claygrassmann

anyone done it? does anyone think it would actually be safe and work good? i kno a guy that used to weld for a living and now he is in the army so the welds will be good ones im just wondering bout the material and length and what i should do for bushings.

ol"blue

You've probably seen this link before, but if not, at the bottom is the length's for UCA's & LCA's for various inches of desired vehicle lift from 2"- 10". http://sisoffroad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118

claygrassmann

dude thats effin great now i just gotta figure out what i wanna make them out of.

solderjunkie

If you salvage the ends from your old ones (or a virgin set from the JY), you can use stock bushings.

ktmracer419

hey look i posted all that.

material= 1.75" od DOM 1/4" wall minimum.

for bushings you can use stock clevite bushings, but i like to use rubicon express superride buidler bushings.

if you want something with a little more atriculation over a bushing i like currie jhonny joints or rubicon express superflex joints.

just remember you need a 2.63" width and 9/16" bolt.

you can also make them adjustable with some threaded joints and tube inserts.

winston427

Nothing to figure out. If you don't use DOM tubing you will be wasting your time and risking your life. DOM tubing is seamless and made for building roll cages and suspension components. Never, and I mean never never never use any kind of "pipe". Pipe is made from flat steel that is formed and welded creating a failure point at the weld. Furthermore pipe is generally made of weaker steel than DOM tubing. The tubing will cost more, but your life is worth the extra cash.

claygrassmann

yeah i figured that but my question is what if i used c channel to copy the stock lca's and if i did that what would i use to hold the bushings in place?

solderjunkie

I used to weld dragster frames from DOM... it bends well and welds well. Predictable stuff, which is a good thing when your life is on the line.

claygrassmann

what about heim joints? would those work in place of the bushings?

4.3L XJ

I did this for my own longarms. Select your tubing, 1" diameter bolt, nut, grease fitting and eyes. Here is the link for them

http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/me..._Code=FABParts

Then you can use rubber at both ends and retain stock parts. I don't care for the ball joints offered for suspensions because they wear and become noisy. Also the rebuildable ones need to be rebuilt too often.

Anyway this works well and gives factory performance.

claygrassmann

bump

ktmracer419

some of us strive for better than factory performance. and rubber bushings wear out and become klunky.

4.3L XJ

I'm all about better than factory performance, Jeeps all apart again and there is an Atlas going in. But I have been doing suspensions for a long time. I was designing lift kits for Jeeps when Rancho got popular, and that is awhile back. But when you want "better than factory performance" it comes at a price. One price you pay is noise. The harder the bushing, the noisier it is, especially in a unibody. Another price is having to rebuild the rod ends with teflon inserts. They wear quickly and just don't last more than a few weeks in mud and sand. Another side effect is that unless everything is exactly right, there is binding during articulation. Believe me everything is not just right on a stock XJ front end. That is why they use nice big rubber bushings. You will notice that Rock Crusher for that reason has gone to a three link front set up. Also many people that run Rubicon Express stuff are taking out one of the upper links so that they will get more flex and less binding.

Unless you want to completely redesign the linkage, it is better to have a little built in "fudge factor" as the engineers call it.

ktmracer419

i have had the same rock krawler heim joints for 3 years, never greased them and they are still as tight as the day they were installed.

anything with more than 3 links will bind. but rubber bushings will also bind. i run a wristed radius arm and the only binding is from my trackbar bushing, everything else is a hard joint (gonna replace the trackbar bushing with a joint soon though as i keep wearing them out).

rock crusher makes rearend components, not suspension. unless you mean rock krawler. and they started as a 3 link and are just recently offering a 4 link option.

i would not advise removing one upper on an xj. the body side mounts are uber weak, and i just don't trust a single 10mm bolt keeping my axle in place.

claygrassmann

so the heim joints would work for lca's?