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a Little On The Side - slot In Truss - Photo 38592218

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  • The truss also allows for wheelbase adjustment thanks to the slot in the truss and the weld-on spring cup. Since we are planning on lowering the Jeep in the future, to better allow the axle to clear our exhaust that wraps around the front of the oil pan, and to keep the tires out of the back of the wheel openings, we opted to push the front axle forward the full available 11⁄2 inches.
The truss also allows for wheelbase adjustment thanks to the slot in the truss and the weld-on spring cup. Since we are planning on lowering the Jeep in the future, to better allow the axle to clear our exhaust that wraps around the front of the oil pan, and to keep the tires out of the back of the wheel openings, we opted to push the front axle forward the full available 11⁄2 inches.
We went with 4.56 gears to match the rear and got a complete master install kit and rebuild kit from Randy’s Ring and Pinion to replace the hammered stock bearings and seals. We also went with Yukon’s new air-actuated Zip Locker so that we could still use 4WD on-road when the going got slippery. The Yukon gear is drilled and tapped for two bolt sizes and the setup kit included the smaller bolts, but the Zip Locker was drilled-out for the larger bolts. These bolts can be hard to find locally, but fortunately Off Road Evolution had some on-hand to keep the install moving smoothly. Here is the beauty of the T&T truss. Unlike other setups that require you to pull your existing axle and take the Jeep off the road, T&T’s instructions walk you right through how to set everything up without the Jeep even being near the axle. Simply put the inner C at 5 degrees of negative caster, and then set the truss on the axle at 0 degrees. Tack weld the truss, double check your measurements, and burn it home. Alternate welding from side to side, allowing the welds to cool or you might warp your axle assembly with the heat. The truss also allows for wheelbase adjustment thanks to the slot in the truss and the weld-on spring cup. Since we are planning on lowering the Jeep in the future, to better allow the axle to clear our exhaust that wraps around the front of the oil pan, and to keep the tires out of the back of the wheel openings, we opted to push the front axle forward the full available 11⁄2 inches. We’ve got nothing against cutting metal, but when we came across the part in the instructions that called for removal of 23⁄8 inches of the cast pumpkin we got squeamish. The amount that needed removal happened to be exactly where the factory cast-in spring perch was and that perch was in the way of where the new lower control arm mount needed to be. The angle makes it look worse than it is, there is still a lot of cast material there and T&T assures us the truss will more than make up for anything that was removed. The truss fits the inner C well, but we had to trim just a bit to clear the center of the pumpkin for the best fitment. Ball joints don’t last long under our Jeeps thanks to bigger tires and off-road abuse. The factory-spec joints “feature” a nylon liner that dies with the first hint of dirt or abuse. These Synergy joints feature a sintered metal bearing race instead of the nylon and also have a larger-than-stock ball. Both features allow it to take more abuse. Also, the seal is made from wear-and-tear resistant polyurethane and is held in place by a stainless steel spring seal retainer, plus the lower ball joint is greasable, unlike any other factory-spec one we’ve seen. All told, these ball joints should last us much longer than any other one we’ve run in this Jeep before. T&T Customs also offers heavy-duty steering linkage for this conversion in the form of pre-cut and pre-tapped 1.25-inch, 0.250-inch wall DOM tubing. It replaces the factory setup with an inverted “T” setup for no toe-in changes as the suspension cycles to help avoid death wobble. The company no longer offers the one-ton Chevy tie rod ends, however, so we sourced new Moog ends from RockAuto. Notice the different shape of the tie rod end heads. The upper one in the picture can provide more angularity before binding than the one on the bottom and needs to be installed in the drag link to avoid clearance problems. If you try to push the front axle this far forward with the stock steering linkage you will end up with interference. Once the 3⁄8-inch-thick swaybar mount and 3⁄16-inch-thick gusset is welded in, our attention turned to the lower shock mount. The shock mount is also behind the axle protected by the axletube, but you might have to add spacers to keep the shock vertical, depending on how much you moved your axle forward. Off Road Evolution welded-in the 1-inch spacer and we ended up adding the 1⁄2-inch spacer as well when we installed the axle. While we didn’t notice it in the instructions, it would appear that the shock mount was intended to be welded to the lower control arm mount for added strength so that too was done at this time. Once we got the axle under the Jeep, we realized that the track bar would never work with the axle pushed forward. Our modified track bar hit the pumpkin and the frame-side mount was over the axle. Fortunately, on the XJ/MJ, the bracket is bolted-on and thus easy to replace. We used an off-the shelf T&T Customs track bar that was designed for this application. Shown are the old heavy-duty track bar bracket and the new heavy-duty T&T Customs track bar relocation bracket. You are looking at them from the inside with the old one on the left and the new one on the right.
The Wagoneer axle came from the factory with a six-lug pattern common to Jeep, Chevy, and Toyotas. We didn’t have any six-lug wheels lying around and we wanted to keep our bolt pattern more Jeep-like so that if we ever have an emergency one of our Jeep buddies might be able to help. Fortunately, T&T had this one figured out too. All the old Dana 44 knuckles are interchangeable. So we used a spindle from a ’74-’76 Chevy, Jeep, or Dodge along with a 5-on-5.5 bolt pattern Ford hub and the Wagoneer brake stuff. However, we had problems finding the right stuff in the junkyard. Fortunately, Randy’s had the spindle in stock and RockAuto had the hub. It is easy to tell what spindle you need by looking for two things. First, look for that six-bolt pattern at the knuckle. Then, look at the id of the inner bearing. The early stuff comes in at about 1.780-inch but the later stuff that is more prevalent has an id of about 21⁄4 inches. Ford never went to the larger inner bearing so any Ford hub from 1976 until the end of the TTB front Dana 44 in the ’90s should work. With the five-lug stuff all bolted up our axle came in just a bit wider than stock at 611⁄4 inches. We swapped the axle into the Jeep on a weekend, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that our existing front driveshaft was long enough. We knew that the snout on the Dana 44 was about 11⁄2 inches longer than that of the Dana 30 it replaced, but we also went from a high-pinion Dana 30 to a low-pinion Dana 44. We adjusted the caster of the axle until the coil springs were straight and we had about 5 degrees of positive caster. At 6 inches of lift, that left us with a slightly undesirable driveshaft angle. We have a vibration when the front hubs are locked in around 50-55mph but we are planning on lowering the Jeep by at least 2 inches so for now, we unlock the hubs between trails if we have to get back on the road. We had adjustable control arms on this Jeep, but when we tried to dial them out for the 11⁄2-inch increase, we were left with too little thread in the arms. So Off Road Evolution made us a set of lower control arms out of its 0.281-wall DOM tubing and Currie Johnny Joints. We had them make the new links 11⁄2 inches longer than what we had, but with the T&T truss, the lower control arm bracket is rotated back so it is flush with the bottom of the axletube. That’s cool because it will make the lower control arm bracket that much less likely to get hung up. However, even with the same control arm length, the new lower control arm mount location would move the axle 5⁄8-inch forward. In total, we ended up moving the axle forward 23⁄8 inches when you include the diameter of the larger axletube.
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