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GIJeepN: Tons, 40's, and Stretch

58K views 477 replies 27 participants last post by  DriverJC 
#1 · (Edited)
Thought I ought to start one of these new-fangled build threads to document GIJeepN's transformation from mild-wheeler to.... well something else. lol

The plan is to give GIJeepN (my 1997 Jeep Wrangler Sport) some much needed upgrades and breathe some new life into her.

This includes:
Dana 60 front from a 2008 F350 w/ 5.38:1 gears and an ARB Air Locker 10.5"
Rear from a 2009 F350 w/ 5.38:1 gears and either a Detroit or ARB Locker
Fox 2.5" 14" Air Shocks
Klune-V under drive unit with 2.72:1 low range
40x13.50-17 TSL/SXII Tires on ProComp wheels with Staun internal beadlocks
3-4" or more front stretch
5-7" or more rear stretch
Full Hydraulic steering

What she looks like now. 35" Mickey Thompson Baja Claw tires, Dana 30 front axle with 4.56:1 gears and an ARB Locker, Dana 44 rear axle with 4.56:1 gears with a Detroit Locker, 4.5" lift provided by ProCom springs and rough country long arm upgrade kit, 4:1 low range with slip yoke eliminator kit, York on-board air system.


Axles


Removing all the brackets from the front axle



Test fitting the truss (Artec TJ 1Ton truss kit)




Welding the truss. I used an Eastwood MIG250 with .035" solid wire and C25 mix gas for the welding of the truss to the tubes and a Lotus 200amp TIG/Stick/Plasma with the Ni99 rods and an Air Hammer for the welding to the cast.




Welding axle tubes.




I should be starting to disassemble the front end of GIJeepN and finishing up welding the brackets on the truss this weekend.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
New Stuff Showed Up

Got a shipment of new stuff on Friday.

4ea 40x13.50-17 TSL/SXII


I was originally going to go with the 47" LTB's but decided to save the 800 dollars (difference in tires) and put that toward the steering system.



They measure out at just under 38" unmounted and just under 40" tall (like 39 7/8") mounted with 65psig in them.

Joel
 
#4 ·
This weekend was all about getting two tires mounted. I called 4 places on Saturday to get them mounted, three of them told me they couldn't do it due to their equipment being too small, and one told me they could do it, but not until Thursday of this week. :confused:

So, I called up and old high school buddy of mine (Paul, he owns R&R Auto and Marine in Chino, Ca) and asked if his shop could mount the tires. He told me to come on down and he'd get it done. Should have called him sooner. :grinpimp:.

2 hours later I was at home with two tires mounted and working on getting the other two rims modified to use the Staun Internal Beadlocks.

I mounted up the Staun's with out the tires on them to see if the tubes held air and that everything would work out correctly and checked them on Saturday and everything was good.
 
#6 ·
I didn't get much done on GIJeepN due to the heat. It was 108 here this weekend and I didn't want to be outside welding so I stayed in the barn and worked on modifying the rims.

I installed the Staun Inner Airlocks and want to use some "7241 Series B Interchange" Quick Disconnects. These will allow VERY rapid air ups and downs of the tires.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to drill another hole for them because of where the valve stem currently located is too close to where the Weld-In Beadlocks ring will go. So I will have three valve stems (1ea for the Staun Inner tube, 1ea for the Quick Disconnect, and 1ea regular tire valve stem). lol.

I'm almost at the point that I can purchase the Steering System. I'm looking at getting the TJ PSC 2.75" kit from Artec with their Dana 60 ram mount. The only issue is whether or not I should wait and get the High Steer Knuckles or get the high steer kit from Hired Gun Offroad. I like the knuckle option as it will most likely be a stronger option, however, it is quite a bit more expensive.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Well, I haven't gotten much done on GIJeepN in the last few weeks. I got some Weld-On beadlocks ordered from AtoZ Fabrication that will be here on the 25th So, I need to get the tires dismounted so I can modify the two remaining wheels for the Staun Internal Beadlock then set them up for welding on the outer beadlock.

on the axles, I still need the steering system and ram mount (should have enough for them next month). We'll see.

One question I have is how much should I sell the current axles and wheel/tires for?

