free (ish) IRO-style WJ front coil retainers

[JeepWJ 0]

I've been having lots of problems with my rig dropping my IRO 3" lift springs. For a while I ran some limiting straps I had made from an old tow strap. Then I tore one out on the trail. Back to the ol' drawing board.

 

 

 

Now, I’m working on a new spring containment system. I’m basically ripping it off Iron Rock Offroad’s design (upper) (lower), and using some scrap that was left over at work. Parts made:

 

 

Upper retainers bedlined and installed:

 

 

 

 

and how it sits in the spring:

 

 

 

 

tomorrow night is a jeep club meeting, so I probably won’t be installing the lower retainers until later this week, or this weekend. But they shouldn't be nearly as much of a pain as the upper retainers were to install (famous last words). I'll try to remember to post up the results

[Number7 89]

Looks like that will work. George:cool:

[theksmith 5,778]

good work, where did you find the aluminum cylinders, or did you CNC them?

 

FYI, i have the IRO ones and the front upper aluminum pieces ripped loose after a couple months due to the spring bowing into them when articulating. the sheetmetal that they bolt into at that upper spring perch is kinda thin.

 

the solution was to weld a very thick washer to the existing metal and tap the hole in it so that there was more material for the bolt threads to grab. it's worked fine since that.

[JeepWJ 0]

good work, where did you find the aluminum cylinders, or did you CNC them?

 

FYI, i have the IRO ones and the front upper aluminum pieces ripped loose after a couple months due to the spring bowing into them when articulating. the sheetmetal that they bolt into at that upper spring perch is kinda thin.

 

the solution was to weld a very thick washer to the existing metal and tap the hole in it so that there was more material for the bolt threads to grab. it's worked fine since that.

 

VERY good to know! I kinda expected that from how easy they threaded in. I guess I'll deal with it when it breaks...

 

I found the aluminum in our scrap pile at work, and then just threw them on the (manual) lathe to square them up, and make the ends, and voila! Same general principle with the lowers. Found some steel in the scrap pile, ent it with the acetylene torch, drilled holes, and voila!.

[stockjeep 43]

Manual Lathe? looks like it works swell

[JeepWJ 0]

yeah...basically the only difference between a manual lathe and a CNC is how fast you can get the job done. Our shop is small enough that we really couldn't justify having a CNC center, so it's all tools (the lathe doesn't even have a DRO). --- but I think it's pretty cool to learn to machine by hand!

[aloysius80 0]

the pics have gone into hiding on me!!!

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

the pics have gone into hiding on me!!!

 

Me too!

[JeepWJ 0]

watch this necropost.

 

Pics went into hiding because life happened and my photobucket, etc. got deactivated for lack of use. I need to get some of those pics back up.

 

In other news, I'm still in WI, still driving the WJ (Well not really, we just bought a van and the WJ is on jackstands, so it's officially project status now), and VERY disappointed to see that Kris sold his. Just finished a 6-hour binge read of his build thread.

[dzJeepChic 2,897]

watch this necropost.

 

Pics went into hiding because life happened and my photobucket, etc. got deactivated for lack of use. I need to get some of those pics back up.

 

In other news, I'm still in WI, still driving the WJ (Well not really, we just bought a van and the WJ is on jackstands, so it's officially project status now), and VERY disappointed to see that Kris sold his. Just finished a 6-hour binge read of his build thread.

 

Ha! Back from the depths. That happened to everybody on photobucket, I swear, and forums are suffering all across the land.

 

What up with the WJ project? Yeah, we're sometimes reminded of K's WJ in old photos, and we miss her. His new Jeep is coming along nicely, though.