Spohn arms with johny joints or long travel rear

[87carl]

Blew the rear axle last week and while swapping in the new axle I realized every single delsphere joint in the spohn arms is worn out 2 of them the collars unscrewed themselves. the rest the collars are tight still but the white plastics are worn out. I could just replace the 2 that came undone and put new plastics from spohn in the rest but they have made clunking noises since new and only lasted 2 years so I want to replace them with something better. I have had good luck with Johnny joints on other trucks so was thinking of using them but can't figure out exactly what size I need to get to use them on the spohn arms. And how many are left hand or right thread. There's one on each upper arm and 2 on each of the lower arms.

Not sure if collars correct word but the part of the delsphere joint you can tighten with the special tool they give you

https://optoffroad.com/products/narrow-forged-johnny-joint®?variant=32226601992239

 

[87carl]

Another thing I keep going back and forth on is just ditching the spohn arms completely and finally doing the long arm upgrade now. I gotta replace all the heims and I crushed the driver side lower arm frame mount on a boulder couple months ago that needs cut off and replaced so making new mounts and longer arms won't add much to this project and would make figuring out what heims i need alot easier. Also putting on 12 inch travel bilstein 5125 shocks on in the next couple weeks the ruff country 5-6 inch lift shocks I used last 2 years weren't long enough and I kept putting off getting limit straps so they're blown. Limit straps are another thing I gotta remember to order this month.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

I'd say that if you had clunking in the joint since new the joint was probably never tightened enough, when I first got mine I used to have a clunk until I tightened the joint down. About 2 years on my panhard bar with the del sphere joints and it's still tight. Maybe the extra play let it wear out faster.

Interested in the long arm approach, never seen that on one of these. All I've seen for the rear control arms is the control arm drop bracket.

 

[87carl]

I'd say that if you had clunking in the joint since new the joint was probably never tightened enough, when I first got mine I used to have a clunk until I tightened the joint down. About 2 years on my panhard bar with the del sphere joints and it's still tight. Maybe the extra play let it wear out faster.

Interested in the long arm approach, never seen that on one of these. All I've seen for the rear control arms is the control arm drop bracket.

I tightened them as much as I could before installing them. And added washers to bolts because thats what everyone said to do.

The long arms should be a relatively easy project. Stock upper arms are approximately 17 inch bolt center to bolt center lowers are 22 inch.
lowers are directly below frame bolt center about 1.5 inch below frame stock.
Uppers mounts are against frame with captured nut in frame about 7 inches above and 9.5 inches rearward from lower mounts
Those measurements aren't 100% precise but close. Will get more precise measurements when I make mounts
Plan to move mounts down 3-4 inches and forward 18 inches the upper mount I will move out 1.5 inches from frame
That will make lower mount 40 inch long and almost level at ride height
Upper arms will be 35 inch long and straight no longer having the offset the stock currently have.

https://barnes4wd.com/products/adjustable-inner-frame-link-mount-bracket?variant=42398425350360
I would use something like that for the uppers and have top hole at 3 inches lower than stock upper mount

https://www.ballisticfabrication.com/products/heavy-duty-frame-link-mount
I would use something similar to this for lowers and use 2x3 1/4 wall square tube to lower it down under the joint

Stock mounts would get cut off and the bottom of the body mount that e brake cable goes through would get trimmed and new holes for the e brake cables.

Panhard will be more of a challenge to make longer I don't have much of a plan for that yet. Alot more stuff in the way of that
Will have to fabricate custom mounts for it

I still don't know for sure if I'm just gonna put new joints on spohn arms or just go for it and finally build the long arms would only add few hundred too cost and few more hours work. Very tempted too if I do I'll mock it up and build it on the parts truck with my old blown axle so my truck won't have to be down for long while converting it

 

[87carl]

I would use something like these 3ft 2 inch od 1.5 id 0.25 wall tube for the links
https://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/r2586.html

Then i would need 4 left thread and 4 right thread bungs like these
https://www.ballisticfabrication.com/products/1-0-14-tpi-tube-adapter?variant=21326677447

8 johnny joints 4 left thread 4 right thread 2 inch with 5/8 center and 1.0‐14 shank

And will need grade 8 5/8s bolts nuts and washers
https://barnes4wd.com/products/three-link-grade-eight-hardware-5-8-11-x-3-1-4

 

[87carl]

Took a look at the panhard there's 48 inch from inside of shock to inside of shock so can't make it longer than 44 inches bolt center to bolt center. current panhard is about 34 inches so that's 10 inches longer. Mine is also angled almost 25-30° at ride height currently the frame mount is roughly 3.5 inches higher than axle mount. I would need to make a frame side mount that is 1.5 inches lower and 1.5 inches further out towards tire. And would need a axle side mount that is 8 inches towards tire and 2 inches higher and 1 inch closer to axle. Moving 1 inch closer to axle helps avoid sway bar at full droop. Only obvious interference i might have is could hit frame at full compression if that happens can easily make a small notch in frame to clearance it. I could get a 40 inch length of the tube I'm planning to use for the arms and 2 more heims and bungs. Mount would be made out of 1/4 inch plate

 

[Project Workshop]

This sounds like an awesome project! Curious if you ended up building the long arms?

 

[87carl]

This sounds like an awesome project! Curious if you ended up building the long arms?

Not yet been dealing with alot of medical stuff last couple of months. Probably gonna throw another set of spohn arms on it to keep it drivable till spring and hopefully I will be healthy enough to work on it then

 

[Dustin Jackson]

@87carl Havent seen you post recently, hope everything’s ok man

 

[Marshall 008]

Sorry to hear about the health issues. When I was planning to redo my rear suspension I wasn’t very impressed with Spohn stuff. Not to say it’s bad but just looked like it was thrown together in a way.
I knew what I wanted done and found an awesome local off-road fabricator. Here’s the YouTube video he did while making my rear links. No issues since except on but came loose and I re-tighten it. A much more planted and secure feeling across all surfaces of driving.