Rear Axle: Stock D44 with a Detriot Locker and 4.56:1 gears
Front Axle: Stock D30 with an ARB Locker 4.56:1 gears and new shafts and unit bearings
Tires: 5ea 35x12.5-15 Mickey Thompson Baja Claws (1ea New (purchased in Oct 2016 after running Sledge Hammer), 1ea with 1 run on it (purchased last summer and ram Sledge Hammer with it), and 3ea 7 years old))
Wheels: 15x10 32 bolt Eaton Beadlocks
Currie CorrectLynk Steering with a slightly bent draglink

Joel
 
#10 · (Edited)
Got some time to work on GIJeepN today.

I was getting the AtoZ Fabrication weld-in beadlocks in this afternoon so I set about setting up the wheels so I could weld them in.

This meant that I had to drill the hole for the Staun internal beadlock then drill and tap the location for the new Quick Disconnect air valve and tap the original valve stem hole so I could install a plug.

New Valve and location.


AtoZ Fabrication Weld-in Beadlock clamped in place


Tacked in


First wheel 1/2 welded. Had to stop welding to take the wife to dinner.


First wheel fully welded and ground down


Second wheel fully welded. This one was a little worse for me. The fist one had a pennies worth of gap between the lip of the wheel and the wheel lock. This one had a 3/32" gap all the way around.


Be kind when you critique the welds, I have a grand total of 1.5 hours working a TIG welder. lol. I will, however, take any advise on making the welds better.

Joel.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Well I got a lot of time to work on GIJeepN. I got the wheels set up and ready to be painted.

Wheel #3


Wheel #4


Had to pull out the big guns to grind these. Old school 9" Grinder


All wheels welded up


Quick Disconnects and Valve plugs installed


Wheels with out the outer rings weighing in at 41lbs


The only problem I have with the beadlock kit is that this version does not come with any anti-coning rings. So I'll have to fab something up.

That's about it for this weekend. Next weekend I won't be able to make any headway as we are going to WonderCon in Anaheim.

Joel.
 
#13 ·
Well, it's been more than a few months and I haven't made any headway until this week.

I got the rims primed and ready to paint (Sorry No Pictures). Unfortunately, the undercoating gun won't be here until late tomorrow. So I have to wait until then or early Saturday to get the rims painted.

This afternoon I ordered the following items from Artec
Superduty 60 Full Hydro Ram Mount
Full Hydro Weld-On High Steer Arms - 05+ SuperDuty
PSC Motorsports Extreme Series 2.75" Double End Steering Cylinder Kit
Superduty Full Hydro Tie Rod Kit

Hopefully the parts get here in a few weeks so I can start mocking up the steering and make some headway.

Joel.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Got the rims and lock rings primed and painted today. Just need to drill out the mount holes to fit the bolts and build up the tires.

Priming the Lock Rings with Self Etching Primer:



Painted the Rims with Monstaliner tinted to "Pyroclastic", thinned with 6oz of MEK, and sprayed at 50psi at the gun:



Fully painted with plugs and valves.





Unfortunately, I won't be able to work on them for the next few weeks due to other commitments. lol

Joel
 
#15 · (Edited)
Last week I received the steering parts I needed to finish up the front axle.

One pair of High Steer Arms from Artec Industries:


One Superduty 60 Full Hydro Ram Mount from Artec Industries:


One PSC Motorsports Extreme Series 2.75" Double End Steering Cylinder Kit with P-Pump


One Superduty Full Hydro Tie Rod Kit from Artec Industries


On Friday I started disassembling the front end, I need to remove the Unit Bearing and dust shield so I can mock up the High Steer arms. Unfortunately, I had to stop the disassembly due to not having a set of snap ring pliers. :confused:.

Saturday was dedicated to the Metallica Concert so nothing got done. :p

Sunday was a day spent mounting the tires to the rim and installing the Staun Inner Beadlocks as I was still waiting for the snap ring pliers to arrive. I got three of them onto the rims by using a Goplus 17.5" to 24" Tire Changer Mount Demount Tool Tools Tubeless Truck Bead.

It was rather difficult and required me standing on the rim but I got 3 of them mounted before I ran out of steam and had to clean up. lol. Installing the Stauns was rather straight forward, just requiring some manpower to get the items inside the tires.

Unfortunately my air compressor wasn't quite up to the task of seating the inner bead with all the leakage I was getting from the outer bead. lol. So that would have to wait until Monday and the use of some Bead Sealer.

After work on Monday, I got one of the tires sealed up, It will hold air with no leaks up to 40psi. That is a good thing, however, I had to go up to 60psi to seat the inner bead and that took a lot of time with my little home use compressor and I had to use a bead sealer to seal the mounting surface to stop the leakage. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the installation, however, I will post a picture of the final product when I have it.

