Lifting a DD...

I have been accumulating lift components for a few months, now. This is my only vehicle. If I screw it up, I'm walking. Dig..?

I am wondering how much is necessary for a safe, long lasting suspension. Should I be replacing everything? Or, should I only concern myself with shocks, coils and leafs..?

I have a reasonable friend who insists that I should be replacing everything from the TRE's, to the UCA's and LCA's, to the pitman arm.

Would this be the best course of action? I should add that I plan to buy/trade everything used.

I guess what I am looking for is a complete list of ingredients from an owner, not a parts distributor.

Dig..?

How much lift are you considering? I run about ~5" lift on my DD. I installed new (to me) UCA's & LCA's,springs and shocks all the way around. added longer brake lines and did a front end alignment. It has been working quite well. Jerry

I have acquired a set of leafs and coils which will supply an alleged 3". I have also gotten a set of shocks which are advertised for that amount. My primamry goal is to refresh the suspension and add a tiny bit of lift for better clearance when I do drive off-road. No rock crawling, just some muddy fun and backwoods tourism.

You should be ok with the stock CA's. The rubber bushings in the stock arms make for nice smooth ride IMO. The stock steering will be fine also. Jerry

The age (1987) of all of these components is another concern. Also, mixing poly and rubber bushings. Any comments..?

It sounds like the only thing that would have replacement bushings is the rear leafs. You can run poly back there. It's not really "mixing". You will feel more little bumps in the though...

You can ever run poly in the back (at the shackle) and rubber at the front (body/frame) and be OK, but one side poly and the other rubber might be weird.

bburge

I picked up some track bar bushings, which are poly.. Can I add them without worry..? Or, will this cause problems if I fail to replace all of the bushings.

Thank you for your help..

xjwoody said:

The age (1987) of all of these components is another concern. Also, mixing poly and rubber bushings. Any comments..?

Click to expand...

If you're concerned about the wear items like tie rod ends and ball joints, etc, they should be replaced as part of your routine maintenance if signs of wear are evident, regardless of the amount of lift.

The only other thing that I found helpful when I started lifting my rig was an adjustable trackbar to keep the axle properly centered.

I have poly in the front control arms and really dislike them. It is too rigid for daily street use. It did however firm up my ride. It is just the harsh ride and the squeaking I don't like. When I did mine initially all I did was front springs rear AAL and longer slip yoke and t-case drop. I have since gone higher like most others on here. Now I am saving for a SYE. HTH...Doug

OK.. Got the "new" suspension on. Everything is just ducky (aside from the 2 broken upper shock bolts on the rear passenger side). It doesn't look like a monster at all. Which is what I had been hoping for. I got about 2" in addition to the refreshed equipment, for a total of about 3.5". I'll be crawling under there to hammer those weld nuts off of those shock bolts this weekend.

I should be supplying a few photos soon, as well...

Thanks for everthing..

Special thanks to Crisper1 for his assistance. :worship:

If you are close to Pittsburgh, you can buy my 4" Trailmaster lift. Here is a picture of it with 31's. I went up to a RE 5.5.
Curt

Good luck. There is a lot of room for unexpected things to come up that will cost you time. For example, everyone seems to break at least a couple shock bolts. All four of my upper rear shock bolts broke, despite a week of spraying them down with PB Blaster. No big deal right? Then a hardened drill bit broke off while drilling the last one out... The other bits break when they hit the first... Suddenly it is half a day's work just to do the rear shocks.

Lots of people have no problems, but lots of people have seemingly endless problems (I was one of the latter). I recommend that you plan for the worst and then be grateful if you get lucky.

In a way I was very lucky - I have another car and the friend who loaned me garage space is amazingly patient. When I started I didn't think I would need either but boy am I grateful now. LOL

-Brian

xjwoody said:

I have been accumulating lift components for a few months, now. This is my only vehicle. If I screw it up, I'm walking. Dig..?

Click to expand...

We took 13 hours of a Saturday. Four hours of which were used to get a leaf spring eye bolt (driver's side/front eye) out, which we wound up cutting, anyway.

FYI: The rear eye bolts are the same part # as the front ($4.95 a piece). We cut the bolt head off of the front eye bolt and used the rear one as a replacement. It was a lot easier to find a replacement for the rear, because it runs all the way through the shackle.

The passenger side leaf spring was a breeze.

For the shocks, the situation reversed. The driver's side went perfectly, but the passenger side gave the a hot iron rod in our rear-ends. As stated before, both bolts on top are sheared flush with the body. One has since had an EZ-out lodged in it as well.

The plan is to use an air-hammer with a punch on it to break the weld on the inside. If that fails we'll be cutting into the rear floor to get at them.

The front end was, also, not without it's charm. That took about 5-6 hours on Sunday. We had to disconnect the track bar, sway bar ends, drive shaft and pitman arm. Those measures, plus nearly 500 lbs of whiskey drunk man-ass, sitting on a breaker bar is what it took to get the springs out. Those bump-stop "cups" are no picnic, either (they had to come out to get the spacers up in there).

Any other suggestions for getting those upper shock bolts free would be greatly appreciated. I have been searching for a few days, now, and have found a lot of great info. Regardless, "I would give it all up, for a little more." - C. Montgomery Burns

Someone suggested that I get some dimond dremel cutting bits and grind out the broken drill bit - then drill out the hole with a new drill bit. I was planning on trying that this weekend.

Let me know how breaking the weld goes. If the dremel thing doesn't work out I will be left trying that or going through the floor.

Good luck,
-Brian

xjwoody said:

Any other suggestions for getting those upper shock bolts free would be greatly appreciated. I have been searching for a few days, now, and have found a lot of great info. Regardless, "I would give it all up, for a little more." - C. Montgomery Burns

Click to expand...

To the person with the air hammer idea "THANK YOU" , it took us longer to get the jeep in the garage and up on stands then it did to get those weld nuts out. As for the (plus nearly 500 lbs of whiskey drunk man-ass) comment, i go 6' 280....lol....7' 500 lbs with the better part of a bottle of Bushmills in me. The jeep looks great kieth.

Yes.. It is true. The first lift is done. The air hammer was frighteningly quick. "B-r-r-r-r-r-r-app, POP..!" I had to rub my eyes to believe what I was seeing. The second one broke loose just as quickly. We dropped in some new bolts, and off we went.

Sweet...

Thanks be to thee, Crisper1

That link is bogus, but the jeep looks good..