LCA thoughts

OK, sitting @ about 5.5" ~6" of lift with 35's I realized that my front axle is a bit too far back: RE LCA's at that height need drop brackets. Well, I don't like drop brackets so I started looking at the jeep and came to the conclusion that I will benefit from extending my LCA's a bit so that the front axle goes forward a bit. Being that I'm slightly burnt out when it comes to wrenching on the jeep I had an opportunity to pickup a set of adjustable LCA's (RE also) but it turns out that they are only 1/2" longer at full extension then fixed. This does not really give me much so back to the drawing board.

My current plan is to chop my LCA's in the middle and sleeve them. The OD on the LCA's is 1.5". What would you guys recommend when it comes to tubing for the sleeving (I'm looking for tubing types and wall thickness)?

I know that I will have to measure things out and do some calculations to see what I need to do to regain stock wheelbase or maybe even extend it a hair but kind of eyeballing it I think I might want about 1" of length on the LCA's.

Oh yeah, I just measured center of wheel to center of wheel and my wheelbase is 99.5" so that means that I'm 2" short of stock..... maybe I'll have to extend the LCA's more then 1" This will improve the angles significantly (not that the LCA angled bothered me). Also looking at some tables as a starting point it looks like I might need about 1.25" to 1.75" (final length will probably be determined by moving the axle forward and backward without the LCA's on the axle and measuring the wheelbase.

http://www.yuccaman.com/jeep/re_db.html

I DID A THE SAME MOD A WHILE BACK. I MADE NEW UPPERS AND LENGHTEND MY LOWERS. THE UPPERS ARE 1.25 OD. .250 WALL DOM
I USED SOLID 1.5 INCH STEEL TO SLEEVE THE LOWERS WITH I PUT IT IN A LATHE AND TURNED ABOUT 4 INCHES ON EACH END TO FIT SNUG IN THE ARM. AND THE CENTER IS THE SAME DIAMETER AS THE ARM.
I STRECHED MY WB ABOUT 1.5 INCHES PAST STOCK.

BUT IF I DID IT AGIAN I WOULD JUST MAKE SOME LONG ARMS.

azxj87 said:

BUT IF I DID IT AGIAN I WOULD JUST MAKE SOME LONG ARMS.

Click to expand...

For now I don't mind the way it runs and flexes with short arms. I do consider building a midarm setup of sorts every so often, but then it's just a project that would take too much work and I'd rather avoid it if I can.

Just get adjustables.......thats what I did....rides sooooo much better now.

Fairmonco said:

Just get adjustables.......thats what I did....rides sooooo much better now.

Click to expand...

I had an opportunity to pickup a set of adjustable LCA's (RE also) but it turns out that they are only 1/2" longer at full extension then fixed. This does not really give me much so back to the drawing board.

Click to expand...

Here's something interesting: I had someone measure out their adjustables and it seems that there is a lot more room for adjustment than the RE rep said. So I might be going back to the adjustable ones for now and then in a long run build a mid arm setup.

I came across this chart on 4wd's forum for determinig proper UCA/LCA lengths and decided to clean it up and store it as a jpeg. Hope it helps you sort out what you need.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-2/1146369/ControlArmChart.JPG

By the way, if you do go to adjustables and wanna offload your fixed arms, PM me, I'm looking for a set of lowers. At about 3.5" of lift on my XJ, so I would need them to be about 16"-16 3/8" eye to eye.

Black97XJ said:

By the way, if you do go to adjustables and wanna offload your fixed arms, PM me, I'm looking for a set of lowers. At about 3.5" of lift on my XJ, so I would need them to be about 16"-16 3/8" eye to eye.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, but they already have a home if I go with the adjustables.