Building a new and improved Jalopy frame

Thanks! I think it is more of a CJ5 now than a CJ2A. R)

The brown santa came today and delivered my new Summit aluminum mustang radiator! Now it might actually not overheat with the stock 2A one...

 

Phew! I've been so busy for the past few days, I haven't been able to post up the progress I've made.


For starters, my aluminum radiator came in from Summit. Should stay nice and cool now (one can only hope).





And then I starting working on the suspension. Made up some mounts and started figuring my links. The rear driveshaft doesn't look like it will be a major issue either.


I had to weld in another crossmember in for my upper links.

 

Been super busy for the past couple weeks and haven't had a chance to work on Jalopy II, but I'm free this weekend! I finished stripping the old frame down and mounted some stuff up on the new one to see how it all fit.

The winch looks so much nicer being part of the bumper than the way It was mounted before.



The power steering box looks a whole better too than it did before.

 

This is a great build thread. I am looking forward to following it to the end.

 

Started messing around with my suspension today. Made up my 4 lower links and tacked those to the frame.





And checked my steering linkage. Will I get a lot of bump steer with that angle? I can change out my pitman arm with a dropped one if need be.

 

Starting to look like a coil sprung flatty! 8) I cut all the old leaf spring garbage off the axles to make room for the new coil springs mounts. I tacked the lower link mounts on and the coil spring mounts are just sitting there.

 

this is going to be totally cool!!!! great work!

 

:lurk:

 

Frame is looking great!

Not to rain on your parade, but I hope you don't plan on pulling much with your winch. When using a wire rope clip, remember the saying: "Never saddle a dead horse". Also no thimble in the turn back. I use wire rope rigging almost everyday at work have have seen setups like yours fail numerous times.

Here is a good link that explains the proper way to use wire rope clips
http://www.fdlake.com/wrclips.html

 

Yep, somebody already pointed that out.

Thanks guys! I'm pumped to finish it now.

 

Another thing I noticed is the radiator mounting. It really is good to have some type of rubber bushings in there to take any flex rather than the radiator. That said, it looks great. As for the winch cable termination, I like these:
http://www.esmet.com/electroline.html

Use the flat blade style with a good (Crosby) gated clevis hook.

 

Good idea duffer, I'll have to put some rubber in there. Don't want to be breaking my radiator!

Finished up my rear suspension today. It's soo nice! With out the coil springs in, I checked how much the axle could move. It moves up and down really nice and it doesn't have any side to side play when flat. It is easy to adjust the angle and centering too. Can't wait to try it out!





The driveshaft doesn't look all that bad either. Not too steep like I was worried about.

 

I am certainly no suspension expert and, least of all when it comes to coil springs but, those top arms look pretty short to me. I remember reading, somewhere, that the top links should be 75% of length of the lower links. Not sure if that applies in all situations or even how important or true it is. Just a thought and maybe worth a search somewhere. Or, a more knowledgable member could chime in. Hate to see you go to all the work and maybe have a hassle. Maybe I'm way off with what I think I remember. As I like to say...."but....I could be wrong."

 

:iagree: The tabs that the upper links bolt to look a little on the thin side too. They are whats going to keep your axle from wrapping up and spitting driveshaft u-joints. Also that piece of angle that's welded to the diff, unless you have some serious gussets planned, is not going to survive. Not trying to knock your work, but it'll be a whole lot easier to re-configure now than it will be when you have it all together. Many people build a "bridge" from one axle tube to the other, going over the top of the centersection, to attach their upper links too. A lot of force will be applied to those upper links under acceleration and on climbs. I can't say I know a lot about coil setup, but I know a thing or two about fabrication and I just don't see the "beef" where it should be. Also rod ends are designed to be supported on both sides, not a single mount like you have with the angle iron. The tabs that your upper links bolt to would probably be a lot stronger if made from rectangle tubing or you can buy mounts from a lot of different places. Foothill Offroad has a lot of that stuff. Don't take my criticism wrong, just telling you what I see.

 

I'm no expert, but I was thinking the same thing. Have you plugged your link lengths into a 4 link calculator?

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204893

1st link in the above link

 

Great link. I knew there was a lot to take into account when designing a coil setup. No sense re-inventing the wheel when you can use the knowledge that other's have already gained.

garage gnome: The reason your rear axle is stable side-to-side is because your upper links are so short. They are going to limit your articulation severely. With proper length links you are most likely going to need a track bar to stabilize it.

 

I saw the same issues, one thing you could do is to box the upper arm frame mount plates.

The piece of angle on the diff is just scary to me.

Try to keep all mounting fixtures short, less leverage to cause them to bend. Your top mounts are a good example of what I am talking about.

As John said, dont take things wrong, we are trying to help.

Good luck, waiting to see the finished rig.

 

I wasn't entirely happy with the way I set it up either, but you know, leave it for the night and come back out in the morning with a new perspective. I also read through the comments and that prompted a little modification. Yes, I wasn't finished with the angle iron on the center of the axle. :twisted: Thanks for the constructive criticism guys!

Here are the mods I did:

1) Extended upper links by 4"
2) Changed mount location so the force would be pushing against the frame
3) Tied the mounts into the round cross member
4) Beefed up the center axle mount.

 

Have you cycled the rear axle with the coils out to see if there is any binding? When you do, watch the pinion angle and see how much it changes. Like I said before, I don't know that much about coil setups, it just seems like the upper and lower arms should be moving on similar axis. I hear ya on leaving a project overnight to let things simmer a little. One of the nice things about fabrication is you can always change things to get them the way you like them. All it takes is time, material and a cutoff disc.