Cutting and welding differential for caster

[JTdiRtyD]

We gear down. Rental cars use brakes.

Yeah you can always tell the tourists from the locals by who is riding the brakes. I'm probably one of the few with out of state plates that doesn't, but I still see a lot of CO plates that do.

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[JeepOfTheseus]

Using the teraflex high angle Rzeppa joint might be a good plan.

Those are front and rear?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The axle is centered with the track bar, not control arms. Btw. I’m not being rude, and neither was @Stan H. You started a thread asking how to rotate your C’s to avoid buying a pro rock 44. People just tried to help steer you away from that, as we’re not sure you’d even save any money. And it’s high risk. In my opinion, forget the caster and just rotate your axle favoring pinion angle until your vibration is gone. You can still drive fine with less than a 6 degree caster. At 4.5” in the front on mine, and 6.5” in the rear, pinion angle is more important than caster. Just find a happy medium.

I got by fine with 5 to 5.5 degrees.
You and some others speak from a whole lot of practical experience - not guessing or theory, you dun it.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Yeah you can always tell the tourists from the locals by who is riding the brakes. I'm probably one of the few with out of state plates that doesn't, but I still see a lot of CO plates that do.

Hopefully mostly red CO plates. Red is commercial, so lots are rentals.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Those are front and rear?

I only recently found out they existed. My understanding is that they replace the joints to make a stock shaft handle bigger angles. I didn’t have the ability to try it as I’d already killed my joint and swapped in a double cardan before a trip the next day. But I still have the shaft in case this doesn’t work out at higher speeds. I’m hoping it will though, as my current shaft is narrower and has better clearance with the exhaust crossover.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I got by fine with 5 to 5.5 degrees.
You and some others speak from a whole lot of practical experience - not guessing or theory, you dun it.

I’ve been fine with less as well. Steers just fine. I’m not talking about 3, but 4.5-5 seems to steer just fine. If I sacrifice a bit of return to center for pinion angle, I’m fine with it.

 

[Zachanadandy]

I only recently found out they existed. My understanding is that they replace the joints to make a stock shaft handle bigger angles. I didn’t have the ability to try it as I’d already killed my joint and swapped in a double cardan before a trip the next day. But I still have the shaft in case this doesn’t work out at higher speeds. I’m hoping it will though, as my current shaft is narrower and has better clearance with the exhaust crossover.

I'm pretty sure someone on here compared the teraflex joint to the stock one and there's no extra travel. Could simply be that the stock rzeppa joint is considered high angle so teraflex isn't lying but it's not enough angle as you already figured out.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I'm pretty sure someone on here compared the teraflex joint to the stock one and there's no extra travel. Could simply be that the stock rzeppa joint is considered high angle so teraflex isn't lying but it's not enough angle as you already figured out.

I haven’t asked them. But will next time I talk to them. I do from time to time as I have lots of their parts.

 

[bleda2002]

Sorry those are the extended shock lengths. When doing research for a lift, Clayton (CS on the phone) stated I would need an after market CV (double cardan) drive shaft for extreme angles and also the slip for height of the lift. Metal cloak was the same for their 3.5 lift. They even make u click an option that says “you are a drive shaft expert and are declining a driveshaft” when u select the 3.5 lift haha.

Metal cloak will ask you that for any size lift and it just confirms that you did your homework and indeed don't need a drive shaft. The shock length is what's going to tell you if you need a drive shaft more than just the lift height as it's at droop that you will really tear up the boot.

You actually didn't need a drive shaft at those shocks lengths. 28.5 and under at the front are perfectly fine with the stock drive shaft. It's why I'm running 28.45 front length shocks and have done all kinds of crazy 3 wheeling at extreme angles and still have the stock drive shaft with boot intact at 60k miles.

Clayton should have actually recommended going up a size in shock as 28.5 is really more for about 2.5 - 3 inches in lift not the 4ish you get out of a Clayton. Then you would have really needed a drive shaft.

 

[Stan H]

I haven’t asked them. But will next time I talk to them. I do from time to time as I have lots of their parts.

