Really don't stress the two peice shaft. Really spool or weld the front and use it like a cable actuated locker.
What's you concern with low pinion?
The stock shafts will go before a ring/pinion.
Driveline angle? Clearance?

 

If I use the axle I will either buy a one piece shaft and get a selectable locker or get a cable actuated locker for the 2 piece shaft and weld the spiders. The lowpinion bothers me because if I'm gonna go through all this work do I really want to have a LP axle that's gonna get hung up on things and maybe busted,and or have to deal with ****ty driveline angles. I'm not worried about the strength of the R&P.

 

driveline angle won't be too bad. you can rotate the pinion up and it will help clear the pinion. The nice thing about a 60 is that the pinion snout is a lot longer than a d30 so a little bit of pinion angle gives you a lot more clearance: think about it.

 

Okay well its time to update... Quite a bit has happened in the last little while... Enjoy

So this is my little 90 amp Harbor freight welder i have been using for a couple months. Its not bad, it welds really good, but penetration is not the greatest obviously.


So..................... I went and bought this- Lincoln powermig 180, 240 volt


Started welding the tubes on the sterling, little welder did pretty good- no cracking- pre and post heated with a torch. 4th time doing this and i have yet to have a weld crack, its really not as hard as people make it out to be. Just be sure to heat it up pretty good before you weld, then heat it again immediately after welding to let the cast iron and steel cool at the same rate


Built my truss




Beveled every edge to help get better penetration during welding.

My amazing mock up/jig haha



Made some cutouts out of 1/4" plate to go on the outside of the truss to reinforce it a bit. Oh and the truss is made out of 3"x3/16 channel iron

 

Well i knew i would need another plasma to make my own brackets like i did on my 8.8. So..... another big purchase, Harbor freight plasma cutter


I am really impressed by it, i have only used an ESAB before and this is MUCH better. cuts really smooth and fast, blows through 3/8" with ease.

Well now i have a 240 volt welder and plasma cutter but no 240 volt outlet in my garage. I am a cheap bastard so i wasnt gonna have an electrician come do it so... i googled it and decided to do it myself-
I DO NOT ENCOURAGE ANYONE TO DO THIS, IT IS DANGEROUS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
that aside, here is how i did it
I tapped into the hottub powerbox, used 8 Gauge wire. turned off the power before i touched anything.
Before


My wiring, notice the black wire harness coming in from the corner


Ran the wire along the back of the house mounted up under the deck, about 69FT of wire in total.
Plug

Its simple no explaining needed...

Well no that i had 240 volt, it was time to try out the new welder... so i built a cart for it and the plasma...
notice i forgot to make a holder for the cords and such haha... oh well i will do that later.
The start


The paint


My backyard is scenic aint it?
The finished product


It works great, i love the plasma and the welder, highly recommend both.
Cart costed me a total of 19 bucks including paint

 

I finally got my ballistic stuff ( about 3 weeks after i purchased it) very disappointed in their customer service, i called 4 times and got put on hold, hung up on, and ignored. Very ****ty service for sure. BUT their products are top of the line, very good quality. These brackets are BEEF. Sadly i ordered them before my plasma cutter purchase
Oh well the front ones i can still make
Got brackets?


Bought some 12 ton jackstands from HF, they are really nice and high enough to hold my jeep up by the frame ha this picture they are about 3/5 as high as they go


8.8 had to come out

Bye bye



For ****s and giggles


Acos spacers removed


Then the real fun began... I knew i would need to brace the frame to handle the one tons, it was already cracked bad up front and the rear where the bumper mounts had cracks all over. Decided if it was worth doing, then it was worth doing good. Before




Then the plasma cutter started to show its true colors
By the way thats my buddy hammerin away, he learned how to use the plasma... maybe that was a bad idea haha- you'll find out why later



I will be doing a comp cut as well later on
Stripped thebrackets off the rear portion of the frame rails, except the shock bolt-havent decided if im gonna use it or not



Had to patch this hole where the fuel nozzle used to be




Well while stripping the brackets, the plasma decided it didnt like my jeep... I told justin (my buddy) where to cut... needless to say the plasma had planned a vendetta against my jeep.
I was on the opposite side of the jeep grinding down the framerail when i heard- "fire, fire, fire, zach, zach, zach!! fire!"
It took a minute to realize what he was saying, i stood up and said "what" not realizing the gravity of the situation. there were flames in my backseat about midway between the top of the seats and the headliner, justin was swinging his welding gloves wildly trying to put the fire out. I ran over and got jugs of water and started pouring it out on the fire. It went out about as quick as it started. Dam those seats burn fast ha, turns out he had burned a hole in the floor which caught the carpet on fire, which caught the seat on fire. Here is the after math...


Made justin pose next to the scene of the accident


Luckily the actual SEAT was leaned forward so it only caught the one half of the backing on fire... and the carpet. but hey it could have been MUCH worse, and besides i made justin pay me back- with pizza


MMMMM it was good to. i can pick up a new seat at the junkyard, maybe i will swap in all leather seats... but for now... rear interior had to come out so nothing else could decide to "get hot in the backseat"


So then i started on the frame stiffeners
Used 4"x3"x.25" angle


Made templates out of cardboard, since there is quite a few bends in the rear frame i couldnt use one piece. So i made sections and will weld them all together in the end, they will also tie in to the bumpers, cage, sliders, etc. They are beef!


Each side cutout ready to be put in place, holes were sized using the inside diameter of a role of electrical tape. they will give me more surface to weld them to the frame.


Look at this tinfoil holding your jeep together


Now-


So now to address the crossmember, i wanted to "box" the frame in and also have a solid point to build a bumper off.
I used 4"x.25" channel iron


Here it is


How it ties in to the frame...



I will of course add gussets and what not to strengthen it more, but the way i cut it around the frame i thing it will be pretty sturdy.
Got brackets?


Notice how it all ties together, it will continue all the way to the front once im done and i will be doing the same crossmember setup with the front as well...unless i change my mind ha


Rear portion of frame stiffeners about done... I will add 1/4" plate in gaps, all will be welded together solid.


Well thats about it for now, working 6 days a week i hardly have time to get anything done. I know i left some stuff out, but im tired and have to get up at 4 in the morning for work so thats it for tonight. Let me know what you guys think, feel free to leave your input on how i can make anything better or ask questions on how something was done!

 

Very entertaining! Enjoying the fab! Neat to see you are talking up a HF product.

 

Very nice work! You've been hella busy!

 

I buy alot of HF stuff and haven't had problems with anything yet,I always buy the warranty tho!

 

Ha,not busy enough! Hopefully my schedule changes so I have a couple days off each week, then **** will really hit the fan

 

lol glad you bought a fire extinguisher. def mount tat up in your rig

 

The beast is coming together (or apart) nicely! what did that plasma run you zach?

 

I have always had that in my jeep ha, I will be putting at least two back in when its finished

 

Thanks Ryan! It details for 900$ but I bought on labor day, I'm part of there members club thing,and I had a 20% off discount- plasma itself was about 420$, with the 2 year replacement plan it costed about 530$ out the door. Hella good deal I had to get it!

 

Hell ya that's not bad at all! I got my lil hf 90amp for like 75ish bucks, but ya she doesn't love the thick stuff. Thus my 220 arc!