14 Bolt disc brake conversion

The drum brake to disc brake conversion is really simple on 14 bolts. Sky-Manufacturing makes a bolt on disc brake bracket for the conversion. I choose Sky in particular because they design their bracket to not use the bolt spacers that many other companies use, instead Sky actually bends their bracket correctly for the right depth. The rotors, calipers, pads and hardware are from the front of a 1976 Chevy K2500. Disc brakes are really nice instead of drum brakes because they self clean and are easy to maintain. Servicing the drum brakes on a 14 bolt requires a lot of removal and is ultimately a waste of time. Anytime the rig goes through mud the drum brakes would need to be cleaned. With disc brakes service is very easy and there is little to no need to clean them, except on the extreme occasion. The whole swap is very simple to do, removing the drum brakes is the hardest part. Overall I probably spent around $200-300 on this conversion several years ago.

Tour De Rocks

These are some pictures from Tour De Rocks (TDR) in Washington, NH. TDR is a wheeling event that challenges the competitors to journey through a variety of different trails, each worth varying amounts of points each. The event is timed and the team that scores the highest within the shortest time wins. Needless to say my brother and I did not win, we were surprised we even made it there! We had spent the previous night finishing up many of the individual parts of the Jeep just so we could get it running and functioning. The tires were borrowed from a friend and the motor was on borrowed time (bad rod bearing). We actually completed quite a few trails before we blew a front u-joint and had to be towed out. In the process of getting towed both front springs were broken. The Unimog almost flipped over trying to get us out.

Some disassembly required...

This is the 1985 Chevy K30 truck we cannibalized my 1 ton axles from. Sometimes things don't come apart as easily as you think they are going to. There was only 1 cab mount still holding on this beast and we ended up flipping the whole truck over trying to pull the cab off. Why yank the cab you ask? Well we didn't want to torch the cab mount because it was literally right on top of the gas tank. The reason for pulling the truck apart here was because the tow dolly we had was so small that the weight of the full size truck was killing it. We had 60+ PSI in the tires and they were still buckling under the weight, not to mention they were getting very hot! After all the work of tearing the truck apart we managed to get it home in one piece so we could begin the swap into my Jeep!

In a world of gray...

Jeeps can be colorful too!

And the focus of the picture is!

Hooray for welders...

Two summers ago my brother David and I purchased a Millermatic 251 220V 1 phase welder from Merriam & Graves in Vermont.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/replacement_guide/pdf/DC12-49.pdf

I have to say so far I am in love with the welder. At the moment the only issue we have had with it is the wire speed knob which was a problem from the start, it needs to be taken in to get serviced. Luckily the unit has a 3 year warranty.

The welder has been great. Any friends that have stopped by and tested it out have expressed their approval. It has been used on numerous projects so far and we are planning to use it on many more. Unfortunately at the moment my brother and I are without a good location to power and use the welder, we are hoping to change that this Spring by building a large fabrication shop that we can finally make use of some of our tools in. I'm looking forward to using the welder more often, it's something I have always been interested in doing.

4 Linking Frenzy

4 linking the front of my Jeep was an interesting experience, especially on my budget. This was the first one we have done, and I still haven't had a chance to finish it. The major things I need to accomplish now to complete the project is to finish welding plates to the frame, possibly remount the coil overs to account for the springs that were stiffer than anticipated, build a front driveshaft and probably a million other things I am missing.

The old leaf spring setup being removed.


Mocking up the axle and control arms. The best way to build the 4 link is at maximum compression, basically have the axle at the highest point it will be. By doing this you can help minimize clearance problems later down the road.


Next we tack welded some brackets on the axle so we could cycle the suspension and test the clearances. The overall goal here was to stretch the front end out about 7-8 inches and lower the front of the Jeep about 4-5 inches. The reason for lowering the Jeep is because it was too high and I want to run 42 inch tires on the road eventually.


