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My old 1981 SCRAMBLER returns 25 years later

Made a little progress this week

Rear axle truss cut down and brackets removed



Front truss cut down for frame clearance. tie rod flipped under high steer arms and bent for pinion clearance. Drag link flipped under high steer arm for frame clearance.


Link brackets for frame end of front built.
 
Decided to go with the same link system as the beast had. Rigid upper "A" link and 2 lower links.

Got the cross member and frame brackets for the rear built.




Also got the lower mounts built for the bypass shocks
 
Got started on the "upgrade" this weekend

I did a test fit on all the brackets that I premade and it looks like they are all going to work :bacon:
No pics, I got into it and forgot to take any :banghead:

The "old" axles are out



the old track bar off the Beast is going to work for the top link (with a slight bend to clear the crossmember)

The front axle is tight at full stuff. It will be within a 1/2" of the crank pulley, frame, steering shaft, engine crossmember, transmission, and who knows what else.

This is at about ride height with 6" of up travel






And yes once everything is fit, It will be taken apart, welded, cleaned, and painted. Before final assembly.
 
I have a postal just down the road if you get bored this winter when you are done with that.

dang you work fast...
 
Made a little more progress

still working on the front,

lower links tacked in


Track bar bracket tacked in


A elf stopped in my shop while I was at work today and started repairing my half cab with West Epoxy and micro balloon


Track bar bent and in
ride height


full stuff


Trial fitting track bar bracket brace


Everything is super tight at full compression, but it looks like it will work.
 
Made it out to the shop last night and this morning, for a little bit before the 2 Christmas parties.

Started on the rear links.

The 14 bolt is setting in place. And it looks like it is going to clear everything......The fuel tank is within about a 1/4"

Cross member for the upper "A" link is tacked in.



Upper "A" link is in


Lower link frame brackets tacked on.


This is at about ride height with the 38" Nitto's. My plan is for a 37x12.5 tire................we'll see


The rear tire is centered in the wheelwell, even though it don't appear that way in the pic.
 
Ran into the first fitment trouble with my shocks

(sorry for the dark tablet pics)

The tire and the caliper hit the bypass tubes during full stuff while acticulating


And the frame hit the shock body while drooping during articulation


Solution....................
Plasma the new frame



And build a dual shock tower that has a bend so I can move the lower mount inboard a little

 
Got the shock towers welded up and the upper shock tabs welded in, then tacked the towers in the frame.








Now for all the trimming, grinding, and extra cross members to make them stiff enough.
 
I got most of the trimming done on the rear mounts and 2 extra cross members tacked in. I think all the rear mounts need are some small gussets and lots of weld.

Then I moved on to the front shock towers. I debated back forth between bending up some tube or solid plate like the rear. I ended up going with the solid plate. That way the inner wheel well should be fairly solid once it is trimmed and the fender back on............ There is a lot of road film on the way to the mall when it rains, don't need that on my engine.







Still needs a bolt in connector across the top, since there is still lots of room under the hood
 
Personally, I would have went with tube in the front. Will be a lot easier to work on engine stuff without that big plate in the way. looks frigen cool regardless. You're gonna want to tie the 2 towers together. (I'm sure you thought of that already ;) )
 
Bad Karma said:
Personally, I would have went with tube in the front. Will be a lot easier to work on engine stuff without that big plate in the way. looks frigen cool regardless. You're gonna want to tie the 2 towers together. (I'm sure you thought of that already ;) )
Click to expand...

I thought about that whole work on it thing................you never have to work on jeeps.......... right :confused:

All in all it shouldn't be to bad. The plate is pretty much in line with where the inner fender runs (if I measured right). The only thing that is going to be a little more of a pain is the power steering lines. Which are all going to change soon when I add the hydroboost, assist ram, and cooler. I figured the extra challenge of working on it was worth it to keep some more of mother nature out of the engine bay.






And yes there will be a tie together at the top :headbang:
 
Got the front upper shock tabs tacked in. Cycle the axle up and down. Everything looked great. Articulated the axle.............it got ugly. The mount studs for the high steer arms hit the bypass tubes. The tie rod hit the shock body, and the high steer arms hit the shock body. So I moved the lower shock mounts inboard..............then I could no longer take out the link joint bolts. So I moved the mount up. Most of the steering almost cleared the shocks. So I milled the shock mounts to fit over the lower link tabs...........now I think it works. Then I mover the coilover mounts to match up to the bypass mounts.


Front shocks full stuff.



2" compressed


I also bolted the rear tires on and set it at projected ride height.









I come to the conclusion it is going to look like one of those "Stompers" from when I was a kid

I think if I run these 38 x 15.5 nittos on the street I may get hassled by the law. My plan is to get a set of 37 x 12.5 to run the street.
 
Also this morning I pulled the trans and tcase to swap in the trans out of the Beast. Then I disassembled both dana 300's and swapped the JB Conversions HD output to the current dana 300, And reassembled both of them. Once they were in I fit the rear driveshaft............and found out my pinion was 12 degrees to low...........sooooo......cut loose and move the new cross member back. Then the angle was good..............and all the lower shock mounts had to be cut off and rotated 12 degrees to match.

Sorry no pics of rework.
 
Did a few hours of welding this morning. All of the link mounts are welded, and all of the rear shock towers (minus the gussets that aren't there yet)

welded up and painted the upper link for the rear, and it's installed to stay :woot:

The Trans, tcase, and cross member are also in to stay. :bacon:

And a couple pics, because what good is a thread without pics :confused:


 
not enough travel... :evil:

:rotfl: looks sweet!! I plan on linking the rear of my Scram eventually.
 
Bad Karma said:
not enough travel... :evil:
Click to expand...

I agree :headbang:

But to get more than the 14" of the shocks I would have to go to a trailing arm.......................And cut out the front of the rear wheelwells...........and modify the roll bar..............and modify the kid cage..............and...........I guess it'll have to work :fingerscrossed:
 
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?! DO IT!!! :rotfl:
 
Very nice! I love the "road film" comment...

I can see this is in my future too...
 
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