Roughly 8.5” uptravel, 16” overall, 10° caster at ride height, radius arms are dead flat at ride height too which I’m stoked about. Will get the drivers side done tomorrow
Picked up the beams from the welder today. DIY offroad kit went together pretty smooth I didn’t use all the plates and did a different front plate but super happy with how it turned out.
Got er rolling Drove it out onto the driveway and back into the garage. No front brakes so was just using the parking brake so didn’t want to go too far at midnight lol. Stock bronco steering worked without binding surprisingly
The springs I got are too stiff but its enough to get this thing on a trailer. Fucking stoked that I did this swap it just about a month. Still have a bunch of little shit to figure out and still need to paint everything BUT its rolling. Will load it on the trailer tomorrow and grab more pics. Its mean looking
Question for those with better shock knowledge than myself how much preload do I want on my coilovers? Here's my current setup. I like the ride height
Fox 2.5 12" coilover
14" 450 lb
12" 350 lb
1" preload
7" shaft showing at ride height
I bought the coils through Accutune so I could swap them out if need be. They recommend 1" of preload, but if I were to go to 2" preload then I could get my spring rates down to 275/425 or 300/375 or 325/350. I've read that the goal is to have the lightest springs possible? Whats the vibe here
Full bump, centered in the wheel well, tire has probably around 6 inches turning radius both directions. I could probably push it forward some more but then I lose out on turning radius so I think i’ll leave it where its at. Current stats are ~8” uptravel, 9” down, will prob strap it at 16” total. Inside fenders are first point on contact, the fiberglass has plenty of clearance. Center u joint won’t be anywhere near binding which is cool.
Hopefully knock out the bumpstops/ limit straps this weekend. Steering stuff from barnes4x4 on order to start on next week
It looks like it’s gonna be a little tight. Hard to gauge it without the strap.
Did you try clocking the lower strap 90’ yet so your strap is perpendicular with the rad arm?
I have my lower tab parallel with the rad arm and it gets really tight at bump. But I’m also running a 14” strap so I’ve got a bit more strap to deal with when it’s folded up.
This is full droop. My though was putting it at angle would put less leverage on the strap but putting it at 90° would definitely offset the tabs at bump
Drivers side done. Time to pull everything apart, get the last few things welded, and paint!
Intake and filter done. Spectre inline air box; excited to see how it works out. Small packaging but still plenty of air flow. Its rated for like 450 cfm which is more than enough for this 4.0
Starting to regret this older 3rd member with the bolt in axle from the early 80’s. The passenger axle shaft is giving me so much trouble. Just trying to replace the seal and have to take the whole bearing assembly off and theres this big retaining washer that is pressed on. How am I supposed to get it off? I’ve tried a 3 ton jaw puller but its not strong enough. I even heated it up in the oven to 450° but no luck
Got the last little bit of welding finished and everything painted. Ready for final assembly
Also got the 3rd member cleaned up. Been using diesel as a parts cleaner a lot lately. Degreases and gets rids of surface rust very well and leaves a nice oily film. Leave it out in the sun for the day to let it bake in and its ready to go
Short answer, no. I haven't put the axles in the beams yet (mainly because the axle shafts and 3rd member have been torn apart) but I did figure out a solution.
The pivot spread on the crossmember was 14", I quickly found out that was wrong and called the builder to see wtf happened. Turns out when he designed it in cad he used a wms-wms of 65" to determine pivot spacing because he didn't have a scan of a bronco frame Obviously that logic isn't right because the width changes as the suspension cycles and theres also some adjustability with the ball joint cams. So I got all worried that this thing was gonna be fucked since the correct spread is 13". I ended up calling Geoff and he came up with the idea of just extending each beam by 1/2" to get back to the stock spacing. So when doing the uniballs, I cut the ends of the beam off instead of using a hole saw and then fine tuned it until each beam was a 1/2" wider. In this photo you can see I marked the original distance to the pivot and also ensured it was perfectly parallel to the old pivot at ride height. This actually worked out extremely well because I was able to get the uniball cup angled exactly where I wanted it.
I then mocked everything up and got the crossmember in the correct position side-to-side so that way each wheel has the same poke. Clearances looked good, plenty of space for the 3rd member and axle shafts, and pivot spacing is theoretically back to stock. So I decided to send it and had it welded in.
Now it could be completely fucked when I go to cycle the suspension with axle shafts in but I'll find out here in a couple of days. If it is, then I'll have to address is then. But the math checks out in my head so we'll see
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Drove it out onto the driveway and back into the garage. No front brakes so was just using the parking brake so didn’t want to go too far at midnight lol. Stock bronco steering worked without binding surprisingly
Obviously that logic isn't right because the width changes as the suspension cycles and theres also some adjustability with the ball joint cams. So I got all worried that this thing was gonna be fucked since the correct spread is 13". I ended up calling Geoff and he came up with the idea of just extending each beam by 1/2" to get back to the stock spacing. So when doing the uniballs, I cut the ends of the beam off instead of using a hole saw and then fine tuned it until each beam was a 1/2" wider. In this photo you can see I marked the original distance to the pivot and also ensured it was perfectly parallel to the old pivot at ride height. This actually worked out extremely well because I was able to get the uniball cup angled exactly where I wanted it.
