vassil
20+ Year Contributor
- 82
- 0
- May 22, 2002
-
Winona,
Minnesota
Hi Guys,
For the last couple of weeks when I have spare time I have been playing around in my garage trying to fab up a front k-member and tubular control arms for my 1G. So I finally have something that looks like one and I figured I'd share the progress. It has been a royal pain in the butt and it required a lot of experimentation. It's almost done but still needs a few tweaks. I need to fab mounts for the steering rack and add a few more points to the jig and weld it all together. For now it is mostly tacked in place.
So on to the unit itself. It is made out of a combination of 1.625" & 1.25" 4130 chromoly with 0.083 wall. The front part of the control arm has 3/4" heim joints with 24,471 Pounds of static load capacity. The balljoint is from AFCO (same one used in making the rear upper control arms to correct the camber). The rear portion of the control arm is a swedge tube with a 5/8 heim joint and a clevis. The static load capacity of that one is 9713 Pounds. The wall of the tubing used on the control arms is 0.095. The rear motor mount is an energy poly bushing to make things less painful in terms of vibration.
I haven't made the steering mounts yet, but I test fitted the rack and it fits easily. There is even room for the power rack, although I am not planning on using it. Right now I don't have provisions for the sway bar either, but I will eventually add that option too. Depending on time and ambition I might even try to figure out a way to throw a NASCAR style swaybar in it, but that's down the road.
I am planning to make a driveshaft loop once it is all done and have some way to remove it, so removing the transfer case and exhaust doesn't turn into a total disaster. More than likely I will use some sort of beefy pins or something of that sort.
On the weight department (with control arms and all), it weighs roughly 27lbs and the stock one weighs around 61 lbs, so it is a decent amount of savings. If you add the north/south bars and the front crossmember you will probably loose around 50lbs over stock, plus all the power steering stuff (pump, line, belts, etc).
The reason for me posting this in an almost finished form is suggestions, ideas and criticism. I am also curious if there is any interest in people buying this. If so, what would you think is a fair price?
Here are some pics:
For the last couple of weeks when I have spare time I have been playing around in my garage trying to fab up a front k-member and tubular control arms for my 1G. So I finally have something that looks like one and I figured I'd share the progress. It has been a royal pain in the butt and it required a lot of experimentation. It's almost done but still needs a few tweaks. I need to fab mounts for the steering rack and add a few more points to the jig and weld it all together. For now it is mostly tacked in place.
So on to the unit itself. It is made out of a combination of 1.625" & 1.25" 4130 chromoly with 0.083 wall. The front part of the control arm has 3/4" heim joints with 24,471 Pounds of static load capacity. The balljoint is from AFCO (same one used in making the rear upper control arms to correct the camber). The rear portion of the control arm is a swedge tube with a 5/8 heim joint and a clevis. The static load capacity of that one is 9713 Pounds. The wall of the tubing used on the control arms is 0.095. The rear motor mount is an energy poly bushing to make things less painful in terms of vibration.
I haven't made the steering mounts yet, but I test fitted the rack and it fits easily. There is even room for the power rack, although I am not planning on using it. Right now I don't have provisions for the sway bar either, but I will eventually add that option too. Depending on time and ambition I might even try to figure out a way to throw a NASCAR style swaybar in it, but that's down the road.
I am planning to make a driveshaft loop once it is all done and have some way to remove it, so removing the transfer case and exhaust doesn't turn into a total disaster. More than likely I will use some sort of beefy pins or something of that sort.
On the weight department (with control arms and all), it weighs roughly 27lbs and the stock one weighs around 61 lbs, so it is a decent amount of savings. If you add the north/south bars and the front crossmember you will probably loose around 50lbs over stock, plus all the power steering stuff (pump, line, belts, etc).
The reason for me posting this in an almost finished form is suggestions, ideas and criticism. I am also curious if there is any interest in people buying this. If so, what would you think is a fair price?
Here are some pics:
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. And you seem to know alot more about that kind of building then i do . Can you let me know how much you would be trying to sell these for. And also would be cool if you had some kind of drawing blue print type thing so you could sell the parts to someone to build . What made you do adjustable control arms ? Again great work !
Also I still do make the crossmembers. You can get one anytime you want 
