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what broke when you did your lift?

blotto66

blotto66

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Morgan, Utah
I lifted my cherokee this past few weeks (yes it took me three weeks working on it a little here and there when i had time) and so far i broke
bolts on both Lower Control Arms
bolts on both leaf packs
The weld that holds the nut on the pocket for the front leaf packs
and now a blead zirk on the rear axle.

this whole lift process should have taken 8 hours, i am into it a good 20+

is this the lift from hell or is this comon?
 
it can be common in some areas, some rigs go very easy like my first xj did I think it took all of 4 hours with only 2 people one of which cant turn a wrench to save his life, the last one I did took 3 days of solid work and we broke tons of things we couldn't have planned for.
 
Nothing broke. Just the rear leaf packs, I guess you could say, since we had to use a torch and cut through 5 of the 6 bushings since the bolts had seized to the metal collar in the bushings. But my friend was even able to salvage the bolts!

EDIT - I haven't messed with anything steering or control arm related either. But eventually I will, and probably something will be seized to a bushing collar again :(

However if it is seized, it should be easier since you can actually pound the bolt out from the backside.
 
I guess all the salt we put on the roads around here in the winter makes for crapy jeep modification.
 
hey i just got a 89 xj a couple days ago and it has a 4.5" lift and i was wondering if anyone knew if i needed to make the rear driveshaft longer? can someone help me if so how much longer Thanks!!!
 
t-frady said:
hey i just got a 89 xj a couple days ago and it has a 4.5" lift and i was wondering if anyone knew if i needed to make the rear driveshaft longer? can someone help me if so how much longer Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

WTF? lol
 
let the :flame: ensue.

but anyway... braking stuff is normal. i ended up compeletely redoing my rear brakes over the winter, rather than half-redoing stuff due to breakage. i'm gonna be lifting it soon... i anticpate breakage.
 
1989. the only bolt i have broken has been one of the eight rear bumper bracket bolts. had a close call with the shackle to body bolt on the passenger side though.

yesterday i put some RE monotubes on. all 4 rear upper bolts came out no issues. applied antiseize and put them back

oh yea, antiseize is your friend. pb blast EVERYTHING 2 weeks before hand. and dont live in NJ
 
blotto66 said:
I guess all the salt we put on the roads around here in the winter makes for crapy jeep modification.
Click to expand...

Hell my Jeep's see 6 months of snow and salt a year. Maybe that is why I've now replaced 2 calipers, hoses,all brake lines,wheel cylinders, all shock and sway bar bolts, leaf spring bolts, and crossmember bolts ina one week period. This was even spraying religiously for two weeks once a day all the bolts with PB blaster while it sat in my heated garage thawing out. DAMN YOU ROAD SALT!:flamemad:
 
i was one of those disgruntled tolks folk bitching at town hall when they decided to switch from sand/rocks/pebbles to roadsalt last year.

long story short we still use sand/rocks/pebbles on most of our streets.

i HATE road salt. messed up my paint, bothers my cuts and wounds, turned my CJ tub into dust
 
t-frady said:
hey i just got a 89 xj a couple days ago and it has a 4.5" lift and i was wondering if anyone knew if i needed to make the rear driveshaft longer? can someone help me if so how much longer Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

You shouldn't unless the lift instructions say you need to. My 98 with 4.5" Rough Country lift came with transmission 1" spacers to drop it down to help the drive shaft angle and vibration that too much angle might cause.

Everything worked out fine. It took me 6 hours to put this lift on. I say me, in this context me = the shop that I paid to do it. ;o)

I stood there and watched, read instructions, and took pictures.
 
My XJ came out of the midwest where salt is used. I've never had the joy of working on something so rusted. When swapping out leaf packs, the front eye bolt was completely siezed in the bushing sleeve on both sides. I had to pick up some carbide blades for my sawzall to cut 'em out. In the process of trying to back out the bolts (prior to giving up on them and breaking out the saw) the outer threads of the weld nut were ruined, so I had to track down the appropriate tap and run it through before I could bolt in the new leaf packs. Changed a 1 hour job into many hours.

In addition to that I've sheared off bumpstop bolts, had to cut off schock bolts, and so on. Par for the course as I understand it.
 
85xj4dr said:
I broke nothing. I also have a rust free Jeep. :D
Click to expand...

finger.gif


My MJ was from FL and was nice and easy to swap out parts, but my new XJ was from MI and yeah all is said about that.
 
My wallet.
 
i got lucky when i did my lift, 3 cans of PB blaster, a 30 pack of coors light, and a bunch of good old fashioned cussing and yelling did the trick for me. ended up breaking one or two bolts, one of them being on the cross member for the trans.

untitled-1.jpg
 
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