Goodbye Long Arms... hello short arms

Robert J. yates · 07-26-2010, 01:23 PM

This should stir up some debate

Most here probably don't know my history but in the early 2000's, Blaine and I worked on many TJ's and wheeled quite a bit together. Some of what he has perfected today had genesis in the theories and opinions we yakked about around the campfire back in the day. As a reference, I have on my rig, the 4th outboarded shock modification that Blaine performed after Gary's ARCA Jeep and Kathryn's TJ. Eventually, I changed jobs and my Jeeping took a different direction which ultimately led to invest into the long arm and move away from the rock crawling world.

I've got an early interpretation of an aluminum long arm suspension on my rig and its been there since 2004. Mostly trouble free until the past year and a half where I started breaking suspension pieces. Since the manufacturer is now out of business and no longer supports his customers, parts are hard to come by and even if I do find them, there seems to be dimensional differences which makes getting these pieces to fit and actually work, a challenge.

Consequently, I've been yakking with Blaine over the past month or so about revisiting my rig and it was the Savvy Under Armor that finally got me to move. So with that, my rig is now at Blaine's for a major bit of surgery.

We will remove the 1" Currie body lift and install a 1.25" BL to prep for the under armor, the Skyjacker 6" coils will be removed and replaced with new Currie 4" progressives. We will retain the 12" stroke Edelbrock remote resevoir shocks.

The long arm kit will be replaced by a custom 4 link up front (trackbar, 2 lowers and 1 drivers side upper on a custom HP30 truss). This should clean up my clearance issues, improve strength and also get me better more controlled articulation with less bind. We will reuse the aluminum lowers although at a mid arm (26" or so) length.

The big Genrite 24gallon gas tank is also going in favor if a stock 19gallon tank with a Savvy raised skid.

Once we finish the front, we will look at the rear which is currently trilinked with a truss on the rear 44. We expect to retain the rear truss and modify it to accept a Johnny joint or maybe a set of FK rod ends. If budget allows, we will relocate the upper spring perches and we intend to remove the Ford shock tower outboard kit and replace it with a Poly Performance outboard kit to allow the reuse of the 12" shock with the shorter spring.

Eventually, we will get to the Under Armor and clean up the mid section of the Jeep's belly. I'll also have to eventually revist the front trackbar and steering but that will take a back seat to the suspension and Under Armor since I really haven't had a DW or serious bumpsteer issue with it yet.

So... here is a crappy Iphone pic of the front long arm as of yesterday before the tear down. More to come.

**AustinTJer** · 07-26-2010, 01:27 PM

Subcribed to see the custom 4 link on the front axle.

**Imped** · 07-26-2010, 01:28 PM

Very cool. I'm looking forward to lots of nice pictures.

**razorback84** · 07-26-2010, 01:30 PM

You will have to tell me what you think about the Currie springs. I've been debating getting rid of my rubicon express springs and going with Currie.

Robert J. yates · 07-26-2010, 01:31 PM

Yah... I left my camera at home yesterday.... I just got back from the Sierras and still had not unpacked so the Iphone got pressed into duty. The pix will improve.

Robert J. yates · 07-26-2010, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by razorback84

You will have to tell me what you think about the Currie springs. I've been debating getting rid of my rubicon express springs and going with Currie.

I used to run Currie progressives back when my rig was still on short arms and I was very pleased with them. According to Blaine, the new ones are even better.

I've never liked RE springs simply because they do not like to stretch IMO. Most RE equiped rigs I've seen working hard like to pull the springs off the top perch if the shock has enough travel.

**Jerry Bransford** · 07-26-2010, 01:35 PM

Nice, I'm looking forward to following this build Robert. There's no doubt it will turn out superbly, enjoy!

**razorback84** · 07-26-2010, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert J. yates

I used to run Currie progressives back when my rig was still on short arms and I was very pleased with them. According to Blaine, the new ones are even better.

I've never liked RE springs simply because they do not like to stretch IMO. Most RE equiped rigs I've seen working hard like to pull the springs off the top perch if the shock has enough travel.

You might have just sold me... I'm ready to get rid of my springs and track bars. I'm running Rokmen control arms with currie JJ's on each end and love them. I just couldn't run currie arms with a tummy tuck, but anyways I'm looking forward to seeing your build. How hard will it be to go back to short arm after cutting all the mounts off and all the extra holes that have to be drilled?

Robert J. yates · 07-26-2010, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by razorback84

How hard will it be to go back to short arm after cutting all the mounts off and all the extra holes that have to be drilled?

For regular people like me or you, probably pretty hard. For Blaine... no issue

We will not be using any factory mounts and Blaine will instead, fabricate new frame mounts for the lowers and upper(s). We will also be raising the location of the arms relative to the axle tubes to further improve clearance.

**Joe Dillard** · 07-26-2010, 01:54 PM

Howdy Robert

looks like some fun stuff will be going on under there.

Things are in good hands.

**RubiconRazorbac** · 07-26-2010, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AustinTJer

Subcribed to see the custom 4 link on the front axle.

^This.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert J. yates

We will not be using any factory mounts and Blaine will instead, fabricate new frame mounts for the lowers and upper(s). We will also be raising the location of the arms relative to the axle tubes to further improve clearance.

Definitely pics.

mJUSTINm · 07-26-2010, 03:00 PM

Should be an interesting build to follow.

**mrblaine** · 07-26-2010, 03:15 PM

We've got the front torn down, most of the key components removed, parts list done and I'm in the process of ordering up some parts.

We've settled on shortening the arms from 38 to 28", and all 3 arms in the front will be the same length with R & L Currie JJ's with the 1" fine thread shanks. This was done in the interest of re-using as many of Robert's parts as possible to keep the costs down.

We will be making a single upper and a spare out of .120 wall 4130 tubing to complement the AL lowers.

I'll get some pics as the days go by to help Robert keep ya'll updated.

**Jetscuh** · 07-26-2010, 03:27 PM

I am looking forward to reading this thread as things progress.

**REDLYNER** · 07-26-2010, 04:36 PM

I love seeing custom mods like this. Can't wait for off-road reports on how it functions!

I'm running a short arm front with a long arm (stretched) rear and really like its balance. No issues with articulation so far.