Eric's Postal Build Thread (was: Postal rebuild thread)

[John N]

Glad to see you're makin' progress!

I do have a question about this though.

I thought most people just move the perches on the rear axle, rather than outboarding . Or did I miss something or misunderstand you?

I hope he's talking about the rear of the "front" springs.

 

[bigwalton]

I hope he's talking about the rear of the "front" springs.

Bingo. Sorry for the bad wording. I had the front end of the front springs worked out but hadn't done anything to move the rear end out...

I've already got the rear perches cut off and new perches waiting for my welder friend to come over when I have the pieces for the front brackets ready to assemble.

 

[kohldad]

While you are welding the perches on the rear axle, are you converting the rear driveshaft to a CV shaft for the upper end? This reguires the rear diff yoke to be about 2 degrees below pointing straight up the shaft. You will need to change out the rear transfer case yoke, but that's easy.

Two advantages to doing this is it reduces angle and wear on the u-joints plus raises the rear of the driveshaft about three inches which helps keep it out of harms way.

Since I couldn't convince you to go SOA, need to get you to change your plans somehow. Let me know when the Uwharrie shake down run is and I'll see if Steph and I can come up to help you get through the trails, after all, a Postal needs at least a Scrambler for an escort.

 

[bigwalton]

Considering that the rear axle is basically identical except for the width and the fact that I already have a spare rear shaft that matched the current one, I can't see going through the effort (and now it's more about cost too) to go with a CV version.

If I was having to swap yokes or shorten/lengthen things, I'd be all over it...

 

[bigwalton]

Big potential milestone soon!

OK, I finally got the patterns to the metal guy to have them cut tomorrow and my welder buddy will be over here one of the next two nights to start putting this stuff together.

That means it might be ready for me to hang the suspension and axles this weekend and that would be HUGE in getting me ready to be inspected before the end of the month.

I also broke the news that we might have some issues with the steering box location to take care of... thankfully that didn't scare him off It's great that he's as into making this happen as I am

I can't WAIT to see axles back under this thing!

 

[2K1TJ]

Bingo. Sorry for the bad wording.

Probably not bad wording, I'm just not that familiar with the outboarding process. I did help out with one once when I was a kid though. By "helping out", I mean mostly fetchin' tools and beer

 

[bigwalton]

The guy didn't get the brackets cut for me today, but he's going to tackle them tomorrow.

I got the rest of the body lift installed (except for the two bolts I broke, but I'll get to them after the inspection) and I finished drilling/bolting on the Rocker Knockers.

Picked up all new hardware for the ends of the front axle: rotors, calipers, pads, bearings, seals, lugs and I disassemled the old hub/rotors so I can smack em together the new rotors and all once I get the axle hung.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the bracket pieces and my friend will drop by to start melting metal!

 

[bigwalton]

Still no bracket pieces....

Got the LEDs and fuel filler temporarily mounted for the inspection and pulled apart and cleaned the front hubs. Bearings look good so I'll repack them and put in new seals. Just need to wire wheel and paint the outside of the hubs tomorrow.

Got my Warn lockouts today and hope to get my wide flares tomorrow (not that I know how I'm going to mount the rears yet).

 

[donaghy]

aaaheeemm....

 

[John N]

Ditto..............................................................

 

[bigwalton]

The sad thing is that nothing I've done makes for very good pictures... maybe a before and after on the body lift.

The last pics I took of the one rocker fitted but not bolted on along with the corner isn't very much different from what it looks like now, just picture bolts in the holes and you're pretty much there. I decided not to bother trying to paint the rockers and corners until after my inspection so as to save time. Once that happens, then there will be something worth showing.

I did take pics to show off how nice the body mount locations are on the frame and that I only broke two body bolts even after Alaskan postal duty maybe I should post those... only the rear crossmember spots are really bad and I could actually still get one of those to mount back up ok...

Maybe this weekend there will be time to take some to satisfy you picture hounds

 

[Truck]

...to satisfy you picture hounds

Oh no you didn't [shaking head and finger back and forth]...don't even start to go there mista picture hound....

Truck

 

[bigwalton]

Ok you picture freaks

Here's a page with some updated pictures from today. I did get a good bit more done with my new welding buddy Joe... we got the main part of both of the front-rear brackets done (the spring hanger end of the front suspension) and we'll be ready to start tacking them in place whenever Joe can make it back over (he did leave his nice Millermatic though! ) I didn't get any pics of the current state of the rear brackets though.

The front will go much faster as the big part of those is simply getting the main plate cut right and all the holes drilled and that's all done...

Here's a couple highlights:

The new rims with my TrXuS moutned up... (bling! gotta get them muddy). I also have the body lift in and tightened down and the Rocker Knockers are fully bolted on:

LEDs and gas filler mounted:

Bracket mockup (in metal this time smartasses):

There's more pics and details for them on the web page...

