YJ Springs Up Front - Page 2

I did a night run out to Raw Deal with a couple of friends and quickly discovered the static flex tests only told part of the story.  I was getting a lot of tire rub, even on small obstacles.  Over the next couple of days I moved the axle forward another 3/4" by redrilling the spring perches and I installed some bump stops (3.5" tall) and welded a plate to the spring plate for the bump stop to contact.

I was still getting tire rub on the next test run.  Also the shock is just grazing the bump stop so I may have to move either the upper or lower mount.  When I got home I added a 2" spacer to the bump stop plate figuring that should keep the tire off the body.

Here's one of the benefits of this setup.  Before when I tried to climb this rock I'd have to come up to it at an angle to keep my shackles from hitting, this time I could take it head on.  Another benefit is when you climb stuff like this the front axle tends to walk forward, helping pull you up and over stuff.  I left my tires at 20 psi and experienced no tire slippage at all.  Previous times I had aired the tires down to 5-10 psi and had to give it some gas to get the tires to hook up.  Further down the wash the tire rub was back, the second shot shows the bump stop compressed when the tire was touching the body.  Dave suggested we cut the body back to give more clearance so we headed back to his place to fire up the plasma cutter.

First shot is the before picture.  We measured 3" in on the bottom of the rocker panel and cut the body in a straight line up to where the fender meets the rocker panel.  We also had to cut out a bit of the foot well, just imagine cutting a flat plane.

Next we took a piece of steel, cut it to length and tack welded it over the hole in the tub.  We left a flap to tack weld along the side of the rocker panel.  I used some paintable silicone to seal up the gaps.  When it's dry I'll clean it up and paint it.

As you can see, Dave King had already done this mod a while ago, I hadn't noticed until he told me he had done it.

After painting.

Testing in the real world.  Only thing I would do different is move the front spring mount 1 more inch forward for more tire clearance in the rear.  After a couple trails I still get some tire rub on compression where the body mount is located.