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Project Rear Steer

23K views 63 replies 19 participants last post by  jason m 
#1 ·
So what do you do when you get a free front steering Chevy 60 in good shape that has mactching 4.10 gears. Well you turn it into a rear steering axle of course.

Now i run Coils in the rear of my YJ, so the OD of my coild buckets are 46"s outside to outside. So this left no room on the short side tube for the upper truss to be welded to that side.
So what i did was drill and tap the OEM spring pad with 4-1/2" hole's and will run 4 grade 8 bolts that will lock that side down. And i also picked up the two 5/8 factory hole's that hold the spring plate down.

I'm going to run 2x2 1/4 wall tube for the upper truss and tie it into the other end buy welding it staright to the tube and to the top of the center section. I'm going to run the the rear 60 offset, I'm not going to center it. For a trail only Jeep that will see low speeds it shoud be fine.

The axle was a DRW axle so i took the OEM hubs and chopped off the flange and ground them till the rims would go over OD of the hub.

I have more to do but this is were I'm at now. Sorry for the fuzzy Pics, 39" iroks and camera's dont mix.

Jason.











 
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#27 ·
Lookin pretty sweet man. Rear steer is fun. Haha

I have ran forklifts and **** with it. For sure is fun to play with. Hahah
Ya its a blast, but with anything gets you into trouble easyer to. I do some very dificult stuff with a couple of friends buggy, I wouldn't dare try in my Jeep the way it sat before.

Beefed up the upper shock tab mounts and got the rear steer ram mounted. The axle side mount is going to get a bunch more steel or another mount added someware.

Its a 6" stroke ram, the one I had in the front. For now I will use it If theres no clearance issue's I might add a 7" or if i can put a 8" without binding or rubbing.







Working next on some 1/2 ton brakes for the rear, making tabs to weld to the stock knuckle:thumbsup:

Jason.
 
#28 ·
Update, well I slowed down with work again, so thats a good thing and bad. Good, I got some time to work on this prodject, bad can't spend any money on parts, so I will make them myself.

Oh and for anyone who plans on building a truss for there axle, don't weld it on till you get it under the rig:rolleyes:
I have to cut mine off as its to close to front crank under full stuff.

So heres some Pics of my hand made high steer arms for the front. I ended up using the 3/4" bar stock and welded them to some OEM cast steel steering arms. I welded them 100% with a 1/2" bevel on the arm side.

Now some would be happy with that, not me I'm tying the arms into the OEM lower arms. It will be hard for to explain and i'm still working on the small parts ( my own brass Misc spacers and 1"x 3/16" wall spacers ). Once I get them done I will post up.

Yes I'm sticking to leave's up front for now, to costly for the Hiems and such, plus they never let me down over the last seven years.

And Joe you can see where I notched my frame for the drag link. I will be full Hydro now so maybe I will cap the notch off, maybe not.
Oh ya I have all the valve's mounted and the rear line run, I will get Pics of them.

Steer arms




Frame notched




Jason.
 
#31 ·
<snip>And Joe you can see where I notched my frame for the drag link. I will be full Hydro now so maybe I will cap the notch off, maybe not.<snip>
Ahh, I just saw this. Thanks for the pics & update, Jason. :cool:

It looks like frame frenching is in my future. I took a closer look today to see if I could do what fratis mentioned (install the links below the hysteer arms) and the leafs are in the way.
 
#30 ·
Got the front arms mostly done. I got the bronze mis spacers done just need to taper them a little. Had to make my own steel tube spacers. I could not find any 1" OD tube that would fit a 5/8" bolt. A little time on the lathe and I had them made in under and hour, I cut slow.

The two steel spacers will be attched buy some 3/8" thick plate and should transfer the load threw out the knuckle better.

I need to get the cylinder mounted and then I can runs the line's. After bleed the front and rear and test it out. Should make the spring without any issue's.

Pics,







Jason.
 
#33 ·
Trust me the stock caps that I welded to are cast "steel" not a cast "iron".

I spray welded them with a pre-heat around 200*, its a 100% weld double fillet and I back ground the root.
I did a sample with another cap that I just welded cold, 19 volts and 190 IPM's no bevel and back grind. I beat on them with a 3lbs hammer and they didn't fail.

