The_Magicians_Eye

Nice build. Thanks for posting it. How do you like the springs you're using up front? What size and spring rate are they? Also how long are those shocks?

Even a little small truss that connects to the axle tubes would be better. I know clearance is an issue though. You have to do whatever is needed to make this work correctly and be safe. The issue with welding to cast is the potential for their to be hidden cracks and or just a weaker mounting point. Doesn't really matter how big the mount is. It get's really complicated. It's how cast reacts to being heated and cooled. It's about cast being a very dirty metal with lots of impurities that can effect the weld or the metal that the weld is melting into. Many people will tell you to avoid welding to cast in any situation where it's put under allot of load. Yes it's done but there is a high risk of failure so that's why people avoid it. Just take a look at the after market trusses on the market. The good ones do not weld to the cast diff housing, they bridge over it and maybe bolt to the pinion housing. The diff housing is already under a ton of stress and you don't need to do anything to it that could potentially compromise it's strength. The "simple" answer is to be safe and find or make the room for a truss. The amount of damage that would take place in a failure of the upper link mount would be pretty extensive. If it happens at high speed or on some sketchy cliff you also run the risk of getting really hurt too.

Thanks Tom. So the actual axle shafts are different? Same spline or different too? So in theory I should be able to buy new disk brakek axle shafts, new thrust block (whatever that is lol), new backing plates, and then all the disk brake components and it should all bolt together and work?

I need to do this myself. I haven't been able to find a disk brake axle wd21 though. I have two axles in my shop and both are drum brakes. For us WD21 guys couldn't we just buy the disk brake parts and bolt them to our axle? I'm going to put a cage in my truck and with the added weight I need this thing to stop better than it does.

I hear that!!! I could absolutely fee a difference in wind drag between having my old roof rack with cheap square lights mounted on it than running it without a rack. That difference is very noticeable and a major part of why I wanted a new roof rack that would be a low profile as possible. That's the reason for running a single row LED bar rather than the more popular double row. That extra inch makes a very big difference. Ask a woman she'll tell you the same thing lol. The other reason I wanted a change is because my old rack was taller up front than it was in the back. This wasn't an issue when things fit in the rack. However there where many times I wanted to strap something to the roof that was longer than the rack. Boards, snow sled, furniture, metal for my shop, or whatever. Having the flat roof rack where the LED bar sits lower than the top of the rack will allow me to build a bracket to attach to this that will act like a lumber rack. Keeping things from sliding off the sides. Also throwing my bikes up there also becomes an easy option too. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way that keeping things simple is a better way to go. You have more options when the design isn't too complicated. Plus this design will work well on an older Jeep Cherokee with the drip rails. I need to start building products to sell to the public. So I figured maybe I'll start here.

Ok so I still haven't start on this. I have basically everything I need but have a few jobs I need to get out of the way before I start on this. With that being said I got my LED bar in. This is actually my own LED bar. I'm going to start selling them. I've been researching this for awhile now and finally found a manufacture over seas that builds a top quality bar that I'd be proud to sell. Anyway that's a whole different topic. When I'm ready to go public with these I'll talk with the admins about marketing and setting up club discounts and group buys. But for now back to the subject at hand. I'm mounting a single row 200W bar with 17120 lumens to it. This thing is crazy bright. Here is a picture to show you the difference between the stock headlights and the LED bar. I was shooting with a digital SLR on full manual so that the differences in the pictures were as accurate as possible. Please keep in mind camera sensor don't deal with light like the human eye does. My stock headlights look really dim because I didn't want the LED bar to blow out my picture and be completely white lol. The high beams look dimmer than the lows because they are spreading the light out farther. You can see farther with your eyes but the brightness isn't enough for the camera to see that. However those details don't matter because the difference between them and the LED bar is like the sun rising after a long dark night lol. For the backup lights I turned to Amazon and found some cheap stick on COB LED lights for around $14/pair. Because I need to keep this roof rack as low profile as possible the size of backup lights that I used was very important. I couldn't find anything that would work for a reasonable price until I ran into these. All the reviews said these were really bright but for $14 I was a little skeptical. So I bought two pair. These will fit perfectly on the roof racks rear light panels and are water proof. I'll stack one on top of the other on both panels for a total of 4 lights back there. I did a video unboxing a review of the light that you'll see below but after I did this video I turned these lights on at night in my bed room and damn near went blind lol. They are much brighter than I though. These will do really well on the trail for backup lights. Here is a link to where you can find these on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C1YI2XA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00C1YI2XA&linkCode=as2&tag=alvmetwor-20 And here is the video I told you about. If you want to read my long winded written review of these backup lights check out this link: http://alvarezmetalworks.com/?p=522

Just my own personal opinion but I really would reconsider welding that upper link to the cast diff housing. There is a very debatable issue whether this is safe or not. I'm not looking to debate just pointing what I see as an issue. This is your only upper link on a 3 link setup you want that to be as strong as possible and not have to question whether or not this will fail on you.

