43" tires on a BII

[D'cheat]

D'cheat u made me get a little motivated to do the dam thing

What do I need to do to get you really motivated?
No, im not giving you free parts. I know where this was going the instant I typed it. Hehe.

For BigRed, I used a set of coil buckets I nabbed from a 1970 bronco, and spaced them out with some 2x4 .240 wall tube that I cut to fit. Fabbing your own is just as easy. When I built BR, nobody had done this before. There was only one BII that I knew of at the time that had a EB axle up front. Hell, I had swapped in the v8 before anybody made the parts for the swap. So it was all trial and error. Now there are hundreds of people who have done the solid axle swap.

 

[D'cheat]

Front axle brackets. Also toying with the idea of running a 4 link. Hmmmm. Need to get this pig under the truck this weekend and see if Ill have the room for the links.

 

[The_Dealer]

i was toying with the idea of running leaves but it seems like about the same amount of work, maybe a little more. what are yall sas guys doing to tie in the steering to the b2 pitman?

 

[D'cheat]

leafs are a bit more work, seeing that you can just about bolt on most EB lift brackets. Steering is not too bad. For a quick install, just cut the factory BII draglink and extend it by sleeving it with some tube. I dont recommend this for hardcore wheelin, but for daily driver and light trail use its fine. Then you can take the extended draglink and have one fabricated to its dimensions.

 

[The Jester Race]

Here are some pictures of my steering setup. I just machined the top of the stock pitman arm to a 3/4" taper to take a Chevy tie rod end.

I wouldn't say that a leaf sprung SAS is any more work. There are two reasons why I went with leaves. First, my axle was setup for leaves, it had a spring perch cast into the housing. Second reason is because I got a smoking deal on springs, two new Rancho 44150 for $50. It's good to know people

If your axle is setup for coils, and you have already started gathering parts, stick with the coils. You have other options too, theres coilovers, gas shocks, 1/4 elliptical, ooh 3/4 elliptical.

-Jester

 

[whocares]

Good looking build, I have been watching this over on Pirate.

 

[RUTH]

awesome awesome... to both parties you guys wanna make me do more to mine... things that dont cost money though lol

 

[The_Dealer]

i havent gathered anything as of yet, going to get the axle...i do have a set of yj springs that i made 6 leaf packs that were from my yj with a 350(383 stroker) so it would be about the right spring rate for my b2, esp when i go 5.0

plus i have a set of spring frame mounts that i cut off when i stretched the wheelbase and outboarded the springs...so pretty much i wont have to spend any money if i run leaves(besides getting the axle parts i need and gears, and some steering junk. plus i dont know much about coils, ive always delt with leaves

 

[RUTH]

i think they both have pros and cons.... but shitt, i have done both and liked both so i am not gona try to persuade , but i did sas a 82 ranger by myself in about 9 hrs (drove in/drove out) with leafs and its not hard, I spent more money on the beer than the brackets well besides the heim for the steeing but whats scrap to big company's, is good stuff to me

 

[D'cheat]

Yea, shoot man. If you have the parts to do a leaf spring SAS I say go for it. You can get great flex from leafs i mean Great flex, and good reliability to boot. Just please stay away from snake oil parts like Revolver Shackles and similar goofy things. There are only two down sided to leafs that I know of aside from not being the "in" thing to do right now. Axle wrap and approach angles. You can only get so much of an approach angle with the leaf mounts up front, and axle wrap with the front leafs can be a drive shaft u-joint buster.

But again, if you have the parts then build with them! Comon', hop to it!

 

[bobbywalter]

i think they both have pros and cons.... but shitt, i have done both and liked both so i am not gona try to persuade , but i did sas a 82 ranger by myself in about 9 hrs (drove in/drove out) with leafs and its not hard, I spent more money on the beer than the brackets well besides the heim for the steeing but whats scrap to big company's, is good stuff to me

i know how that goes...my personal truck went like that...after numerous 8.8 failures over a few months i limped it home and hacked in my 60's that should have went to my psd e350.

cool thing about the 79 type 60's is theres no worries with the k member clearance....and with just one hi-steer arm you can just use the long side ranger steering link to get on the road. like mentioned earlier in the thread...its setup is leaf so i went leaf after hashing it over with others pro and con wise. can actually have a pretty low rig if you dont mind the limited uptravel.

of course, i like coils/coilovers better....just cant do that swap in an all nighter when you dont have a real welder...



one thing for sure though....i still bust shit even with an open diff with my 42's or 44's bouncing around. dont know how the hell you guys can run d 44's without bling 35 spline lockers and rcv cv-joint axleshafts with 40 inch or bigger tires.

 

[spdcrazy]

not to thread jack, but building coil buckets...... if a guy uses coils that aren't wound as tight as those, like i did. how do you get the coil to compress straight? i was going to build some buckets for me, but ive notices with it sitting on a flat plate, it compresses out or front or whatever due to the top of the coil not being flat

 

[bobbywalter]

many ways to deal with that.


i usually build angle into the lower seat. shim the seat around till the coil bows the way you want.

 

[D'cheat]

You can always heat the top coil until its cherry red and smack it flat with a hammer. Thats the quickest way to get it into alignment. If your suspension is set up correctly, then a little bowing in the coil with compression wont hurt anything as long as its affixed to the top and bottom mounts. Its not likely that it will go shooting out and kill your spotter. No matter what, your axle will travel along the same arc that the linkages are set to, even if the coil bulges out a bit. If its to the point of compromising the coil itself, like the coil wanting to completely fold over, then you most likely have way to soft of a coil for its length.

If you dont mind, could you post up a picture of your jeep coils when they are all out of wack with compression? Id like to see just whats going on.

 

[spdcrazy]

true story all around guys. i'm not sure to having a coil that acts like... a coil!

using some small 1/4in plate i'm sure i could add a bit of a shim to make it compress fairly even.

when i first put them on the b2 stock buckets, they bowed out badly.