71 Wheeling Rig

If I use your plates, I need to fabricate shock mounts. Probably upper and lower. Outside the scope of this current round of work. I do like the plates though.

 

I used U-bolts Direct: https://www.uboltsdirect.com/

Haven't used them before, I just did a web search and they had a decent price for bolts+shipping. The quality seems fantastic.

 

That could almost make a guy want to light one up...

 

My problem is that once I start needing to do fab work, I might as well go with YJ springs.

Scope creep at its finest.

 

I'm lucky that my shocks are already too short and holding the drop short. For the front all I need to do is trim the outside flange shorter and weld some round stock with Cotter pin holes onto the outside flange.

If my shock length were good I would drill the upper shock bracket rivets and shim it up with 3/4" bar stock or tube with internal crush sleeves.

 

Been busy with other things, but did get the SmittyBilt seat on the driver's side too:


The ride quality is drastically improved with the seats and yanking a leaf from every spring. The shocks didn't seem to make much difference.

I'm happy with it for now.

The dogs wanted to go out for a drive tonight, so we did a loop around the neigborhood and then played with a Jeep a bit on the property once we got home:




Did a better flex test in our swale. It took a bit of a run to get it to this spot where it was maxed out and rocked back and forth a couple inches. Since I've got open diffs in both ends, it was a bit of a struggle to get it out :




The shorter springs in front definitely don't drop as much as the rear:


The fronts are on the my XJ bumpstops:


If I want a little more flex, it looks like I have clearance to trim another half inch or so off the bumpstop. I'd need to check it steered both ways though:


Great droop in the back:


With the one leaf removed, I'm finally hitting the rear bumpstops while flexed. That wasn't the case before:


Can't really trim the bumpstops back there. Even though there is vertical space above the tire, the back of the tire is pretty hard into the inner fender:


This picture is a good illustration of the chassis/boddy flex in these old Jeeps. Note how crooked the bumper is relative to the grill and how much the top is getting stretched by the body flex:


I still need to get the new U-bolts installed. While I'm at it, I'm going to attempt a re-arch of the front springs to get it to sit level. It still drives me nuts how nose low the BDS springs are. We'll see how the re-arching goes.