1990 Willys MB Jeep - Mahindra based - body mounted.

The thought crossed my mind; If only they did the same with the rear springs!

The problem with the original steering system is too much play in the system due to too many joints; It has the steering box near the bulkhead, from there a link to a pivot to turn it 90 degrees to the front axle. Meant for a tractor basically, but no good on the motorway; I suppose if there was no play in the joints, it could work, but on an old jeep that is not the case.

Daan

Here we are again, only 8 months since the last update! Live got in the way from spending time in the garage, but finally I am back on it. After fitting the springs, shock absorbers was the next logical thing to nail down. With the reduced friction in the parabolic spring packs, the job of the shock absorber has become a lot more important. In this application, gas pressure shocks are usually advised. I used Monroe gas magnum in Jeep CJ5 fitment. They are available in many lengths, so I choose the ones which worked with the increased height of the parabolic springs. They get a good write up usually, and they still have the old fashioned metal dust covers, which mean they will look stock once painted army green.

The rears were easy to fit, using the original top mount and the CJ7 spring plate with mounts at the bottom:



The fronts were more involved, on the right hand side there now a is a PAS box in the way. Conveniently, the front top crush tube is virtually in the correct position for the shock absorber mount, as well as the right diameter. So I removed the previously made crush tube and replaced it with a longer version, and a turned spacer was added to space the shock away from the chassis (glad I only tack welded the pas box mount!):


The other side has a clash issue with the wing, so I fabricated a new mount, identical to the original willys jeep:


Mounted, the shocks look like this:

The forward top PAS box bolt, now has 2 jobs: holding on the PAS box, and mounting the shock.

Lh side, the spring plate problem for the front axle was also solved with rear Jeep CJ7 spring plates.

You may have noticed my shiny new front axle: I managed to buy a narrow Dana 30 front axle from a Jeep CJ5. This is much better design of axle compared to the previous Dana 27; It is much stronger, and very common (it is still being used on the new Jeep Wrangler). Spares are much easier to find should you need it and the after market support is very good for ratios, shafts, diffs etc. It is also direct fit to a willys jeep without modifications. This makes it convenient to fit, and means no points are lost under the radically altered points scheme. It came about cheap locally with a 4.27 ratio, which is what I am planning to use, replacing old the 4.88 ratio. It also had freewheel hubs fitted. So buying this means I only need to change the rear axle ratio, and therefore saved me money (Man maths at its best!):

So this is some future proofing as I now have a dana 30 at the front, and Dana 44 at the rear, which are the 2 best supported axles in the US. 

Thanks for reading!

Daan

cracking job

An update, I managed to get some time for my jeep project.



The front spring plates were a bit of an issue; The wider springs did not allow me to use standard parts. I tried CJ7 rear spring plates, which fits on the LH side, but the RH side is different, due to one of the u bolts being larger, wrap around the diff housing. So I needed to make my own.



The jeep spring plates are all made out of 1/4" plate; It appears such thing is no longer available in the UK through the usual channels, only 6mm. As this is highly stressed, I did not want to compromise on strength.



A friend sent me the needed material, and now it came to bending it. I don't have tooling to bend this material, so I will resort to my bare hands to do this, with some added steelwork.



Starting like this, I draw 2 lines for each bend, one is the beginning of the bend, the other the end of the bend:




Clamp it in a vice:




Now add the bending device, this consists of 2 large angle sections clamped together with 2 M12 bolts:




So what we are trying to do is to allow the plate to bend in the area between the black lines, but not anywhere else.



Now add the extension bar, it is a metre long box section with a bit of angle iron welded to it:


Now bend it using the aforementioned bare hands.



bent:




I usually bend it in 2 stages, one halfway between the line to 45 degrees, then right to the line to get to the full 90 degrees.



Not too bad a bend:




After this, cut off excess material, drill the holes and weld on the shock absorber pin, which I cut out of the original spring plates:


Mounted, a bitof modding was required to the dana diff housing so the larger u-clap can move further inboard:



Thanks for reading,





Daan

I agree with teaboy, I Can’t see that third of a mm making much difference. The two are generally regarded as interchangeable.

I really like this project though, it’s not exactly how I’d do it, but ive been thinking about doing a build on some kind of cheaper jeep variant for ages and this doesnt help at all!

Any updates on this one?

Great to see an update! Progress is progress 😎

Plenty of room under the bonnet, but there are some major clashes to sort out elsewhere..