SOA Comanche questions

Would like to do a SOA on my 87 MJ. How much lift can I expect from this and as far as shock set up for the rear what shocks can I use? Also I am swapping a D44 from an XJ into the MJ, could I use those shock mounts?

I just did that on my project. I got about 5.5" of lift. I am also using the Cherokee lower shock mounts to limit axle wrap. If you keep the stock Comanche shock mounting setup I think you would lost nearly all of the axle wrap prevention.

At the end of the day, I am looking at using a roughly 9" travel shock with an open eye to eye measurement of around 27" if I recall correctly.

Cherokee shock mounts have one aimed forward and one aimed backward. The Comanche has both mounts aimed forward.

I used the MJ Metric Ton leafs - minus it's 'short' overload leaf. Got approx 6.5" lift.

You can either make custom upper mounts and put the axle mounts on the back of the tube, or weld them to the front of the tube and retain the factory upper mounts. I hung mine on front, and they tend to take a beating on the rocks.

I used the shocks that came with a 3" XJ kit, and they worked fine. JKS #OGS 922 weld-on shock (axle) mounts are a safe bet... approx $32.

i just used re brackets (spring perches/shock mounts). the rig came with an add-a-leaf and a new rear shackle so i think it sat some where around 3" maybe 4". removed the add-a-leaf and left the shackle and it came up 5".




tuff to see but the tires are 33x10.5 at's. 9112's i think in the rear now. old shocks that were in the garage. i'll go look. front has 5-1/4" of lift.

I looked at my RE 6500 mj lift and it's a 5.5" SOA kit for the rear. The shocks for the rear that came with the kit are the Rxj507. Short length 21.5", extended length 26.75" but it' uese an RE weld on shock mount instead of the stock ones.

Thanks for the responses guys. Can't wait to get started, looks like 33s will fit nicely.

I did the same swap, but I used a long shackle of unknown origin, length of it was 8 3/4" eye to eye. Remember that MJ spring perch location is 1.5 inches narrower then that of a XJ. I am still using my front mounts for my shocks at this time, but I am fabbing up my own crossmember to go behind the axle. I plan on using XJ rear sway bar mounts( the ones on the axle) as a form of a bar pin eliminator, so I can have some adjustability on shock positioning. My problem when I did my SOA swap was the amount of rear drop I had. I ended up having to make my own set up for my brake lines. I took a standard 22" SS braided line, and a 12" steel line, I had to buy a union, and make a mount extension, but now I have planty of flex in my lines. I got my shock mounts, and spring perches at Advance right out of their Mr. Gaskets catalog.



Patrick

yeah the brake line is the biggest issue in doing this. as you can see in the pic that it's not bolted down on the axle. this line was a skyjacker rear line for my xj that i never used. it's a 6"-8" of lift line...... it's also about 8" too short.

the other thing is the e-brake cables from the xj are too long for the stock e-brake bracket. need to extend the mounting holes a couple of inches. not enough adjustment where they meet. no big deal though.

Or you can modify an XJ e-brake handel, and go to the help section at advance and get the e-brake repair kit and rig something up like I did. It is not pretty but works well.



Patrick