I had to scratch my head a little to figure where I should connect the
links. I have it my head that I should try and keep the frame rails as
clean as possible. Why? Not a clue.
I was going to notch the center plate and come at it from the sides like
my Axial JK, but in the end settled on adding a plate as an attachment
point.
That took care of the bottom links. I picked up a couple of upper link
pins that mount in the steering linkage position on the transaxle. All
well and good but it is a no go if you want any kind of suspension
travel at all. Not to mention the body would need to sit crazy high to
accommodate the upper link system. Cutting a hole in the floor of the
Willys didn't seem like the right thing to do.
So a different location needed to be used. I also built another mounting
plate for the upper links to attach to the frame.
I think I have settled on using spacers and longer fasteners
to achieve the proper spacing to mount the links directly to the
upper transaxle. This might present a structural issue at some
point... I may build a torsion bar of some sort to do some of
the heavy lifting. OR, that may give me a reason to pick up an
aluminum housing.
Sans the shocks, the articulation is not binding and is quite free. Very
happy with that.
Checking the ride height.
I've also been tinkering with the body. Some modifications had to be
made regardless. The front and back end where the frame rails should be
to have the bumpers in the right locations.
I used a Dremel and a file for most of the work.
I decided to strip this one down and remove all of the "extras" (soft
top, shovel, axe, handles, etc.) so I ended up with a ton of holes. I
took one of the handles and diced it up to fill all of the holes in the
body; cutting them flush and sanding. For some silly idea I thought it
needed a gas cap...
I really need to assess how far to take the body work. For something
that you know will be bashing into rocks and rolling over down said
rocks, just how much time should I invest in something that will look
new just once!
I wanted to disable 4 wheel steering on this project. I have seen a
couple of different ways to lock out the steering knuckles, but I didn't
find anything that I liked.