Ok so it's time to build a new roof rack for the 91. I've been working on the design for a couple days now and i think I'm happy with it. Let me know what you guys think. In the picture below it has a red frame. That won't be the case when it's done. It will be all black. The red frame makes it easier to see the details in the drawing. The two rear panels will hold some sort of flush mounting lights. Not sure what just yet. I want something clear so I can have extra back up lights for those dark trails when I need to back up. LED of course. Something cheap though. As cheap as possible. The floor of the rack will be expanded metal so that whatever I put up there has a nice surface to sit flat on. This also means I need to make the rack hinged so I can lift up one side and clean under it. I'll be working on the foot design tomorrow. I'll also be ordering my metal tomorrow. Hopefully this snow melts a little so I can get the metal into my shop. The light bar won't be here for a little while so I won't be painting this until it get's here. I'll most likely have to build some custom mounts for it. The factory mounts are too tall. I'm trying to keep this as low profile as possible. It measures 70"x48"x4" without the feet. I'll be using 7/8" 16 gauge steel tubing and 16 gauge sheet for the panels. What do you guys think?

You might want to go look at this album on FB to get a better idea of what you're in for when it comes to wiring. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.443056805769838.1073741825.380509472024572&type=3

So you decided to ignore my warning and are trying to do the swap anyway huh? Be ready to be doing this for days on end. And make sure you grab ALL of the the metal brackets that hold the center of the dash and the sides with the new dash. They aren't the same even though they look like it. You might want to grab that bar that holds the steering column too. I forget if that's different but better safe than sorry. Remember all the cruse control stuff is on the newer steering column and there are a few controls in the center console that are normally on the old dash too. I really don't want to laugh at your pain but I guarantee that you will be hating life soon and wishing you never tried doing this. lol I was going to do a video write up of how to do this but it was a &^%*ing nightmare and it's still not at 100% in my truck. My warning was just a minor scratch in the surface of how bad of an idea this really is.

They say it don't work because those wheels have the cruse control buttons on the wheel. If you don't mind not having cruse control or are willing to mode that system to work some other way those steering wheels will work.

The_Magicians_Eye

Have you ever tried shifting a transfer case out of 4x4 when it's bound up tight due to running two different ratios? Running two different' rations is like anything else. It maybe done by others but that don't mean their isn't a price to pay when it's not right. Premature failure of parts will quickly diminish any advantage of cutting corners. That's allot of premature stress on your drive train when you're about to apply allot more stress on it when wheeling. Ultimately it's your rig and you can try anything you want. I'm just letting you know that it will perform very poorly compared to it being geared properly. You'll feel it even off road. The issues might not seem that bad because the tires will slip easier on dirt, mud, or whatever but... You'll still feel it. It's like driving around with a miss fire. It still runs and get's your to where you want to go but something is wrong and if you fix it you'll realize how much it effected the performance.

What is that out of?

You're going to run two different gear ratios? What size of tire do you plan on running? You should really look at going with 5.13. Rugged Rocks sells the 5.13 for our rear axle for $120 less than it was before. That should let you run 35" tires and still keep your speedometer on point. Don't cheap out on your gears. Regardless of what people say running two different gear ratios causes binding and tire wear. If you ever need 4x4 for snowy roads you're creating a very sketchy situation. The binding will cause your truck to slide. It would be one thing if you were .01 off but .07 off is no good.

The_Magicians_Eye

I figured I'd share my experience cutting the wheel centers out of a set of H1 wheels for a customer. With the new military tire options out there MTR and Baja TA, I'm sure more of us are looking at maybe getting some H1 wheels. On this project the customer wanted to weld in his own wheel centers but needed someone to cut the old centers out of the wheels for him. So I decided I should make a video showing the process and letting people see the wheels a little more than maybe they've seen before. I hope this helps a few of you understand this process and these wheels a little better. And for those of you that aren't 100% confident in your cutting or welding skills please do not risk your lives or the lives of others by building these wheels for your rigs. Hand that job over to someone else or buy them prebuilt to suit your needs. These are also not DOT legal once they're cut. PS: I'm putting some real thought into the idea of running these on my Pathy. If I do I'll be looking for the Baja TA rather than the Goodyears.

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So I see August closed and November is up for vote. What happened to the September and October votes? Did they just get scrapped so you can start fresh?

Looks great!

lol wondering what happened. It's been along time. I'm not upset at all.

We're 3 months behind on this already. What happened?

Also Leo I'm not sure where you got that date from. His last post on this thread was the 15th of March this year.

Actually I was told by him that this should be on the road soon. Not sure if he will post any update here but I'll remind him people are waiting lol. I believe he has a couple different account on this forum. At least it appears that way lol.

You do not want a passenger side drop on your Pathy. Our engines are offset to the passenger about 2 inches. Plus you're oil filter and started are already crammed into that space.