Mac's YJ build with tons and 42's.

Bebop said:
Why not swap to COM10 rod ends instead ?
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Cost and my application.

It costs me relatively nothing to draw and cut this stuff out.

Meaning they fit in the scrap areas of sheets I have.

Changing out the lower eyes on the front lowers only is $450.

Ideally this would all be 2.5+ diameter stuff but overkill for my application and usage, and this would be a non issue.

All of my parts were purchased as deals way less than retail, some stuff used.

I don’t like the idea of $450 solution compared to a $2.45 solution, for what the problem is.
 
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When I’m assembling stuff like this, I use spacers that are .010” -.015” bigger than the final product installed.

This gives me enough room that parts install easily and you don’t fight paint/powder after the fact and the bolt can actually clamp down.

Some heims and cartridge joints that are advertised as 2.63” or 2.625” are made to 2.62” width, some are 2.635” some are 2.64.

The black mark on the aluminum spacers denotes the wide side (+ .003-.005) which is about all I can get out of my HF band saw squareness. This means I always put the long side towards the bracket opening.

I use a bolt to align all the tabs, and the spacer to keep everything held square and the correct width.

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The same nuts I welded to the inside of the bottom plate ( for attaching the skid plate),
I use to help hold the assembly together.

The design itself is a pita to get all the pieces in the slots at once, but not terrible. But the alignment of the different tabs at different angles holds everything square-ish and straight-ish.

The aluminum .250” wall spacers are still in there holding the main reason for the crossmember square, straight, and parallel.

Fwiw, I use .250” wide slots for .188” material and .062” end clearances. This gives me enough room to adjust everything to where I want it, but not so tight that assembly sucks. ( cleaning slots and tabs with a file for corner interference clearances)
 
After welding everything up, I couldn’t get my fancy pants spacers out of the brackets. Just too tight.

Put bracket assembly in the freezer overnight as I needed to grind some more on the frame.

Today after lunch pulled it out of freezer and was able to knock the spacers out with a brass punch, and started measuring.

Heims are 2.632-2.635” wide installed height.

My aluminum spacers are 2.645-2.650” wide @ room temp, and shrunk to 2.350-2.640” frozen.

The ID of the brackets once spacers were out came out to 2.635”.

This is my fault for putting the top plate on the assembly last.

Trying to be all overkill and weld some with top on and off and checking fitment etc.

I should have just welded the top and bottom on first then gone back and welded interior afterward.

I think not only the shrinking from cold helped removal, but the frost helped lube removal. My heart sunk yesterday when they were stuck stuck…..

A little work with the HF dynafile, and back to good.

Opening in brackets tapers from .015” clearance to .005” @ the bolt hole to make installation easier.

Want to post this for the sake of laughs and full transparency. Gotta post the good with the bad/stupid. 🤣

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Mac5005 said:
After welding everything up, I couldn’t get my fancy pants spacers out of the brackets. Just too tight.

Put bracket assembly in the freezer overnight as I needed to grind some more on the frame.

Today after lunch pulled it out of freezer and was able to knock the spacers out with a brass punch, and started measuring.

Heims are 2.632-2.635” wide installed height.

My aluminum spacers are 2.645-2.650” wide @ room temp, and shrunk to 2.350-2.640” frozen.

The ID of the brackets once spacers were out came out to 2.635”.

This is my fault for putting the top plate on the assembly last.

Trying to be all overkill and weld some with top on and off and checking fitment etc.

I should have just welded the top and bottom on first then gone back and welded interior afterward.

I think not only the shrinking from cold helped removal, but the frost helped lube removal. My heart sunk yesterday when they were stuck stuck…..

A little work with the HF dynafile, and back to good.

Opening in brackets tapers from .015” clearance to .005” @ the bolt hole to make installation easier.

Want to post this for the sake of laughs and full transparency. Gotta post the good with the bad/stupid. 🤣

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Click to expand...


Shoot I’ve done this same thing more than I can count and even messed some up with spacers installed that were intentionally oversized. Shit happens but nothing a little grinding couldn’t fix. In the end, no one will see it and only you will know when looking at the finished product.

Good work so far man!
 
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