3 link

This coming spring I am gonna start building my 3 link, gonna start with a Clayton 3 link cross member and 1 1/4 hiems for lowers and 7/8 for my upper, just curious what length everybody uses for their lowers? Do you stretch the front end or leave it as close to stock. Thanks.

There is a no set length. Everyone's setup differs and you must adjust accordingly. You can either leave it in the factory location. So when the tire stuffs it's centered in the fender well or many people opt for some stretch. It's all up to you.

If you look at the stock XJ front axle you will notice the axle center is 2.5" or may be 3" rearward of the spring pad and that the lower control arm pivots are well below axle center. I moved the axle forward, directly under the spring pad (also adding lift), rotated the control arm brackets on the axle up level with the axle height first (helping with arm angle and ground clearance).

Next step was to put the big tires on and extend the bump stops till the tires didn't rub (just take fenders off, tune later). With the axle against the bump stops (bottomed out) and all your brackets tacked on, you measure hole to hole for your link length.

The reason I picked that 2.5" of forward axle movement is that the steering (pitman) arm still clears the Panhard mess with the stock axle, arm length and box location. There are other methods, this was mine.

Okay, thanks for the info guys