Varg In Jeep's Clothing

An interesting plan you have going on there. I don't say bad things about Volvos. I'm on my fifth or sixth. I usually get a basket case and use it until I donate it to a needy High School student. Lots of good parts on them to use on a Jeep as well. The '86 only has 201,000 on it now. Still a young pup.

 

Just read through your whole thread, and I am truly impressed by the artistic design in your crossmember and TC mounts. I don't think I've seen anything quite like them. You've really gotten my brain whirling around in areas outside the box I was in now. My own project will benefit, I'm sure

 

Thanks, GraySkies. That's why we post up our progress; to help show there is more than one way to build a jeep! In all honesty, every one of these mounts and crossmembers began with the full intention of just bending a piece of tubing and welding some tabs on it, but I get frustrated when something almost fits or just about gives me the clearance I was looking for. By the time I get the "simple" tubing massaged into the end result I like, I should have just fabbed up what I needed out of plate and be 5x stronger.

All I need now are some 6-lug 15" wheels and a trip to the scrap yard for some plate, and I'll have what I need to move on with this project. Oh, and time. I wish I could find that.

 

I hear ya on the time thing. I finally have the money to work on my Jeep, after waiting for more than a decade. I thought it would progress quickly once I had the funds in place. Now, though, I find that my available time is almost as much of a limiting factor as the money was. I'm making progress, but only marginally faster than when I was broke. Sigh...

 

Any updates on this project? I know you are building get the trailer... hopefully to be towed by the Varg...

 

Collecting tools and parts.... And dust.
Another few months and I'll be back on it. Hopefully sooner than later!! Thanks for asking.

 

Dang it... I was hoping for some more awesome fab...

 

Nice fab work, I just read this whole thread and all I can say is wow.

 

surprising how we can find new ideas and develop them.
you have my admiration for such activity.
bravo.

 

Thanks gentlemen.

Trust me, I want to be working on this thing just as much as you want updates. Work and 'around the house' jobs keep getting in the way. I'm still playing catch-up from when I broke my foot last spring.

 

No major updates, but...
I am parting out a Volvo 850 that I bought for the transmission, and I just spent the last hour on my back with a grinder cutting out the rear suspension mounts. I lost some hair in the process. This picture probably won't make sense, but I'm going to cut the necessary parts out of these mounts to use to built into the front radius arm mounts on the Varg. Since I don't have a lathe or a mill, it will be easier and more precise to use specific parts from these than make them completely from scratch. They lock together in a unique, failsafe way.

The fact that these parts came from the trailing end of a fwd midsize sedan is astounding. They are massive.



I'm collecting parts... I'm gonna try to make it out to pull and save this weekend for a steering box and some XJ shackles.

It won't be long. When the first snowflake falls, I'm going to slip into a fabrication hibernation in the shop.

 

Just been trought you're tread, you're some kind of metal artist, You're custom crossmember are almost to beatiful to be hide under the jeep.

As for the coil spring project, the land rover radius arm is a good idea, i went into it before finding the ford radius arm (did find any RR arm around me so no choice).

For the coil spring i went with jeep tj front coil spring, i have a 360 in the front and it's a charm on the road.

I was looking about the skock inside the coil, i'm not a big fan of this idea, when you will flex the front axle, the shock will get contact with the coil, so a bent could occur. Also I will strongly suggest (if it's not the case) to put some bump stop to avoid shock and frame damage.

For the shock, you will need more down travel than up travel, mine is a 10" stroke, my up travel is about 4" and down 6", work perfect and when it's at full flex , there is about 1" between tire and fender.

One more thing, those era frame weren't the strongest one, putting coil may stress the frame. I suggest building a crossmember between the coil bucket, so frame will stay strait and not crack like mine did. Also it will reinforce the trac bar braket.

I put some picture so you can see how i did it.

 

Paitience, Daniel-son. Don't get too far ahead. Thanks for the pointers and the kind words. Is that a Scout II tie rod I spy? I've seen you're build; nice job. I bet that works well.

I'm only borrowing the styles of how the Rover arm mounts to the axle. The arms will be built out of plate like the crossmembers to get them exactly where and how I want them.

As far as the springs bowing, I'm hoping to alleviate that by mounting the lower spring bucket/shock mount on a pivot. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see if it will work. It would still have a little side-to-side action within the arc of the axle swing, but the actual bowing caused by the axle articulating should be minimized.

My cage will continue up into the engine compartment with suspension tie-ins, and the frame will be boxed and reinforced, so im not too concerned with the stock frame. To do it all over again, I would certainly start from scratch with tubing, but I'm too far into this now to start over!

 

You bet right, it a completly different ride, road and off-road. Just having the spring outside the frame bring more stability. If you're doing a all corner coil spring you will need at least one sway bar if you don't want body roll when turning. If you don't have space on the front you can mount it on the rear like i did, i didn't feel much difference from moving it to the rear (when i swap the custom frame i move it to te rear for the reason above).

Yes, front and rear dana 44 from scout II, but i did the internal locking hub upgrade, with the front axle lock, i had always problem with the loose bolt that hold the lock/drive flange.


Idea of a pivot coil bucket isn't bad at all, in my case doing it i'm not sure i would gain any performance.

The only thing i would be scare with that, it could bring another source of death wobble due to multiple pivot point (just a theory ...)

And for the bump stop you could use something similar to early bronco like this pictore.



Did find a way to share video on facebook you can see how it work

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151576028966621

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152926666051621

 

I found it!!

 

It's amazing how motivating it can be to just see an axle under the frame for the first time.

 

Very cool. I need to go back and see how you made the cage mounts.

 

Here's the finished ride hight I think I'll be able to pull off. With 32" tires, I'll have 17" under the belly pan and frame, 10 1/4" under the low point of the pumpkin, and 31" to the door opening.

That's as little lift as possible with a SOA setup without using negative-arch springs. Both the spring and shackle mounts will be recessed in the frame, and the spring perch will be as short as possible with 4-leaf packs that *should* ride flat.

 

Looks good. Very nice work, by the way. Have you run flat springs before? Shackle angle needs to be given some thought. With arched springs the shackle will travel in both directions on compression and droop. Not so much with flat springs. On my Jeep I only get travel in one direction on the shackles. Compression or droop, the shackle travels (rotates) in essentially the same direction as the springs get shorter eye to eye either way. My Jeep also has only about 3 1/2" of up-travel in the suspension, but quite a bit of droop. Works very well for me. I used Wrangler YJ springs with no lift for my spring over. Ended up with about 5" of lift. That was as low as I could get it.

 

Thanks! Yup, I've been running stock YJ springs on my 3B for 20 years, and built a Willys PU using them and used 11-leaf mix-and-match packs on a scout. I'm a big fan.