Coils rubbing knuckles?

Hi everybody,

so I installed a 2" lift two or three weeks ago and everything was working fine untill a few days ago, when my XJ developed a popping noise from the front end which would do it randomly when street driving, a lot more when off road and sometimes when I lean on the hood.

Several inspections I did revealed only a pitman arm balljoint that needed to be replaced sometime in the near future but that did not make bad sounds, and signs that my new coils have been rubbing with the part of the axle where the balljoints are. Look at the pics. They look like they have moved from the center of the base.

I can fit my finger between the coil and the base where it sits, but not on the inner side of the axle.


Like here


And on the left coil outer side too, my finger goes between the coil and th ebase but not on the inner side.


Have they moved while setteling? Yes, the retaining clips are on and seem tight. I ran out of ideas!!


Thanks in advance!!

Marantz

Are they fully seated in the coil buckets and the end of the spring is in the cutout notch in the bucket?

Is your axle properly centered? I assume at 2" you still have a stock trackbar, which shouldn't be much of a problem but could pull the axle over just enough to cause this since it's only hitting the C on one side. This can be remedied by installing an adjustable bar, or simply re-drilling the axle side mount to center the axle.

TRAILREADYXJ said:

Are they fully seated in the coil buckets and the end of the spring is in the cutout notch in the bucket?

Is your axle properly centered? I assume at 2" you still have a stock trackbar, which shouldn't be much of a problem but could pull the axle over just enough to cause this since it's only hitting the C on one side. This can be remedied by installing an adjustable bar, or simply re-drilling the axle side mount to center the axle.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what his problem is.

Hi,

The axle might be centered as I had my lift installed by my trusty mechanic, but he's on holiday now. He didn't say I needed nothing extra and he did also align and balance my new tires I installed with the lift. I imagine if he had seen something weird he would of said it to me. How can I check it though? Visually looks fine to me...

Yes they are on the groove the coils usually sit and the retainers are on their place. The other coil also touches the C, I just didn't upload the pic. Maybe the retainers have become loose while everything was setteling? The popping sound and rubbing have started like 200 miles after lifting it.

Thanks for your help!

Marantz

judging by the way the coils are sitting on their perches your "trust mechanic" might not have put them in the intended grooves properly and its less likely to need a new trac bar but if that is the case do not drill the axle bracket just get an adjustable unit by drilling the bracket your saving money now to have to fix problems later

What brand are the coils, they look large in the bucket........over sized.


Also, if you went up 2"........your axle has shifted to the driver's side about 1", whether you see it or not, measure it.

Maybe its the pic but the coils look really big. Width and wire size is massive looking compared to my coils.

Hi,

Stock coils measured unloaded 17" tall, 5'2" in diameter and the wire was 0'40" wide.

This ones measure also unloaded 18" tall, 5'25" in diameter and the wire is 0'60" wide.

Yes they are a bit bigger and they actually lifted the xj 2'5". What surprises me is that for 200 miles they worked fine and now they are rubbing the c's on the axle.

Besides this, should I buy the adjustable trackbar for this 2'5" of lift? If you say so I will, I just want it to be perfect.

MarantzVieta said:

Hi,

Stock coils measured unloaded 17" tall, 5'2" in diameter and the wire was 0'40" wide.

This ones measure also unloaded 18" tall, 5'25" in diameter and the wire is 0'60" wide.

Yes they are a bit bigger and they actually lifted the xj 2'5". What surprises me is that for 200 miles they worked fine and now they are rubbing the c's on the axle.

Besides this, should I buy the adjustable trackbar for this 2'5" of lift? If you say so I will, I just want it to be perfect.

Click to expand...

That small difference in diameter should not be enough to cause the coils (both coils) to touch the inner 'C's. Something else have gone wrong. There is an indentation on the coil buckets that the end of the coils have to fit into. Maybe they did not fit correctly which allow the coils to rotate and shift as you drove the XJ,...just saying. Neither coils on my XJ have a hold down bracket and have not moved in more than 50,000 miles and several off road trips. The shocks on my XJ keeps the coils firmly in place even at the maximum 10" of drop.

With 2.5" of lift, the axle shifted to the left but I did nothing to fix it. At 4", I replaced the OEM track bar with an adjustable track bar with double shear bracket on the frame end.