Jeep TJ Lift questions ??

[Mud Rookie]

Hello fellow 4x4'ers

Hope everyone had a great Xmas and holiday so far !!!!

I just recently bought a new 2.5 inch rough country suspension lift with shocks and coils from Danny from 4x4PJF (awesome guy !!) anyhow I have a few questions... I may be interested in getting and additional 1 inch lift by adding a 1 inch polyurethane coils spacers... Now that being said I have not bought anything else.... So I am going to assume that with the 3.5 inches I will more than likely need :

A. possible...

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[mucovich]

yes, we are still getting together today - same bat place, same bat channel. IMHO if you stay with 2.5 then you should be able to get away with keeping all the stock components and upgrade them to stronger aftermarket stuff when the fail/break (and with offroading them they will), but in my experience if you are thinking of adding that extra inch you most likely will do it eventually anyway so might as well do it now - at that point i'd look at TC drop (that's even debatable, with 3.5" it most likely won't be required), control arms (i think you could keep the stock uppers and just get new lowers) and the TB relocation brackets. The TJ guys can correct me if i'm wrong but with 3.5" i don't think you're in drop pitman arm territory yet.

 

[2Greys]

yes, we are still getting together today - same bat place, same bat channel. IMHO if you stay with 2.5 then you should be able to get away with keeping all the stock components and upgrade them to stronger aftermarket stuff when the fail/break (and with offroading them they will), but in my experience if you are thinking of adding that extra inch you most likely will do it eventually anyway so might as well do it now - at that point i'd look at TC drop (that's even debatable, with 3.5" it most likely won't be required), control arms (i think you could keep the stock uppers and just get new lowers) and the TB relocation brackets. The TJ guys can correct me if i'm wrong but with 3.5" i don't think you're in drop pitman arm territory yet.

never do a DP unless the lift came with a Drop bracket for the track bar it screws up the steering geometry causing bump steer. I did a 3" and ended up doing a SYE and noticed a difference. Did it NEED it not really but I can guarantee not doing it would have shortened the life of the UJoints. however i doubt he will need new contol arms for anything less than 4" unless he does an SYE and then it would be rear uppers

To answer your questions. I would run what you have for now and see how it goes you may be happy wiyh what you have. also for the front skip the TB brackets and get proper adjustable track bar(JKS and Curry are touted as being the best at lower lifts for clearance with the front diff cover). For the back adjustable track bar with a CV bracket.).

 

[bradleyfitz]

A. possible TC drop or MML (1 inch) ? or save my pennies and get a SYE w/ drive shaft ???
B. front and rear track bar relocation brackets ?
C. Drop pitman arm ?
D. Longer control arms ?
E. anything else ???

What everyone has said so far is bang on.

A) TC drop if necessary. I have a 1" tc drop in my garage that I haven't listed for sale yet if you are interested. SYE and new driveshaft is the better way to go, but at this point with only a 2.5" lift (and maybe the 3.5" lift), I wouldn't do it. I would run the 2.5" lift for a while before determining if I wanted to invest in a SYE and new drive shaft. And I would install it and drive around before deciding if I needed to drop the transfer case. The less you have to drop it, the better... as obviously, you will have more ground clearance.

B) Might not be necessary with 2.5" lift. With 3.5", most people will re-drill the front trackbar over an inch to save the $200 on a new adjustable trackbar and go with a bracket for the rear. For sure the adjustable is nicer, but you can get by without it.

C) NO

D) Stick with a fixed lower control arms unless you are deciding to fully upgrade to a long arm suspension. If you get new upper control arms, adjustable so you can dial in the pinion angles. With 2.5" you are probably ok on the stock control arms for a while, it will depend on how much you offroad.

 

[2Greys]

I could see why getting adjustable lowers rather than uppers if not doing a SYE since the pinion angle is supposed to be with the tc output while if doing a double Carden drive shaft it is to be pointing directly at the output. you can do that easier with lowers but as Brad said you may not need it. my point was if you even remotely think you may go higher spend the money and get an adjustable track bar. I. didn't say anything about the tc drop because why raise it to then lower it. Before doing a TC drop do a MML to see if it helps. at least it raises oil pan

 

[bradleyfitz]

I could see why getting adjustable lowers rather than uppers if not doing a SYE since the pinion angle is supposed to be with the tc output while if doing a double Carden drive shaft it is to be pointing directly at the output. you can do that easier with lowers but as Brad said you may not need it. my point was if you even remotely think you may go higher spend the money and get an adjustable track bar. I. didn't say anything about the tc drop because why raise it to then lower it. Before doing a TC drop do a MML to see if it helps. at least it raises oil pan

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all an adjustable lower is going to do (in conjunction with fixed uppers) is lengthen your wheelbase a little. I've never seen anyone do this... wouldn't an adjustable lower with a fixed upper push the yoke down and make the pinion angle worse?

 

[2Greys]

Lengthening the wheel base with fixed uppers will tilt the pinion back down which with the standard driveshaft is ideal you want the output of the transfer case to be in parallel with the pinion output (essentially if you drew a line out they would never meet), it's the opposite of what adjustable uppers do.

With the doublecardan drive shafts you want the pinion to be tilted up to point at the TC output in a straight line.


It's not ideal and probably a really expensive way of doing it but might work. I think an MML would be more effective to be honest.

 

[salad]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all an adjustable lower is going to do (in conjunction with fixed uppers) is lengthen your wheelbase a little. I've never seen anyone do this... wouldn't an adjustable lower with a fixed upper push the yoke down and make the pinion angle worse?

Aside from what 2Greys mentioned it's not really an issue if you have a double-cardan shaft in there. The two main benefits are eliminating rub (if that's an issue) and correcting caster angle. Also if the TJ LCAs are the same stamped sheet metal junk that the XJ has... they really do suck lol. Even at stock length you've got nothing to lose by going to a bent tube-style with flex joints.