Reinforcing D44 Radius arms

[VB CJ 5.7]

I have one of the ever so hated 79 D44's with the cast wedges. I am going to run the stock radius arms on it. Anyone reinforce the radius arms? I'm not trying to spend 600 on the Duff kit. I figure I will truss the housing (I know about using nickel rod to weld to cast) and then beef up the radius arms, maybe put a heim on the end. Thoughts...pictures...



(woo hoo first post)

[Clodhopper]

Yep, filled in the sides with 3/8" plate. Welding it without turning it into a banana was fun, but ended up relatively straight, only minor tweaking with a press. Haven't bent them yet and that was 3 years ago. Not sure if I have pics, but I will look around.

I doubt I would do it again. Faced with the same problem, I would probably chop the axle end off and fab up stronger arms.

[VB CJ 5.7]

I have seen where guys have cut the arm off and just used the C's and fabbed up their own arms. Didn't think about the steel warping... hmmm...

[William Grimsley]

I boxed mine and reinforced the C's as the tech article in bronco driver magazine describes. Been running them a couple of years with no problems

[mj]

there was a thread on here with tons of ways to extend the arms
my fav was the one where he whacked the arm off leving a 4-6" stub and made the rest with box tubing that looked about 2.5" or 2".
sounds cheap but the execution shown on that thread was real nice

[Halogrinder]

My thread has some pics of mine.

[GubNi]

I don't know if I'd trust two heims to hold on the front axle. The stock setup with bushings flexes really well.

[66gasgrill]

I cut and extended mine. then plated the out side. I used 1 1/2" .330' wall dom tube. I slotted the tube and the stock arms. They work very well.

[Halogrinder]

nice! i would run a peice of 1"x1/2" strap on edge down the length of the tube and arm to give it rigidity. it would make that whole arm MUCH stronger.


i would have a feeling i would bend that. its freakin long!!

[TroyM]

ya that looks like it would bend fairly easy

i dont understand why you guys dont make the extended arm with 2 pieces of thick wall / DOM tubing converging at the frame end. similar to a ladder bar. one big long triangle which would be a helluva lot stronger than one single tube.

[1bgdog]

On a YJ

[IROK Cherokee]

Originally Posted by 1bgdog

On a YJ

WTF

[Oatmeal]

Originally Posted by 1bgdog

On a YJ

Holy Crap! Did that extension bend or was it fabbed that way---------Hans

[1bgdog]

Originally Posted by IROK Cherokee

WTF

Originally Posted by Oatmeal

Holy Crap! Did that extension bend or was it fabbed that way---------Hans

It's a Jeep thing....you guys wouldn't understand. We don't need to stretch it all the way to the rear of the rig to make it flex.

[redranger4.0]

Originally Posted by 1bgdog

It's a Jeep thing....you guys wouldn't understand. We don't need to stretch it all the way to the rear of the rig to make it flex.

Yea apparently you dont need to weld either, you just had to blow your nose on it and it holds up.....

[1bgdog]

Originally Posted by redranger4.0

Yea apparently you dont need to weld either, you just had to blow your nose on it and it holds up.....

What have you added to this post?
Have you seen the welds personally?
Have you seen the rig on the trails?
My set up is similar 66gasgrill but a different application.

Haters the whole bunch of yous!

[Halogrinder]

i feel some butthurtedness here

[66gasgrill]

I had something like that happen to my first set of arms. Not near as bad but enough to cause concern. I agree a ladder bar type arm would be much stronger and mine are long and will bend some, but they won't break. Anyway the guy said he wanted something cheap-cheaper, I was offering up an option. I am actually in the process of redoing my suspension so these will go away.

[Halogrinder]

dude they will be plenty strong if you put a peice of 1''x1/2'' strap on edge and weld it the length of the top of the arm.

[66gasgrill]

:Edit Double posted this part Edit:

Back to the original question, the stock arms are plenty strong but if you really want to truss them just cut your plate to fit and have at it If you want to add heims you can do it an infinate number of ways. Adding some tube to the end is probably the easiest. HTH.

[redranger4.0]

Originally Posted by 1bgdog

What have you added to this post?

A sliver of comedy...

[66gasgrill]

Originally Posted by Halogrinder

dude they will be plenty strong if you put a peice of 1''x1/2'' strap on edge and weld it the length of the top of the arm.

You mean like this? This is one of Broncomania's rear links.



That is a very good Idea I''ll have to do that.

[Halogrinder]

si. that helps out tremendously.

[IROK Cherokee]

Originally Posted by 1bgdog

It's a Jeep thing....you guys wouldn't understand. We don't need to stretch it all the way to the rear of the rig to make it flex.

No you don't need them to be that long, but you do need to build the extensions better than that......

[brewchief]

Originally Posted by 1bgdog

On a YJ

Is it just me or does that "extension" look like a tractor link cut in half?
With no gusseting I'd expect that arm to fold up with a good bump to the front axle.

Brewchief