I was over on JL forum poking around , turns out that is is no greater than stock and is a direct stock replacement, originally engineered to have a lip that opened in the middle more allowing for greater angle than 15° but deceptively show is a picture different from the one received. Tera Flex is an Exact reproduction of the stock one nothing more.
Sadly I was thinking about getting one but. Why when they are used everywhere.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I was over on JL forum poking around , turns out that is is no greater than stock and is a direct stock replacement, originally engineered to have a lip that opened in the middle more allowing for greater angle than 15° but deceptively show is a picture different from the one received. Tera Flex is an Exact reproduction of the stock one nothing more.
Sadly I was thinking about getting one but. Why when they are used everywhere.

That’s too bad.

 

[JeepOfTheseus]

I was over on JL forum poking around , turns out that is is no greater than stock and is a direct stock replacement, originally engineered to have a lip that opened in the middle more allowing for greater angle than 15° but deceptively show is a picture different from the one received. Tera Flex is an Exact reproduction of the stock one nothing more.
Sadly I was thinking about getting one but. Why when they are used everywhere.

Good to know. I'm seriously considering going back to stock driveshafts. I still get a buzzing around 75 which constantly reminds me of what happened to the first double-cardan shaft. I've gone up to 81-82, but I never feel quite safe doing it. Maybe the buzzing is inescapable, but my experience was a bit too traumatizing I guess.

Just gotta figure out how the hell to fix the carrier cross-brace.

 

[JT Nate]

The axle is centered with the track bar, not control arms. Btw. I’m not being rude, and neither was @Stan H. You started a thread asking how to rotate your C’s to avoid buying a pro rock 44. People just tried to help steer you away from that, as we’re not sure you’d even save any money. And it’s high risk. In my opinion, forget the caster and just rotate your axle favoring pinion angle until your vibration is gone. You can still drive fine with less than a 6 degree caster. At 4.5” in the front on mine, and 6.5” in the rear, pinion angle is more important than caster. Just find a happy medium.

well aware of the track bar centering side to side. I’m talking front to back which would be the lower control arms. I’ll post my current alignment adjustment that got me at an operating angle in the 7’s. Totally agree with you that rotating the C’s is not a cost efficient method nor very practical. The FAD actuator seems like the route to go and then I can roll with a caster of 6. If the vibration was gone I would just continue running the caster around 4 but that’s not the case. I gotten use to the lack of “return to zero”. Sorry for the late response. Also I fully appreciate all the help.

 

[JT Nate]

Metal cloak will ask you that for any size lift and it just confirms that you did your homework and indeed don't need a drive shaft. The shock length is what's going to tell you if you need a drive shaft more than just the lift height as it's at droop that you will really tear up the boot.

You actually didn't need a drive shaft at those shocks lengths. 28.5 and under at the front are perfectly fine with the stock drive shaft. It's why I'm running 28.45 front length shocks and have done all kinds of crazy 3 wheeling at extreme angles and still have the stock drive shaft with boot intact at 60k miles.

Clayton should have actually recommended going up a size in shock as 28.5 is really more for about 2.5 - 3 inches in lift not the 4ish you get out of a Clayton. Then you would have really needed a drive shaft.

That’s crazy… cause I went with the falcons that are for the 3.5-4.5. Turns out they run the same front shock for the 2-3 inch set. Only the rears change. I still have the stock driveshaft so I could experiment. I know on the rear they had to rotate the axle a little so that the boot wouldn’t bind on the stock rezeppa drive shaft at full droop. Makes sense with metal cloak.

 

[WILDHOBO]

well aware of the track bar centering side to side. I’m talking front to back which would be the lower control arms. I’ll post my current alignment adjustment that got me at an operating angle in the 7’s. Totally agree with you that rotating the C’s is not a cost efficient method nor very practical. The FAD actuator seems like the route to go and then I can roll with a caster of 6. If the vibration was gone I would just continue running the caster around 4 but that’s not the case. I gotten use to the lack of “return to zero”. Sorry for the late response. Also I fully appreciate all the help.

My brain clearly wasn’t working when I posted the reply. Obviously you meant centering in the wheel wells.

Other than the fact that I have a FAD in my 2021, o still have been struggling with this identical issue. I have the 4 hi auto transfer case for on road winter stuff. I only use it when roads are actually slippery. But when I get into that 60-65 range, it had a vibration for sure. I ran a second Oem front driveshaft until I killed it as well. I resisted the double cardan 1350 up there for years because of this. But finally had to do it. I wish there was a real solution for people that genuinely need to rotate that shaft at higher speeds. But I’ve had lengthy conversations with companies like Adams, and it doesn’t seem like there is yet.

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