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Truly the Best Bar Pin Eliminators? How can so many companies screw these up????

brianglawson

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Greensboro, NC
OK so first off... I have two Jeeps.

This Thread is meant to be informative and to answer a few of my questions!
OK so first off... I have two Jeeps.
One: My Rig, some of these mods are presently “in progress”
1998 Jeep Cherokee
4 door
4.0 liter Inline 6
AW4 Automatic
NP231
Chili Pepper Red (2010 factory respray)
Froehlich Suspension 3 Link Long Arm Upgrade with Skid (In Progress)
Froehlich Suspension Track bar (In Progress)
Rusty’s 4.5" coil springs
Rusty's 4.5" leaf springs
Rusty's 1.75" coil spacers
Rusty's 1.5" Greasable Shackles
Rusty's Fixed Lower Control arms
Rusty's shocks
Rusty’ s Cut Out Fender Flares
JKS Quick Disconnects
Iron Rock Offroad Bar Pin Eliminators (current query)
Iron Rock Offroad Heavy Duty Tie Rod
Iron Rock Offroad Stainless Steel Brake Lines
HD Offroad Frame Stiffeners
JCR Offroad Stage II Rock Rails (In Progress)
Teraflex Steering Stabilizer
4.88 Gears (In Progress)
16x8 Jeep Rubicon MOAB Wheels, painted (and baked) gloss black
Spidertrax Offroad 1.5" Wheel Spacers Front & Rear
305/75/16 Firestone Destination M/T's (33x12.50)

Rig Two: My Wife’s Rig; also has some “in progress.” She sits at about 2-2.5” over stock. FULL WRITE UP COMING SOON!

2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport
4.0
AW4 Automatic
NP231
Orvis ZJ Up Country Coil Springs
Rusty’s .75” spacers
6 Leaf XJ Leaf pack (alas Rock Lizard)
Iron Rock Offroad Bar Pin Eliminators
Monroe Sensa-Trac 37120 (YJ) Front Shocks
Monroe Sensa-Trac 37029 (MJ) Rear Shocks
Monroe Magnum Steering Stabilizer

NOW… On to the Thread…

I bought Iron Rock Offroad BPE’s (Bar Pin Eliminators) for my XJ sitting at 6.5” a while back. When I bought them, they only had a picture of the front BPE’s on their site. The ONLY reason I purchased them is because they DO NOT rotate the shock’s orientation. One only has to think about how axles move when they flex to see that you want your shock pins running on the same axis as stock (Front AND Rear, Top AND Bottom mounts). When I received my order of Front and Rear BPE’s from IRO, the rears, low and behold, looked just like most BPE’s; they looked like I had made a set out of my rear sway bar brackets (except these were good thick metal with nice strong hardware.. oh, and shiny.) This was disappointing, as I did not want to rotate my shock mounts on the top rear, especially without rotating the bottom (id prefer to never do either.) So, I installed the front ones, and I LOVE them. I installed the BPE and I never had to remove it again. Not to take out a shock or anything. Just one bolt and I can undo the shock.

IMG_9864.JPG

^^^^THESE GUYS ARE JUST WHAT IM LOOKING FOR, EXCEPT OBVIOUSLY FOR THE REAR AND PREFERRABLY A LITTLE MORE ELEVATED/DROPPED FOR BOLT ACCESS.

I had decided not to install the rear, and THEN I decided to read on NAXJA and a lot of people argued that it doesn’t hurt the shocks. Well, when I tried to install it, where the bushing’s axis had changed, I literally could not get the shock up into the double sheared mount. My axle is now so low that when the BPEs are seated FLAT against the undercarriage, the shock bushing is a great deal off in angle. SOOOOooo.. I never ran them….

IMG_9599.JPG

^^^^THESE GUYS ARE BAD (BUILT WELL, BAD DESIGN) THEY ROTATE, WHICH IS A NO-NO! (Your opinion may differ, your loss )

Fast Forward to two weeks ago, and I was installing a Home-brew, Screw OME (mine rides way better) 2” lift on my Wife’s recently purchased 2000 Cherokee. The Monroe shocks either needed bar pins to install them, or BPEs, so I robbed the front BPE’s off of MY jeep which had worked great (now I need new ones, which I will get too shortly). For Shits and Giggles, I decided to see if the rear BPE’s would work with her 2-3” lift. Low and Behold, they worked fine. Now her jeep is all hooked up. HOWEVER, Let me QUALIFY the Rear, rotated, IRO (and MOST other Rear BPE’s) I BELIEVE (IMHO) should only be used on lifts of 3” or less. I ONLY decided to leave them on due to my wife’s XJ being a Daily Driver. She won’t be articulating her suspension a whole lot. It is plainly evident that when/if her rear gets super flexed, the shaft of the shock absorber, and more so, the bushings on top will be under WAY more stress than they would if they were in the stock orientation. In the stock orientation, both upper and lower mounts work together to alleviate this problem. However, at low lifts… I wouldn’t worry too much about them. *Pics for reference.*

Now, anyone can argue all they want that rotating only the top shock mount isn’t a problem… all I can tell them is go flex your rear suspension, crawl under it, and think as hard as you can about what would happen if the two axis can’t work together.

