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Thank you! The tons made it drive so much better imo...more weight on the ground, bigger brakes and more width leads to a more stable and enjoyable ride all around
Assembling the Artec truss on the Dana 50 front...the truss has some larger gaps around the differential housing due to some minor difference in the 50 housing from the 60...welded it up in short bouts letting it cool between short runs...no issues from doing it this way...no need to rush this job and warp your housing just be patient...truss fit together beautifully...really strong even with imperfect welds. Had to strip old bracketry from the axle in addition to some of the casting on the driver side...we only did as much as we had to get the truss to seat properly. Not as much taken off as many usually mandate.
Finished the front and got new brakes all done! Ring and pinion setup was normal and time to test fit bracketry on the XJ...also front driveshaft was reused with a 1310 to 1350 conversion Ujoint for the time being...
Got the wheels in...American Racing Ansel Off Road in 17x9 with 5.7 inches of backspacing to tuck in the tires as much as possible. The Tie rod ends at the knuckle had to be ground a bit to clear the wheels but they worked!
Rear sterling setup and suspension. Took out the blocks and used a INSANELY beefy Iron Man Fab XJAX shackle relocation kit with adjustable shackles (thickest and hardest poly bushings i have ever seen and sleeves are massive)....so the rear suspension is 5 inch BDS leafs (super supple and soft love them) with Adjustable shackles to accomplish 8 inches of rear lift total...the Sterling is setup with 5.38 10.25 gears and a Yukon zip locker with onboard air supplied by a VIAIR compressor mounted in the spare tire location in the rear of the XJ. We used a Barnes 3 hole leaf spring pad kit for the 3.5 inch axle tube of the sterling and paired 3 hole ubolt plates so we were able to stretch the rear 1 inch back for a slightly longer wheelbase...tom woods driveshaft with matched flange to fit the machined circle on the sterling pinion flange. went together very well and E brake etc was not an issue...pushing 14+inches of wheeltravel with leaf springs in the rear...shackles were the best mod we had done to the rear suspension...the flex is off the charts...practically matches the front for the first time.
Also with the rear setup we re mounted our single floating traction bar setup....the bar and shackle is from Sam's off road and we mounted it with a sandwich plate....flat plate under carpet in rear passenger footbed and angle L bracket on bottom bolted together for a wide footprint on the unibody. No flex, bending or movement has ever occurred with this setup...way easier than fabbing a heavy tube crossmember to clear the exhaust and driveshaft etc.
Used HD Rustys track bar. We had to shorten the bar by 3/4 inch and reweld the bung back on to get the proper adjustment...its all in the little things :P
