As many of you know, I have been planning this for a long time and have been wanting to do this for much much longer. I finally had the funds to complete my goal. I ordered a kit from Battlement Fab in Grand Junction, CO.

The Kit consists of axle brackets, frame brackets, bushings for the axle end, Ballistic JJ's for the frame end, a heim for where the upper arm meets the lower, a saddle for the heim, 2" x 1/4" DOM links, and all the necessary hardware.


There was a little fit and finish issue with the Ballisitic joints in that there were several burrs inside the housing that shouldn't be there. A little die grinding fixed that:


I am using a friends garage because he has a nice plasma cutter and welder. He lives about 10 miles from home, but he has space to leave my bronco inside for a couple weekends. Saturday around noon had the axle out of the bronco:




I then began cutting off the stock axle and frame brackets with the plasma. That took me a few hours and I still have some cleanup to do.

I wasn't sure how the frame brackets went together. My phone call hadn't been returned by the shop so I was kinda dead in the water. I decided to fit up the axle brackets and noticed they were made for a D60 tube, which is 1/2" larger than mine! :shock: So I took a break from my bronco and helped a friend install a 2" lift on his 2010 tacoma.

Got a call from the shop that evening and he walked me thru the design of the frame bracket. Just some of the plates didn't fit like they should have and that's where the confusion stemmed. He also apologized for sending me the wrong axle brackets and was sending a local friend of mine the file to cut the correct ones on his plasma table the next day. I went to Big R and got a few supplies for the following day and then called it a day.

Sunday morning I got started early again and used some of the hardware from Big R to assemble my joints. The PVC coupling worked great!


I had help from my cousin on Sunday and he's got much prettier welds than I do, so I had him build a frame bracket:




After this, we headed to my friends house to get the correct axle brackets cut. This cost me 5+hrs of work, but had to have it.

When we returned, my cousin welded the new frame bracket in place as far back as possible.
Front side:

Back side:


He also welded the drivers side together for me, but ran out of time and had to go home. Leaving me to weld the drivers side bracket in myself.
Not pretty, but I think it stuck:




It was time to move onto the axle brackets. After some cleanup I started putting them together and had some of my best welds ever!




Got them tacked onto the axle and rolled the axle in place to verify it will all work. Once I was happy with the layout, I welded them in solid to the axle. these are some of the worst looking welds I had, but again, I think they are welded solid:








I again rolled the axle back under the bronco and started measuring for lower links. The lower arms meet the bushings at a bit of an angle, so the mouth (notch) in the tube had to be deeper on one side. With daylight fading, I finished up the mouth on one link and started the second before I called it a day after cleaning up the shop and putting away tools.

Happy with my progress, but a little disappointed that having the wrong axle brackets cost some hours. But why should this project go smooth and be any different than any of my others...??

Stay tuned next week as I am hoping to take one day and finish it, complete with paint and suspension flex pictures!

J.D.

Nice! Looks good! I would get someone to go over those welds on the axle though...it looks like there is a lot of porosity in them so they are not very strong. Not trying to be offensive so please don't take it as such...just have safety in mind.

hey jd if you need lemme know i'll come out and help ya clean up some of those welds, no offense, but like jason said the porosity is really not a good thing and being suspension it can be really unsafe, and i can teach ya some if you'd like, like i said no offense, i'd just hate to see any weld break on ya, and other wise it looks awesome so far man!

No offense taken at all. I appreciate the criticism. I know they don't look good. Was using someone elses welder and I said something about the tip being plugged up and he said it wasn't. Although it clearly was. Who was I to argue? But I will clean that tip out and go back over it. I knew it wasn't right. So I am hoping it was actually more a lack of shielding than it was my skill.

Corey - I'll let you know. I am a self-taught welder and could use any tips.

J.D.

its' best to grind the old weld out down to where the two pieces of metal meet, as welding over old porosity is only going to create more porosity, and im busy this weekend, but i could probably make it out one night this week if you'd like, just gimme a call, or send me a text, i'll give ya some tips, i went to school for it, and have done it professionally off and on for about 4 yrs, as im a tech and fabricator

Thanks Corey. I promised my wife I'd stay away from the bronco during the week, but hit it hard on Saturday. I broke that promise as I spent an hour to go pull some brake lines, so I need to stay away the rest of the week. But, my plan is to clean out the tip on that welder, grind down the welds as best I can and start over. I got some nozzle gel dip to give to my friend and see if that helps keep the spatter from sticking to the nozzle. I am confident with a properly working welder I can run a descent bead.

