Need a lil help from people running Rough Country LA kits

A few months ago i bought the adjustable Rough Country double sheer track bar with frame mount.



From what i understand it comes with the Rough Country long arm kits.

My jeep has been in the garage since October getting a full workover. I finally pulled er out of the garage and drove to the gas station and back for a test run. The jeep shimmied and swerved all over the road. Some hints of DW but i never went over 45 mph. Before the rebuild the jeep drove fine even with swampers on the highway. During the rebuild i replaced upper control arm bushings with red polyurethane ones. I forget the brand maybe prothane or poly performance or something. They pressed in nice and tight and i lubed em with the supplied lube. I also replaced the steering with the rugged ridge setup which i got locally for 15 dolla. I installed tre spacers with this kit as well as people have trouble with tie rod roll. I also installed the above pictured track bar. But in true me fashion i neglected to read the instructions which stated i needed a drop pitman arm. I checked the angles and my drag link and track bar are not parallel.

My question is for people who are using this track bar or are using the RC long arm kit as i believe the kit comes with this track bar and a supplied drop pitman arm.

How much drop is the pitman arm over stock? RC sells a generic arm without any specifications. I basically want to know if i can get away with a ZJ pitman arm or if i need to purchase one with a larger drop. The ZJ arm is a 1" drop over the XJ. I crawled under to measure but the curves in this track bar just gave me a headache.

Any and all help would be appreciated. I'm itching to get this turd on the road again with some kind of decent road manners.

Thanks in advance
-Mike

the pitman arm in the RC kit has a LOT of drop compared to a zj arm, it's about a 4" drop.

after you replaced the steering did you get it aligned?

RoyalXJ said:

after you replaced the steering did you get it aligned?

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X2
I know when i did mine it had bad DW..I just change my steering to stock, took it off the wifes jeep...Hers drove fine, but mine wouldn't do 35 MPH..

yah i aligned it. all numbers came out fine. Its the track bar drop thats killing me. The RR setup works if you take your time with it.

4" of pitman arm drop is killer. I just tried to measure it with a square and at most it looks like i need 2". I was hoping 1" would be enough to calm down the bumpsteer. Anyone have exact measurements?

Thanks again

-Mike

i think you overpaid for the ruggedridge steering, the current market puts the value at right around $3.


if your new tb bracket had too much drop, it would throw off your angles, causing bumpsteer (hit a bump with 1 tire, and it trys to rip the steering wheel out of your hand.)

i dont think it would cause death wobble... double check that the bracket is tight, TIGHT, TIGHT.

Get rid of the RR steering and the poly bushings.Take a pic of your draglink/trackbar angles,it sounds like they are all screwed up!

Yah my angles are definitely screwed up. Thats why im asking what the RC pitman arm drop is that comes with the LA kit. I know i can fix the problem if i can get the right pitman arm. On RC's website it just says drop pitman arm and gives no measurements. I called RC and asked how much the drop was over stock and i got kinda almost 2 inches. I would like to know from people who have the kit, how much more of a drop did the RC pitman arm give over stock. From what is described above, i do not have deathwobble, i have bumpsteer. I will double check the tightness of the bracket. I put it on with a breaker bar and locktight. What is the best way to measure how much drop i need from the pitman arm? i used a square this morning but it didnt seem all that accurate as i didnt know where exactly on the draglink to measure from. Also, would it be silly to drill a hole higher up on the track bar frame bracket to get my angles closer?

Thanks
-Mike

When I installed my 6.5" lift the pitman arm was only about a 1" drop. I don't know where you guys are getting this 4" mess from.

Also, on the track bar. The bolt supplied is slightly larger than the stock hole. You have to drill out the factory track bar bracket for the larger bolt. It will be a good tight fit with the bushing. If you use the stock bolt you will have a ridiculous amount of play in the track bar and cause the problems you are describing. Ask me how I know....

Thank you. That just answered all my questions. I used the stock bolt in the frame mount because the bolt was also too big. I will drill it out and use the bolt that was supplied in the kit. I will also grab a zj arm and throw it on tonight for 1" drop which will hopefully be close enough.

Thanks for the help

-Mike

That should set you up fine. I don't remember the size bit I used but I know it was difficult to drill straight due to the location of the bracket. I actually had to cut about an inch off the bolt RC supplied in order to be able to get a wrench up on the back side to keep the nut from spinning. All in all it wasn't that bad. Good luck with it.

Off topic, do you like the long arms?

Well they do OK. The springs give a pretty rough ride IMO but other than that the kit handles its own. The jeep is currently my daily driver. Its road manners are better than stock but it rides like a tank. I have the NP 242 tcase and I have one of the original kits so my tcase hangs down about an 1.5" below the frame line. That scares the crap out of me. The kit went on without too many issues. The only two things that really stick out are the track bar axle mount not being a straight bolt in and the front drive shaft rubs the crap out of the crossmember. I had to have almost a half inch out of the crossmember to get the front driveshaft to clear all the way. Other than that I have been satisfied.

z_lindig said:

devildog12210 said:

When I installed my 6.5" lift the pitman arm was only about a 1" drop. I don't know where you guys are getting this 4" mess from.

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looks like about 4" of drop to me...

sorry about the crappy quality pic. this is the pitman arm that comes with the 6.5" kit.

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Take a picture of the stock one next to it and compare. If you are thinking the stock pitman arm is straight you are mistaken.

The top is a stock XJ and the bottom is a ZJ.

meh, i'm not messing with any more pics. my cherokee has the stock pitman arm with approximately a 2" drop, bossman's cherokee has the 6.5" RC long arm kit, pitman arm drops 4". so yes, about 2" more drop is what you'd need. sorry about the confusion, i was referring to 4" drop from bottom of sector shaft to tie-rod mounting surface. looks like the drop pitman arm you'll need is the RC#6605.

Thanks for all the help. Im just gonna try a ZJ arm and see if the angles will be close enough. The bolt thing definitely makes sense because the jeep handled fine on the first trip to get gas. I made a second trip a few hours later because i hadn't topped off the tank and i wanted to make sure my new sending unit was working. The second trip is when i noticed the bump steer and wobblies. I assumed i just didn't notice on the first trip out of excitement, but now that i think about it everything was pretty solid. The stock bolt must have started to move around.

I just got back from the JY and they swapped out all their jeeps a few days ago so no pitman arm for me tonight. Ill be snagging one on monday. Ill post up how everything turns out.

Thanks again for all the help

-Mike