YJ spring conversion

I cant seem to find a manufacturer that makes a YJ spring conversion for 75 and under cjs..anyone know of any?:?

 

None that I know of you have to make your own out of parts.

 

No kits that I was able to find. You can piece together everything you need with off the shelf parts.

Details here:
http://www.earlycj5.com/tech/SpringsShocks/yjconv/index.php

 

Oh nice...I didnt even see that list Thanks for the help.

 

I tried to follow the way it was done in the tech pages and had some issues. Had to do with front spring placement. When you do the fronts, just make sure you center the spring alignment pin in the same location it was originally in. If done by the tech pages you will run into this;
The pic is taken with the springs at ride height. That is a YJ 4" drop pitman arm.



Record the center of your rear front spring mount on the frame. Measure the difference in the old/new springs from center pin to rear spring eye center. Do the math to figure the center for the new spring. I did mine twice and had uglies to clean up because of it. Don't weld anything till your done and happy with how it sits. The other issue I had was the amount the springs settled. But the only think that will cause is having to move my shackles.

pic was taken with the jeep unloaded. I installed the late model CJ shackle mounts in the same locations and same orientation as stock. When I started the shackles were angled toward the center, a lot. I am going to remove the hangers and flip them around the other way, that should take care of it. In the fronts I used YJ boomerangs to over come the distance.



some more pics here if you want; http://gallery.reprobation.net/main.php?g2_itemId=18867

 

After digesting Hudsonhawk's link along with this link (click here), I went with stock YJ springs over the axle which allowed for some good flex that can be seen in the following link.

http://webpages.charter.net/xlr8n/pics/jeep/soa/

I purchased the hangers, shackles, bushings and spring perches here --> http://www.partsmike.com/

 

JeepTherapy, I still am curious how that happened to your Jeep. When I did mine with a drop pitman arm I did not have any interferance issues. And now that I have gone back to a stock pitman arm and a high steer conversion I still only get very slight interferance when the driver front is at full compression.

 

I initially mounted my axle exactly as the tech pages stated. My springs were that much longer that it moved my axles that far. Not sure how else to explain it? The pictures tell the story?

Here is what I initially did. I removed all of the spring hangers. Using the front hole in the frame for the original spring hanger and the front hole of the new spring hanger I located the hanger on the frame. Of course I welded it in place too... go figure.

The rest really has no bearing as the front rear spring hanger is what positions the axle. I put the axle up in full stuff to make sure there was no interference.



This probably shows a little better how far it moved the axle forward. The string is in the center of the bump stop. Dunno if I did something wrong, misread the procedure or what. Just pointing out that it didn't work for me...



I used BDS 3.5" lift springs. As I recall the center pin to eye was 7" longer on the YJ springs than it was on the CJ springs. I really don't remember, been too long ago.

My springs settled a lot! If you look close in this pic you can see the shackle angle on my initial rear install. It was pretty good. Got a lot worse after 1000 miles. I did however notice that your shackle hanger is mounted the opposite direction as mine. I have mine mounted in the stock CJ direction. I am going to flip it around and it should locate my my shackle where I need it. That isn't a biggie though (didn't weld that...). Moving that Spring hanger wouldn't have been so bad either if I hadn't already welded it.

All of my original spring mounts were welded to the frame when I started.

With the stock CJ pitman arm in there I think I would have had the same problem. I did spend some time trying to find a shorter pitman arm before I moved the springs further back. Remember they were welded The way it sits now, the pitman arm is about an inch forward of the tie rod. When the axle goes up of course it moves forward but it gets past the pitman arm before it does it. I am very happy with it now. It drives down the road perfect. On the way back from Minnesota on the freeway I was doing speeds around 75MPH with it and no issues. Top left corner on the GPS is the speed.

 

Thanks for the pics...have either of you gone off road yet?

 

OH yes, several years now. The two pics on the bottom of the page for the tech article were taken on Rusty Nail outside of Moab, Utah. It has also been to Katemcy Rocks and Barnwell Mountain in Texas. As well as Clayton and Disney Oklahoma.

It performs very well. The guys I was with in Moab were all in bult TJs and they were impressed with how it performed.

 

Figured I'd add another parts source for this conversion. I got all of the parts from Warrior Products through 4 Wheel Parts. All the spring hangers, shackle mounts, extended shackles, axle perches, u-bolt skids, u-bolts. It's not a kit, but having a single source was handly, and they're all heavy duty upgrades.

 

I just got all my parts from foothill offroad in Auburn Ca.

Seems like there should be better math for this.

I have new 4 inch lift yjs for the front ready to go. Front SUA.

They are about 4 inch longer from the center pin to the eye. In each direction.
Could you move the spring hanger back and shackle hanger forward that amount each,or would that be too far?

Maybe half the distance?

The spring setteling is the unknown I gusse