First of all, I have to give a shout out to Mr. Joe Kennedy over at Iron Rock Offroad. We had quite the back and forth over this project. Mr. Kennedy gave me quite the deal on their A Arm. To be totally honest, I was chomping on the bit waiting for it to get here. I will let the pictures do the talking.
^ As you can see, the eye to eye measurement on the WJ RUA (Rear Upper Arm) is quite literally the exact same as the KJ's. DCX must have used the same "boomerang" body when designing the tri link, but just changed the WJ's BJ mount/hole/taper socket to the BJ itself on the KJ. (I hope your still following) To prove the measurement, I slid the bolts through IRO's A arm and into the KJ tri link.
There was also another inherent problem. The actual axle mounting point is 1.5 inches lower on the KJ than on the WJ. (more to follow on that later) But as luck would have it, all three points are relatively close to each other and the arm is adjustable
^Another comparison photo
^ Here you can see where I was describing how the KJ mount point sits below where the WJ's would be. So after two days of brainstorming and farting around with AutoCAD on my iphone (Great program BiiCadPro, available in the app store for $10) I came up with the designed for the bracket. It took me several tries with sheetmetal, cardboard paper, and lexan (cause it bends in a brake), mock ups to make it work.. I broke out the caliper to get very accurate measurements of what was needed.
I printed out an overlay and transferred it to some 1/4" plate I had laying around. Then I drilled out the mounting holes, and drilled the intersection of the fold lines. Then I oxy/acet cut the lines (with torch guides duh, you should see my cuts... mint, every time . .. woot woot) blaa blaa blaa blaa.. fold, grind, weld, paint.
^ Above you can see the bracket sitting in the same place the ubj would be, give or take half to three quarters of an inch. I engineered the bracket so it is two pieces, the lower 90 and the upper is folded in 4 dimensions, gusseted onto itself so the stress, goes directly into the two bolt holes. The amount of weld I put into the bracket is probably equivalent to what I put into my winch bumper (j/k, but its not far off) this bracket wont break. I hope not. lol
^ The joint itself is insanely beefy. And heavy duty
Simple, yet strong. There it is, sitting in all of its glory.
Again, a giant thanks to Mr. Kennedy from Iron Rock Offroad for the deal on the A Arm. I have a copy of the .dxf file if anybody wants it, I also told Mr. Kennedy that I would be emailing him a copy as well.
Why did I do this?
I don't trust the UBJ, and I don't have 650 dollars for JBA's rear upper tri link. I do believe some time ago I emailed him about this idea and he never responded to me about the idea. So I took matters into my own hands. I also like how ridiculously simple it is to adjust pinion angle. Sag the suspension, place a jack under the diff at the pinion flange, apply slight pressure, adjust and replace bolt. done.
Edited: for liability. This product idea/modification is currently being tested/revised. I advise anyone with a previously acquired dxf file to not use it on their jeep. I will make this available to people as soon as possible.
4x4Kayak, sorry to keep you waiting so long.
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