SOOO now on to my questions. The former info is a just so you know kind of thing for people looking for BPEs.

I need new BPEs for my jeep. After the IRO dilemma (not a big one, I firmly believe they make good quality parts, I just believe their parts guys were FOS when they said the rears are fine, they wouldn’t even bolt up; but like I said, they work on the wife’s rig, and I would not ever hesitate to buy other things from them, including another set of front BPE’s), I decided I would Go for the JKS, ones, since I know JKS makes nice stuff!!! After looking at the install instructions, ALL I can say is SCREW THAT.

p_9603_chassis.jpg

^^^^THESE ARE SURELY BUILT WELL, BUT WHO THE HELL WANTS TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH THOSE PAIN IN THE REAR BOLTS UNDER THE FRONT COIL MOUNTS OR THE RUSTY ONES ON THE REAR CROSSMEMBER?!?!?!? BAD DESIGN FAIL!!

Yes The JKS obviously preload the bushings on the shocks, getting rid of that annoying clunk that Bar Pins can develop, but why on this Green Earth they made it to where you have to remove the BPE to remove the shock is numbs my mind! What a HORRIBLE design flaw. For anyone, who never wants to touch their rear shock bolts (after they have done one of the numerous methods to fix the 4 they broke when lifting their jeep, or the 4 they WILL break when they do [I used the 20 gauge wire/drift punch method on the wife’s) the JKS BPE’s would be a TERRIBLE decision. I was deeply saddened when I realized this fact when shopping a while ago.

I know JKS makes great stuff, but I refuse to buy something that will be a nuisance to work with when BPE’s that are made like the ones for the Front by IRO, or these pictured below I found supposedly by Full traction not only preload the bushings, but make shock install and removal SOOOOO much easier. Also, these on Amazon by ZONE Offroad look like the real deal, but I can’t find anyone who has used them to verify fitment!

Supposed “Full Traction” pictured here http://my98blackjeepxj.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-favorite-bar-pin-eliminator-full.html

41Xvbyvt7hL._SS500_.jpg

^^^^ZONE OFFROAD on Amazon

SO now, finally, my question is, what manufacturers offer BOTH front and rear Bar Pin Eliminators that DO NOT rotate the Shock orientation. Also, while I’m at it, are there any BEEFY front Upper Shock adapters/mounts available????

Bar pin Eliminators that do not rotate the shock mounts:
JKS (Very inconvenient)
Iron Rock Offroad *FRONT ONLY (rear do rotate)
ZONE Offroad on Amazon *Rear only, no front avail.
Full Traction??
Who else???

BPE’s that DO rotate shocks (just don’t get em)
Rusty’s F&R
Teraflex F&R
Rear Sway Bar Bracket Homebrew BPE’s
Iron Rock Offroad Rears
And MOST others.

Maybe this was just a lot of rambling for nothing, but I would love to find a good set of BPEs, nice and simple, double shear that Do not rotate the shock mounts, match Front and Rear (just for the hell of it) and that elevate/drop the mount about 1” so I can gave good easy access to the bolt to remove the shocks.

-Brian
 
That is about 5 full pages of writing. Can you turn that writing into a question or two that are succinct and concise? Doesn't everyone buy shock tabs and just weld them on at the correct angle as required?
 
2 questions are in their, main one is where to find non rotating BPE's
the other was a small question about what people do for the upper adapters on their front shocks, are there beefy ones? or just ue the normal stem type adaptr?

The 5 pages is really meant to save someone the BS of buying crappy products that companies sell because they dont take time to really think about stuff. I dont care if "they run it on their shop rig", it doesnt mean it works:)

The Thread opened with, "this is meant to be informative......." and it is
 
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I'm running JKS up front and RRO out back. I have no problems with how my shocks move under flex.
 
