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Here's my stock '86 CJ7 to "Rubicon
Ready" story:
I bought a stock 1986 CJ7 from a friend. It
was my first 4-wheel drive vehicle so soon after I bought it
I began looking into what the vehicle could do in terms of "off-roading".
I learned alot. I started listening in on the newsgroup "rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys".
I participated by asking a question about upgrading the dash
speakers and got some feedback which included someone asking
me if I was goung on the Rubicon that summer with the Jamboree. I had no idea what they were talking
about but was told that it was a great time camping with lots
of other jeeps. Cool! I'll look into it!
Not Cool. My jeep was STOCK.
The guy I was communicating with told me that
what I didn't want to do was be one of the weenies that needed
to be winched out of the trail. Zing, that hit some kinda cord...Yeah....that's
right....I didn't want to be one of those weenies.
So, I started doing my research and I joined
a local 4x club.
1) Clearance & tires. I was
told there would be rocks. Big rocks. Remove Jeep Steps!
I chose a 4" lift kit and 33" Cepek tires. A
suggestion was made to replace the stock spring shackles with
heavier duty Con Ferr shackles. Once you see the difference between
a heavy duty shackle and the stock ones, you'll laugh. It's amazing
how feeble the stock shackes and stock steering linkages are.
It's very easy to imagine them bending during an average off-highway
articulation.
This was cool but opened up a can of worms
for me regarding steering! This next step ( #2 ) may not be necessary for you if
you're only driving your rig on the trail. Going slow over rocks
does not allow a lot of the steering problems to manifest themselves
in a way that becomes a problem. Driving on the freeway is unsafe
in my opinion unless you solve the problems of bump steer and
wobble created by lifting.
2) Steering
issues:
My Laredo with power steering now had a bad
case of Bump Steer which essentially means that because
of the lift, the steering linkage geometry was changed in such
a way as to cause vertical wheel movement (as in hitting a bump)
to push or pull the draglink travel farther than normal thus
pushing or pulling the steering box gears and your steering wheel
one way or the other. This is disconcerting at freeway speeds.
I did 4 things to solve this problem completely.
2a)
I bought a dropped pittman arm which attaches to the steering
box to lessen the angle between it and where the drag link attaches
to the wheel hub.
2b)
I had a shop do what is called a "reverse taper" which
moves the drag-link point of attchment on the wheel hub from
the bottom (stock) to the top of the wheel hub. This also lessens
the angle of the drag link & therefore reduces bump steer
by quite a lot.
2c)
The stock steering linkages are effectively junk. They are so
weak that you can bend them yourself easily. Lay on your back
in front of your jeep and put your foot on the drag link or tie
rod. Push and they will bend easily. They bend when you hit a
bump. They bend when you turn the steering wheel, they are flexible.
Perhaps there is a reason for this! My opinion is that you don't
want flexible steering linkages! Think "wobble" and
"play". I had this solved by swapping the stock linkages
with chromoly or Chrome Alloy. This stuff does NOT
bend.
2d)
Lastly, I bought a steering
brace which clamps around the steering box and over to the
frame. This stabilizes the steering box nicely. There are a lot
of forces causing the steering box to move and you don't want
it moving. The stock configuration is not stiff enouogh in my
view.
3) Running
Gear, axles and lockers.
3a)
It was suggested that I lower the stock gears to 4:10. Rubicon
rock crawling depends on going s-l-o-w-l-y while making sure
your engine has enough throttle to keep it running. This requires
a lower "low" gear than the stock T-5 tranny provides.
Once you go to 4:10 gears The stock 258 engine has plenty of
torque and you'll find you'll be at about idle over a bunch of
the tough stuff. While on my first trip with the Jamboree, I
learned that starting and stopping is done without touching the
clutch. Just leave your rig in low and turn your key on or off.
Doing this reduces wear and tear on the clutch and the engine
has no problem starting while engaged in low gear.
3b)
It was suggested that I swap out the stock rear flanged axles
to solid axles, which are stronger.
3c) It
was suggested that I add lockers to the differentials. Lockers "lock"
the right and left axles together rather than allow them to do
what they normally do, which is distribute power to the wheel
with the least traction (outer wheel in a turn). Without lockers,
the wheel that needs power most, will get none. The wheel that
is trying to go over a rock will get no torque while the other
wheel that's in the mud or on a slickrock will spin and spin
and spin. You will be stuck. Some kind of differential lockers
are necessary on the Rubicon or you'll be a weenie winchee. (opposite
of wincher) I had an ARB air-locker installed in the rear and a Powerlock
centrifugal locker installed in front. I'm not sure if the Powerlock
brand is still available I couldn't find a website or relavant
web links.
4) Body armor: All I did was
Rocker-panel protection. I bought a pair of raw rocker-panels
and had a friend, who was a metal sculptor, interpret a design
I had in mind where the upper edge was sculpted to look like
a mountain range. Here's more information on them
as well as pictures of the finished Jeep.
I purchased a hi-lift jack but never used it. I think it's
good insurance though.
Who did the work?
All steering work was done by Bucky Ray.
O & R 4 Wheel Drive Center
10076 Cedar Ave Bloomington, CA 92316 (909) 877-5045
Suspension, gears and axle work was done by 4 Wheel Parts
Warehouse in Burbank, CA:
4 WHEEL PARTS
825 N. VICTORY BLVD BURBANK,
CA 91502 (818) 840-8090
So! To re-cap:
* 4" lift, 33" tires,
lockers, heavy-duty shackles, solid rear axles, lower gears,
rocker-panel protection and for me, serious steering linkage
upgrades. That's it!
Here's what
I did not do:
* Swap out the stock transmission with a T-18
or NV4500. I was interested in the T-18 because
it's beefier and has a lower first gear, the NV4500 because it's
beefier, has a lower first gear and has an overdrive to save
gas on the freeway. I was nervous about running with the stock
T-5
tranny but I had no problems on any of the many Rubicon Trail,
Big Bear and Panamint Valley runs I did.
* Install an ARB on the front end. I did this
for the rear and if I had it to do over I would equip the front
end with one as well. I just love being able to push that button
to engage the locker at will.
* Buy
a winch. I figured I would later but that I had no intention
of running any trips alone and that there would be winches-a-plenty
on other trip vehicles. A weenie position? Perhaps. Besides!
I already had a wench and was not sure I needed a winch and a
wench. (I crack myself up!)
* Buy an onboard welder.
* Buy any body armor or skid plates beyond
the Rocker
panels. I did remove the stock cosmetic rocker-panels and
jeep steps. My rig had no differential or transmission / transfer
case skid plates nor a gas tank protector. I had no trouble not
having them.
There's a lot of good 4x4 glossary / definition
/ explanation / how and why 4x stuff works information here.
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