Jeep wrangler build

[dirtydiesel]

I've kind of inherited this project from my brother who's emigrated to Australia.

It started off life as a 1993 2.5 sport jeep wrangler YJ

We've fitted a 4jb1tc Isuzu Turbo diesel, they're a 2.8L 4cyl that makes around 130hp and 250 lbft , when tweeked as well as 30+MPG

This is bolted to the stock isuzu 5 speed manual gearbox. I've swapped in the transfer case housing off the 3.1 (4jg2tc) that gets rid of the slip yolk on the 2.8 transfer case.

The axles are off a Mercedes g wagon (460 model) they are 4.88:1 and diff locked front and rear. The front diff turns the opposite way to a normal so I have to flip the diff center over.

I'm stretching the wheelbase out to around 100 inches, converting to coils in the rear with coilovers up front, I'm going to 1 links with panard rods front and rear.

The rear axle setup is complete apart from the coil mountings.

Some pics to start with,

As he bought it, on 33"s and (awfully fitted) discovery axles.

As it is now,

[dirtydiesel]

Front axle case dissassembled, to correct diff rotation.

A little improvisation and it just fitted in the workshop press.

Axle case in position under the chassis. I set the caster/diff pinion angle at 17 degrees apart, to leave me with 7 degrees of pinion angle and 10 degrees of caster at ride hieght.

Next i built the front 1 link, the box section i have used is 50x50x6.

The bulge in the 1 link leg is to clear the sump on full bump, i bent this in the workshop press with no formers it bent pretty well i think.

[dirtydiesel]

I have chosen to use 1 link suspension because of it's simplicity, the amount of flex it offers and because of how little caster/diff pinion angle change occurs throughout the suspension cycle.

These pics are up to date, i am at this moment finalising steering geometry hence the ackermann thread.

Then i can get on and cut the front off the chassis

[Soren Frimodt]

Looking good Dan! As you might have noticed I too had a brief flirt with a jeep last summer, and I was really impressed with the power, driveabillity and grunt of the 4,0 not to mention the fuel economy! So not to say you picked the wrong engine, it's personal taste really, but I would without a seconds doubt have chosen the 4,0 over any diesel. But that's just me regarding 1 link suspension, it has really been tried and tested over so many years and works great for how simple it is. Though people seem to sometimes have some problems regarding the panhard geometry, you can apparently get it so wrong that car will have tendency to tilt more easy to once side than the other. Read alot about it on pirate4x4.no where they use one link on there Spiders. So might be worth looking into before you make the panhard mounts

[CwazyWabbit]

Noticing that you had to press the axle tubes back into the diff housing, how did you get them out in the first place?

[FridgeFreezer]

Can you post the detail on the engine mounts?

I know what you done, but it's one of those "Dan" touches that people may miss.

[dirtydiesel]

Looking good Dan! As you might have noticed I too had a brief flirt with a jeep last summer, and I was really impressed with the power, driveabillity and grunt of the 4,0 not to mention the fuel economy! So not to say you picked the wrong engine, it's personal taste really, but I would without a seconds doubt have chosen the 4,0 over any diesel. But that's just me regarding 1 link suspension, it has really been tried and tested over so many years and works great for how simple it is. Though people seem to sometimes have some problems regarding the panhard geometry, you can apparently get it so wrong that car will have tendency to tilt more easy to once side than the other. Read alot about it on pirate4x4.no where they use one link on there Spiders. So might be worth looking into before you make the panhard mounts

I too really like the jeep 4.0, but we really liked the way my pajero hybrid worked, so the plan with this one is to tweek the formular slightly, less weight and greater simplicity.

On the panard rod's, the rear is allready done, to get around the binding i've used ballistic fab 3" joints on each end, i'll sort out some pics later.

Noticing that you had to press the axle tubes back into the diff housing, how did you get them out in the first place?

Mill out the the plug welds and use my mates very large press to press the tubes out.

Can you post the detail on the engine mounts?

I know what you done, but it's one of those "Dan" touches that people may miss.

I'll take some pics later, these mounts are again a slight variation on my normal ones, for reasons i'll post later

[Bowie69]

Noticed the engine mounts here too, very nice work on them, and of course the rest of it

Sticking with steering box or going hydro?

[dirtydiesel]

Noticed the engine mounts here too, very nice work on them, and of course the rest of it

Sticking with steering box or going hydro?

The engine mounts are a lot thicker than i would normally use , (my brother made these) but on this one we are only useing a central gearbox mount, so the engine mounts are taking all the torque twist of the transmission as well.

The bushes are rangerover axle end of front radius arm bushes, i always use a polybush type bush as the bushing extends around the outside of the engine mounting, if you use a conventional metalastic bush over time the centers tear out of them and they slide forards and backwards giving vibrations.

I'm sticking with the jeep steering box, after a bit of steering mock tonight i'm pretty sure i can use the box in it's standard position, so i attacked the chassis.

The front of the chassis rails had lots of badly bodged brackets and were rotten.

Brief mock up of the new rails

Then a bit of cutting.

[dirtydiesel]

Best pic i have of the rear panard rod soren.

And a sneak peak at the new turbo, ready to be mocked up on spare engine, its a IHI vgt off a 170bhp lexus is220d

[elbekko]

Is that panhard pic at ride height?

[Soren Frimodt]

I don't think those engine mounts should have any problems holding that engine in place

Looks fine with the panhard, the problem should occur if you raise the axle mount too high off of the axle centerline, and have the panhard sitting completely level at rideheight, then when the car tilts to the side where the panhard is mounted to the chasis, you suddenly get no wheel travel at all, and the car rolls over as if the suspension was stuck and axle as solid mounted.. Can't seem to find the video showing it on youtube again, but in that you saw a Spider doing it, it looked really weird. Anyway it was a problem several had encountered apparently.

