Comanche

[skibum]

The only sound you will need to hear is the poor rocks getting smashed by those custom rock rails & bumpers

The 4.0L & AX15 are a great combo. The 231 should hold up ok. Might not want to drive it like ROCK tho. Thats a lot of heavy drive train to be turning (D60 & Sterling 10.5 W/37s).

[Flex]

So Duece came over today and we got lots of stuff done. The welds on the inner c's have been ground off ready to be heated and turned to the desired caster, also most of the brackets have been welded and assembled so im hoping tomorrow i can start tacking brackets in place then pull the axle and get the knuckles turned. Also the interior in nearly 100% complete, sry no pics of the interior.

[BlacXJeep]

a few more pics i snagged crawling around under the jeep.

[Flex]

So today we turned the inner C's and wow was this interesting, so we ended up putting the axle up on the bench and in the vice, the pinion was in a position so that when we beat on the inner C's the axle couldn't rotate due to the pinion being pushed into the bench, also we positioned a jack under the opposite ear of the inner c this aloud to keep a constant pressure on the C so that it wouldn't take as much force to turn. After everything was set up we stuffed ice inside the axle tube this would keep the tube itself from heating up and expanding when we heated the inner c, after everything was ready to go we got the oxy acetylene torch fired up, we where using a cutting nozzle size 3 this is normally used for cutting 3-6" steel however since the bottles im using don't have enough volume to be able to allow the acetylene to go from a liquid to a gas fast enough to get this big of a tip coned out and ready to cut, this fact along with a little but of extra distance aloud use to just heat the C's instead of cut them, it took about 3-4 min of heating the C's and them some hits with a 10 lb sledge and we where able to turn the C's back 10.5 degrees this will compute to 5 degrees of caster once we get the rig all together. Here's some pics to clear up the confusion.





This is the setup we tried first, the pinion was pushing down into the cart and the it was flexing way to much, the jack sledge combo worked much better

[BlacXJeep]

wow, glad you got it done, when you told me about it I was  a little skeptical.

[Flex]

Ok so lots of progress made on the Comanche, been so busy in fact that i haven't even had a chance to take some pics but tomorrow i will post some up.

[Mr Rock]

Ok so lots of progress made on the Comanche, been so busy in fact that i haven't even had a chance to take some pics but tomorrow i will post some up.

Tease!

[Flex]

So i promised pics and pictures you will get.

So the front bumper and steering box have been put in, im using the jcr box support and then the bolts also run threw the bumper so i'm really hoping that i dont have the issue that i'm having now with my jeep with all the creeks that the uni-body is doing. Also All of the brackets have been welded on the the new axle and its been bolted in i think the suspension needs a little adjusting but it shouldnt be to big of a deal. The knuckles, hubs and brakes have all been finished for the driver side but still waiting on a high steer arm for the passenger side so that the knuckle can be put together. Big things that we have left are figuring out what we are going to do for drive shafts currently the old drive shafts had the stock 1310 yokes however the rear had been lengthened by the previous owner but he thought exhaust tubing would work, so now the rear drive shafts is junk, so i need to make a decision do i get some tubing that is the correct length and weld the desired yokes onto it, this really wouldnt be to hard however im looking at about $60 in a yoke, the other option would be call tom woods. Now onto the front shaft its just the stock shaft so again the yoke is to small. However i may be able to save some money and just get a drive shaft from a truck that used a 1410 u-joint and cut the yokes off and use those this would save some money, what do u guys think?

Front bumper on down the road winch fair leads may be added with the winch in the cab.


Still waiting on a tube adapter and some hiem joint spacers so i can install the trac bar


So here you can see that the suspension needs some adjustment im thinking move the axle back about 2 inchs or so

 
After getting all the outer's together i couldnt resist throwing a tire on it, ok i know it looks the same as when i started.


And also yet another use for a high lift jack.

[Bill3753]

How are you fitting those stock H1 Beadlock wheels on the front without hitting the knuckle or tie rod?  Everything I had read so far was saying with their stock 7" offset you either needed to recenter them to an offset around 4.5-5" or use a 2" wheel spacer.

As for your drive shafts...

Are you sure your front yoke is a 1410 yoke?  I thought the Ford fronts used a 1350 joints at the yoke.

The 14 bolt rear (I think you said that is what you are using?) should be a 1350 joint as well.  You can get a crossover joint Spicer number 5-460X to allow you to use the 1310 drive shaft with a 1350 pinion yoke.  That should allow you fix your rear drive shaft and bolt it up with the switch joint.

As for your front, I would either extend it yourself or build your own with your current yokes.  Fronts don't spin constantly with lock out hubs and it just needs to be stong.  Balancing isn't as much of an issue.  I've even seen guys on pirate build then out of two pieces of square stock.  The center piece was around 1 1/4" solid square bar stock and the outer was something like 2" square tube with 3/8" wall.  The two slid right together and he was able to make it with a very long slip joint so it would never slide apart.  If I remember right the guy said he had been wheeling it that way for about 2 years with no problems.

For my build, I plan on getting a new rear shaft as I already need one anyways as I am installing a SYE at the same time.  For the front, I am going to see if the stock one will work with the conversion joint.  It might be a little long, but if it is I will shorten it myself after which I will use a conversion join there as well.

[Bill3753]

Found the pictures of that front drive shaft I was talking about.  Even if it doesn't help you, figured I would post it for others to see.

[Flex]

Dosent look like i will have an issues with the current rim backspacing but ill take another look.

As for as u-joints i was pretty sure these are 1410 but if there 1350 then ill just use a conversion u joint however ill still need to make a rear drive shaft probably out of some DOM due to the one that came installed is trash.

[Bill3753]

What diameter is the tube of the drive shaft?

You might be able to get by cheaper by using something around 1/2" or bigger wall regular non-DOM tube.  I'm sure if you went with something that heavy it would hold up fine and you'd still be cheaper then DOM.

[Flex]

So the Comanche project is nearly complete just waiting a few parts to come it. ill have pics next week hopefully while its driving down the road.

[Mr Rock]

So the Comanche project is nearly complete just waiting a few parts to come it. ill have pics next week hopefully while its driving down the road.

Sounds like a Trail Ride is needed!

[Bill3753]

So the Comanche project is nearly complete just waiting a few parts to come it. ill have pics next week hopefully while its driving down the road.

Anything new?  Where are those pictures?