Build Another YJ unlimited build

This is why I go heims, it's a pain... DL on top would contact frame before full bump usually unless you notch frame.

I think you're on track with the notching of seats. I usually just run the TR on bottom since my customers don't want to spend extra money on custom fitting and machining.
 
I've been getting a bunch done on this without updating here, so here's a few things that have happened.

I got a bunch of cool parts from Rare Parts and Genright to make the steering do what I wanted it to do.

This damn thing is beefy, but stupid expensive. Saved me a ton of time though.

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I got a tie rod and drag link made by Wide Open Design. Easy to deal with and plenty reasonable money wise I thought. I had ideas of getting some material locally and making these myself, but WOD was cheap enough I didn't feel like fighting this either. I installed the forgings and TRE's from Rare and it all fit exactly how I wanted. I also talked to Weaver about machining and welding to their arms and they said no problem, it's just mild steel, go to town. I had a plan....

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I was SO stoked that this was fitting. And then I saw this, not sure how I missed it in my mockups prior to ordering stuff, but I obviously did. I also didn't expect how much the Rare TREs offset vertically from the knuckle, but that was only part of the problem.

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This is forcing me to put the tie rod under the knuckle, which is making it hang down WAY further than I'm happy with. I think this is the only step backward that I'm taking performance wise on this axle upgrade, but it is so obvious and in my face and contrary to how I've been building everything else on the rig that I hate it.

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I am pretty frustrated with myself for not catching this earlier, but here we are. I've looked at moving the steering box, but I'm suffering a bit from project burnout. I want to get this thing driving so I can have fun with it this summer.

I gave up on the front end and decided I should just wrap up the rear axle. Some progress on a known quantity should be motivating.

I added the tabs for the rear sway bar and welded the brake caliper brackets all together. I also drilled and tapped for a vent, and added a baffle after being inspired by gt1guy and mobil1syn .

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I drilled the track bar bracket so I could mount the brake line.
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This may prove to be a bad location after seeing it in the rig, but I have a game plan to correct it if necessary.

My son and I bent up some new hard line, added some AN fittings and adel clamps, and I have hard lines installed.

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More Brake line pics cuz i think they turned out kinda cool

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I took my tires and new wheels to get put together. so that's done. I got a new Methods on black friday of 2023. This is the first set of new wheels I've ever bought. I'm sure I'll cry a little the first time I scratch them in the rocks, then I'll get over it. My buddy found these Method valve caps somewhere and bought me a set so I sent him this when they all got put together.




I bought the third with 5.43s and a 35 spline ARB from ECGS on another black friday deal. When it showed up, UPS had dropped it and cut the air line. ECGS sent me a new one, so I swapped it in.

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I rattle can primed and painted everything and put it together. I had Mark Williams make me a set of 300M shafts and bought their whole kit with drive flanges and everything required to make it all turn. That was pricy, I hope I never have to do that again.

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I was curious how much weight this axle was going to add to my beater so I weighed it.

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I'm pretty pleased that this axle is less than 500#. It's 163# heavier than the 8.8 it it replacing.

My kids and I installed it yesterday and everything like it's supposed to. It is now sitting on tires again! I guess I need to get back to the front end...

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YJLOPES said:
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I was SO stoked that this was fitting. And then I saw this, not sure how I missed it in my mockups prior to ordering stuff, but I obviously did. I also didn't expect how much the Rare TREs offset vertically from the knuckle, but that was only part of the problem.

I can’t see the problem. Is the suspension still have up travel. Close is fine.
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Look in the background of that pic where the tie rod is getting intimate with the pitman arm or look at the pic right after the one you quoted. I still have 3-4" on up travel available everywhere else. I'll get back to it next weekend. I have some ideas...
 
I've been slowly chipping away at things on this beater.

My buddy brought his bender over and we made a track bar.

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That fits pretty good, so I started mocking up coilovers.

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I didn't get a warm and fuzzy from the coiler tower welding straight to the frame, so I made some 1/8" plates and rosette welded them. I feel like this spreads the load of the tower over a larger area. Maybe not necessary, but I did it anyway.

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Some more measuring and then I burned the towers in.

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Once those were in, I started studying the air bump cans.

Hopefully I'll have these in this week.

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Thoughts on a crossmember between the towers? These towers are from TNT up in Cheyenne. They don't call for one and I haven't seen one on any of their builds. I have seen them on a ton of other builds. Are they necessary? I'm running 12" x 2.5" coilovers so they aren't THAT tall, but a bit taller than OEM TJ coil/shock towers.

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I think they are necessary but I’ve never used plate towers like that. I built some tube hoops with coilovers and test drove the jeep with no hood each hoop would move like an inch or more when I hit a bump. Didn’t drive it again until I had a crossover tube built.
 
Dan said:
I think they are necessary but I’ve never used plate towers like that. I built some tube hoops with coilovers and test drove the jeep with no hood each hoop would move like an inch or more when I hit a bump. Didn’t drive it again until I had a crossover tube built.
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I think it makes sense with hoops, I can't decide on these towers. A hoodless test drive wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish.

The bonus of the crossmember is an easy place to mount the reservoirs, but I'd also like to keep them out of the heat.
 
I made some gussets for the can last night.

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I have a slug of 2" tubing to put in the can when I weld it. I'm not 100% convinced it is necessary, but I can't see a downside. I intend to build a gusset on the inboard side from the frame to the bottom end of the can. Once that is fit and I'm happy I'll burn it all in.

