Varg In Jeep's Clothing

Me too!

 

I don't pay attention for a couple days and look what happens... Those are some pretty cool trailing arms!

 

#2 all welded up.



Now to figure out where to fit the track (Panhard) bar. The frame might be getting notched...

 

Both arms are on.


Moment of truth. I dropped it down on the axle to check clearances. Everything looks surprisingly good. I thought for sure I'd be modifying something. There's even a little extra wiggle room for articulation. Here you can see the need for the cutout on the inner plate to clear the frame.


Outside view:


My biggest concern was the driveshaft clearing the motor mount crossmember, but it looks like there will be plenty of room. Here's a shot from above the carrier bearing.

 

nice job :0

 

Excellent!

 

That's awesome!!

 

Thanks guys.

My track bar experiment worked. I found a track bar from a Cherokee on my pile'o crap and cut it down. I picked up a 3/4" rod end at Grainger and drilled and tapped into the end of the bar to accept the rod end. Finished length is same as what (I'm estimating) my drag link will end up at.



I can't believe Cherokee track bars' frame mount only used a 10mm bolt. I spent a half hour with a die grinder grinding out the hardened sleeve to accept a 7/16 bolt.

So here is my only option for placement. I'd love to stick it over the axle, but it would run into the DS spring. So, behind it is. The bends in the Cherokee bar work out perfect to avoid the pumpkin and crank pulley. The frame will need to be notched to accept the rod end at full stuff.



Here's where the frame mount will end up in comparison to the spring. I may also sink this into the frame to avoid the radius arm. We'll see. That might put the ends at more misalignment than I want.

 

Itlksez,
you are doing an great job, fab skills are amazing.
Question.....all that work on the frame, what are the plans for the front frame horns? Boxing them in?

 

Thank you. The frame horns are going to get lopped off and rebuilt from 3/16" and 1/8" plate, sort of like those radius arms. They need to arc up higher to avoid the tie rod and drag link, and I'll incorporate a sweet steering box mount into them. I also need to think about some sort of crossmember in there too. I'm hoping I can get the horns high enough without altering the grill at all. I'm worried I might have to notch the grill around the horns.

Building a custom jeep as low as possible with an eye on ground clearance is so much harder than building a high one!!

Thanks for following.

 

Do you have a Masters Degree in Design/Engineering/Fabrication or were you just born with the ability? I am so amazed at what I see and read about this build. I feel sorry for the guys on other forums that are missing this.

 

Geesh Walt, thank you. That's a pretty high compliment. I have a degree in art education with a minor in graphic design, so I guess I do see things differently in a spacial sense than some. Blend that with working in a bunch of different welding shops over the years to learn skills and techniques, and I guess you end up with a cool jeep build.

Building custom stuff basically comes down to putting what you have (point A) where you think it should go (point B) and connecting the points. And why not get creative on the journey from point A to B?

The most frustrating part is having been accustomed to using a shear, brake, iron worker... then trying to do this with nothing but a torch, a few grinders, some clamps and a hammer.

I have an abbreviated build thread over on Pirate (where it's just a silly build on 32s that gets lost in the world of 44s on one-tons) and a small thread on TurboBricks where I post any Volvo-specific stuff. Those guys get a kick out of it, but some of them can be as belittling as the juveniles on Pirate if you show any weaknesses.

 

Hey! We're not all that bad over there (on Pirate)! At least when you stay off the mainstream forums, we're really docile in the Willys section. Honestly it used to be much worse before the corporate takeover.

This Jeep is really awesome in all respects. Using way different ideas than anyone else, and doing it with basic tools! An inspiration I say!

 

BTW, I feel like it needs to be stated how hard it was to drill a centered 2" deep 11/16" hole into the end of oddly-shaped 1 1/8" round stock with a cordless drill, then running a 3/4"-16 tap by hand. First time that was ever a complete success.

I have a question. I planned on using coil springs from a Cherokee (180#/inch spring rate), but I also have a set of rear coils from a Volvo 740 sedan (140#/inch) that are very similar in size, but not enough to be interchangeable. Do you guys think this thing will be that much lighter than a Cherokee that it would justify using the lighter springs? I don't want this to ride like a brick, but I also don't want to be near capacity just rolling down the road.

The engine is 320#, and I'm not immediately planning on running a winch...

As a comparison, the YJ leaf springs in the rear are 128#/inch.

 

My vote would be to use the Cherokee springs.

Devil's advocate though, are stiffer Volvo springs available?

 

I haven't looked into it. These are just what I have laying here. I have a pile of strut springs that I'm sure have a higher rate, but they're massive.

I'm sorta leaning toward the Cherokee springs too. It's easier to make a stiffer spring underperform than force a soft spring to overperform.

But the softer spring would give better droop....

 

One thing I forgot to check: fender clearance. With axle against the frame... Whew!


(Alignment is a little off (tire is sticking out too far) because when I drop the frame down all the way, it slides down the pumpkin on the pass side.)

 

I would think you should be able to find an assortment of springs for a 740 if you needed to. It wasn't all that many years ago that the 740 was really popular for road racing (or maybe it was and I'm just getting old)...

 

I would assume you're going to have bump stops to limit this from happening anyway. Certainly you don't want the frame whacking the differential carrier either.