I've had my XJ for about 8 or 9 years now. I initially built it for daily, beach, and trail riding - in that order of importance. Initial build was 5" of lift with control arm drop brackets, longer cheapie shocks, Rough Country track bar, and longer LCAs. Since then priorities have changed. I no longer daily the jeep - my commute is 90+ miles a day, so I run a Civic for that. I have since gotten interested in rock crawling. I bought an Ironman 4x4 front crossmember and am going to build my own links. My LCA brackets on the axle were wallowing out, so I am also going to cut those off and weld on new ones. Also going to weld in front frame stiffeners while I have the front end torn apart.

Today's progress was removal of the front suspension and hacked off the frame side control arm brackets.

 

Looks awesome. Your going to love this thing

 

Rock crawling with the CAD brackets and short arms has been amusing. Have smacked the brackets on rocks a few times, that is jarring. Also doesn't flex well, have had the jeep teetering on 2 corners more than once. Looking forward to the improved performance.

Got the LCA brackets removed from the frame and the rear portion of the frame stiffeners welded in yesterday. I'll take some pictures once I get the rest of the front stiffeners welded in.

 

Looking forward to your progress and comparison to you cad bracket set up

 

I have made some progress in the last couple weeks. Got the original LCA brackets cut out - both frame and axle sides, shock brackets cut off the axle, and front frame stiffeners welded in. I bolted the crossmember in and started figuring out the angle for the LCA brackets on the axle side. The ironmanfab4x4 LCAs have a mitered joint between the bushing and the DOM on the axle mount. I want to run enduro joints on both ends, so I cut the stock LCA brackets off the axle and bought some 20 degree angled mounts. The angle isn't quite 20 degrees, so I bought them with more angle than I need and cut it to fit.

 

Thats sweet.

I fabbed my axle brackets from scratch. Would have saved a ton of time buying brackets like you did

 

Thanks for the compliment. I have the ability and tooling to make the brackets myself, just WAY too lazy for that. I travel a lot for work and I just don't have the time like I used to. Project stalled because I had to wait on my steel supplier to order in the 2x1/4" DOM. I just got it Monday. I leave town Sunday, so I am putting this project on hold until I get back in late February - got to get that 'Honey Do' list caught up before I leave town.

 

Thats not lazy its just working smarter.

I just orderd 14" shocks for the rear of will be re doing upper and lower shock mounts. I should have you help me before you get to hot and gravy into yours.

 

What shocks did you order? I am planning to have FOA make me up some 2" emulsion shocks once I figure out how much travel I can get out of this four link setup. I'm rock crawling in the Southeast, so no need for reservoirs to go fast.

 

2.5 foa emulsion
I also ordered seals and other miscellaneous shock stuff so I can take them apart and put fresh oil in and just mess with them maybe mess with Jim stacks for the cost difference for 2 in and 2.5 I really think you ought to get 2.5's I don't know that reservoirs are necessary but they also reservoirs make it so valving is easier but either way I don't know that I don't know that reservoirs are necessary and it said extra hassle mounting them so I didn't get them this time just for s**** cuz 2.50 so inexpensive without reservoirs

I'm running 12-in coilovers on my front and honestly 12 in is plenty of travel for everything I do go faster slow I haven't found that I need more I mean if I could have got 14 inch but at the time they weren't available so I went 12 and was able to get this stuff sooner and yeah I can build around 14 or 12 it really doesn't matter

 

I know I am TERRIBLE about updating a build thread. My apologies folks. Getting there. This is the passenger side fully drooped out with the driver's side about 3-4" from full stuff.

Those are Metalcloak 24" brake hoses and they seem to be long enough.

I went with FOA 2" emulsion shocks 12" long. I am not satisfied with their product and service. The box arrived with holes punched in it and oil soaked. One of the shrader valves snapped off and I had to send the shock back for repair. The communication was terrible, but their response was good. They generated a label to send it back and there was no cost to me. I filled them with nitrogen the other day, checked them two days later and they had each bled down pressure. I topped them off and installed them. I am hopeful the pressure drop was the shocks equalizing or something. I will check them in a month when I get back from another work trip, will report back then.

Those shock mounts were a bear to work out. The uppers are Ford shock towers that have been heavily modified, would have been just as easy to fully build them from scratch. The ears that the shock bolts into was too far inboard and the shock body was hitting the frame when flexed out. Tipping the brackets out wasn't an option because the body of the shock was hitting the upper mount when the suspension articulated. I had to cut the ears off of the shock mount an make my own that pushed the shock out further outboard. The lower mount is made of a piece of 2x2x1/4" square tube welded to a plate that I capped off the back of the spring pad after lopping off the factory back half of the spring bucket. These are 12" shocks and hindsight being what it is, not sure it was worth the effort to fit them. These are setup to have 5" of up travel and the rest down with 35" tires not rubbing. I won't go much bigger on the tires in this configuration with the Dana 30. I'm happy with the shock mounts, but could have gotten a functional setup with the stock upper mount and an adapter to work with these shocks.

The springs are a 6" lift spring I bought used 10 years ago. Looking at Metalcloak's progressive springs as they are longer and shouldn't unload as bad as these springs. Any other suggestions? I'm not doing coil overs any time soon.

I'll get around to limit straps eventually, maybe. Going to run it like this for a while and see what I can get away with. I'm on the east coast, no desert running out here. Just rock crawling that will stretch the suspension out. I am hopeful that the shocks have sufficient travel not to worry about limit straps.

 

Nice work! Get after it bro. I need inspiration. Have some work to do on my pile....

 

It's getting there. I am flying out to Japan for work in the morning, will be out there for a month. Work is complete on the long arm setup. Just have to reinstall the interferences - brake booster/master, air intake, all the electrical on the pass inner fender. Will rework those items a bit when putting them back in.

You all let me know if you want any pics of anything.