Building a 2 Door Jeep JK to race in the stock class of King of the Hammers

[Impulse Off Road]

I received a late Christmas from Poison Spyder yesterday. I had to stop progress on drivetrain to fit up all of the Poison Spyder parts so I could send them to the powder coaters. The Poison Spyder parts fit amazingly well!

If any of you need a deal on Poison Spyder parts let me know.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

This is our new fiberglass hood. I think that the fiberglass guy may have went a little overboard on the center vents. I am going to ask himon thenext hoods to leave some of the material in the center. I am putting some metal as a screen under the vents that will help keep it all together.
Also a look at the rear 4-Link sing off the shelf parts from TeraFlex Suspension

 

[Impulse Off Road]

My goal for the weekend is to have both axles under the Jeep with the arms set and wheelbase set at 98.25". When that is done I will remove the housings and weld the brackets. Once the welding is done I will get the Sierra Gear 5.38 gears and Detroit Lockers from West Coast Differentials set up in the housings. The rear has to go back to TeraFlex on Monday to get the bearing pockets welded on the housing so I will set the gears in the rear, but won't install them until the housing is back from TeraFlex. Hopefully the transmission and new torque converter will be done by tuesday evening so that I can bring them back to St George with me. If they are not done it will really throw a kink in my progress.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

Thanks for the replies so far. Please feel free to ask me any question about anything on this build or on your own builds. I had an interesting day today setting up the rear suspension. Per Ultra 4 rules you cannot modify, massage, or move any factory frame crossmembers or the frame rails. When doing a normal triangulated 4 link on a JK the upper arms hit the crossmember at less than 2" of up travel. I am shooting for 6-6.5" so I had to bend my upper arms. I crawled under my Jeep a half a dozen times today, climbing over arms, around jack stands and steering clear of my hoist arms. It was quite a bit of work. I hope that all of this extra work is worth it although my experience tells me that I will probably not even notice the difference and I should have just used the kit the way TeraFlex designed it and I should have just bought their axles just the way they build them. Sometimes I just have to try to do something different. At least I will know what it took to do the job and I will know what if any benefits that the work I have done yields me. I always try to do things to my Jeeps that I would never want to charge a customer to do, unless I know for 100% assurity that the modifications are worth it. So here are some pictures from today. First off how the axle looks with the uptravel that I want it to be able to have.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

I am heading to TeraFlex tomorrow to get the end pockets welded on my rear axle. I have the truss and control arm/shock mounts welded. The front housing is done minus shock mounts and sway bar mounts. I wont put the sway bar mounts on until I have the steering complete and I am not exactly sure what the dimensions of my front shocks are so I cant weld the mounts until I know what I am working with.

Hopefully my transmission and custom torque converter will be done on Tuesday so I can get back and get it installed. Once the trans, Rubicrawler, and t-case are in I will put both axles back in the Jeep and it will start to look like I am making progress.

Beard seats is making my window nets, so I cant paint the cage until they are welded on and I cant install my seats and console until the cage is painted.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

More pics!

 

[Gravy]

how are you dealing with the abs?

 

[planman]

how are you dealing with the abs?

If you want to do a toggle switch for the ABS/ESP/BAS, there are 2 wires to cut and run to the switch.

If you want the ABS, ESP, and BAS off all the time, you can just cut the 2 wires and not install the switch.

I can't imagine wanting to keep them on for a race--or a deep snow or sand trail ride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[irish1371]

I believe trans go does converter and heavy clutch packs for your tranny if you need to go beyond what you get local

 

[bryson]

how are you dealing with the abs?

I've found (heard rather) that good ol' crunches and good eating net the best results.

That hood reminds me of the Herbst shark buggy (NOT the team SnarkAttack rig.) COOL!

 

[TRD270]

Not to take away from this killer build, but just out of curiosity, what does a wrecked JK go for?

 

[planman]

Not to take away from this killer build, but just out of curiosity, what does a wrecked JK go for?

You can find non-wrecked, non-modified 2 dr 07s for $13k-$16k depending on the options and miles.

So, wrecked with no frame damage might be as low as $8k-$12k--at least, that is what I've seen.

Locally, an automatic, soft top, repo with 50k miles, and damaged flares, front clip, rear corner, bumpers, with no AC, and mud caked on the bottom from the prior owner mudding it before it was repo'd was around $9k. There was no structural damage, just cosmetic.

More pics and build specs please.

Looks awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Impulse Off Road]

Time for more updates. It has been a busy weekend. I planned to have a little bit more work done, but the trigger in my welder malfunctioned Saturday. Hopefully I will get a new trigger today so I can get back on schedule. I installed the Sierra Gear 5.38 Dana 60 Ring and Pinion sets with Detroit Lockers from West Coast Differentials in both the front and rear TeraFlex housings. I use Sierra Gears because I am able to get a perfect pattern every time. Having high quality gear sets and differential housings makes setting gears a whole lot easier.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

My Poison Spyder Parts came back from the powder coater. I was excited to get the Poison Spyder parts installed, Every day this project starts to look more like a Jeep.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Coming along nicely... can't wait to see it in person.

One question though, I spy a can of Diet Mtn. Dew in your gear setup pics. As no one in their right mind would drink that stuff I can only assume its caustic flavor is used to strip the phosphate coating off the gears? Or is it used more like an industrial de-greaser on the axles?

 

[Bart]

Question for you. I haven't read the rules, but are flares required? If not I'd be dropping them, unless you're using them for protection. Just curious.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

Coming along nicely... can't wait to see it in person.

One question though, I spy a can of Diet Mtn. Dew in your gear setup pics. As no one in their right mind would drink that stuff I can only assume its caustic flavor is used to strip the phosphate coating off the gears? Or is it used more like an industrial de-greaser on the axles?

Diet Mtn Dew is a Gift from above. Just wait to see how many cases I bring for you to sample in Johnson Valley. I will have you converted before you know it!

 

[Impulse Off Road]

Question for you. I haven't read the rules, but are flares required? If not I'd be dropping them, unless you're using them for protection. Just curious.

For the stock class fenders and even the inner fender liners are required.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

Update on yesterdays work. I wanted to use all TeraFlex parts for this build and to keep my modifications to a minimum. This kit (besides the rear 4-link) will perform the same way the kit comes straight from TeraFlex. By moving the coil buckets forward I had to lengthen both the upper and lower arms. I decided to cut and sleeve ((internal (solid .75") and external (1.5 x .120 wall DOM)) the upper arms and for the lowers I removed the fixed bushing, welded in a threaded insert and used a left had threaded joint with the same rubber bushing that TeraFlex uses on the lower arm, frame mount side, of their production JK kit.

 

[Impulse Off Road]

Here are some more pics of some of the suspension brackets and additional gusseting that I did. Also a picture of my front coil and shock mounts that were moved forward 1.75". If you didn't know that I moved them, I doubt anyone would even notice.