My '95 YJ rebuild, locked and linked

Post by **zach119** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 6:43 pm

I'm pretty much finished. Got up to about 40 today and it drives straight as an arrow with no vibrations from my homemade driveshafts. The only stuff i still need to do before Rausch is wire up my winch, weld on my exhaust, and make a rear bumper.

Some poser shot

Rear Shocks and bumpstops

97JEEPTJ · Post by **97JEEPTJ** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 5:53 pm

Now with custom two link front suspension....

Post by **zach119** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:18 pm

the winch line is my third link

Post by **Jwlman** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 2:01 pm

Any pictures of titanic on its first run?

97JEEPTJ · Post by **97JEEPTJ** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 4:48 pm

I got one of him. Too busy trying to get it off the trail to bother with pics.

Post by **zach119** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:39 pm

TO DO LIST BEFORE NEXT TRIP
-need new front driveshaft
-new shock shaft/ seal (about $60)
-need lower radiatior hose
-need high pressure power steering line
-need new rear diff cover

97JEEPTJ · Post by **97JEEPTJ** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:43 pm

In response to everyone's curiosity (Mayfield)....a narrative of our Rausch trip:

We ran several trails in the morning, blues and blacks (12, 20, 13A, 17) The Jeep did great, we were running with two other guys who were in fairly built TJ's, one a comp rig. We were running out from the West property back towards where the trails connect to the south area. We hit up Trail 17, which was a hill climb, red on the map, but black on the sign. Wasn't bad at all.

Moved on, and decided to check out Crawl Daddy, a Red trail. We walked it, and from what we had already completed, it seemed appropriate, with a tougher obstacle towards the top of the trail. We started running the trail, and got a bit bound up, and the top link mount sheared off the front axle, which in turn caused the driveshaft to snap. Effectively, the three link front became a two link front.

Imagine the front axle/pinion being able to flop about in whichever direction it pleased. We were able to rotate the pinion up to a somewhat acceptable level, and used his winch to limit the rotation in one direction. We proceeded to try and drive back down the trail, but the steering sucked due to the shitty caster angle of the front axle. After a series of tries to get the Jeep on its way out of the trail, the winch rope (synthetic line) snapped, got pinched among the front end mess. One of the guys with us helped winched Zach back and forth, until we were able to finally get out.

It took us almost 4 hours to move the Jeep 150 feet to the bottom of the trail. In the process, we got the jeep turned around and headed forwards down the rest of the trail. In doing that, the pinion had not rotated down, but all the way up (vertical), and got into the lower radiator hose, effectively draining all of the coolant out of the engine. Then we had to hook a winch to his axle to pull the pinion back around. This is after the steering line sprung a leak and emptied itself of steering fluid.

Eventually we got to the bottom of Crawl Daddy, and were pulled via tow strap along some green trails to an emergency exit, which was right off 209. Rode back to camp, got the truck and trailer, and got home.

On the upside, no starter issues, suspension worked well while it was intact, new winch proved more than useful. Thank god for a tow rig and trailer, and for the emergency exit.

Post by **Arya Ebrahimi** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:29 pm

Was the link mount just welded to the cast center section? Sounds like you got relatively lucky with the carnage. If the lower shock mounts had been turned 90* it could have been a lot worse!

Post by **zach119** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:35 pm

The link mount was welded to the tube. I normally will stand behind my welds 100% and have never had anything fail on me, but shit just happens sometimes. I'm going to redo this mount now with gussets on either side and make a plate for the back side so i can box it in. I will say that I was looking at it this afternoon and the weld itself broke in half, not just shearing clean off the tube from poor penetration. I do know that I had been having some trouble with using a bad box of welding rods on some other stuff and that could have also contributed to it, and now am welding everything with fresh rods just in case.

97JEEPTJ · Post by **97JEEPTJ** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:44 pm

The guys we ran with, and the one pic of Zach

Post by **Arya Ebrahimi** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:51 pm

Sounds like you've got a plan, but I've got a couple things I feel like saying anyway

Got any pics of the mount before the carnage? I take it you're running a single upper on the passenger side?

With regards to bad welding rods, a good tip is to stick them in the oven at 2-300 degrees for at least 20-30 mins prior to welding. It's not the "recommended" method of handling rods, as I *believe* AWS dictates that once rods have been exposed to moisture they are no longer useable, but I've done it with great success many many times. The underlying issue is that the flux will absorb moisture which will contaminate the welds. By putting them in the oven you're basically just drying the rods out.

Good luck with the repairs, hopefully they'll go smoothly

Post by **zach119** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:02 pm

Time to start working on the rig again before harlan I guess. I'm trying to decide shaft wise whether to go with RCVs or just some normal chromos with either CTMs or Yukon Super Joints. Do you guys have any opinions on what you'd personally go with?

Going to pick up some Pitbull Rockers on Wednesday and Alec will be getting the old beadlocks.

97JEEPTJ · Post by **97JEEPTJ** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:04 pm

Nice. You may be the only one ready for Harlan. :lol2:

Post by **Jwlman** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:11 am

dodgeguy119 wrote:
Going to pick up some Pitbull Rockers on Wednesday and Alec will be getting the old beadlocks.

Those the ones on pirate from mferrari?

Post by **zach119** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:09 pm

Jwlman wrote: Those the ones on pirate from mferrari?

Yea James those are the ones