AFM Weld On LCA Skids
By Steve Leslie
***DISCLAIMER - Please note that this writeup
reflects my experiences only and anyone using it for reference or as a guide,
etc. does so at their own risk. You may link to this writeup, but you must
obtain my permission to re-post it elsewhere.***
This writeup will cover the install of
AFM Enterprises Lower Control Arm Skid Plates on a 1997 Cherokee. The install
would be exactly the same on a TJ as well. The skids themselves are made from
3/16" steel and will work with both factory and aftermarket control arms. They
were obtained from
MikeGreen4x4.
It should be noted that these are a weld on product, so in order to do this
yourself you will need some type of welding equipment...or know someone that
will weld for beer.
Tools used:
Floor jack
Jack stands
Impact wrench
1/2" Breaker bar
21 MM and 13/16" sockets
Rubber mallet
Angle grinder with wire wheel
Eye protection
Wire brushs
Clamps
Wire feed welder (including welding mask and gloves)
Digital camera
Preperation:
First, I chocked the rear wheels, jacked up the front end of the Jeep, and
supported it with jackstands. Then I removed the front tires.
Now, for the last few years I've been running a set of bolt on skids, so my LCA
mounts, although dirty, were in good shape. It's important that the front edges
of the mount are straight so that the skid sits flush and you can get a good
weld. So you might have to do a little bending to make that happen. Anyway, this
is what I started with:
Now, the two skids are slightly different at the top. Each one has an angle that
slopes in opposite directions. Unfortunately I did not get a pic of the skids
side by side before I installed them, but you can see it in the post install
pics later. The first thing to do was to test fit and make sure that everything
sat nice and flush as well as to figure out which skid went where:
At that point I determined that the top of the skids should slope upwards
towards the diff (again, this is illustrated in the finish shots below). Once I
was sure of that, I dropped the control arm and went at the mount with a wire
wheel. The purpose of this was to get the weld points down to bare metal:
Before:
After:
Installing:
So now it was time to clamp the skid to the mount and tack weld it into place.
Tack welding first is important since you can confirm that everything is still
lined up correctly and that the LCA's still fit prior to having complete welds
in place.
After tack welding the skid in (and while I could still knock it back off with a
hammer if I needed to), I test fit the control arm back into place to make sure
that the skid would not interfere with it's operation.
Now, at this point I got lazy and did not drop the control arm again. However, I
have heim joints in my control arms. If you've got rubber bushings, keep the
control arms out of there until you're done. You do not want to have the heat
generated by welding transferred to a rubber bushing...unless you like the smell
of burning rubber, feel like cleaning it up later and also want to completely
ruin your bushings.
Back on point, the next step was to actually weld it into place. I used a
gasless core wire welder, but they could be stick welded on if that's what
you've got. These are not my best welds, but they are decent ones:
After they fully cooled, I painted the welds and the skids with some rattle can
semi gloss black...mainly to keep them from rusting/corroding. As indicated
earlier, note the orientation of the top angle on each skid sloping up towards
the diff.
Passenger side :
Drivers side:
It really is that easy. Total time was about an hour and half, including
raising/lowering the Jeep and removing/re-installing the tires.
Rock On!
***DISCLAIMER - Please note that this writeup
reflects my experiences only and anyone using it for reference or as a guide,
etc. does so at their own risk. You may link to this writeup, but you must
obtain my permission to re-post it elsewhere.***