I have to show this, it's Joe's Scrambler. He came over with his Millermatic bungeed in the back . It's on 35's with a 350 and 4" suspsension/3" body (which he wants to cut down to 1", in his defense). The body is in amazing condition with only a couple spots of rust starting to bubble. He's got "cheap" (his words) spray in liner all on the inside that is starting to flake off, but has done a nice job keeping the body in good shape... Keep in mind that this is a guy I just happened to meet because he was the frame guy that the body shop had look at my Postal when it came in after the wreck! He just happened to have this thing sitting out in front of the shop and he happened to be the one that they put on my rig! Talk about stupid coincidences!!! How lucky was I??!!??

He's not real computer saavy, so I'm trying to gently push him towards checking us out here... he doesn't even have email AFAIK.

Hopefully there will be A LOT more to come soon... stuff's ACTUALLY happening now!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!

 

[bigwalton]

I had to look this up and it's not easy to find out there in the ether so I thought I'd post it...

Wagoneer FSJ Ubolt, U-bolt, U bolt sizes (that's for people searching)...

Tube side u-bolts are 2 @ 3".
Diff side u-bolts are either 2 @ 3 5/8" or one at 3" and one @ 3 5/8" (it's a casting thing inherent to FSJ front D44's).

 

[bigwalton]

Brackets!!!!!!!

WELDING! BRACKETS! WOOHOO!

I updated my website to have all of the pictures from the wreck on up to tonight. I even added a little drawing to show what happened that evening...

Here's the link to the whole shebang.

Here's the link to the new stuff from tonight.

We got everything clamped up and measured the bejeezus out of it all and once we were satisfied, metal started melting All of the brackets are tacked to the frame and I'll get the u-bolts so we can get the springs bolted to the axle and mock it all up as one last check before burning it all in and adding the last gusset on the rear bracket.

Highlights:

Joe hitting the first bracket-to-frame weld!!! WOOT!

The right side brackets tacked into place:

 

[bigwalton]

WHEELS (kinda)

Got the front axle assembled to the point where I could put the front tires on and set the weight on the it to see how the suspension sat. Pics from tonight (at the bottom of the page)

In my mind, I had this idea of the perfect width axle/tire setup for a CJ... I'm a person who likes the look of the tires just sticking out from under the flares, I don't like a ton of uncovered tire sticking out there. I'm TOTALLY THRILLED because I got it DEAD ON! The smile on my face when I stepped back to check it out was just silly The Xenon extended flares were a HUGE find... I haven't flexed it out at all, but to my eye it looks like the tires will tuck perfectly.

Highlights:

Tires mounted up:

Head on:

Loaded front suspension:

Here's the issue with a D44 in the front of a CJ. The arms on the knuckles are longer and the tie rod sits under the pitman. This is only with the weight of the vehicle on it, flexing would actually put them in contact. I have the M.O.R.E. axle relocation plates coming in the mail already to move the axle back 1". I already moved the spring mounts back 1/2", so that might get me there.

I have another issue in that the taper in the hole that the drag link bolts to in the tie rod has the taper going the wrong way because I had to spin it through 180 degrees to fit the RHD... I'm looking into ways to make that work. I also need to have the stock draglink cut about 2.5" short and rethreaded.

 

[1x1_Speed_Craig]

Lookin' GREAT, Eric!

 

[kohldad]

Looking great. Glad to see its coming back to life. If you think that smile from the flares is big, wait til you drive it the first time.

Where did you come up with the Xenon Flares? Looks like they may be in my future too. Were they actually for a Scrambler?

You may not have as much issue as you think with the pitman arm. Since the left side drops as the right side is compressed, the movement of the tie rod is only a portion of the compression. You may also find that you want to go with a drop pitman arm (stock TJ?) which is about 1" shorter than the stock arm. You should still have the necessary pitman arm length to make full turns since they will be limited slightly by the outboarded springs. Luckily, I had a keyless pitman arm, so was able to play moving it one tooth at a time and changing the drag link length to get even left left-right turning.

Someone makes a kit with a reamer and bushing to allow the reversal of the taper. Usually this is for flipping the tie rod but may do what you need.

 

[Scott Mine]

Steering Box

Man you can move your steering box just as easy as well. Your Steering shaft has a couple of inches stroke. That is what i did with mine. It wirks well.

Coming along nicely. Soon you will be ready to test it out.

 

[CHIEFWAHO]

I have another issue in that the taper in the hole that the drag link bolts to in the tie rod has the taper going the wrong way because I had to spin it through 180 degrees to fit the RHD... I'm looking into ways to make that work. I also need to have the stock draglink cut about 2.5" short and rethreaded.

Eric, I used the Rock Equipment Tie Rod Flip Kit,Tapered sleeves allowing you to flip your tie rods to the upper side of your stock steering knuckle. Gain at least 3" of ground clearance for your steering components! Sleeves are tapered on inside and outside. http://www.ok4wd.com/product.asp?id=218 Maybe this can help your situation.