Low budget build thread (pics inside)

well my 89 has a rough country 4.5" x-series with a 2" spacer/2" shackle. im centering up my coils better today cause as you can see my control arms from when i installed them arent the right length on driver side. advice/comments appreciated



passenger coil:



Driver coil:



random underbelly shot:






test fit with the new 33x12.50's..




pretty much in love with the :new: tsl's. i got them both for $50 now im just waiting on some money to buy the other two. today im dropping my whole axle to re-lenghth and adjust my control arms, should be fun, right? :wave:

got the steering off, starting on the track bar now..

Nice chalk blocks. And steep angles on the CA's. Just a question, it's not a '96+, why did you drop the t-case?

mikeNtucson said:

Just a question, it's not a '96+, why did you drop the t-case?

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Because 6.5 inches of lift is a whole bunch of lift on the stock driveshaft.

Back to the story, go to gojeeps web page and learn how to do a drive way alignment from him. I would take and extend your control arms upper and lowers till your tire is more centered in the well, and your spring is sitting properly.

then do as gojeep says for doing an alignment. when you do the alignment, put the tires on it, park on level ground and that will help a bunch. where you are working on it now is not a good spot for alignments.

I would say that it is not going to take you very long to figure out that the angles of your control arms are very steep, and it will ride rough and might drive rough. Some control arm drop brackets would solve that problem for you. Also, that track bar is going to go south on you pretty quick with the tre style end on it with that much lift. you might start looking at a better affordable track bar with a johnny joint, or hiem joint on the other end, with that much lift, you might even want a rustys or RE track bar with the frame bracket that drops it a little bit.

Hope this helps, happy reading and i know you know all i just posted, but just for grins, i reminded you.

thnks a lot for the advice i know my control arm angle is very steep, but for now i need it just to be drivable. i will go long arm once the money permits but for now this is what i got. that track bar insight is very helpful by the way ill start looking at those.

x2 on the control arm angles, draglink looks closed to max too :scared: keep that off the road

edit just saw your post, remove the blocks if you want it driveable

Mopar It said:

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yes, please make sure there is tre in that sleeve past that clamp, if not, see if you can either get a longer tre, or better yet, drop pitman (if you are going cheap) or new drag link set up from rustys or i think curry has one too that is even better

lol everybodys jumpin' all over my problems but yeah this is where im at now, i decided to just pull the whole axle, clean everything up and go for it again, anybody got a calculator for my control arm lengths?

http://www.ilovejeeps.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12524

does this help?

RyanM said:

x2 on the control arm angles, draglink looks closed to max too :scared: keep that off the road

edit just saw your post, remove the blocks if you want it driveable

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I agree! Your MUCH better off keeping the blocks and spacers out of it until you can get the right parts, especially since you took it all apart again. With those angles, that thing will drive like a brick...a suicidal one at that!

In your first pics, like your drag link, your track bar joint is also extended way too far. The general rule is that you want at least 1.5X the diameter of the shank, of thread engagement. So for example if the shank is 1", you would want at least 1.5" of thread engagement (not counting the jam nut).

You look like you have plenty of room to fit the 33s on 4.5" anyway, it's never bad to keep that COG down!

Oh, and that's a nice color XJ you have there :laugh: Mine looks different now, I got rid of the chrome, and bedlined the bottom, but it used to look like this. 33s on 4.5" BTW, just relocated the flares...


Not so clean now...

okay so im re-measuring my control arms and rough country says use 15.5" on the lowers and 16.5" on the uppers. this confuses me because i just measured them when i took them off and they were around 17 1/4 meaning they should be longer to center my coil spring right, not shorter? anyways..here

lowers:



lowers:

I got mine pretty close with yuccamans chart and the springs were well centered and straight, then had some highway vibes, I ended up lengthening my uppers by about a 1/4 in and shortening my lowers by about the same, It cured my vibes, steering isn't quite what it was and I have slight bowing of the coils to the front. I'm leaving it as is until I get some drop brackets and a longer front driveshaft.

i just called rough country and they said 16.5 lowers and 15.5 uppers are baseline measurements and my allignment shop should remove the control arms and turn them out to make it all straight, but my local les schwab didnt do this when i had it alligned last time

My alignment shop said straight time at $75 bucks an hour to do mine-I don't think so, Instead it cost me an agle finder,a case of beer,and two buds willing to help out.( I left the coils in)

How centered were your wheels when your had it together the last time??

pretty good but one coil was really tweaked but ill just see if the shop will allign it and mess with the control arms.

Mopar It said:

ill just see if the shop will allign it and mess with the control arms.

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fawk that man. You learn by messing with things. I agree with leaving the blocks and spacers out, but its your rig, and you now know what you need to make it right at that height.

put the tire where you want it. The adjust your control arms to that point, then do the driveway alignment with an angle finder. Walla, out of there for free plus you learned how so you can do your buddy's for a case of beer and save him some money.

Trust me, you want to learn how to do this on your own. You will tear down and rebuild several times if you are like most of the hands on people of this forum. New springs, new control arms, ect, and being able to save minimum $50-200 per alignment will give you more money for parts.

Just think, the money you want to spend on an alignment would buy you a new control arm or steering set up.

yeah, well how would i adjust it when the tires are on and such, jsut roll up the axle and go from there? that seems kinda sketch to do especially with short arms, im just gonna try and add an extra inch to each and see what happens

dude

Anything over 4.5" and short arms equals sketchy!

i understand but trust me ill be safe and it aint gonna get wheeled

yea man

im right there with u on the whole budget deal

it just im trying to squeeze 35's but i gotta keep flares

tell me how everything goes at 6.5"s and short arms

as far as not wheeling

come on man u gotta take it out some time!!!