Moving front axle?

[Bronco Corral]

How much work would be involved in moving the front axle forward about 2"? I have extended radius arms, but the mounts are welded to the frame so well it'd be a pain to get them off. Would I absolutely HAVE to move the track bar bracket and coil buckets, or could they handle a little angle?

 

[Apogee]

I pushed mine forward ~2" when I installed my CAGE long arms without any other changes without issue. I don't think you could go much, if any further without addressing the track bar alignment. As for the springs, it's pretty easy to move the lower buckets rearward...only a couple of bolt holes to deal with there.

 

[KyleQ]

I'd say it would be easier to just cut off the mounts instead of dealing with coils, shocks, trackbar and steering.

 

[cgbexec]

I'd say it would be easier to just cut off the mounts instead of dealing with coils, shocks, trackbar and steering.

I second that. You are going to do a bunch of work and then the thing is going to drive like crap and you are going to end up taking it apart and doing is correctly anyway. %) Cut the mounts and re-weld new ones in the proper location! ;D

 

[Sweathog]

Shouldn't be that hard to cut off the radius arm mounts. I cut off the stock mounts last week and in took less than 10 minutes to do both with a 4-1/2" cutoff wheel. It is a trail rig so I didn't finish grinding down the remaining welds. I vote move the mounts instead of messing up the geometry of your front end. Bad geomotery will not only lead to possible poor perfromance and binding but it will also wear your parts quicker and become expensive.

 

[Buldozer]

Would I absolutely HAVE to move the track bar bracket and coil buckets, or could they handle a little angle?

I have the James Duff extended arms. When I originally installed them I located them such that the front axle was in exactly the original location, but I installed with the rod ends screwed all the way into the arms. Recently I decided I wanted my axle further forward so I just screwed the rod ends out 1" with no problems at all. I don't know about 2", but 1" is ok IMO.

 

[Bronco Corral]

Don't think I have enough threads left on my heims to move it forward another inch to be safe. I was thinking about just welding another set of bungs on the ends of my arms and doing it that way. They're from West Coast Broncos, so i may call Dusty and see what he says about it.

 

[Apogee]

You want your spherical rod ends to have as much thread engagment as possible...I wouldn't use them to adjust your wheelbase, only to fine tune your thrust alignment. Moving your radius arm mounts shouldn't be that tough with access to a grinder and a welder. I would think you could knock it out in less than an hour start to finish.