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New guy question...

XJsurf

XJsurf

NAXJA Forum User
Location
San Diego
How's everyone doing, I'm new to NAXJA. Heard great things about this forum. Figure I'd give it a spin. So here we go. 2 part question...

1st part....
I have a 97XJ with a RE 4.5" lift, with 2" spacers on the front and 1.5" block on the rear. My front suspension makes so much noise. So I've checked all the nuts and bolts and have come to realize it might be time to upgrade to a longarm system. Now I don't plan on buying a whole kit but just upgrading the control arms. Well I've been looking at the Teraflex longarm upgrade, my only concern is what happens with the upper control arms. Is anybody or does anybody know if someone has this on their rig????


2nd part....
Recently I have noticed that when I'm in reverse and depress the brakes one side of my axle will clunk and snap to the rear. Any guess what might be causing this???

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips.
 
I'm fairly new on here as well and I have to say it has been a positive experience, cool people that love Jeeps and an unbelievable wealth of knowledge amongst the group. Just my 2 cents.

Anyway, I know you said you checked all the nuts and blots and everything, but did you look for signs of wear on your bushings? Specifically the control arm ones, dunno just thinking out loud. I don't know about the long arm setup though, don't have it myself, but someone else will chime in I'm sure.

Also, as far as the reverse clunk. Have you taken your drums off and looked inside your brakes? Sounds like it is coming from there.
 
is that a 4.5 inch lift plus 2 inch spacers (total 6.5)? if so, that's the noise you are hearing. your control arm angles have to be insane probably even if you have drop brackets. 4.5 inches is the max lift heigth for having stock upper control arms and at 6.5 you should probably have some long arms and some new adjustable uppers.
 
You have blocks in the rear...this is idiotic, please reomove them before asking what might wrong with your rear end

As for the front it could be way too many things to give you a solid answer, got any pics? trying having sombody turn the wheel from lock to lock while you look the the front end. See if anything seems to be loose or out of wack
 
dsgray16 said:
You have blocks in the rear...this is idiotic, please reomove them before asking what might wrong with your rear end

As for the front it could be way too many things to give you a solid answer, got any pics? trying having sombody turn the wheel from lock to lock while you look the the front end. See if anything seems to be loose or out of wack
Click to expand...

while a bit harsh this is absolutely correct. The XJ springs are too soft to use Lift blocks. Remove them and put in lift shackles as soon as you can. In the meantime check to make sure all of the U-bolts are tight on your rear axle.

As for the front end follow the directions above. Long arms are not Mandatory as stated above, but will yield a much better ride than you are currently experiencing. There are several upgrade kits out there and teraflex is not the best.

Check out TNT's very nice y-link kit, Clayton has a good kit, Rockcrawler has a nice 3-link kit and rustys has a kit as well.

welcome to NAXJA
 
Do you have a locker of some type in the rear, like a lockrite, aussie or no-slip?
 
Thanks for all the advice. The rear is 3.5" RE springs with the longer shackles. I don't know will damage still be done having the blocks in their. I have ARB lockers front and rear, both are geared out at 4:56. I've probably torn into the front more times than I want to. Someone mentioned to me today, that I could check the balljoints. Which I haven't done.
 
XJsurf said:
2nd part....
Recently I have noticed that when I'm in reverse and depress the brakes one side of my axle will clunk and snap to the rear. Any guess what might be causing this???

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips.
Click to expand...


huhhh, you sure your not having problems with the rear??
 
  • I'm 100% positive. When I realized it one night a couple weeks ago, I made my wife come outside, back up and step on the brakes. It was the front axle on the passenger side.
 
Trackbar bracket loose? Check both ends CLOSELY!


XJsurf said:
  • I'm 100% positive. When I realized it one night a couple weeks ago, I made my wife come outside, back up and step on the brakes. It was the front axle on the passenger side.
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like one of the control arms bushings/joints might be shot. When you hit the brakes it shifts in the mount. When you drive around it is probably moving back and forth and causing the noise you are talking about.

A cheaper option over long arms is to use RE drop brackets to lessen the angle of your CA's. I have them and have had no issues.

Brad
 
Well they work with 5.5" of lift, so I don't see why they won't work with .5" more. I am not aware of any other company that makes them. Here is a picture of mine when I first installed the lift 3 years ago. You can get a good idea of the lower control arm angle.

DSC01367.jpg
 
I am running RE drop brackets with 6.5" of lift, they work great.

They were originally made by TrailReady, but I'm pretty sure only RE makes them now.
 
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