J.D.

also play with your settings, and whats your gas set at right now?, if you have the welder setup properly and are welding at about the right speed for the setting you should have very little spatter

Got an early Start again Saturday morning. First step was to clean out the nozzle on the welder, gouge out the welds on the axle and see if I could lay a better bead. Took a good hour to get the old weld out and then I went back in and laid some way better beads. Thanks for the welding tips!




I then moved onto notching the passenger side lower link to the bushing and got that to fit right with the angle. I adjusted the JJ's to be about halfway on the threads. I mocked the axle back in place and measured for the lower links. I only cut off 1" of the material provided, so that was cutting it real close, but all I needed. Then I tacked the lower links to the bushing ends, pulled the axle out, sleeved the bungs into the lower links to prepare for welding them up. I removed the poly bushings and began to burn it all together.

While the lowers cooled, I started notching the uppers. Got those all welded in solid and began assembling everything so I could get the saddle bracket installed. My cousin had again showed up to lend a hand and he was doing most of the welding for me.

The axle with the saddles tacked in place.




A fair amount of triangulation here with the axle brackets pushed out as far as I could and the frame brackets on the inside of the frame.


The upper links allow quite a few degrees of caster adjustability. I simply matched what I had before I started this project and again, the Heims have half the threads showing.

in the saddles solid




I also added a gusset from the axle brackets back to the axle. Just seemed like it needed the extra support. No pictures tho.

Paint


Some flex pics








I later shut the garage door and lifted the bronco higher. I had gained 4-5" of flex over stock with much more travel to go in the suspension. My shocks travel 12" so I think they will be my limiting factor. Am probably going to need limiting straps for the first time on any of my rigs!

I gained 2.25" of wheel base and 6 degrees of approach angle as it sits now. I was worried about the drag link hitting the engine cross-member, but I think it may barely clear at full flex. I was also worried about the diff hitting my exhaust routed under the oil pan. Something else I am going to have to test. The drag link does hit the nut holding my ram to the tie-rod, but I think I can get a jam nut that is not so thick and shorten my bolt to alleviate that. There there will be some fairly extensive front fender trimming.

I am designing a shock mount bracket off the bottom tube. The shocks will sit inside the links. I still have to weld in shock mounts, lengthen the front driveshaft, get the correct brake line parts, bleed the brakes and install skid plate. I think that will get it to where I can drive it home and bring it to the breakfast.

It's been a fun project, but my wife is beginning to wonder who my real wife is. I need to wrap this up so I can spend some Quality Time with her and my son.

J.D.

After garage door was shut:

JD, thanks for doing the write up. We have been using a couple of folks for guinea pigs on these kits since almost all of them until now have been built for rigs in the shop. We had a couple of hiccups on JDs kit, but are getting it all figured out.

We sent him axle brackets that were for a 3" axle tube (so used to doing these on D60s it got past us). Since that little issue came up, we are working on a diagram for folks who order the builder kit or the complete kit which has all the critical measurements needed on it.

We are also assembling the ballistic joints in house now vs sending them out like JD got them. Its not worth it to the end user to have to do it, and we are working with Ballistic on a discount for them to assemble them for us.

On that note, we will also be changing what joints we include. It will be EITHER a currie johnny joint or a ballistic joint, unless the customer specifies which one they way. The main issue for this change is availability. Ballistic is ALWAYS weeks out on their joints, and that just kills us.

We have also had to learn a couple other things. One is how to ship items. there are no boxes tht fit this stuff. Being a fab shop, we normally dont have to deal with this, but we have started to learn the other end of the business :D

JD's was fairly easy as it all went in one box and the tubing went without a box, taped and the ends boxed. For the complete arms, we are working on a box setup now. There is alot to learn when doing something like this and Im sure glad we have had a couple customers to help us along and to grow into this!

