Making the BDS Longarm Work on an ax15
 

I need some community members to chime in and give me a hand. I am attempting to make the BDS 4.5 longarm fit onto my manual xj. BDS claims that the kit will not work on the manual because it will push the tranny into the floorboard. yeah.. whatever :tt2:

Anyway, from searching i have found that the manual trans crossmember drops an extra 3/4 of an inch. In other words the ax15 must be 3/4 taller than the aw4. So maybe BDS isn't full of it hehe

Obviously I may be able to get away with a t-case drop temporarily, but that's not a solution.

Another thing is that supposedly the aw4 crossmember sits farther towards the rear, and uses the rear most bolts instead of the front ones. This could also pose an issue as the kit's arms may be too long.

That being said, is there anyway to adapt an aw4 crossmember to a ax15 (people who have done the swap help me out haha). That way i can mount the bds crossmember in the aw4 location, and use an adapter??? to hold my ax15 up.

are these facts even true?

Need thoughts, ideas etc. Thanks!!!

Hey. First measure from the back of the LCA frame mount to the front of your cross member. BDS says this should be 14 inches. You should be fine there. Now the mounting plate and rubber mount that is between the transmission and the cross member can be worked with. There are after market rubber mounts that are thinner than the stock unit, I would link you to one but my internet her in the UK s__ks. Slow. You should be able to find a rubber mount that will give you that three quarters of an inch your looking for.
That BDS kit is very expensive, did you look at others?

I want the BDS kit because its one of the only true 4 linked setups, and its local with an invincible warranty. If break it, they buy it.

Anyway, I'll measure when I'm home. Can you link me to that low profile tray mount? I can only find some for yjs/tjs.

I don't know for sure but the Daystar trans mount may be thinner than the stock unit. Does your rubber trans mount bolt to a stepped plate that is bolted to your transmission? Pic. The stepped plate in the pic has been altered to make clearance for my Atlas transfer case. FYI, In the BDS install instructions they have arrows pointing to the mounting holes; the forward most arrow is NOT pointing to the threaded forward most hole.

yep, I have that mount. What did you do to modify yours?

I also found a low pro tranny mount for a tj with the ax15 but I'm not sure how different that is

Thanks for the heads up I'll watch for that!!

Rock Krawler and Full Traction also make a 'true 4-link'. Clayton also I believe. All have great warranties.

The easiest thing for me to do to generate clearance for the Atlas was to eliminate the step plate and move my Rusty's cross member forward to the mounting holes that line up the cross member with the step plate mounting holes in the transmission. My Daystar transmission mount now bolts directly to the transmission. The first pic shows the stock mount (replaced now with a Daystar mount)bolted directly to the trans and cross member. In the second pic you can see the original mounting location and the new forward mounting position of the cross member. I put the third mounting bolt in because of the extra weight of the Atlas.

Forgot to show you these.
http://www.rustysoffroad.com/jeep-su...on-system.html
If I switch to long arms, these are what I'm going with.

Okay I see where you're going. I noticed Rusty's has a tranny mount too that bolts straight up with no step/offset in it. I thought maybe I could snag one of those and trim down its height. As for moving the cross member forward, that's a pretty substantial distance ad I'd be concered that its too far forward for the arms to work

Your right. If you are sticking with the BDS kit you will not be moving the cross member forward. You will also have to stick with the step plate between the trans and cross member. The easy solution is for you to find a thinner rubber mount. Another solution would be to have a fabricator make you a step plate with more of a step in it. If your going to be off roading, I wouldn't put spacers between the cross member and the frame. That would weaken the installation.

I may simply just need a somewhat custom trsny mount. Pretty excited for tomorrow when it comes in

Yeh, enjoy that. I'm envious, my Cherokee is in storage while I'm working in the UK. If you have any questions during the install, just ask. Are you going keep the tread going throughout the installation?

I definately will man!

I'll keep the thread going with lots of pics over the install. Hopefully will help someone else out later

Cool. This will be fun, I like an installation that takes a little fabrication too. Enjoy.

So the kit finally came in, just in time for the weekend. Everything looks awesome except that they forgot to send me the shock boots lol.

Started with the rear. The leafs that came were HEAVYY my god. they had less arc then my old add a leaf packs but i netted over a half inch of lift even after driving at around all night. Ride is awesome. firm but not harsh like it used to be.

But numbnuts before me snapped the bolts into the frame and drilled beside them. seriously? so the upper rear shock head hits the frame and explains the clunking i was hearing. I now have a set of bar pin eliminators on the way to remedy that, and drop the shock down a litttle.

Pics
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...7809fb6c99.jpg


old leafs and new leafs


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...67c551b7f0.jpg


coming apart


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...de8d5f4727.jpg


Guy before me redilled the stock mounts beside. whywhywhywhywhy


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...b3aaf71cca.jpg


shock hitting the frame thanks to the mounts being offcenter


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...93cfec4559.jpg


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...96642be690.jpg


all in


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...3440888a14.jpg


old