Broke a bunch of stuff on the 30. My xj has also gotten a little taller then I wanted so I guess it's time to fix the steering angles that make me cringe.

Had to clear a path right from the get go for the steering arm. Also had to do some welding to install wj ball joints **** again.



Also did axle seals, apparently I'm no good at installing them and having them seal. So alot of Ford goop thrown in for good measure

Something sexy about a nearly bare clean houseing

I might also cut the control arm mount off while I have easy access to it. Bugs me

the 1ton steering will turn into wj steering some how.. maybe sleeved with 2" tube.

Enroute are 1/4" spacers, reamer,, limit straps and shafts.. I'm still short a tire will have to wait another week or two to buy a tire. All this was un planned.

Track bar will be moving closer to passenger shock and raised will also be lowering in at the frame. Won't know its length or mounting points until drag link is locked down.

Best guess is the wj steering will flatten my angles 2-3". That's enough to get rid of the cringe factor. Should also improve all around steering and driving with flatter angles

It for now.



tried my hand at drilling a wj rotor.

15\" 3.5" backspacing Looks like no clearance issues

 

How did the rotor turn out. When I did mine, I tack welded the stock rotor to it after centering it and used a drill bit the same size as the pattern holes. Dropped it on the floor afterwards and it came apart

 

Couple holes are off alittle but it centers on hub so no issues. I just lightly used hand drill through xj rotor centerd on wj rotor to mark holes then ran a 1/2 step bit on the press then the 9/16 drill bit.

I did think about clamping then welding then I was like screw I'll just hold it and just mark and move to press. To be honest I was amazed it fit right on the hub without having to message holes with a bur

 

Being centered on the hub is what is important anyway

 

Yes. It sandwiches under wheel so has to be hubcentric

 

Reamer got here. Offcourse I reamed first hole alittle to much but I learned and am rolling with it.
also learned the drag link would have worked without lenngthing it with a 2" sleave.

See what i did?





Bump steer here

Tomorrow wrap up drag link. And maybe start on track bar mounts. I wont even test drive like this steering wheel will be jerking all over the place

 

Glad you are using real tie rod ends instead of heims. Looks solid so far

 

Thanks. Yeah I like normal tierods these have a year or 2 on them and are still good.

Been thinking about it and decided I'm going to grab another set of knuckles plus another driver so I have a spare set and replacement for this driver knuckle.

Also need to do some measuring but I think arm's are longer on these knuckles tie rod with xj knuckles hit the diff cover with the wj knuckles there's room to spare going lock to lock.

I'm digging this steering it's like taking lift off my jeep


Wtf reamed for insert and it sits the same

 

My inserts allowed the tie rod to sit a little low. Also I needed to use a washer under the castle nut. Still worked well in the end

 

I got the reamer because the inserts were ovaling out the xj knuckles.

 

Interesting, I haven't had that problem. I have one too but have used it to flip some tie rod ends and go to a larger size

 

that's the xj knuckle.

Got the drag link welded up. Looks like a baseball bat.

The tie rod is bent so I think I'm going to redo the tie rod and use the tube from it to redo the drag link.
The funky tie rod will drive me crazy now that it doesn't have a drag link bolted to it.

thinking about a couple ratchet straps to anchor the jeep on top of this axle before starting CAD designs. Cardboard animated design.

 

CAD designs? Fun things in your future?

 

Just track bar brackets, no nothing cool

In an emergency can use the drag link to drive Tposts



Another thing I learned. Xj wj tie rod isn't the same length. I'm way towed in and set drag link length like that at full lock to the passenger side..
with means drag link will have to be longer..

I knew I should have just came home and took a nap

 

Roughly set toe this morning and raised track bar on axle side.
track bar is at 7ish drag link 5. Drag link is 2" longer than track.

The length might be livable but that combined with bars 2ish degrees out of phase will probably create a fair amount of bump steer.

I'd like to lengthen towards axle to get track bar pivot point closer to pitman pivot point.




They look close to eye but not close enough