Control arms, do I need uppers?

Ok I searched with no luck as I'm not good at finding stuff on the internet. I have a 94 XJ with a Rough Country 4.5 full leaf kit ready to bolt on. I'm waiting until I buyI have a RE adj track bar with the Heim joint and 4wd Hardware adj lower CA. I plan on changing the trans mount to a manual to see if I can get away without the driveline vibe temporarily. I'm wondering do I need to put longer upper control arms in? How can I tell if the Heim joint is any good on the Adj TB I bought used?

Thanks for the help in advance.

If the hiem is tight, its good .. if not, .. not.

At 4.5" you should need upper and lower control arms yes.

Go look at the RE 4.5" lift kit, they list the contents on their webpage. Everything in that kit, you need.

Yes get longer UCAs too. Good job on deciding to do adjustable lowers too. I didn't. I let myself get talked into a setup that I knew wouldn't work and now my Jeep rides like poo and the steering is impossible to align properly...

Darky said:

Yes get longer UCAs too. Good job on deciding to do adjustable lowers too. I didn't. I let myself get talked into a setup that I knew wouldn't work and now my Jeep rides like poo and the steering is impossible to align properly...

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I'd like to see pics of that setup.

Jeepm@n said:

Ok I searched with no luck as I'm not good at finding stuff on the internet. I have a 94 XJ with a Rough Country 4.5 full leaf kit ready to bolt on. I'm waiting until I buyI have a RE adj track bar with the Heim joint and 4wd Hardware adj lower CA. I plan on changing the trans mount to a manual to see if I can get away without the driveline vibe temporarily. I'm wondering do I need to put longer upper control arms in? How can I tell if the Heim joint is any good on the Adj TB I bought used?

Thanks for the help in advance.

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With 4.5" you don't "need" either new uppers or lowers. It will work, and work well.
There is adjustment available at the body side of the LCA.

Reasons for replacing LCAs at 4.5" are to lenghthen the LCA, longivity and clearance.
Reasons for replacing uppers are mainly to lenghten the UCA to compensate for the lower you just bought, and longivity. Lots of folks replace the lowers, then do the uppers later when they bend them when being pulled out of a deep muck hole.

You also don't need a fancy track bar. Just move the hole over at the axle.

You can probably get away with not having to lower anything to get a 93' to work. But if you did want to lower the t-case, replace your X-Member with a rustys dropped X-member and you give up no clearance.

one doesnt "need" anything like those parts. they just make the whole thing work a whole hell of a lot better.

Thanks for the replies. I'd like it to just work and have everything I need for it before I assemble it. I need to wait till we move to our new house before I start. Looks like I need a new Heim joint for the trackbar. I can move it by hand. I'm going to order a new one and heavy duty track bar mount while I'm at it. I'm just into fixing or upgrading things before they break.

I would highly recommend upgraded your uppers for strength reasons. I have seen several sets of uppers fail on the trail (just last week a TJ in our group wiht stock stamped steel uppers snapped both dirive and passenger front uppers on a trail). At 3.5" after less than a year I folded a passenger side upper on the road driving in unplowed snow. Do it right the first time and upgrade the uppers when you already have everything apart. Otherwise you will be taking it all apart again when you break the weak stock uppers.

stewie said:

they just make the whole thing work a whole hell of a lot better.

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That's debatable. I ran at 4.5" with adj. lowers and stock uppers for over 2 years, and I highly doubt putting aftermarket UCA's in there would have done much.

To the OP: try it without them first, it's not going to hurt anything. Then if you feel that the added investment is worth it, you can always add them later.

vetteboy said:

That's debatable. I ran at 4.5" with adj. lowers and stock uppers for over 2 years, and I highly doubt putting aftermarket UCA's in there would have done much.

To the OP: try it without them first, it's not going to hurt anything. Then if you feel that the added investment is worth it, you can always add them later.

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right on.
i am running the RC 4.5 full leaf kit with their beefy lower arms, and stock uppers. great kit, flexes really nice (you will need longer break lines) that kit comes with a trackbar relocation bracket that loosened up on me, adj trackbar was a good move. the kit should also come with a 1" trans drop, which took care of any vibes that I would have had.

if you are worried about the Heim, order the rebuild kit from RE

i am now running a RE trackbar and Slip-Yoke kit without the trans drop