Help,Stranded. jeeps at work. drop brackets :/

alright well i got my RE drop brackets in the mail on friday and i started to put them on at work today. well i ran in to a few problems. well i did what everyone said , ONE side at a time, and DONT tighten anything down. well i got the DRIVER side Drop bracket on and its all on loosly, NOT tightened down. i havent started the brace yet, im saving them for last because everyone told me to. well anyway my problem is, i CANT GET MY LCA's CONNECTED ! nobody else says they have problems with this... how come i do ? its soo hard. i tried to connect them by unhooking my sway bar discos, shocks, and front driveshaft. what else am i forgetting to make it line up better. am i supposed to leave the control arms on the passenger side while i do this ? does anyone have any suggestions ? My second problem was that i tried to tighten the alignment shoe thinking it would maybe pull the control arm back so i could put it in, but the bolt that welds to the shoe BROKE off.... so do i ABSOLUTELY need these on there ? i mean i know its what holds the BRACE to the BRACKET but cant i just put 2 BOLTS in there so they will hold to the brace ? will this work ???


HOW DID YOU GUYS GET YOUR CONTROL ARMS HOOKED UP ??????????????

From your post, I can't really tell if you need the axle to move forward or back for the control arms to line up.

If you need the axle to come back, and don't have anyone to help, try using a ratchet strap off the rear axle.

To push it forward, put a bottle jack between the frame and the shock mount plate on the axle.

when I did mine, I took the jeep off the jacks and had someone slowly move it back and forth with the wheels on the ground to line up the control arm, I then jamed a big screwdriver in the hole and lined it up, this was the easiest way for me to do it....

1. Take the shoe and place it between the bracket and the CA. That didn't make sense.

I'll try again...

1. The shoe is U shaped right? Take two sets of pliers and open up the U a little bit. Ok, hold it to the bottom of the bracket so its an upside down U, like you were going to put it in the bracket but don't.

2. Now place the CA in the shoe/U.

3. Take a plastic mallet and slowly, while watching from every angle, beat the CA into the shoe and all the while into the bracket.

It may take a couple of attempts. Just make sure that the CA goes into the shoe at the same rate as the shoe goes into the bracket. All the while you have to rotate the shoe to where it goes back to its horizontal position.

As for the broken shoe stud; just don't bust the other one! At first we were under the impression that the two shoe studs 'pull' the brace to the bracket. Not so, sorda. My braces did not touch the brackets after pulling the shoe/CA as far back as it would go. So, we welded the brace to the bracket.

You won't necassarily 'need' the shoe studs. To adjust for more castor, pry the CA away from the bracket. To adjust for less castor drive into a curb.

generalleexj said:

HOW DID YOU GUYS GET YOUR CONTROL ARMS HOOKED UP ??????????????

Click to expand...

Come along.

Other people have used ratchet straps.

If you are able to put the jeep on all fours again an easy way to put the control arms in is to use a heavy heavy object (like what I did 14 bolt brake drum) and chock it in front or back of the tire depeding on which way you need the control arm to move. Just throw it in 4 lo and slowly drive (do not drive over the object. Of course this method is probably best if at least one control arm is hooked up. As far as I can remember though my control arms went right in except for having to bend the actual bracket apart for the bushing. Good luck either way.----------Kyle

i disconnected the entire axle from the jeep, put the new springs in, put the brackets on loosely, put the upper and lower arms in the brackets loosely, then positioned the axle to where i could get the bolts through the holes on the uppers on the axle end, then used a bottle jack under the pinion to rotate the axle to where the lowers would line up. HTH.

Like olivedrab said, I did pretty much the same, disconnecting most of the front end and moving the axle around with various combinations of floorjack and a comealong looped around my front bumper.

For that 'shoe' that fits around the frame end of the lower control arm, I spread it around the control arm bushing and aimed it toward the holes on the back of the shim. If the shoe/shim thing isn't totally trashed, you should be able to clean up what's left of the bolt and drill a hole to put a real bolt in there. I ended up wiggling my control arm into place and tapping it with a mallet until the arm fit tightly in place. Once everything was jammed up nicely in the DB, I used a couple screwdrivers to line things up until the shoe bolts could be whacked into place...