[dirtydiesel]

Is that panhard pic at ride height?

No, the chassis is around 2-3" high

[bill van snorkle]

Just a couple of questions on the swivels/steering arms Dan.

Is the standard trackrod location behind the axle as on RangeRovers? Is the rod below axle tube?

Are you changing trackrod location to front and higher up?

Another question I may have asked before but forgot the answer. Does the stub shaft of the CV joint support weight, or are they full floaters?

[Daan]

I am sure tony baskill did move the trackbar above the axle, using steering arms from a LHD G-wagen, flipped to the top, and using teh standard G steeringbox, if I recall correct.

Daan

[dirtydiesel]

Just a couple of questions on the swivels/steering arms Dan.

Is the standard trackrod location behind the axle as on RangeRovers? Is the rod below axle tube?

Are you changing trackrod location to front and higher up?

Another question I may have asked before but forgot the answer. Does the stub shaft of the CV joint support weight, or are they full floaters?

The standard track bar is in the same position as a rangerover, it is on bolt on arms like a series though.

I want to put the track bar above and behind the axle.

The cv's are neither fully floaters or semi floaters, the wheel bearings run on the hub inside the swivel housing the cv's act as the clamping device to hold it all together. The setup is pretty much identical to a modern front wheel drive setup.

I am sure tony baskill did move the trackbar above the axle, using steering arms from a LHD G-wagen, flipped to the top, and using teh standard G steeringbox, if I recall correct.

Daan

I'm not sure what I want to do would be possible with stock parts, and I don't have the dollar to experiment with genuine merc parts.

Your comments about caster helping turn in is interesting, I've run up to 15° on my mogs before mainly because I found it helps tighten up steering feel on the road

[oddballrovers]

Hi Dan

I can see you have a new flange cut, have you got the file or did you buy it finished, in our new race truck we are using

the 4jb1 and have looked into another turbo as one of the first up-grades after the usual IC, pump tweek and so.

By the way have you got any 4jb1 on hand for sale?

Kind regards

Ole.

[dirtydiesel]

I had a few cut a while ago this is the only one i have left, i just took a manifold into a local place and they copied it.

[bill van snorkle]

Dan, were the plug welds gluing the Mercs axle tubes to the diff casting glass hard like they are on a LR Salisbury? I couldn't find any drills or cutters that would even look at those, and had to resort to drilling a 1/8'' hole outside each plug weld and cut each plug out with the oxy acetelyne torch.

bill.

[bill van snorkle]

" regarding 1 link suspension, it has really been tried and tested over so many years and works great for how simple it is. Though people seem to sometimes have some problems regarding the panhard geometry, you can apparently get it so wrong that car will have tendency to tilt more easy to once side than the other. Read alot about it on pirate4x4.no where they use one link on there Spiders. So might be worth looking into before you make the panhard mounts."

I am also an advocate for 'One Links'. It works very well in combination with my rear leaf springs, shackled at both ends and without Panhard rod. I haven't experience the antisquat 'jacking' or 'humping' that is often criticised on the Pirate forums.

Perhaps the different antisquat geometry of my leaf springs verses my one link cancel each other out ?

Be interesting to see if Dan will be happy with them on coils.

[Daan]

if you run a watts linkage, this problem wont be apparent.

Daan

[elbekko]

I don't think the leafsprings provide any real geometry when they're double-shackled...

Perhaps you're just not using your right foot to get over obstacles, but your brain, and thus haven't noticed.

[bill van snorkle]

I don't think the leafsprings provide any real geometry when they're double-shackled...

Perhaps you're just not using your right foot to get over obstacles, but your brain, and thus haven't noticed.

i don't wish to interfere with Dans thread too much here. Just to explain, that I wasn't being strictly accurate in describing my setup as double shackled. I run a spring over axle system with raised mountings to actually negate the vehicle height increase. The new spring hangers actually pivot from the original SWB spring hanger bolt holes, but locate the spring eyes 6'' higher up. They behave like a normal rigid spring hangers until extra droop is required, whereby the drooping side hanger swings back and downwards during extreme articulation. As only one hanger at a time pivots down during articulation, the hanger on the opposite side remains in its normal location and is locked against lateral forces. The telescopic rear shackles are also laterally rigid when fully compressed, thereby eliminating the requirement of a panhard rod or Watts linkage. The spring over was done to remove the snag points of thick underslung closely spaced springs that all too often tend to hang up SWB leaf sprung LandRovers, and bacause the One Link locates the axle in the for/aft plane and relieves the spring of the task of controlling torque reaction forces, a lighter thinner and more flexible spring pack is used for the same load capacity. The higher spring mountings also raises the roll centre closer to the COG for flatter handling.

But you are correct in that I don't drive with a heavy right foot. It wouldn't make any difference if I did, what with the 40 BHP that my tired old 1959 2 1/4 litre engine puts out. I depend on the Unimog principal of a wide selection of gear ratio choices, difflocks, articulate suspension and ground clearance to get the job done.

[dirtydiesel]

I don't think the leafsprings provide any real geometry when they're double-shackled...

Perhaps you're just not using your right foot to get over obstacles, but your brain, and thus haven't noticed.

Have a read of this thread on bills trucks

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=6428

[elbekko]

Have a read of this thread on bills trucks

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=6428

Very good and impressive thread indeed, pretty sure I read it before, but always nice to read it again!

Interesting explanation of the leafspring setup Bill. I'm not sure I fully understand it, I think you're saying the shackle can "flip", and is stopped by something when moving upwards to make it a rigid mount point?