hatched91 going from leafs to coils

[hatched91]

yep, the leaf to coil conversion goes to down tomorrow, i'll take plenty of pics!

 

[FROADER]

Cool, good luck.

 

[hatched91]

wagoneer axle = NO COIL SPRINGS!!!

 

[hatched91]

after a good 16hrs of work, i have come to the conclusion that this conversion does not work correctly. In order for the springs to sit upright without leaning over, the axle would need to be a couple of inches wider. My truck is still currently sitting in my friends shop. Here's what happened. The drivers side(surprisingly) met up just fine, it was the passenger side that i could not get to meet up correctly. I resorted to grinding the flanges off of my weld on C brackets and still couldn't get enough room. I suppose if you ground down the outside of your casting a little for the steering knuckle and then boosted up your coil seats about an inch, then you could possibly pull it off. I have plenty of pics, but my camera is in my truck about 45min away. Lucky for me, the coil buckets, radius arms, etc had a full width d44 that i'm going to use. I guess i'll be grinding off the coil buckets to space them out tomorrow. so here's the laundry list of problems.

 

[hatched91]

problems:
1) couldn't get the springs to sit up straight, the passenger side always leaned
2) Axle tubing was not wide enough to sit the coil seats out correctly
3) I could not get the axle to straighten itself out, it always pulled to the drivers side
4) the coil seats smashed against the knuckle casting and just bent when torqued down

 

[hatched91]

okay so here are some pics.

 

[hatched91]

I have a MAJOR PROBLEM! when i drive this truck down the road, if i go over 20mph it starts to jump around from side to side. What is causing this? I forgot to space the coil buckets out from the frame, but i'm guessing track bar...should i lower the track bar down? I have it to where the the sudden curve on the axle end is curved up but i think it was the other way around stock, i don't know.

 

[IZwack]

Just make sure the panhard is as close to parallel as you can get it to the steering link from the steering gear box. And dont compare the bar themselves -- instead look at the straight line that goes from mounting hole to mounting hole (the panhard could be an ellipse if needed so dont look at its shape). As for the jumping from side to side, you need a steering stabalizer (a shock). But also, looking at the chassis-end panhard mount, I think you need to brace or weld that better (trust me on this one, I've redone mine after ripping the chassis plus 1/4" thick plates in Paragon).

 

[CodePoet]

Your trac bar should be in the same plane and length as your drag length (or as close as possible). Lowering the top mount can lead to bump steer as the two will no longer be traveling in the same arc. It sounds like you have death wobble. Check your trac bar bushings, if they are good check the actual mounts on the axle, they can get ovaled out and cause issues. If it is ovaled out you can mill out an insert that can correct the issue. Also...get those buckets spaced out.

And like iz said...re-enforce that trac bar bracket.

 

[IZwack]

hehe hatched91 -- I'm not trying to be mean or anything but sounds like you should have done more measuring before you did the swap to coils But you're almost there, you just have some minor kinks to work out and I'm sure you'll be flexing in no time.

 

[hatched91]

well this is my daily driver, i don't much care about 4wd or flex at the moment, i'm just trying to get it moving again faster than 20mph haha. sounds like i need a new trac bar. I also definitally need to reinforce that mount. I am going to cut the trac bar apart, and make it straight instead of a curve. I replaced the bushings with brand new ones because my wise self cut and welded with the bushings in it and they caught on fire. D'OH! oh well. I do not understand what you guys mean by parallel bolt holes. Do i want the actual trac bar to be parallel to the drag link or do i want the trac bar to end at the same height and spot as the TRE that connects to the pitman arm?

 

[hatched91]

oh, it isn't possible that the way the coils are curved could be causing this?

 

[IZwack]

oh, it isn't possible that the way the coils are curved could be causing this?

Two things:

Either the axle-end of the coils are too far towards the centerline of the vehicle

or

At least one of the mounts of the coil isnt perfectly horizontal (I'm betting its the upper coil mount thats leaning too much towards the centerline of the vehicle). As the coil is weighted, its top is seated at whatever angle the coil-mounts are set at - which causes the bowed-out appearance.

 

[hatched91]

oh, yeah i know why it's bowed out. I need to put the coil bucket spacers in, 2x6" stock steel. BUT i am trying to figure out how to set up my trac bar.

 

[IZwack]

Ahah sorry I misread your question.

 

[hatched91]

it's okay, any more input on the trac bar issue?

 

[james t]

Your current trac bar angle is good. Did you butt-weld in a splice to the tracbar?

I think your street driving problem is caster. What does your caster look like? Its really hard to tell from pics but it appears that you either need to cut/turn the knuckles or bring the pinion down.

 

[IZwack]

I do not understand what you guys mean by parallel bolt holes. Do i want the actual trac bar to be parallel to the drag link or do i want the trac bar to end at the same height and spot as the TRE that connects to the pitman arm?

What I meant was, unless the panhard bar and the steering link (that connects the gearbox) is perfectly straight and has no kinks or bends, use an imaginary line that goes from the panhard's axle mount to the panhard's chassis mount. In other words, you could have a heart-shaped panhard bar and still have it parallel to the steering link even though it probably does not have one section that is parallel to the steering link. But from that one picture you posted, it looks pretty good.

 

[JoshC]

In other words, you could have a heart-shaped panhard mount...

Valentines day is over

 

[IZwack]

Valentines day is over

With you in my life JoshC, everyday is like Valentines