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3" lift: control arms decision

M

mountainjazz

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Caracas
Hi, I raised my 99 XJ 3" front with 2 1/2" spacers + extra stock rubber pad, 3" rear with add-a-leaves + greasable shackles. Extended the sway bar rods because of the bowing coils problem. The stock control arms wore down the bushings because of the tension, being too short after the lift. Caster problem as well. I am planning to replace the control arms. Upper + lower adjustable? Upper adjustable + lower fixed to increased length? I want the rubber bushings, no poly or Johnny joints. Any help with advice is welcome because the loose connections are becoming a highway issue. Thanks!
 
mountainjazz said:
Hi, I raised my 99 XJ 3" front with 2 1/2" spacers + extra stock rubber pad, 3" rear with add-a-leaves + greasable shackles. Extended the sway bar rods because of the bowing coils problem. The stock control arms wore down the bushings because of the tension, being too short after the lift. Caster problem as well. I am planning to replace the control arms. Upper + lower adjustable? Upper adjustable + lower fixed to increased length? I want the rubber bushings, no poly or Johnny joints. Any help with advice is welcome because the loose connections are becoming a highway issue. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Check out iron rock Offroad, they carry adjustable and fixed length control arms, I still have stock uppers and fixed lowers with a 4" lift.. They are pretty beefy I reccomend them and they are rubber bushings too
 
Thick beefy arms with rubber or poly bushings are fine if you don't do any real wheeling.

Stock control arms are fine with rubber because the arms themselves are are purposely made of stamped sheet metal and will twist and flex some instead of tearing the mounting points off of the unibody/axle under extreme articulating situations.....put those same rubber bushings into some really robust, rigid arms and the rubber will only be able to absorb so much twisting, the rest will be transfered to the mounting points.

JKS makes really nice, albeit expensive, arms that are adjustable, pivot and use rubber (stock style) bushings....sounds just like what you're looking for.

I would love a set of upper and lower JKS arms but they're just not in my budget....I have a set of adjustable lowers that I built using 1 7/8" heavy wall dom tubing (threaded...no inserts) and some flex joints (left and right hand thread so, that I can adjust them without removing them) that have hard (I believe they are) Delrin bushings....they flex like mad and they're noisey but, at least I know they won't tear my mounting points off....I have drop brackets though.

I wouldn't use heavy, rigid arms with poly bushings for heavy wheeling.....something will eventually give.

Just my opinion, though. :)

Hans

EDIT: I see that you are in Caracas (Venezuela?) so. I assume you're not doing much rock crawling so, maybe you don't need high articulating arms?
 
Last edited:
Oatmeal said:
Thick beefy arms with rubber or poly bushings are fine if you don't do any real wheeling.

Stock control arms are fine with rubber because the arms themselves are are purposely made of stamped sheet metal and will twist and flex some instead of tearing the mounting points off of the unibody/axle under extreme articulating situations.....put those same rubber bushings into some really robust, rigid arms and the rubber will only be able to absorb so much twisting, the rest will be transfered to the mounting points.

JKS makes really nice, albeit expensive, arms that are adjustable, pivot and use rubber (stock style) bushings....sounds just like what you're looking for.

I would love a set of upper and lower JKS arms but they're just not in my budget....I have a set of adjustable lowers that I built using 1 7/8" heavy wall dom tubing (threaded...no inserts) and some flex joints (left and right hand thread so, that I can adjust them without removing them) that have hard (I believe they are) Delrin bushings....they flex like mad and they're noisey but, at least I know they won't tear my mounting points off....I have drop brackets though.

I wouldn't use heavy, rigid arms with poly bushings for heavy wheeling.....something will eventually give.

Just my opinion, though. :)

Hans

EDIT: I see that you are in Caracas (Venezuela?) so. I assume you're not doing much rock crawling so, maybe you don't need high articulating arms?
Click to expand...

