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rustys 4.5'' lift

You'll probably need to shim the rear axle to help compensate for the increased driveline angle. Rusty's will throw that in for free if you call them to place the order (at least they did for a friend of mine). I see that kit comes with a transfer case drop kit which will certainly help.

You may or may not have driveline vibes depending on what year XJ you have. A SYE would eliminate this possibility. Best advice I can give is to do it and see. You may be fine without it.
 
for that price i'd like to see new upper control arms at least... the stock uppers are incredibly weak if you have never looked at them.. try for some small axle shims like 2 and 3 degree shims.. when i last lifted i bought several sizes so i had what i needed and extras for the future... i have no experience with rusty's stuff but i hear more negative about his rear leaf packs than i would call acceptable.... good luck with your choice and dont jump into a kit without taking every answer into account

mike
 
as said before, search and you shall learn. search for rustys stuff and see what people had to say about and see what you like, but i think for around the same money you can get an RE lift which seems to be better quality.
 
I ran the 4.5 on my rig for 3 years with the stock uppers and I wheeled it prettty hard...I run nothing but Rusty's on my rigs and have had no problems with saggging or anything. I put his 6.5" Long arm on last May and Wheeled all year prettty good and have had no sag.
 
i have the rustys 4.5 w/rear springs. it worked pretty good, (get the kit and get new rear shackles with it) then when i started to wheel harder trails the rear pass. started to sag.

after many phone calls and nothing getting taken care of, luckly, rusty came up to our jeep show in york last year and i showed him the problem in person he hooked me up w/new rear spring instantly. that was awesome but, i feel if it was all phone calls w/him it would have been a real pain to get this taken car of.

his lifts are mostly complete and at a fair price.
 
If your looking for about 4 to 5 inches of lift, get the Rusty's 3". Then throw a coil spacer up front. That's what I did. With a 1.75" spacer after about 20,000 miles I measure 4.5" in the front and 4" in the rear. I got 5" in the rear origionally. Stuffs 31" BFG muds with about 3/4" to spare before hitting the fender lining in the front. This is on a 99' with stock fender flares and bump stops. I'm very happy with the lift and I think it was only like $420 and that included shocks. The spacer was only like 25 bucks.
 
I have the 4.5 and I like it. I have a t-case drop and no vibes.. although I have an 88. I here the newer the car the more trouble with vibes.
 
I have the 4.5 kit drive it daily and wheel it pretty hard. Its a great kit the only problem I've had it the TRE on the track bar had worn out after only 2 months since then I upgraded to the HD bracket and bushing style end.
 
i was thinking of getting a 3" rustys lift (money reasons) and putting in a shackle and spring spacer to hopefully net 4.5" in the end? how does this sound for a guy with not a lot of money and wanting to wheel? ( it will be on a cheap used project XJ for trail/abuse only ). will i NEED an SYE or new driveshaft with this much lift?
 
there have been many threads offering cheaper sugestions for lifting the rear (that are better than shackle and block) - search for "Dakota Leaf springs" or "s-10 Leaf springs"
many people have had sucess with making full spring packs with these - to any lift hight that they needed. (i think up to 6")

it is a gamble with the SYE - the only real way to find out if you need it is to install the lift and drive it. a friend of myne put on a 2" coil spacer/AAL and had terrible vibes and an SYE was the only solution, but another friend of myne in a 6" lift (with the shaft extended for $25) has no problems with the vibrations and slip yoke. (he does have 2" T-case cross drop tho)

as far as rustys products go however, get a full spring pack for the rear, it is the safest best way to go. A friend of myne's 3" AAL droped to 1.25" after 20,000 on highway miles...

good luck with ur jeep

-XJ_ranger
 
thanks man ill look into those rear leaf springs. im just so happy with my rustys lift on my KJ thought id throw one on the XJ too ;) ill check it out! thanks!
 
quivvy said:
thanks man ill look into those rear leaf springs. im just so happy with my rustys lift on my KJ thought id throw one on the XJ too ;) ill check it out! thanks!
Click to expand...

Liberty?
 
I'd see how much it would cost to upgrade to his HD adj. trac bar and bracket. I like the design and mine works great. Just a thought since I hear the joints on the top of the aftermarket adj. trac bars that use the stock mount wear EXTREMELY fast. Mine has just a poly bushing like what's on the axle end of the stocker.
 
Ramsey said:
Liberty?
Click to expand...

yup. KJ = Liberty. I want to get an XJ cherokee or comanche (parts are interchangeable right?) for a project rig and to tear up - too expensive to replace parts on the KJ.
 
do you wheel it? if you do throw some pics out.
 
I started off with the same 4.5" kit 2.5 years ago.

All that's left of it on my XJ are the t-case drop kit and the front coils.

The LCA's are noisy on the road, they clunk a lot. Rusty will give you a jam nut to "remedy" that. I eventually switched to long arms and the on road ride is so much better.

The leaf packs sagged on me, like most others. Rusty sent me an add-a-leaf to fix that, and he told me he changed his leaf pack design, so maybe it's better since I installed mine originally. I cracked the add-a-leaf last week and now I'm waiting on my RE leaf packs to arrive.

I bent and replaced the trac bar, the TRE's wore REALLY fast, Rusty warrantied them twice before I had to replace the whole thing.

Piece a lift together, you'll be much happier in the end.
 
Ramsey said:
do you wheel it? if you do throw some pics out.
Click to expand...
KJ here too, but actively shopping for a "better wheeler" XJ!
BBGMJJ2.jpg

BBJBJJ.jpg

BBJBJJ3.jpg
 
Ramsey said:
do you wheel it? if you do throw some pics out.
Click to expand...

do you wheel it... OF COURSE I WHEEL IT!!! :) also looking for a beater tho. hoping to pick up an XJ for 800 or less and throw a lift and tires on it to abuse and not have to worry bout it being my DD. hey JJ would u sell me that front bumper?

(ill post pics but someones gotta explain how to post on this board i cant figure it out!)
 
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