This is really the last bit of fabrication. Once these are in, I think I can final weld everything, squirt some paint, and sort out brakes and driveshafts.
 
A few months ago I figured out that my stock fenders weren't going to work. I'd previously moved the axle forward 3.5ish inches, but with this new axle and front suspension I had to come back an inch or 2. That coupled with more up travel put my tires in the sheetmetal. I've always wanted to make my own highline fenders using stock fenders and slicing and dicing, but I just don't have the time. I wrote a check to motobilt for their new aluminum highlines and inner fenders. They fit great, but I had to trim the inner fenders to fit around the shock towers. Not a big deal, just took half a day, but I think they turned out pretty good.

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I also shipped my coilovers back to Accutune to have them install 90 degree fittings for the reservoir. I hope this will make fitting the reservoirs somewhere a bit easier. I'm equipped to do it myself, and I would have loved to, but I elected to pay the stupid tax so I could spend time moving other things forward. I hope to have those back early to middle of next week. In the mean time, I can fine tune a few things so that when the shocks get back, I can bolt them on and should be close to a roller.
 
YJLOPES said:
I elected to pay the stupid tax so I could spend time moving other things forward.
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When I was younger, I never understood this and I would roll my eyes at guys doing this when “you can just do it yourself and save all the money”.

Now, I get it. ****in I want to pay all the stupid tax, **** it. Except I don’t have that kinda money :laughing:
 
I really dig this build. I've wanted an LJ since I saw a magazine article on Kilby Ent. LJ back in '05 or so, but the vintage of the YJ makes it even more rad. Thanks for posting, and I'll be following along.
 
If one tire is at full bump, the other is drooped out, the wheel is steered full lock, AND the brake pads are worn out, it's possible for the upper brake caliper bolt to hit the coil. I fixed that by countersinking the upper bolt.

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More problems with my Fusion 60. I have interference between the inner shaft and the inner C. I can't fully seat the unit bearing in the knuckle without the shaft locking up right here. I have the shaft fully seated in the unit bearing, and a stock dust shield between the unit bearing and the knuckle. Am I missing something?

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Has anyone seen this? Am i okay to grind the shaft around the circumference there? Or should I take a die grinder with a burr to the inner C/tube?

Full disclosure, I have an adjustable balljoint seat on the upper balljoint. It has been adjusted for I believe 1/4* negative caster, which may be what's pushing the shaft in to the C, but I can't imagine they should be that close to begin with.

I'll bug Fusion tomorrow, but I don't have high hopes. I had another problem with the axle that I contacted them about and never heard a word back from multiple emails and phone calls. $6K+ for an axle and the after sale support has been ****.
 

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pennsylvaniaboy said:
still a crap answer
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100% agree, I'll vote with my dollar next time.

Got the tube cut out to fit the shaft with some help from my son.

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Squirted some paint on it and put it all together. I used a Barnes grease fitting to cover the ABS sensor hole in the unit bearing. Any thoughts on greasing these? I can't imagine it would hurt, but maybe it shouldn't be screwed with, run it until it dies. I shot 10 pumps of boring wheel bearing grease in there and put it all together. Can't get to it without removing the rotor, so it won't get touched again for a while

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YJLOPES said:
100% agree, I'll vote with my dollar next time.

Got the tube cut out to fit the shaft with some help from my son.

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Squirted some paint on it and put it all together. I used a Barnes grease fitting to cover the ABS sensor hole in the unit bearing. Any thoughts on greasing these? I can't imagine it would hurt, but maybe it shouldn't be screwed with, run it until it dies. I shot 10 pumps of boring wheel bearing grease in there and put it all together. Can't get to it without removing the rotor, so it won't get touched again for a while

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I'm in the good idea camp, especially if you're not using the sensor, may as well use the hole for something.

I do remember mid 2000s to 2015 or so a lot of the heavier offroad use power wagon guys would drill and tap a zerk into the unit bearings.
 
Forgot to mention. My boy and I dove in to start grinding the driver's side. Turns out that side is fine, no clearancing required. The passenger side is 3.5" 1/2" wall, the drivers side is 3.5" 7/16 wall. Cool, no grinding required. The bitch of it is I ordered Seals-It axle seals for a 2.5" ID, and the drivers side is 2 5/8". Seals-it was cool and said just send it back and we'll swap it out. Waiting on that to finish putting the drivers side together.
 
NDCjeepsmith said:
I'm in the good idea camp, especially if you're not using the sensor, may as well use the hole for something.

I do remember mid 2000s to 2015 or so a lot of the heavier offroad use power wagon guys would drill and tap a zerk into the unit bearings.
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Agreed, not too many examples of bearing failures from too much grease.
 
Put the 99 Ram 2500 master cylinder in today. I have a dual diaphragm booster from a 95 YJ. It bolted right on, SWEET!

It doesn't clear the hood...****.

I read somewhere, maybe at the old place, that the 99 Ram van master has a smaller reservoir, but I can't find those available anywhere. I may just go the the parts store and look at a van master and see if it is smaller. I already tossed the 99 or 00 Durango master that was powering my old system, but I halfway think that the reservoir off of it would fit and was much smaller. Does anyone have ideas for a smaller reservoir? I'm starting to look at remote options.

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In other news, I was pretty concerned about the wiper fluid reservoir and the coolant overflow fitting with the inner fenders that came with the highlines from Motobilt, but it looks like everything will fit fine. I'll have to fab a bracket to support them, but they'll fit.
 
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