New Jimny project - a few questions!

Sorry to hear it lagging, mine is the same. All work no play right now.
And Rockwatt was telling me about the twin box set up, may be worth getting in touch with him.
I have just received my trailgear kit 6.5:1 but have also ordered a 14 bolt cradle from low range offroad....take a peek.
only been waiting 4 weeks already....lol.
Will be in touch to pop down in the next week or so if cool....
cheers again

Bit of an update!

The front axle is now about a days work away from being attached. Originally, I planned to build a 'Cross Link' setup as described earlier - but after a lot of CAD drawing and stress analysis it appeared that the front radius arms (Hockey Sticks in Land Rover parlance) needed to be so thick that they would hang under the axle lower than the bottom of the diff if they were to be strong enough - so back to the drawing board!

I've gone back to how I originally intended to make it, with a 'Single link' or 'Inverted A frame' setup where an A frame is attached to the axle and the apex of the A connects via a single joint to the gearbox cross member (beefed up a bit!).


This is the new gearbox cross member which attaches to the original suspension mounts.



The cross member with the other half of the joint and the boss to which the tubes will weld.


Bend some tube. The one which will go on the right needs a couple of extra bends as it has to pass over the prop shaft. The tube is 6mm wall CDS - and right on the limit of what my bender would bend, so fairly strong. Once it's finished, I'll reinforce the bends a bit with external gussets.


Tack the tubes in place


Then weld it properly. You will notice that at the moment it only has an eye for one axle bush. This is because I need to offer it up, set the castor angle of the axle then weld the second bush eye in place.

Hopefully this will give me the full 14" travel of the shocks on the front and rear. I have moved the front axle 110mm further forward to provide clearance for the tyres.

I need to find a steering box from a Toyota LJ70 which apparently will bolt into the same holes as the jimny standard - but the pitman arm points towards the front which makes routing the steering rod rather easier! If you happen to know of one - drop me a line! Dont care if its manual or power as I have other plans for the power assist!

Si

There you go simon if he still has it.
linky
But they are not a direct bolt on ! You need to redrill and sleeve the chassis.

I'm not being picky but I think you need to beef the A frame a bit ! Mines shed 80 CDS twin tube laddered and I've still managed to bow it slightly.

Cheers for the link, ive PM'd them with an offer he hopefully wont refuse!

Agree about A frame - but ive barely started on it yet! More welding tomorrow!

Si

Si have you changed to spec/design of the joint since Nick's 1-linked Vitara?... As I seem to remember seeing him driving/dragging himself back to the camp whilst giving his back axle a piggy back

RB

The joints were never intended for this application. In a trailing link, all the forces are longitudinal and for that, the joint has a safety factor of 6x

The reason the ball bit of the joint failed on Nick's truck was two fold. The movement of the axle causes the ball to un-screw from the boss in the end of the A frame. On the front axle it causes it to screw in. On Nicks, the ball started to unscrew and the sideways loading caused the ball to fatigue and snap. Had it stayed screwed in, it would probably have been OK, but there was just too much leverage.

For the next event, he tack welded the lock nut in place which stopped it being able to unscrew.

For mine, I've had a special ball made in EN24 instead of EN8 steel as well as adding a taper to the ball shaft making it thickest where the forces are greatest (about 35mm) and it is tack welded to the boss - so in this case it should be OK.

I have had a few balls made to the same spec for other people wanting to use the same setup.

Another viable option is to make a lock nut with a tapered sleeve which covers the shaft of the ball as it comes out of the joint. This would be very easy to machine and would relieve the stress concentration at the lock nut.

Si