My jeep flex's ok with short/stiff arms and rubber bushings :)

9FBE39BE-CFE3-45E9-9AD7-83218D904900-15995-00000702BF208683.jpg
 
MaxxXJ said:
Check out iron rock Offroad, they carry adjustable and fixed length control arms, I still have stock uppers and fixed lowers with a 4" lift.. They are pretty beefy I reccomend them and they are rubber bushings too
Click to expand...
Stock uppers + fixed extended length (tailor made for 4" lift) lowers such as the ones in the pic?
xjcontrol1.jpg
 
Yes, no rock crawling, only steep dirt (uphill/downhill) with eventual 10" rock on one side to climb over and uneven turns. Away from Caracas so you need a high level of reliability for the highway trip back.
Have any pics of those arms you built?
 
mountainjazz said:
Yes, no rock crawling, only steep dirt (uphill/downhill) with eventual 10" rock on one side to climb over and uneven turns. Away from Caracas so you need a high level of reliability for the highway trip back.
Have any pics of those arms you built?
Click to expand...
Only ones on my camera phone.

I could e-mail them to you or maybe somebody could post them for me.

Hans
 
mountainjazz said:
Stock uppers + fixed extended length (tailor made for 4" lift) lowers such as the ones in the pic?
xjcontrol1.jpg
Click to expand...



Mine are similar but mine look a lil different...

327827C3-C8B4-413D-B552-8653B03F694B-1842-000000B86EFDF989.jpg


I rock crawl and my fixed short arms do just fine... Oatmeal, for comparison sake, i am more than willing to bet ill go anywhere you go with my short arms, catch is we have to run the same size and type of tires... Ill even stick with my 4" lift height...
 
MaxxXJ said:
I rock crawl and my fixed short arms do just fine... Oatmeal, for comparison sake, i am more than willing to bet ill go anywhere you go with my short arms, catch is we have to run the same size and type of tires... Ill even stick with my 4" lift height...
Click to expand...
Jeez, why are you turning this into a pissing match?

I never said you couldn't....just stated that rigid arms with either poly or rubber bushings can only flex so much and the rest is transfered to the mounting points which, after repeated hard use, will eventually fatigue.

Hans
 
Nightmarish situation: too many options.
I've checked out the JKS and those are I think the finest, although not bent in order to overcome the coil/shock base edge. You can see in their pic that there is almost an interference issue just over to the right of the "PN 6100" text:
http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/m...MS&Store_Code=JKS01&Category_Code=Coil_Spring
I like the greasable bushings on both ends, some manufacturers supply them, some don't. The JKS don't. But there is another feature I saw only in the Currie CE-9102SF double adjustables: those are the only ones ( I think) that you can adjust AFTER installed, which is a feature you would want in order to monitor caster angles inside the alignment well, in real time. Do you think this is an important feature?
Thanks
Julian
 
Last edited:
mountainjazz said:
....I want the rubber bushings, no poly or Johnny joints.....
Click to expand...
That's why I recommended JKS.....they use factory (easy replacement availability) rubber bushings but, have the pivoting feature that allows them to twist and allow just as much flex as Johnny Joints, RE.....as well as taking the stress off of the factory mounting points and they are as quiet and long lasting as stock bushings (because they are!)

mountainjazz said:
....although not bent in order to overcome the coil/shock base edge....
Click to expand...
That's an easy fix...just clearance that area of the lower shock mount with a grinder.....no loss of structural integrity....and really only an issue in full droop situations ;)

mountainjazz said:
........I like the greasable bushings on both ends, some manufacturers supply them, some don't. The JKS don't. But there is another feature I saw only in the Currie CE-9102SF double adjustables: those are the only ones ( I think) that you can adjust AFTER installed, which is a feature you would want in order to monitor caster angles inside the alignment well, in real time. Do you think this is an important feature?
Thanks
Julian
Click to expand...
The JKS bushings are not greasable because they are factory (Cleavite) rubber bushings and do not require periodic greasing.

The double adjustment feature on the Currie arms is more for convenience so that you don't have to disconnect one end to address caster adjustments....or to alter wheel base (if you had adjustable uppers as well)....I built my arms in this way so that changing caster is a simple 10 min job :)

Hans
 
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