Done.

 

Well, Im selling my double shear Rubicon express track bar in place of an over the axle setup.

Should break even on the cost.

If anyone wants a RE 1660 and frame side bracket let me know. For you guys ill sell it for 200+ shipping.

 

Took about an hour to get the front axle out. No broken bolts, nothing stuck, came out with no problems.

Time to clean up the garage and clean the axle. Need to pull the shafts and ball joints to weld on the truss (shown below) and the axle c gussets.

The shocks and all the upper/lower control arm bushings were completely shot. Who knows how long ago the PO put this 3" RE lift on.

Will be following up with a bunch more pics as I strip the axle down and progress will start coming quick.

 

Got a Home Depot gift card for Christmas and used it towards this. This impact is a monster, broke everything free taking apart the front end without hesitation. Been wanting one for a while and it was on sale for 189. Money well spent.

 

I have that same one, and it has taken lugnuts off of semis...good purchase

 

Didn't have much time to work on the jeep tonight. It was my moms b-day so took her out to eat some sushi.

Did get the knuckles off the axle. let the ball joints soak in pb blaster overnight. The left side came off with 5-6 blows with a BFH. (not the little hammers shown in the pics)

The right side.... not so much. After about 20 smacks with a hammer it barely budged. So I used a pickle fork on it and got the knuckle off, but........ the ball joint came apart and decided to stay stuck in the knuckle.

A few good whacks with the BFH took care of that problem.

Now comes the cleaning of the axle to prep for the truss, c-gussets, LCA brackets, UCA bushing on the housing side and new ball joints.

 

Looking good. I'm about to drop my dana30 to regear and lock and I had wondered about the jcr truss. I'll be keeping an eye out on how yours goes.

 

Should have it burned in this week/weekend.

So far the fit/finish looks great. Ill post some more detailed pics of the truss and the c-gussets

 

Are you gonna cut the passenger side UCA mount off, and make the truss solid all the way across?

 

I was recently looking at that and formulating a plan.

I think what im going to do is cut the passenger side mount slightly below flush at the same angle of the truss. Then ill just box it in with some 1/4 inch plate and tie it all together. My thought is it will be just as strong if not stronger since that mount is already burned in to the axle tube. It will act as another attachment point for the truss.

Otherwise ill get creative with some 1/4 wall 2x2 square tube and make a section to fill it in.

Going to start cleaning up the axle this evening after work. Depending how far I get I may start tacking it all together.

 

Made some more headway tonight.

The brake pads wore some pretty good groves into the knuckles, nothing a little welder'n and grind'n can't fix.

They cleaned up pretty nice, will definitely add some life to these knuckles. Eventually I plan on going true high steer, but for now. These will serve me just fine.

 

Also started getting the axle cleaned up.

Sprayed it down with some super clean, pressure washed it, then hit it with a wire wheel where the truss will go.

I snapped some more pics of the JCR truss as well. There is a couple spots I am going to do some very minor grinding to get the truss to fit as perfectly as possible, but in all honesty, thats just me being **** and not really needed.

I also need to get the passenger side UCA bracket cut down and boxed in to the truss.

Made good use of a couple hours in the garage after work. Now its time for a beer.

 

Lookin' good, man

 

Love all my Milwaukee stuff. I've been wanting that one too. Nice DD btw

 

I put it through its paces pulling the front axle on the jeep, the impact wasnt even breaking a sweat. I really like the speed setting feature, you put it on speed 1 you can run bolts down and it wont go over 100 ftlbs, very easy to get a good feel with the variable speed trigger.


Thanks by the way.

Heres a couple more pics of the daily. Have had it for 2 years as of last month and just turned 12k miles. Up until a couple months ago I was traveling for work 10 months out of the year. Sold off most of my toys so havent had anything to pull with it, I need to start buying toys again.



The day I bought the jeep.