Hey I know that this thread has been around for a little while, but I'm converting my '94 Jeep YJ to a TTB front set-up and was referred to this thread off of either race-dezert.com or maybe one of the Jeep forums. . .I can't remember which ones. . .
. . .anyway I've made it to page 9 so far and I had a few questions and comments that I didn't see answered so far. . .bear with me if I haven't gotten that far yet, but I don't think I will finish this thread in one day. . .
First question. . .I can't tell from the pic's but did you only extend the diff beam? or both beams? Seems like maybe only the diff beam because of the longer passenger side intermediate shaft??? and that's one of the reasons why the diff is pushed over. . .correct? Wasn't sure if I was seeing both beams or one D28 and one D35 of the same beam since you were using the D28 for mock-up. Thanks!
Why are you going 2.25" wider each side? Why not 4" or 4.5" like some kits offer?
matt, come on, im building the front end around the stock d44 axle shaft. so however longer that is from stock is how uch i'll be widening it. im pretty sure its 4.5"s longer so a nice addition of 2.25 on each side will be great, thats all the width i really want anyways. (i don't want tickets for the tires sticking out past the fender)
I like this idea a lot. . .don't have to get a custom axle shaft made $$$. . .makes it easy and cheap to find a replacement if needed. As I'm reading this you are only using the D44 passenger side intermediate shaft right?
Regarding the below pic's. . .for future reference for those of you who might do this yourself. . .bevel the edges of both the beams and the extension section that you are putting in (front and back) so that you can get full penetration into the beams and then grind the welds down smooth. . .you can then plate the front like you see a lot of the TTB beams done and you can put a diamond gusset on the back side of each weld section. . .your extended beams will be much stronger just by beveling the edges and getting full penetration into the beams even without the plating/gusseting than they will be by just welding a butt joint.
You can tell by the contour of the weld puddles that the penetration is limited because of the lack of bevel in the plate (or maybe a lack of heat to penetrate into the beams more or maybe a lack of voltage to wet the puddle out. . .6 one way, 1/2 a dozen the other. . .ends up being the same effect in the end).
took em to my friend and got em welded up. now i need to mock it up and make sure everything works together right
At the beginning of the thread someone asked about the thickness of the plate used for plating/gusseting the beams. . .most of the off-road fab shops (Camburg, Solo, Giant, Blitzkrieg, etc.) use 0.090" plate for the doubling plate and 0.125" plate for the main structure. . .using the 0.090" plate is how you get the plate to follow the original contours so well. . .using 0.125" is kinda overkill for a doubler plate and is gonna be more weight than is necessary not to mention make it way harder to follow the contours of what you are trying to plate.
Just thought these might help any of you thinking of doing this on your own.
yeah, on my old truck I felt SAS was the only way out, but after seeing a truck like PaulB's, its pretty cool to see the stock suspension modified to be a custom top performing unique suspension setup. It's not like guys are running out to swap TTBs under anything else, so it's unique to our trucks so it makes it a little more fun.
Don't be so sure. . .I'm converting my '94 Jeep YJ Wrangler to a D35/D44 TTB hybrid front end. . .extended, plated beams, extended radius arms, D44 knuckles/brakes/hubs/stub shaft and D44 passenger side intermediate axle just like in this thread!
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