Q:
I have a 74 jeep wagoneer with a 360 engine, with a dana 44 front and rear.
I want to lift it but I have called all the local four-wheeling shops and none of them cant find a kit for it.
they are willing to lift by fabricating, but I dont have two grand.
I allready have my 38 inch swampers and a box full of goodies to put into it as soon as I get it lifted.
A:
The shops are right, no one makes a lift kit that will enable you to install 38 inch tall tires under the wagoneer.
its going to take some custom suspention work as well as some serious fender trimming to make it all come together.
One guy I know with a wagoneer did a spring over axle swap up front using some 2.5 inch lift springs
and flipping the rear shackel the opposite direction. He also did a lot of front fender cutting to make it all work and,
if I remember correctly, new inner fender tubes in the back.
Way back in the mid 70's, I had a 68 wagoneer that I also did a front axle spring over convertion on,
using a dana 44 from fc170. A somewhat rare heavy duty 1/2 ton dana 60 rear axle that I nerrowed replace the old tapered axle
44 and a rear shackel flip gained the height. I did minor fender trimming front and rear, and ran 33 inch tires which were
the tallest available at the time, without any clearance problems. I built my own custom steeringarm in order
to keep the drag link parallel to the tie rod. When you lift yours,
be aware that you'll probably have to make many steering modifications, some of which may include raising
the steering arms to the top of the steereng knuckle to maintain the proper steering geometry. You also have
to keep in mind the pinion angle, fromt and rear and the driveshaft U joint angularity. In the front, the pinion angle also
has a direct effect on caster angle. You're most likely going to end cutting the steering knuckles, rotating them and
rewelding it to the proper caster angle.
One area which you might run into trouble is with the rear shackel flip. if memory serves me,
there was a change in the shackel design and as a result of that, later wagoneers required a bit more work
that included relocating the mounting bracket to allow the shackel to be flipped to a compression style operation.
I'm not sure, but I thing 74 was the year that they changed the shackel design.
further more, try looking for more knowledge in the
www.ifsja.com
שמרו על קשר