Clint, I would have done a write-up either way. Fun to document a major modification. Also thanks for the support to get thru some of the issues. I am chomping at the bit to find someplace to flex this baby out as soon as I get the brakes working. I think I just need a few big rocks in my back yard. I know it'll be far and away better than what I had with stock arms.

You'll never be able to iron out all the issues, but I think with my experience and that of a few others you have doing something similar, you'll be able to eliminate all of the big ones. If someone is ready to tackle a complete builder kit, they should be able to handle the smaller issues.

J.D.

Cant wait to see it JD. Want to see if it frees up your springs like It did the last coil sprung rig we did.


Some more food for folks to look at on these. Granted, its with coilovers, and since we built it in the shop, we made as long and flat of a trac bar as we could, which always helps.....and its a cornbinder, but old iron is cool iron IMO :D

I'll be so happy if I can prop my front tire up on a 38" to 40" tire and not worry about flopping!!

These are in that range, but I had zero weight on the passenger rear and was not all the way on top:


J.D.

I wanna know the price? Im sure this will fit a 79 since the suspension is the exact same. This is really tempting to do.

Looks great J.D. Now get that thing out and flex it up real good. Lets see what she can do.

I would rather them rub slightly than put a bend in them. Ive seen too many bent arms fail.

That is awesome you get to turn sharper! Mine rubs at full lock too. I built my own radius arms that are bent and it still rubs. Just enough to take the paint off though is fine by me! I can't wait to see some action shots of that suspension in action! Another bronco and I are looking at running liberty in a couple weeks if you are ready by then. You are welcome to come! @ Clint.. Who's arms have you seen fail when bent? I built my own and am not even close to being worried about them bending but I would like to know if the failing ones are homemade items or fab shop or vendor bought? Your kit looks great and your pricing sounds good! What are you suggesting to people about their shock locations?

They rub just enough to take the paint off, but not hard. They will scrap pretty hard with snow chains on tho. Still, I am ok with that. I didn't lose anything there. In fact, don't think I lost anything in comparison to the stock arms.

The kit comes with four shock tabs. I had to do something different to get optimum travel from my shocks. I am putting the lower shock bolt perpendicular to the top to alleviate any bind as the suspension flexes. My brackets will come off the lower link on the inside. I am thinking now that I should have leaned those saddles out just a little more before I welded them in. That would have made sure my shocks didn't hit, but I think I am still ok. It'll be close.

J.D.

That is such a killer lift - way excited it turned out so great. Good looking welds and craftsmanship.

all tubing is 1/4 wall DOM. All brackets are 1/4". the frame bracket is very beefy. The saddle bracket is broke in house, out of 3/16. Everything is cut on the CNC plasma table right in the shop. Its a monster kit, and can work with just about any rig. It can work with coils or coilovers, and everything in the kit can be replaced if needed.

She's alive!!!!

Did some thrashing last night and got the new brake lines installed and bled the brakes. Then got to working on the shock mounts. Mocked up the drivers side to what I thought would work, welded it in solid to realize the shock was hitting the upper arm at ride height. DOH! So after 5 minutes of hymming and haaaaing, decided to break out the plasma and cut the bracket off and re-weld. New location was much better, just put the shock bushing is a little bit of a bind. Onto the passenger side and having learned my lesson, it went smooth. Took her for a spin at 11pm last night and all seems well. The brakes could use another bleeding and I need to figure out why the drivers side rear only bled for a few tries and has stopped.

I pickup my lengthened driveshaft today and then pickup my bronco tonight, but not before I setup an RTI ramp using my trailer ramps... Hope everything clears. I know the fenders won't, but that's easy.

Here's one of the shock mounts I made all welded in. Come to think of it this is the one I had to cut off.


This is what I had to do to get the shock into it's mount...I didn't realize pro-comp shocks were charged! I couldn't muscle it into place. But this is where my shock will limit the travel. I will need to figure out something for limiting straps. Would like to figure out a way to piggyback the shock itself.


J.D.

you need longer shocks JD :D

I would have to re-make my mounts... and I worked so hard :). I'll ride like this for a while and see how it goes.

J.D.

Thats an awesome system. I am going to share this build with my ford truck club fellers. A lot of Ranger builders on there. I hope you all dont mind.