Making My CJ5 Into A CJ6/II

John, 5 on 5.5" YES , Hubs are Custom........Axle housing ends will have to be unique w/no seal........as will axles that will get an inboard seal.........Have not yet seen the final product, I'm still working on that, so keep watching.

 

Tarry, what are your thoughts on fitting that 9 inch axle to a jeep in an offset configuration with a D-18 tranfercase? I know you’re planning a centered differential, but the way you cut the pumpkin down looks like it may have enough clearance for the passenger side spring perch.
John, have you resolved this issue for your 3B?

 

I assume your talking about the rear?...................I don't have anything here to measure the offset for a D-18 or the rear axle so that would be hard to tell. One thing for sure is the Banjos are quite large not leaving much room for spring perches...............I'm working on that same issue right now up front. If you can come up with those measurements I would be curious.........28" C/C springs doesn't leave much room.

 

Terry, what is the width of the 9" banjo as you have it pictured?

 

Terry -- I'd love to see that project… very cool.

Mike

 

Rubicon Express makes an offset spring pad setup that might work with the Ford 9". They buy you a little space.

http://www.rubiconexpress.com/Fabri...spx?t_c=86&t_s=527&t_pt=101476&t_pn=R/ERE1920

 

John, 15.625"

 

Thanks John ..........

 

These will be low pinion 9s? The high pinion stuff always interested me but, I suppose they are somewhat weaker than the standard low pinion.....esp. with 40s.

 

Dave,

Standard in the rear...........and High Pinion in the front............The only place to put a High Pinion is forward where it is in fact stronger at the R&P.......unlike the rear where it's drive contact to the ring gear makes it weaker........

 

Tarry, yes I was thinking in the rear application for the offset. I am a long ways out from doing this but I'll look next week and do some measuring with the banjo width you gave. I think I once read where the Currie fabricated house could be had in an 18 inch width, so your approach already looks better for an offset application.

Posimoto, I figured outboarding the rear springs would likely be necessary, but the offset perches look interesting too, thank you.

 

The biggest problem with any of these larger housing axle combinations is getting the drive line offset in a reasonable range from the TC to the axle pinion yoke........be it front or rear it needs to be in a relative straight line........It's a given that you will always have a drive shaft slope / angle..........but add a compound angle to that with a significant offset and it will raise havoc with your U-joints and drive line........Front axle's can be run with more offset purely from the fact that most times there engaged your not running at 60 mph.......

Out-boarding springs is an option but also a liability in space needed inside for steering or you can just choose to run full width axles...........but if your trying to keep the track width fairly narrow and not having allot of tire sticking out beyond the body and not wanting to move springs and such ya might just want to steer away from any of these large case axles..........It really is a compromise all the way around.

 

The stock D44 housing is close to 14.75 inches from tube to tube and housings for the different tube diameters appear to be all the same width. The stock D44 arrangement also has about an inch clearance between the housing and the inside U-bolt. Terry's 9" housing should fit with the original driveshaft location but the un-modified Currie housing will be lapping the spring mount. That said, you could probably build the spring pad into the Currie housing and not loose much ground clearance with a spring under.

 

I'm using an unmodified Currie housing on the front of my M38a1. It's pretty tight getting the spring perch in there with a spring under. I started with a regular perch and basically cut the inside off. By the time I got it where it needed to go, I had to raise the driver's side about 1/8th inch... The thing to remember about the 9in for the rear is the pinion is offset. It works to your advantage on a right side offset rear axle, and left side drop front axle...

 

John , so 14.75" edge of cast housing to edge of cast housing?................

The benefit if any of the cast housings is the first U-Bolt , the larger of the two on the short side is inboard about .625 from the edge which also means the spring is inboard by a lesser amount. That doesn't sound like much but when your scrounging for any dimensional savings that helps! My frame width now is 29" C/C up front , which is an inch wider than a stock CJ.......and that is being controlled by the need to have enough room for full angle turning lock to Lock with 37" tires and 1-ton inner C's. The larger Atlas TC case along with its greater offset also adds to the complications. As I continue to look at how to fix this it's apparent that as I take away more metal to narrow it , I will also have to consider the need for more axle tube support which means some internal bulkheads.......The fabricated housings also come with there own obstacles in there shape as I have one of my old ones here also..............I'm going to cut on this 9" a little more and see what I get.

 

Jon,

Love to see some pictures...........
How is your front drive-line offset?
What TC case are you using?
Stock early 1.750" wide springs?
I've already tried cutting up a spring perch but it never solved my problem.

And at least in my case , Pinion offset on the 9" can be a good or bad thing depending on your transfer case type & offset either side. As I continue to rotate the transfer case up to get better ground clearance in the middle that arch sweeps the yoke further out which only adds to the offset.

 

My build is the SeaBee M38a1... I'm running Rubicon Express 2.5in lift YJ springs with a Dana 20 transfer case. With a right side drop it puts the front shaft under the middle more than I'd like, but it'll work. When I ordered the housing from Currie they wanted me to use the fabricated housing, but its huge. Maybe with links and coilovers... With F-150 outers, its 62in wide... Perfect for me...

 

I'll check your build out , always interesting to see someone else's approach.............I'll keep cutting on this until I either like it or switch gears!

 

So here is the problem........I need to move that housing over another 2 inches to get the center line of the pinion closer in line with the yoke coming out of the transfer case. Where the frame rail is now is the same space the 2.5" leaf spring needs to occupy............No question in the front you do have a little more latitude for Pinion offset........but with the compound angle I am currently creating , sloping down from the Atlas Transfer Case and then adding the offset to the Pinion , It will surly give my universal joint up front fits.........I'm going to do some more surgery on this housing , not really knowing if this is going to work or not........the next problem will be the axle tube will not have much of a Banjo for Strength to hold it in place..........so I will also look inside and create an internal bulkhead to hold the tube inside also..

( NOTE:this angle is even more complicated as when the motor is tilted downwards to the rear at about 4-5 degrees it does the opposite to the front of the transfer case.......making it tilt up 4-5 degrees before it slopes downhill to the font axle)

Who Loves Compound Angles?




LETS CUT THAT END OFF


STRAIGHTEN OUT THE CUT


NOW I NEED TO ROLL OR STEP BRAKE SOME .188 PLATE AND FASHION TWO BULKHEADS TO GO INSIDE THE INTERIOR OF THE HOUSING

AND ONE FOR THE OUTSIDE ALSO


HUMM WILL THESE BULKHEADS CLEAR INSIDE WHEN THE 3RD MEMBER IS DROPPED IN.......MY PROBLEM IS I DO NOT HAVE A NODULAR IRON 3RD MEMBER HERE.......THIS ONE IS ALUMINUM OUT OF THE RACE CAR.........THIS MAY HAVE TO WAIT SOME AS I'M NOT REALLY SURE WHICH CASE THE IRON OR ALUMINUM IS MORE BULKY? I'M BETTING THE ALUMINUM CASE IS MORE BULKY AROUND THE BEARINGS AND ALL........BUT I'LL TRY AND FIND NODULAR IRON ONE TO BE SURE.

 

Man, I thought I tore into stuff. Cool project.