Next we started finish welding the brackets onto the axle. This required a considerable amount of heating to bring the axle up to temperature. The axle center section is cast which is dissimilar to what we are welding to it. Heating the welding surface helps the weld penetrate deeper and creates an overall stronger weld. We also peened all the welds to relieve stress between the two metals. After all the welds were completed we wrapped the axle in a blanket to help it cool slowly.


My bro' lays down some seriously nice beads, roll of dimes anyone?


Testing out the flex on the Jeep... starting to look really nice!


Had to notch the frame pretty crazily to fit my coil overs. This area will get some more plates in the near future before the Jeep is put into use.


Here the coil over is with the dual rate setup, the heavy rate spring didn't work because it was simply too stiff. I ended up going with another setup but the Jeep is still too tall so I will have the move the coil over mounting points sometime.


Sitting level, we had to use a pillow block and dual steering rods to clear the coil over hoops. It actually turned out very nicely. We tucked the steering box up in the frame, moved it forwards and leveled it.


And here is the final photo to give you an idea of how much the front end was lowered. When we first started the front end was slightly higher than the rear.

People who grind my gears...

I really dislike when individuals post trash like this...

http://www.counterpunch.org/wuerthner01242008.html

I have a problem with people classifying all 4x4 enthusiasts as "moronic" environmental abusers. I pride myself on leaving my surroundings cleaner than when I arrived. "Tread Lightly" is a common term used with responsible wheelers. This means minimizing your impact on the environment you are venturing across.

http://www.treadlightly.org/

I always pick up trash on trails, even if it is not mine. I actively try to reduce wheel spin to prevent erosion. Claiming that 4x4 enthusiasts destroy the environment is simply not true.

What makes the whole 4x4 vs. environmentalist issue even more ironic is the environmentalists themselves. There are a select few environmentalists who practice the extremes of the mentality and live in harmony with nature, I can really respect that. However, many environmentalists I have encountered are just like your normal everyday person. They live in houses, drive vehicles to work each day, heat their homes during the winter and participate in recreational activities.

So let's break this down, the environmentalists use petroleum in their vehicles just like us wheelers. They drive on roads that run through forests. They live in houses made of wood and heat them with....oh wait....petroleum products. They go hiking....yes that impacts the environment. Do you see a pattern here?

Their houses? Well there were probably trees in that lot before it was cleared. What was used to clear the lot? Well that would be petroleum consuming construction equipment. Cities, the amazing concrete jungles...I don't hear people screaming how terrible they are.

If you haven't gotten the point of this article by now, it is quite simple. If you think you can go around closing trails and spewing forth your anti-4x4 trash then you can go pound sand. While you are doing that we will help your cause by destroying your car, burning your house down and ripping up your roads.

Thanks, and remember to Tread Lightly!

Welcome!

This is my first blog post, so I figured I would share a few images of my current rig. It has been a work in progress for several years. The Jeep is completely funded by me through part time jobs and buying and selling car/parts. I haven't been able to wheel as much as I would like because I spend so much time upgrading parts and changing the way things are setup. The Jeep was nicknamed "Black Betty" after the Ram Jam song. It is a 1988 Wrangler (YJ). As it sits now it has a Jeep straight six 258 (4.2L) bored .030 over with a Jeep HO 4.0 head and MPFI (multi-port fuel injection). The transmission is a Torque-Flite TF999 from a 92' YJ and is mated to a Dana D300 transfercase with an Advanced Adapters clocking ring. The axles are from a 1985 Chevy K3500 1 ton truck. The front is a Dana 60 the rear is a Corporate 14 Bolt w/ disc brake conversion. The front is 4 linked with Sway-A-Way 2.0 x 16" coilovers (SAW). The tires are 38 x 12.5 x 16.5R Interco Super Swamper TSL SX's on H1 Hummer rims with inner/outer beadlocks. I will go into more of the details on Black Betty in future posts.