how about making a slip joint shaft with a double u joint. Saving money on an SYE is something everyone wants to do. Usually the driveline angles are more prioritized over driveshaft travel. Plus, those of use with the np242 are usually screwed.

 

well I installed some 96 Thunderbird springs and gained a 2.5"-3" of lift, I forgot to take a measurement before I installed the new springs so its an eyeball at best! A real pain in the *** without a spring compressor FYI! The ride is a bit stiffer but some of that may be atributed to my shocks, all in all i am happy with the outcome!

I also installed some injectors from a 97 4.6 liter ford v8, I harvested these from a 97 mercury cougar, they slid right in, they dont have the slops for the clips but that hasnt seemed to be a problem after about 75 miles! right off the bat the idle was much smoother and the throttle response was notably better!

 

did you install the strut plate for those t-bird coils?

 

Thats what Im getting at. Ill check to see if the parts fit in an hour or so. Its pretty wet and rainy out now to crawl under the jeep to take drive line measurments. My spare drivelines are from manual transmissions, and I dont know if they are the same length.

 

No I didn't, couldn't figure out how that was supposed to work.

Before...



After.....



Sorry for the crappy picture quality

As for the rear, I will be installing S10 leafs, not making a bastard pack bit the entire spring as is came from the donor, fabing a new front mount and also a new shackle for the rear!

 

Please document that with lots of pics!! and also you drill a 2 and a quarter hole into the strut plate. I got like 4.5" from it. I believe you do it cause otherwise the coil just sits on the frame and has no buffer

 

All you do is bore out the center of that plate to 2" and slide it over the stock bumpstop tower. It Also allows the spring to sit on a stronger part of the unibody. I suggest you do it. It will also add 1"-1.5" of lift depending on the orientation you mount it. It's basically like a coil spacer

Also good work trollhammer. Maybe you can find out if the double u joint is even installable regardless of the driveshaft lengths. This way we, if an xj shaft is too long, we can get a driveshaft from a stock tj for example.

 

They make those... Not sure who, but I've seen them. Price for one of those is close to that of a Hack 'N Tap SYE.

 

Ya I ditched the stock isolator and made a bracket out of 10 ga to hold it in the correct position, 4.5" is to much lift, I'm actually going to cut these down to achieve 2", I'd rather remove sheet metal than add lift!

 

Sounds good. Remember, that when you cut springs, they turn stiffer aka less flex. Those are stiff as it is.

 

ill definately look it over and try to fine that, if they sell the slip yoke part seperately it might be possible...

Well, verdict is in. It isnt as easy as all that.

The double cardan joint would have added just less than 2.75" to driveline. This would allow someone to play with other axle types with shorter pinions, like d35.

Its not that simple, though, or it would be done instead of SYE. The double joint requires a ball linkage inside the knuckle (difficult to see without the drive line highly articulated). This keeps the joint from twisting up and binding.

Half the ball joint is part of the split ujoint cap "holder", that bolts to the front output yoke.

The other half of the ball joint is part of the driveline itself. Without getting a whole nee joint, youd have to have some part (like shown in the picture) to either replace the slip yoke side. The only way I can think of making the other side work is if the stock rear driveline is a quarter inch thick(or a sleeve to make up the difference), chop the end off of the shafts and sleeve them together and weld. At that point it can be whatever length you want, up to nearly double length to almost as short as "other" jeeps.

In other words, not something that can be done easily as a junkyard swap at this point. There might be some other vehicle that has various parts that can be used to build an adaptor, but not sure yet.

Ill keep researching. The effective length of the shafts from a manual xj are such that the front appears to work (farthest ujoint to farthest ujoint) as an equivlant length, however I should note that it was on the outside part of the range of the slip shaft, which only has about 2-3/8" range in to out. This would leave about 1.5" of slip yoke equivlant into the tcase, from what I could tell. Keep in mind that a SYE shortens the TCase output shaft, so thi might push the shafts I have closter to the limit of its range. I wouldnt feel too bad about doing this with an 8.8.

Ill keep looking around, but it looks bleak. Some other vehicle might have similar parts, or perhaps the yoke from the front can be modified (though this would be more trouble, because who has donor front output shafts?).

Another thought: if there is a vehicle or supplier online that could be used as a source for a flange slip yoke, the flange adapter for the knuckle for the SYE might bolt to that and work, but it would still require cutting and welding two drive lines together. Two drive shafts with a half inch difference in diameter.

Bummer.

 

Not making sense to me, how does the length of the spring affect spring rate?

 

So i noticed my wipers arms dont lock out away from the windshield. Has anyone replaced the arms with one that lock out. Its so much easier to put the out when it gonna snow.

 

The flexibility of the steel doesnt change (unless you heat them for some reason), but when you cut them there is less material to flex, therefore less flex means a stiffer spring.

Its kind of like if you hold one end of a ruler on a table with the other end sticking out, you can bend it a large distance. If you slide the ruler so there is less and less of it hanging over the edge (effectively making it shorter), it gets stiffer. You have to put more force into it to get the same travel out of it, or conversely, the same amount of force wont make it move as far.

 

Cant answer what arms to change then withm but if they are stock XJ wiper arms, there is a tab at the base that will hold them out. Its actually the release to take then off, but it will hold them out a few inches too. Not really an option if they are rusty.

Another trick we do around here is get a piece of cardboard and lay it across the windshield. Keeps the frost off too.