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3/4 ton ZJ build

239K views 764 replies 104 participants last post by  311LJ 
#1 ·
well i know i have been talking a lot of junk lately about going to full width axles and its finally happening. Im doing this transformation on a separate thread than my regular build just to make it easier and less cluttered.

So this is where im at right now...

got everything ripped out from under blue and sold. Both axles are gone as well as all of the suspension. I traded someone my 4.5 RE springs for some 7" claytons and im building my own long arms. They are going to be basically like claytons arms just home-made. well to make this less boring, here are some pics....

axles are a hp d44 front and full floating d60 rear. both have 3" OD tubes


last pic before the breakdown


nothing under her


old axles

 
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#74 ·
locker came in today.
 
#82 ·
Jeeeeze. Your still working on this project? Whats wrong? Run out of volunteers?

hahaha Looking great man
when you can only work 2 days out of the week, id say im making progess on it!:p haha should start seeing it come together within the next 2-3 weekends.
 
#78 ·
Just found this thread. I was subscribed to your other and thought maybe you were on vacation. I was way off. It's coming together nicely. Can't wait to see it chewing on some terra firma. Great work!
 
#80 ·
I think everyone wants to learn that.:cheers2:
 
#83 ·
Build's coming along great. :thumbsup: Once your humungo axles are finished, nobody's even gonna recognize it. How much total lift are you accumulating, anyway?

By the way...

Thanks again for the sliders, they look sweet! :cheers2:
 
#86 ·
Build's coming along great. :thumbsup: Once your humungo axles are finished, nobody's even gonna recognize it. How much total lift are you accumulating, anyway?

By the way...
Thanks again for the sliders, they look sweet! :cheers2:
its only going to have 7" springs on it. the rest will be cutting and hacking away at the body. glad you like the sliders man.

fortcollins, im running a triangulated 4 link in the rear and radius arms up front. just like claytons. as for the book, im keepin it man. its got a lot of good info in it.
 
#87 ·
got some fabbin done this weekend and the locker in the carrier. seems like we didnt get far but it was a lot of work...

2 sets of claytons arms...

locker installed. ended up taking it out cos i forgot about the axle tube seals. lol

made another tool to press them in with some threaded rod and washers...our collection of home-made tools is growing:2thumbsup:


my buddys brackets. paid 6hundo-somethin for one set and 48 bucks for this one :teehee:
 
#88 ·
the drivers side coil bucket had to be like half way onto the old cast leaf perch so we just notched the bracket and slid it over. it sits flush and there is another plate that gets welded over top of it that the spring actually sits on that you'll see later





then for the truss that we had to build in order to run the upper control arm mount, we drilled and tapped the rest of the exposed cast and bolted some 1" solid stock to it...




we plan on later tying in the stock to the mount on both sides for some extra strength. then we threw the other side on



started on the truss... we cut some 3" sq tubing to use for it.


tied it into the stock...


 
#89 ·
popped it off to weld it up....




the cut the hole up top to counter sink the upper mount a bit in order to get some weld on the inside as well as prevent it front sitting so high....




this is how the spring will sit with the ballistics bracket i used...





so this is where we are right now. i know it seems like we didnt accomplish much but that was alot of fabbing and that was the hard part. next weekend, ill be able to throw it under there and make sure it all lines up (no reason it shouldnt) then burn it all on for good. then its just a matter of sprayin it with some paint and putting the axle back together and this week my buddy is going to try to get around to throwing our arms together. im thinking that if all goes well, next weekend ill have a rolling front end :2thumbsup:
 
#93 ·
couple days? week tops. its a nice setup.
 
#95 ·
looks awesome. what year f250 are those axles from? i have a chance to get my hands on a set cheap and wanted to compare. it doesnt look like it was too bad to work around that drivers side leaf mount either. cant wait for some more progress.
 
#96 ·
Mine came out of a 79. If u get an older 44, make sure it has either leafs or weld on radius arm mounts. Some years with radius arms have the mounts that are just a part of the tube and you can't work around them.
 
#97 ·
i have been following this thread since you started it. i hope one day to be able to do the same thing to my jeep by my self from the knowledge i have gained from this forum
 
#98 ·
thanks indredsnake99!

made some more progress this weekend....
got the passenger upper CA mount tacked and started on the lowers, the driver side is going to take a lot of clearancing to fit it on that side where it needs to be. it was so damn hot on Saturday that this was really all we did. lol

the bracket that i bought was going to be too short so i had to fab up another one. its not quite as thick but it will be braced so i think it will be ok.






saturday night we started on making the front lowers so we could see where we could get away with putting the mounts at. sunday morning, we had 2 sets of front lowers:2thumbsup:

marked them up to plasma them

cut and then beveled to get a better weld...



the bungs for the JJs went right in without the need to press or us a BFH then they were tacked a BAM!
 
#99 ·
idk if i ever mentioned it but i ripped my front upper control arm off right before i started the swap so we are going to patch it with some 1/8".

made a template, pounded in the damage and cut up some metal





that will be welded in next weekend then we realized that where we had the jacks, we wont be able to get the front arms mounted so them we had to make some stands to put the jack stands on in order to put them at the very front of the jeep.



while i was in the cutting and fabbing mode, i also went ahead and made a few gussets for the passenger coil mount just to make it a bit stronger.


 
#100 ·
next weekend is a 4 day weekend so we should get a lot done. Im hoping to have the front end locked in there before i leave for florida on the 11th. ill be gone for 2 weeks so nothing will get done in that time but when i get back, it will be on to the 60! regear, detroit, brackets, strap it in:D I cant wait!!
 
#102 ·
covered up the hole in my unibody with some 1/8" and painted it to protect it from rusting with vegas' many rains.


also tacked my track bar mount on cos before the bolts would always wobble out and it pissed me off. just layed a few tacks to keep in place.




finished up the stands to move the jackstands out of the way of the arms and got them moved.



took the plasma to the lower control arm mounts and painted them.


layed in the long arms


all of my hardware is from caterpillar. the heads are bigger and provide a better grab for a wrench. here is a comparison...
 
#106 ·
im hoping to have the front end finished this weekend aside from the steering. we took a family day today and i was to drunk to wake up at a decent hour anyways so tomorrow we'll jump back on it. im going to florida on the 12th for work untill the 26th. i hope to have the axles in and start dialing it in by early october. as for being done, NEVER! after i finish the axles, beadlocks and hydro assist are in the works:thumbsup:
 
#104 ·
and a little teaser... idk about yall but im stoked:2thumbsup:


 
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