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| North American Grand Cherokee Association | ||
| Your one stop source for Jeep Grand Cherokee Information | ||
Adjustable
Rear Trackbar Conversion
by Nathan Baldwin
After I lifted my ZJ up to 5.5" the rear trackbar bracket that was supplied with the Rubicon Express kit was nearing its limits. My axle was shifted to the left a little and I didn’t like the fact of having the bracket on there to add undo stress to the factory bracket. I looked around for an adjustable rear trackbar that would solve my problems. I couldn’t find any. I heard JKS made one but for almost $200. It seemed I would have to find my own solution to my problem.
A few weeks before, I installed my Rubicon Express front adjustable trackbar. It worked wonderfully. I looked at their design and thought about how I could make that work for the rear. I liked the addition of the Heim joint to relive any binding that would take place. I looked around for Heim joints and found one in a McMaster-Carr catalog. If you are not familiar with them, they are a supplier of industrial parts. I think M.O.R.E. also sells Heim joints. I purchased one with a stainless steel ball and Teflon lined race. It had ¾" –16 diameter threads with a mounting hole of ¾" diameter.
My next issue was how to get the Heim joint on the end of the trackbar. I called a few local machine shops to find out how much it would cost to cut off the end of the trackbar, drill a ¾" hole and tap it. I was surprised to find out that it would cost between $60-$100! The problem was that the bar is bent and they would have to make a jig to hold it in the drill press. So I talked to our machinist at work to see if we could make a coupler to attach the joint to the bar. We came up with a 1 7/16" piece of steel bar cut to 2 ½" long. On one end we drilled a 1" diameter hole 1" deep to slide over the trackbar. On the other side we drilled a ¾" hole 1 3/8" deep and tapped it with ¾"-16 threads. On the side that slips over the trackbar, we cut ¼" wide grooves on the side to fill in with weld.
I removed the RE bracket and factory trackbar from my ZJ and measured the overall length of my new piece compared to the old trackbar. From the center of the hole in the joint to the beginning of the hole in the coupler was about 3".
I decided to make the bar ¾" longer with the joint turned almost all the way in. That way I would have adjustment either way. You may want to make the bar shorter or longer depending on you application.
On the factory trackbar, I measured from the middle of the hole back 2 ¼" and cut it off. No turning back now!
Here is a picture of the pieces:
I slid the coupler over the bar and welded it in place. I then ground down the welds, cleaned up the bar a painted to match to front RE one.
The mounting hole in the Heim joint is bigger than the hole in the trackbar bracket. I didn’t want to drill the bracket to a ¾" hole so I bought a reducing bushing to put inside the Heim joint. I reduces the hole back to the factory size of ½". I used ½" washers to space the joint in the middle of the bracket. It is important that the washers that you use put the pressure on the ball and not on the bushing that you installed. I reinstalled the trackbar, adjusted it for length and tightened the jam nut.
Here is the finished bar:
I have used it several times off road and can attest to its strength. I was in some pretty off camber situations and the bar didn’t even flinch. When you’re really flexed up, you can see how the Heim joint relieves the binding. It is a simple and worth while modification. If you would like more information, feel free to contact me at extremezj@email.com.
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