Originally Posted by hudfabxj

my last truss was similar.....I bolted on the cover, truss extension, and went to town welding i up. Mine bolted to the truss a little different, but you get the idea.

Originally Posted by CartsXJ

Here's a shot of the back from the driver's side wheel well. Without pulling the upper control arm, its kinda hard to see. But the "bolt plate" that is welded to the diff cover is 3/8", it matches the thickness of my Blue Torch Diff cover. The vertical "plate" on the axle housing is 2" x 1/4" angle that is tapped for 1/2"-13, it is also cut and clearanced to fit the upper control arm mount. The top 3/8" plate that runs between the upper control arm mounts is welded in a couple of spots at the top of the "punkin", but are covered now by other pieces. I also welded the vertical 1/4" plate that runs between the "punkin" and passenger side upper control arm to the "punkin". The plates that fit around the upper control arm mount and down to the driver's side coil mount are 1/4". If I had to do it over again I would have spaced the top 1/2" bolts a little further apart, the farthest one to the driver side sits right at the upper control arm. So I had to cut it down and made a thin nut-plate to back up the 1/4" vertical plate, where as I used nuts on the other two as reinforcement. Also, I had to clearance the lower side of the upper control arm "fork" to clear the truss, but I was able to keep the load bearing area the same.

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Also, here's a shot of the completed front end.....well at least for now. I am not happy with the damper placement and will probably change it in the spring when I put the hydro assist in. I need to get my AGR box rebuilt and going to have them tap it, since they are going to have it all apart, so why not.

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The damper is a 7.5" stroke Napa special, basically I searched "steering damper" and when I found the one that had the right ends and stroke, I ordered it up. The eyelets are standard 5/8" bushings, I made a couple of flanged spacers to reduce them down to 1/2" and make up the 1.5" spacing of the shock mounts I got from Polyperformance. I also ordered thru Poly, a trail-gear 1.5" OD tube clamp, which is clamped onto my tie-rod.


So I took her out for her maiden voyage last night around Glenville and everything went great!!! Flexed it on a few things and the bumpstops work prefectly!!! Its hard to find a good RTI ramp around here without ruining some guy's import, LOL!!! HAHAAnyways, it goes to Midas tomorrow to get inspected, then I can renew my registration and it will be road legal again!!!

Oh ya........found out one of my front driver's seat mounts is broken, LOL!!! Always wondered why the seat leaned back, HAHA!!! Not too bad, its the actual seat mount that is right under your left thigh. At least its not the frame or floor!!! Looks like new seats are the next project!!

Thanks again for all the complements and words of encouragement!!!

Originally Posted by CartsXJ

Well I haven't hit the trails with it yet, but it was straight as an arrow down the road. Also flexed it out on a small embankment, had no issues so far. Right now the XJ is in storage for the winter and will be until the end of March. After the it will be hitting the trail as much as possible.

I've been running the WJ knuckles and steering for 3 years and would recommend it to anybody wanting bigger brakes and true cross over steering.

Originally Posted by blackjack12982

Of the options that I've looked into, this appears to be the one that I'll end up doing. I like the added benefit of the brake upgrade, and the bulletproof steering. Have you had any issues with the TRE's wearing prematurely? I've had a few guys say their Chevy one ton TRE's wear pretty quickly on the Jeeps.

Originally Posted by CartsXJ

I can't say about the GM TRE's yet. But my WJ factory TRE's lasted me 4 hard years of abuse and the draglink ones were just starting to show signs of wear. The drag-link TRE's ruffstuff specs are high-misalignment ones and I really don't see how they could wear fast on a jeep. Plus the fact that they are all serviceable (greaseable) helps. For the 1200 miles a year my jeep now averages, I doubt I'll see any wear.