Now count in the fact that I will be spreading the load out over the OEM lower arms and I feel they will be fine.

If theres a failing point I will find it and if its does fail I will post the info and Pic's, I like posting what breaks on my rig.

Jason.
 
#34 ·
Your steering, especially running hydro is going to a lot more force than you beating it with a 3 pound hammer. One good roll or bouncing off a rock / tree with the wheel turned will put a huge force on that weld.
 
#35 ·
Trust me guys this not my first try at this:thumbsup:

And I'm not thie first persion to do this, I got the idea from thread on Pirate maybe 6-7 years ago.

Again if it fails I will eat crow and admit it.

Jason.
 
#37 ·
I got real buisy cutting tree's, so that was taking my time after work also.

Only real update I have is I'm getting my bender back and I found at a friends house a set of NON neck down stock inner shafts for the 78/79 front axle.

I have some time coming up this week and want to have the front steering done.
Rear just needs to be removed and welded, sorry no real updates as of yet life has a way of bogging me down.

Jason.
 
#38 ·
Looks good.

Here's what I did for steering on my GM 60. I got tired of breaking ARP chromoly studs in the knuckle and having to extract them, and having to stop after every trail and re-torque the high steer arms, so I got rid of them all together. Now the only thing those bolts have to do is hold the kingpin cap on. There's no lateral force on them at all. Rode hard all season like this without having to touch it (obviously since I didn't even take them off to paint them yet) including a week at the hammers.



 
#39 ·
#40 ·
Well I'm getting close, real close. Should be a running steering rig this week, I hope. I need to make two Hydro lines for the front, got a stuck caliper bleader screw on the rear and the front brakes dont seem to work anymore eather:D
I think the front brakes have something to do with the rears not bleed right, if not i will have to pop on another set of calipers, used one's of course.

I will update with a hole bunch of Pics very soon.

List of what needs to be done,

Weld the rearsteer and steering valve mounts.
Add oil to the diffs.
Front line's.
Charge the air shocks.
Install front shocks.
Bleed the steering.

Got a run at my house on May 6th, I hope to be on the trail on the weekend before.
Heres a local site with last falls run,
http://newenglandjeepz.org/forum/photo-gallery/some-pics-from-todays-little-run/

Thats why I upgraded to rearsteer, I had to keep up with my friends:p

Pics soon,
Jason.
 
#41 ·
Ok here's some Pics.







Front,











That last Pic of the ram I had to make a Bung that welded to the end of the rod. I wanted to drill and tap it for a 3/4x16 thread but it didn't fit in my little lathe. So I fabbed a bung and welded it on.
Plus I made all my own Mis spacers from brass, that took some time.

Jason.
 
#43 ·
Front shocks are old and kinda home made, they came from a friend who raced dirt trucks. And one chrome rod is bent, I hammerd it back straight but it only has to last one seasion of wheeling, next year its off to 3 link for the front.
I had those shocks on the jeep for 7 years now and there done but they still kinda work:D

Vids will be on the 6th of May, got a huge run at my house and I'm itching.

Jason.
 
#46 ·
I'd like to see more pics and tech on what you are using to control the rear hydro setup.

:)
I will have to look up the specs on the rear valve, but its a log splitter valve. I ran the feed from the P-pump threw the rear valve and then coming out from that I feed it over to the front orbital valve.

Out of the rearsteer valve I have two line's one for left and one for right, so when you want to steer left just pull the lever and same for right. I'm using all -6 ( 3/8 ) hydro lines with a combo of JIC and Pipe fittings. Ive tried to keep it as simple as I could afford.
I sourced alot of the lines and valves from a Fork truck and used tractor supply rams and fittings.

I will get a Pic of how some of the plumbing works and looks like. It sounds complacated but its really not. My only concern is I did not do any mods to the P-pump so its basicly a stock pump. But P-pumps are used in one ton trucks for hydro boast and steering so they produce the most pressure in stock form.

Down to one fitting and I can blead the steering and fire the jeep up, it has not ran since early 2011.

Jason.
 
#47 ·
Its alive and drive's real nice. I can crab and tight steer with little effort. The P-pump with the smaller 3.5" pully spins that pump at a nice speed and at a low rpm.
Once I do some pump mods and maybe even a new one ( that one came off a 81 one ton ) it should be even faster.

