'spring eye' style mounts. I used a few hunks of extra DOM and urethane CJ front spring bushings



I had to install the two axle side mounts and then figure out where I wanted the bar. I then tacked it in place, including the wide end spreader. I was then able to remove it, weld it all up and then install the extra triangulation. here it is last night, right before painting. It is right around 36" long and about 7.5" O.C. of the axle mounts.




Here's a before shot


The after will be coming soon!

[ne14jpn]

Peter, your work looks great. I'm always impressed with your ideas.

Not that its going anywhere as it is, but on your traction bar axle bracket you could "wrap" it by plating in the front and back of the mount... this would fully box the mount and gain greater weld surface area. Just an idea.

The mount looks great and like I said I don't think is going anywhere.

Can't wait to see this on Krawlers and red rock! \:D/

[Jeep-Power]

Erik-
Thanks -- I didn't even think about wrapping it like that-- #-o great idea! I'm all for 'peer-review" and adding mor metal. It'll have to wait 'till next time though. I need to get moving on the cage work. [-o<


Here are a few shots of the finished product-- I think I'm going t add a little more to the cross member/skid mount.

[ne14jpn]

Lookin good...

[Guest]

So Pete when are you tossing out the hearing booth, display cases, and Lense grinder, to open up the Fab Shop???

Nice work as usual.

[rocksteadyrobk]

Dont quit your day job :D

are you rocking super arc wire.. I can weld across the garage with mad stick out cause that wire is da shizz

[warthog_cj7]

Looks good.

What the clearance between the 300 and top of the ladder bar?