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advice on 2inch lift, general wheel questions

Michman

NAXJA Forum User
Hi folks
I'm having the Rocky Road 2 inch budget lift installed today (2 inch polyurethane spring spacers, 1 1/2 inch greaseable shackles, 1/2 inch leaf spring spacer) on my wife’s daily driver, 4Liter, 4WD, 97 XJ. Few questions.
1. Will we have to have the speedo recalibrated after wheel and tire installation?
I have a couple options for tires and wheels;
2. Install my TJs 30X9 tires, 15X8 canyon wheels
3. buy new 30X9 tires, on either 7 or 8 X 15 wheels?
4. one-inch transfer case spacer?
Only other thing we may do suspension wise is install Old Man Emu shocks.. From my reading on here a transfer case spacer shouldn’t be needed, but I do like to learn from people who have more experience and wisdom than me. So any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Dan and Dora Johnson, Lansing, Michigan.
Btw, this XJ had several door dings in it when we bought it. Since this is my wife’s new vehicle and I’m trying to make it look sharp for her I found someone who does dentless paint repair. He charges 75 bucks a panel, not cheap, but cheaper than bodywork and paint. He did a great job.
 
hey man,
I did the Rusty 2" BB at the begining of the year. I have the coil spacers and the rear add-a-leaf. Easy instal.
For your questions...I had a slight vibration after the lift and decided to put a homemade 1" TC drop. My friend brought home 2 alum. scrap blocks and we drilled them out and put the on the jeep. Vibes went a way. there weren't that bad off...but i could feel and didn't want them.
Ok. tires... Its all in what ya want to buy..I am running BFG A/Ts 30x9.5 on stock XJ Sport wheels. LOVE IT! Its perfect for a daily driver.
i'm getting ready to do the same lift to my fiancee's XJ and then build mine bigger...but thats a different story.
Hope this helps, i know its only one opinion..but I think you'll be very happy with it.
PM if any questions!!
 
after you do the lift. I would go with Old Man EMU shocks. They are great riding shocks. You could also replace the steering stablizer with an Old Man EMU one. For the vibes in the t-case. Drive it first to see what it feels like. You might or might not have anything for vibes. If you do, put in a spacer. Pretty easy if you have a floor jack, a wrench and some PB blaster. It's just four bolts that hold the crossmember into the frame. Take all four out, while the jack is holding the weight, put the spacers in than the bolts and wrench it up. Pretty easy. Or have a shop do it. But again. Drive it first. You might save yourself some money if it doesn't do any vibes. Juice
 
You really shouldn't have to change your speedometer gear, because you're only going up slightly in tire size. Your speedometer WILL be off, but probably no more than 3 or 4 mph. The tires part is entirely up to you, if you plan on buying new tires for your TJ, use the TJ tires (save some money), or if your want to buy new tires, go for it, but for a 30x9.50 tire, there is no need to buy new rims, that size tire will fit perfectly on the stock rims, (unless you just "want" new rims) As far as the t-case drop, I'd say install the lift, drive it around and see how it feels. If you get vibes, add the spacer, if not, don't worry about it. I really don't have an opinion on the shocks. Just out of curiosity, are you sure that the coil spacers are going to be 2"? The reason I ask is because every coil spacer I have ever seen has been 1.75" (reason being, because your stock coil spring isolator is .75" thick, so if you add the spacer, you create 1.75" of lift, if your remove the stock csi and add the spacer, you end up with 1" of lift) I installed a 2" Budget Boost a while back (spacer and shackle) and I wound up with 1.75" of lift in the front and 1.5" of lift in the rear. Only .25" difference, which isn't a big deal because you need more lift/clearence in the front than you do in the rear anyway. Reason I'm asking, is because if you add the .5" leaf spacer, your rear will sit .25 higher.
 
I think the 2" spacer question can be answered like this. 1.75" spacer plus the isolator which is somewhere between .5 & .75" there is your 2". Now so people leave out the isolator. I have it on mine with the spacer and 4.5" coils. (selling soon). As for the rims and tires. Don't need 15x8 with 30-9.5 tires. 15x7 is the max. I run 33x10.5r15 BFG's on the stock Wrangler Ecco rims which are 15x7. So it works fine, used to have 33" Swampers on the stock 10 spoke wagon wheels. So the stock rims are fine unless you want to swap for something else. Speedo isn't off enough to worry about but you can get a speedo gear at the dealer for about 15 bucks. So are cheaper or more but 15 is the middle ground. Charts for which gear can be found on this site if you search or try jeepin.com.
Juice
 
Sounds like a plan. You can take the guesswork out of dealing with vibes. Get an angle finder. They are available at most parts stores and some hardware stores.
Driveshaft vibrations are caused by acceleration and deceleration of the driveshaft as it wobbles during rotation. The end of each shaft travels in an elipse while it rotates. The way to keep vibrations down is to make the elipse the same shape and size at each end of the shaft so that they cancel eachother out.
The way to make that happen is to keep the t-case output paralel to the pinion yoke. This is where the angle finder comes in. On flat pavement, take out the shaft. Find the angle of the two yokes. The t-case needs to point down at the same angle that the pinion points up.
With the long shackle you are getting this will point the pinion up quite a bit. I like long shackles. Keep them. You can compensate for them by using tapered lift blocks and by using the transfer case drop. You probably won't need a SYE at 2"
Good luck,
Mattk
 
Cujo, I'm not sure about the spacer size. According to the Rocky Road Outfitters website they are two inches, I didn't measure them when I received them, but they look like 2 inch spacers. I remember the directions discussing the 1/2 inch isolater, I just can't remember if it said to leave it in or take it out. The installation got postponed yesterday, our mechanic is doing it today. I'll call him and double check since he doesn't normally install lifts. Thanks for the reminder.
Regarding putting my TJ wheels on. It had the optional 30x9 tire and canyon wheels, I was pretty sure the canyon wheels are 15X8.
Thanks for the feedback on the transfer case spacer, and steering stabilizer. Sounds like everyone thinks I should take a wait and see approach, which I'll do.
Again thanks, appreciate the feedback.
Dan
 
Michman said:
Regarding putting my TJ wheels on. It had the optional 30x9 tire and canyon wheels, I was pretty sure the canyon wheels are 15X8.

Yeah, Wrangler Canyons are 15x8 -- ZJ Canyons are 15x7.

Going from stock to 30x9.50s will affect your speedometer by approximately 5% (I confirmed a 6% change going from 215s to 30s). That means at 50 MPH you (she) will be going 2.5 MPH faster than the speedo indicates. Most police give you that much latitude, so I just trained myself to drive at exactly the posted limit and let the speedo error take care of itself.
 
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