AK9849cy

The Xterra is getting some winter use...

Wow time goes fast. Updates? My 2000 Xterra got a total suspension revamp. The 87 Pathy is getting picked at again. It sat for a year or so...

I now live in a different city in a neighborhood without an HOA. Ya it was a shock to me also... I grew up in a farming community.

Thank Dowser! That rig was my first successful build. It ran for a few years then got the wild hair to cut it in half and tube it out. Needless to say the city and HOA got after me with a court date set... So it ended up getting crushed to fend them off... It was defiantly my champ of the ramp build.. however it did make me realize that the extra weight of an SUV holds a guy back on the crazy stuff. My current wheeler (the HB) goes beyond the pathy in all ways when it comes to wheeling. The loss of probably 1500lbs makes a total difference...

Lol.. Ya me too.. 5.43 is its ford 9 ratio. I meant 5.38... Drrr

There is no such thing as 5.43's for the 233. The 233 is a sweet axle.. but with the limited resources it has I normally switch rigs over to something else. This current build will have Dana 44's front and rear. I am however helping someone build a 4 door frontier that will keep the 233. They will be running 5.13/5.14's with a 63 wide hp 44 up front. My red pathy was... .

They will be located on the inside of the frame.. Like my Red Pathy was. The axle mounts are mounted inboard a bit if you look. Nothing has been done frame side so far. The Front shocks are Rancho 9000's I may have adjusted the caster... don't remember.. this axle has been laying around for years. I will end up with 4.88's for now.. just because they are here. The axle actually has 5.38's in it at the moment. We'll see what this V8 wants. I would like to run down the highway at 1500 rpm... The 233a is 4.3ish In the past I just changed out the carrier in the xterra third member.. run the X with the 31 spine carrier. Then the pinion depth can be left alone. Just make sure the backlash is the same.

Yes they are lower links. These joints flex fairly well for years on the front of bone stock Jeeps. Every parts store carries them for a reasonable price.. With my garage needing to be storage..some of misc stuff needs to be thinned out. These chunks of tubing were left over from my ever-going buggy project. It is paid for and just laying around so why not put it to use. This axle and tubing puts a big dent in the pile...

Rusty's Offroad sells the sleeves for Jeep lower control arm bushings. These bushings can be had for under 10 bucks each and are the standard 2.6 width (will not work on stock Pathy mounts). I had some leftover 2 inch D.O.M. laying around... so why not...

Pan Hard side of mount... view from bottom... This will be a double shear setup.. .the end is not done..

This is a total prototype I have been thinking about. Plus it gets the pathy back on wheels for the summer... Like I said before.. all mounts are raised up 2 inches. The bump stop perches are raised up two inches also.. The pan hard will be on the backside (up two inches) of this mount on the left. Yes it is on the wrong side.. it will now run the same direction as the front end. So if guy was to use two inch coils the suspension geometry would be back to factory angles... This is nothing close to perfect.. just wanna see how the idea works before I spend a crazy amount of hours perfecting the idea. In the long term it would be neat to make a truss type system for the 233B.. with most of this stuff already on the truss. Or on the same note.. a Rodeo Dana 44.. weld on a truss and slap it under your rig...

59 inches with a centered pinion...

I am sorry guys... I appears that every time I say "drop down bracket" life throws something my direction. As shown in the Pathy build thread, I had to fill the garage with stuff that was in storage. Once I get this stuff sorted through and the Pathy back on wheels (setting apart on driveway) there will be time/space for these brackets. The plan is to make a few little tweaks and find a good powder coating firm. I am approaching this as if I was the person wanting the bracket and what would I expect. To keep the powder coat price down it looks like the bigger batch the better. If someone can't wait (needs it now and doesn't care about powder coating) speak up. As soon as I can get them together I will send them your way with a coat of rattle can black. This will happens as soon as a "free day?!?" comes along... Thanks again!

Well.. Storage.. how nice it was. Got notified last week that the storage I was using for free was no longer available. So the garage filled up quick and put a major dampener on some plans. So time to use some of the parts and throw out some others (Don't ask). My HB used to have a Waggy rear Dana 44 with disk brake conversion and 33 spline chromo shafts. Last year I made a Hybrid full floater Ford 9 for the rear of the HB. Thus, the old D44 is/was laying around with nothing to do (taking up space). So today I made a truss and mounts to make this little darnlin' fit under the pathy. All the mounts were moved up 2 inches.. So the lower link mounts now set directly in front of the axle not angled below.

It came with the adapter for the 5 speed.