1983 Jeep CJ7 Laredo

After driving my CJ7 on the street and trail for a few years I decided the bone jarring 4" Superlift Softride had to go. I decided on a spring over axle conversion and began gathering parts and info the winter of 00'. I also decided I wanted to go with 35 x 14.5 Boggers and wanted a suspension and axle set up to accommodate the tires. In the rear I went a Scout II Dana 44 with TSM ( http://www.tsmmfg.com/ ) disc brakes, 4.56 gears and a detriot NoSpin locker. In the front I went with a J20 Dana 44 that was narrowed 4.5", converted to 5 lug, detriot Soft Locker and high clearance steering. I used stock 5 leaf Wrangler springs front and rear but later used 6 leaf rear military wrap CJ springs in the back.

Here I'm measuring pinion angle (which was raised 3 degrees) and locating spring perches on the bare housing.

I wanted to use a high clearance steering set up to raise the tie rod and drag above harms way. It also raises the steering linkage high enough to keep the factory pitman arm.

Here are the GM flat top knuckles, as you can see the drivers side knuckle has the 3 studs.

Here are my Parts Mike hysteer arms and scout outer axle shafts.

After I installed the axle, arms, tie rod and drag link, I found that there was not enough room for a pitman arm. The wagoneer pitman arm I was using hit the tie rod and there wasn't enough room to connect the drag link to the pitman arm. So I took the stock CJ pitman arm to the machine shop and had it shortened 7/8" and re-enforced for the larger dana 44 taper.

Here are the arms with shortened Wagoneer steering linkage installed. as you can see there is a plate for the sway bays, there is a plate for the steering stabilizer and then the 3rd is the u-bolt plate.

Also I double stacked the stock shock mounts to extend for enough room to install the Rancho 9012 shocks.