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pinion hits downpipe?

T

thechief86

NAXJA Forum User
Location
White House, TN
hey guys, i have an '89 xj wagoneer running a small lift with rusty's 3" coils and 1.75" spacers, and s10 blazer bastard packs in the rear. when i went wheelin new year's eve, my pinion yoke/ driveshaft kept hitting the bend at the bottom of the downpipe, and is imminently gonna wear a hole in my exhaust. i'm using stock control arms at the moment, but i have a set for a rough country 4.5" lift that i'm gonna put on when i get a chance. any ideas, aside from blowing some coin at the exhaust shop?
PB120402.jpg
 
Is it the OEM down pipe? Highly unusual, if so...
Run it with sway bars connected or spend money at the exhaust shop. If there are other ideas, I haven't got them.
 
I had the same problem. Quick and dirty (cheap) fix: loosen the bolts that hold the down pipe to the manifold, pivot the downpipe a little to the side for more clearance and then tighten them back down. They should still seal on the doughnut just fine. Again, this is not the proper fix, but it works.
 
Are your front bumpstops still intact? I'd check there first. The cheapest fix would be to bumpstop as needed. I ran a 2.5" lift on stock arms for a while and never had this problem.
 
I had the same problem with a 1990 I had. I cut the side of pipe off and welded in a flat plate. It was a quick and cheap fix.
 
RidgeRunnerXJ said:
Are your front bumpstops still intact? I'd check there first. The cheapest fix would be to bumpstop as needed. I ran a 2.5" lift on stock arms for a while and never had this problem.
Click to expand...

Was this on your '99? The renix routes differently and is more prone to contact than your HO.
 
you shouldnt hit here, even on a renix, somethings wrong.

i'd check your bumpstops, make sure theyre not worn out.
if theyre intact, add extra length to them, renix's screw in, so just add like a 1/2" spacer between the front bump tower and the bump nub. worst case scenario, you can get longer bump nubs up top, or buy some RE lower extensions (hockey pucks)

back before i correctly setup bumpstops, i crushed my tranny cooler lines w/ my upper control arms, much MUCH worse then putting more dents into your downpipe! i made it from IN n OUT burger to the hill in front of my house (didnt make it up the hill before dumping all my trans fluid)
 
Last edited:
xcm said:
you shouldnt hit here, even on a renix, somethings wrong.

i'd check your bumpstops, make sure theyre not worn out.
if theyre intact, add extra length to them, renix's screw in, so just add like a 1/2" spacer between the front bump tower and the bump nub. worst case scenario, you can get longer bump nubs up top, or buy some RE lower extensions (hockey pucks)

back before i correctly setup bumpstops, i crushed my tranny cooler lines w/ my upper control arms, much MUCH worse then putting more dents into your downpipe! i made it from IN n OUT burger to the hill in front of my house (didnt make it up the hill before dumping all my trans fluid)
Click to expand...
yeah, when i put the springs in i didn't put the bumpstops back in....
as far as the bumper, thanks! it's homemade.... it looks a lot better now with a winch on it. i need to check those tranny cooler lines, too, i guess... i'm not looking forward to pulling the springs back out to put bumpstops back in. it looks like it hits more when the driver's side droops, though, as opposed to when i stuff the tire on that side.
 
for dissasembling the front end, i recommend a 2-3 guy crew. 3 or 4 weekends ago we redid a friends front suspension, by the end of the weekend, we could have the entire front end apart in like 15 minutes. but i do know what you mean! its not fun!


did you make the roof basket yoursellf too? got any pics of your front bumper brackets?
 
the basket was on the jeep when i bought it..... yeah, i think i'm just gonna cut n' weld the exhaust out of the way. i don't have any pics of the bumper brackets yet, but they are just 1/4" plate steel cut into 2 big triangles with holes drilled in the factory bolt spots, then a piece of 1" flat stock welded to the front of that, and the bumper is built off of that and the weld on clevis points. i didn't build it, though, a friend of mine did a couple years ago.
 
Just a thought, but what does the picture do to help use address your problem?

at 4.5" you definitely want some sort of lower control arms and on the verge or wanting/needing new uppers.
 
This is a wild guess but how are the motor mounts? I had an old car with worn motor mounts that allowed the motor to shift around quite a bit. My 99's down pipe is pretty close to the front drive shaft and I would expect a failure of a motor mount could cause what you are seeing.
 
Ba-Riedo said:
Trac bar? If the axle is pushed to one side too far it could come up and contact the exhaust.

-Alex
Click to expand...

X2,Thats what I would see causing the problem also.
 
yeah, i ghettoed this whole thing because i wanted to do the whole thing for under a grand, including buying the jeep. it's still running the stock tracbar that i had only planned on replacing if i got death wobble, which i didn't. i'm gonna put the control arms on this week. i think the motor mounts are pretty good, because i've braketorqued it with the hood open in drive and reverse, and the motor doesn't move.
i got under there, and wiggled the downpipe, and noticed that there is some play in it. i'm gonna try to move it over and tighten up the bolts on the manifold flange doohickey, and try to get that mount on the crossmember to work right as well.
 
I had this same problem in my 92. I finally built my own custom exhaust to keep from constantly tearing a hole in my exhaust.
 
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