Both lower ball joint nuts loosd🤪 upper arm jam nuts loose causing heims to be rotated opposite eachother maxed out. I could hear it but didn't know what it was.
right front brake appears to be dead. Rotor showing no wear. Hmm

I checked castor seems about where I left it.


For ****s I threw it on arm. Thats what I like. Flaaaat. Yes flats better than sagging pointing towards the floor.



Pinion at about 7deg castor ish.

I level off the slider before making adjustment that way im always pulling from same position.

Im going to increase axle seperation 1-2" im 7 right now at 8 its noticably more stable and brake dive and lift goes away. Lower arm has 1" of adjustment but I like where its at level so im going to hack off upper arm and redo bracket to get seperation to 8" with room to go 9" for 35" tires.

Im just thinking out loud with wood stove going and measuring tools measuring. Might put calipers on the front. While it's down for the next couple days.

All in all im digging the 3link. Arms holding up to some rock sliding steering is doing good and it hasn't disintegrated yet while cruising down freeway.

 

Bracket fabbed axle seperation will be tunable from 7.5 8.75 and 10.

Lower arms are also have two options.


Haha yeah its just welded junk of scrap. Its a start. Have to order 2" misalignment spacers. I have 2 5/8" width now. I went that way thinking the 7/8" heims might not hold up on a single upper arm. That would make it easy to go 1.25 heim later. Now it seems theyl hold up and i need the clearance to stuff it between motor and frame

Getting kinda distracted. Thinking about ordering 4.88 gears and Detroit for the front.

 

Finally finished my frame side brackets



Now permanent

And a quick tcase skid.


Orderd 2" misalignment spacers to redo upper axle upper link seperation

 

For that t-case skid, do you think its strong enough not to bend and hit the t-case if you slip off a rock or tree stump and land directly on the plate with it holding all of the vehicles weight? Or is it cool to allow the plate to flex and possibly bump into the t-case? I'm sure that plate is capable of holding a crap ton of weight, but I also bet your XJ weighs a lot more than a stock XJ. Especially when its loaded with gear, people, fuel, etc...
I was just wondering if you added a couple pieces of steel to the underside of that plate and going from front to back. Something like 1/4"thick and 1/2" wide, with the 1/4" side welded to the plate..Kind of like an I-beam, but with no bottom plate. And put them in between the bolts, and only dropping as low as the bolt heads or a little more. Then there is that much more support so the plate cant bend near as easy. I'm no Picasso with paint, but something like this... And having 2 of them btwn the bolt heads...
I would say you can put the sticks on top so theyre out of the way, but I dont think it would be able to provide as much resistance to bending as it would on the bottom, where you can go from one end of the plate to the other. I would assume the plate would bend where where the bolt heads are in place since it would act like a fulcrum. So being able to go past the bolt heads in the forward direction would definitely help keep the plate from bending at the bolt heads.

 

Thats a good idea. It has about 1/4" before it contact's tcase. Figure thats better than a jagged rock.

I've kinda been thinking about doing a crossmember to be able to support the weight

 

To answer your question I do think it will be okay to allow the plate to move and contact the tcaae thats why I put it close. I was alittle worried it might be close enough to hear the tcase rattle on it just normal driving but I havent heard it yet.
the stock crossmember is pretty much just sheet metal so I didn't want to allow a ton of torsional load on it

I bet with a bottle jack itl contact tcase pretty easy.. could toss a junk of rubber in there to cushion alittle

 

If that upward angle is the close part, you could cut it back off with a torch, then weld it at a slightly flatter angle so its not that close.
You could just put a jack on the far end of the plate away from the bolts and raise it up to see how much it flexes.... you could be good already, or maybe just add 1 piece of reinforcement on the bottom plate

 

I was thinking reinforcement here. Do some card board mocking up to get the shape.

 

Boom. That would cover all the bases. Support & out of the way.

 

Starting tearing it apart. One thing I didn't think about was upper arm clearance to the floor. Hmm ive already beat the floor up with a bfh

Probably just gona let it self clearance

Some pics


This on the bump stops you might notice a line in the oil pan from track bar contact before i extended bump stops

new bracket has to move towards motor about 1/2" to clear frame. Its just enough taller it tucks up beside the frame.


My shocks could also move down 1.5" for just alittle more droop




Sitting at 8 3/4\" seperation Should be more stable less to no brake dive and minimal front lift under throttle. The lower hole is about 7.5ish seperation

Should have set it up like this from the start. Also lots more work cutting it apart to redo it. But thats tunning i guess

 

Got tired of it last night.

Fresh from work i clearanced bracket to clear frame and added a gusset just cause. It is a 3link after all bracket absolutely can't fail.



Notice how much higher it is then the factory upper.

Letting the paint kinda dry then might try it out after final castor adjusting.


Clearance is just not there i was thinking if I just lift it and inch then the coil isolator fell if. Im like ohh **** I have a set of those on the mock up jeep. They stacked together just perfect. But only gave about a half maybe 5/8" of lift appears to be just enough.
I also extended upper shock mount 1.5" this are looking much better . Bottoming bump stop about 1/4" before shock and have decent droop now. 4" of up travel and 5 down

I didnt finish so I guess someday I'll test it out. Still have drivercside to do and button up castor..

 

Did my test run. It dives less feels more precise and stable hits bump stops less but does still hit

Air bumps or shocks next.



I exstended upper shock mount.


Also lifted it a half inch with a second coil isolator