I was able to get an overall height measurement of the tire on the rim with the Staun and tire each inflated to 40psi. It came out to 39.25" tall and I should have a weight for you guys later today.


So far that is it. I'm hoping to have at least one more tire sealed up this afternoon.

Joel
 
#18 ·
So I got bored and decided to reseal the bead on the first tire I put together. The bead sealed awesome. No Leaks, on the bead or the Weld. AWESOME... but what did I find. AHHHHHHH.


When I moved the valve I plugged the original hole with a 1/4" NPT plug and it is leaking. VERY SLOWLY but it is leaking.

So that's two tires put together and two tires that have to come apart.

The other two are put together but the beads aren't seated, so I can et enough room to replace the plugs with valve stems so they won't have that problem. lol

Got to love the problems. NOT.

Joel
 
#19 · (Edited)
So I attempted to use the back of GIJeepN to unseat the bead of the tire that has a leak in the weld. Yea... The Jeep doesn't weigh enough without the tires on the ground, and I don't have a jack that is tall enough to get the Jeep off of the springs, because my high lift bit the dust.

I also found out an issue with the Staun Internal Beadlock.

So when I installed them, and seated the beads I deflated the tire completely and inflated the tube per their instructions. 15psi, 20psi,30psi and then to 50psi, then deflate and re-inflate the tire. All seemed good, until I go to deflate them. I got them to deflate once or twice, then they started deflating to 20psi and then stopping. When attempting to deflate and unseat the bead on the tire above, I ended up having to force some talc into the tube, inflate the tire to 30psi or so, and move the tube valve to the top of the tire to get it to completely deflate.

Next week I'm going to have to resort to taking it to a tire shop to get it dismounted.

Joel
 
#21 ·
I wanted to lock both beads to the wheel, so I had 4 choices. 1. Use a mechanical lock (eg. Weld in DIY beadlocks on both beads), 2. Use inner air lock type locks. 3. use a two piece rim and a PVC insert to lock both beads. and 4 use a combination of 1 and two.

Option 1 was 800 (DIY Beadlocks)+ the cost of the rims total of 1040, but I had heard that it was a royal pain to get the tire bead over the inner bead of the rim to use the mechanical lock on the inner side of the rim. There was also the issue of rim size with a 2005+ D60. 17" rims fit great, but I will have to trim the high steer brackets to fit the rims with out using spacers. If I added the DIY beadlocks to the inside of the rim I would have had to run wheel spacers to clear the extra wheel width.

Option 2 was the cheapest option because I got the air locks used but I heard about issues with the tire spinning on the rim even when the tube is inflated to 50psi.

Option 3 was the most expensive. 2000 for TWF 17" rims.

So that left me with option 4. Total cost of this option was 400 for the DIY Beadlocks+ wheel cost + air locks. Total was less than 1000 for the entire package including the valves and bead sealer. I also get the added back up of still having a locked tire if the tube should fail, and the added bonus of the tube and carcass acting as a bump stop for the rim.

Joel.
 
#23 ·
I got to use the "New to me" air compressor on Sunday to work on the wheels and tires. The compressor is a 7hp 60 gallon twin cylinder unit with a max PSI of 135psi that I got for $165 off of craigslist.* Ohhh man is this a lot of air. lol...*

I started by breaking down the outer bead of the two wheels that leaked, this compressor will remove 18 of the 36 bolts using my 20year old Air ratchet before the compressor kicked on. Awesome.

After getting the wheels torn down I replaced 1/4" NPT plug I inserted into the original valve stem hole when I modified the wheels with a 90* metal valve stem (. Then used some Butyl Tape ( https://www.amazon.com/Colorimetric...TF8&qid=1502799626&sr=8-8&keywords=butyl+tape )(this stuff is used in composite manufacturing to seal the vacuum bags) around the weld bead on the rim then Bead Sealer (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NBTGCF4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ). Then clamped the ring tight and aired up the tire.

The air compressor continued to impress. It delivered enough air though my 3/8" rubber air hose to seat the 40x13.50-17 tire at 40psi before turning on again.

So end result was both tires that leaked are now leak free and aired up.

The other two should be complete this week then I can focus on removing the unit bearing and axle seals to install the High Steer kit.

While I was searching Craigslist I came across a 60 gallon air tank with no compressor that didn't leak for $50.00. Hopefully, I can get off work early enough this week to pick it up and add it to my growing shop.
 
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