For the front uppers, check out T&J's Barnett Performance XJ Front Shock Mount Conversion. Not the cheapest, but very beefy and they spread the load of the upper mount over a much larger area.

http://barnettperformance.net/index...roducts_id=6&zenid=d5atn8iu5f72kqg3rpq23g7hs6

Mine should be here tomorrow! :D

For the rears, I've got some IRO's sitting in the garage. I'm hoping that in conjunction with relocating the axle end shock mounts (to account for the pinion being rotated up) that they will bolt up OK. For the front, I'm planning on just welding some tabs on the side of my LCA mounts.
 
i was not happy with the price-to-quality ratio of the barnett/t&j mounts... heres a pic to show you why... really? 3 peices, welded together instead of a bent peice? and if the directions say to weld it on, why does it come painted with thick bedliner type paint??

first reactions were: this is simple... i can make these next time...
second reaction was: i can do better than this actually...

 
i like my JKS upper and lower shock mounts.. im also very confused on why you have a problem taking 2 little bolts out every 5 years to replace your shocks???
 
i like my JKS upper and lower shock mounts.. im also very confused on why you have a problem taking 2 little bolts out every 5 years to replace your shocks???

When you live in the Northeast taking those two little rear upper bolts any year is a huge risk in having to spend hours fixing broken and rusted bolts. Usually involving cutting into the floors above to get to them.

With a setup that allows you to just remove the shock bolt it allows for quick repairs. If the shock bolt breaks since you just go buy a new bolt.
 
Not bar pin eliminators, but dont rotate the shock, and make the rear upper shock bolts accessible after only dealing with them once.

and Mark over at Detours is a pretty cool guy to work with.

stm_main.jpg


http://detoursusa.com/xjstm.php

I've never run these, but I did hold a pair that he donated to NAXJA Sierrafest 2008? or 2009? :wave:
 
JKS lower bar pin eliminators do something those others don't do. They pre-compress the bushing so that it takes up the slack inside the bushing area. No more "knocking" noise when you hit harsh bumps.
 
Okay first of all that was a very confusing post. It was an explaination and a question all in one long post. I think I figured it out. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't want to rotate the mount 90 degrees so that the shock bushing is free to rotate as the shocks moves thru its travel.

Second, I've had Rocky Road BPE's for years and I love them. Simple and effective. A lot easier than messing with those tiny little bolts that are used stock. They also can preload the bushing sleve.

http://www.rocky-road.com/xjbarpin.html
 
I have the IRO BPE front and rear. No problems with the shocks or the bushings. I have yet to get to a point where bushing binding limits suspension travel. I could care less about rotating the rears 90* but thats just me.

Setup: Hybrid 4.5" RE lift , adjustable upper and lowers, 33's, blah blah blah.
 
Okay first of all that was a very confusing post. It was an explaination and a question all in one long post. I think I figured it out. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't want to rotate the mount 90 degrees so that the shock bushing is free to rotate as the shocks moves thru its travel.

Second, I've had Rocky Road BPE's for years and I love them. Simple and effective. A lot easier than messing with those tiny little bolts that are used stock. They also can preload the bushing sleve.

http://www.rocky-road.com/xjbarpin.html
Only problem with them is they're from RRO. If you have a good experience dealing with the service, you're lucky. When I dealt with them, their service was great right up until they had my money. Then when I had a problem they expected me to pay them for the privilege of having it made right.:bs:
 
After PM'ing/bugging many forum members about the right mount for me... I just made my own.
The previous owner of my jeep had cut through the floor to get the old bar-pin bolts out.
So I eliminated the factory idea and welded new mounts.
(TSC trailer leaf spring mounts $12bucks for the pair)

Cutting the other side out.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here is one side before I welded from the top.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Shocks:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Mounted:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I wanted to run my shocks through the floor. But I didn't want to sacrifice my storage or any room. And the style of my build has changed to more of a expedition shtf style.


Would I do it again? Yes.
Would I order Fox shocks with out poly bushings again? NO
Poly bushings in the mail!
 
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i like my JKS upper and lower shock mounts.. im also very confused on why you have a problem taking 2 little bolts out every 5 years to replace your shocks???

Well, the rear bolts, as someone already suggested... BREAK all the time... not to mention one bolt is better than two when you have to work in a "half sit-up" position to work on the underside of the rig!!!

Plus, the front two bolts are a pain to wrench off.... I don't know about you, but i find plenty of reasons to remove my shocks within only 1 year's time, much less 5 years!!!! I mean, i check my shocks regularly, and always seem to be needing to drop an axle for one reason or another!

JKS lower bar pin eliminators do something those others don't do. They pre-compress the bushing so that it takes up the slack inside the bushing area. No more "knocking" noise when you hit harsh bumps.

Plenty of other BPE's preload bushings man.... Even most of the ones that rotate shocks preload them....


I decided to order another set of Iron Rock Offroad BPE's for the Front of my rig, and I ordered ZONE Offroad for the rear!
 
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