Things I want to do to improve on what I have, bigger cooler and a Hydro boast for the brake's.

I noticed the two front line's get warm knida fast. The old cooler I used worked real well for the Hydro assest, but now I have double the rams and tripple the lines, so that adds more heat.

Second thing is with the 5.38's I'm plowing threw the brake's. I need more clamping force. I might try messing with the rod going from peddle to the boaster. I had to fart around with that before when I had a brake issue in the past. So a Hydro boast is in order, I think I have one off a that 81 oneton, that should do the trick.

All in all i'm very pleased, of course being spooled/welded front and rear I get alot of scrub on the driveway or on dry pavement but on the trail I will be fine. It was a long trip and being down for close to a few years it feels real good to be back in saddle again.

Jason.
 
#48 ·
Wow, that was the slowest axle replacement thread ive ever seen! :D

Post up some vids
 
#49 ·
LOL, take's alot to lay it out and it works for the most part perfect. Plus I swapped the 88 Ford 60 front to a 78, installed 5.38 gears, made all my own Mis spacers, disc brake brackets for the rear, all my own tabs, high steer arms in double sheer and a 3 link that got shelve for next year due to lack of funds for the Hiems.

So it was a total rehab along with a rearsteer install:p You got to remember I hammerd this Jeep for years and never really done anything to improve on it. So this was like a semi complete tear down and just go threw old parts and rehab them.
But its done and Vids will happen probally this weekend if the rain holds out.

Jason.
 
#50 ·
Driveway shots, mind you I can't flex it till I get the rear shocks aired up, so no flexy shots yet:D









Still trying to get the brake's up to snuff and im still burping some air out of the steering, kinda puked a little when I pulled it out for these shots.

Jason.
 
#52 ·
Thanks caputod, not sure what you mean buy "welded the length's" but if your talking about the inner axle shafts then there just stock Chevy length. If your refering to the upper and lower links then I just reused my old ones when I had the 14 bolt on a 4-link.

Again maybe i'm not understanding what you mean but I'm happy to answer.

Jason.
 
#54 ·
Well I got a few runs on the Jeep now, seems to be holding up fine to the abuse I'm putting it threw.
What it needs for improvements, needs a larger dispalcement ram for the rear. I'm going to install a 3" boar ram, this will help with some of the hard steers I find when I have the weight on it.

Needs a larger cooler, I got one over the weekend from a friends buggy, he upgraded and had these sitting around. I can get about 10 minutes of hard wheeling before the steering gets hot to the touch. I kinde knew this going into it, I knew the old cooler was a little on the small side but I wanted to get on the trails.

I need to do some pump upgrade's, I love the P-pump thats in there but I never drilled the port or strecthed the spring for more pressure, so that needs to be addressed.

But all in all I'm very pleased, I found my self doing things that I struggled on in the past, I also find my self getting into some more trouble also:D
Anyways heres some pics of me across the street from my house, my little 80+ acrea play land.







I have a few more, those where over the weekend, I have some of us up there from two ago weeks also. More to come.....

Jason.
 
#55 ·
Wicked! So how does the steering return to center? And how does the control work?
 
#57 ·
There is no auto return to center, I just for now look to see. But I'm getting more and more used to the feel of how the rig sits.
Its kinda hard to explain but you can tell even sititng still if the rig is not in a center line and I'm getting better and better at placing the rear tire's buy how it feels.

The rear is a simple log splitter valve, I have it set up so when I pull left the tire's will move the Jeep to the left and same for the right. Pretty simple and basic.
This was the second run and I'm getting better a big plus is you know that feeling when your hung up and you turn ever so slightly to left or right and it pulls threw.
With rearsteer all it take's alot of the times is a little left to right and it pops free and your over.

One big plus is rig placement, I mean now I can steer right into a line a with little effort, reverse in my Jeep gets used alot less:D

Jason.
 
#56 ·
Few more,





And I alway find a hole to stuff an Irok:rolleyes: This was hung up enough that a 45-1 crawl plus a deep T/C could not move the jeep forwards or backwards. Of course Pics never show the true details.



We had to high lift the Jeep up out of the hole to get me cleared:rolleyes:

Jason.
 
#62 ·
Bumping my own thread as a few I see are asking about it.

Jason.
 
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