Problems after lift

Im having some problems with my 97 after putting on the RE 5.5 LA kit.

1) the brakes are horrible, I got the extended brakelines on and bled them about 10 times and I still have to push the pedal to the floor to get it to stop and my brake warning light is on, on the dash. Im thinking that because of the longer lines I might not have enough pressure pushing the fluid through, what is your take on that?

2) Right now Im running the front driveshaft in the rear because the extended one I had wasn't CV equipped and it wasn't long enough either. I got the SYE kit on, that really was a pain, but its working. SO what are your thoughts on using the front driveshaft? its only temporary until I got some $$$ for a nice one, and I won't be wheeling with it or driving hard at all.

3) whats your take on making traction bars for a cherokee, I really haven't seen any one make them, only on trucks usually. I put on some 1.5 inch spacers up front and a 1 inch block in the rear and it sits pretty level, just the back axle is moving around, so I was gonna make some of those, any design ideas for that or should I just go simple and run some 1 inch steel bars on each side, kinda like control arms.

4) last but not least I have a weird noise when I start it up only, it sounds like somethings whirling around in the front, after it starts I don't hear it anymore. any ideas on that?


Sorry for the long post just put alot of hard work into this thing and I really want to get everything perfect on it. Heres what I just did, worked out to about 8 inches of lift, put 4.56 gears in it, got the longarms which are awesome. Right now once I fix these problems it'll be sweet, the gears are just perfect for a daily driver, but it flexes so well it'll be BADASS offroad, so after a full summer of work about 3500 bucks and three weeks of work on this thing I got it almost where I want it. If you guys could help me with that stuff it will finally be perfect, atleast in my mind. Thanks

CV95XJ said:

1) the brakes are horrible, I got the extended brakelines on and bled them about 10 times and I still have to push the pedal to the floor to get it to stop and my brake warning light is on, on the dash. Im thinking that because of the longer lines I might not have enough pressure pushing the fluid through, what is your take on that?

Click to expand...

My brakes were doing the same thing after I swapped my axles, no matter how many times I bled them. I ended up having them vaccuum-bled and now they're way better. Did you run the master cylinder dry?

no, the master cylinder is not dry, I think that may be the problem on the brakes though. anyone else help?

I did an 8.8 swap in a 98 TJ last summer that did the same thing. It turned out that the little "pill" in the proportioning valve moved too far back. I put a different p. valve on it and it bled out fine. The "pill" thing is right behind where the parking brake light wires go into the p. valve. I gather that when the parking brake is applied the bias changes in the valve moving the "pill" one way or the other triggering the switch to light the brake light on the dash. The same thing would happen if you were to have a line fail at one end.... the bais would change and also light the brake warning light. Just a thought.

what does the noise sound like, define whirling, and how far up front, back middle or front section of the front end, do you have the ax5 or ax 15, if you have auto, the ds will be fine, many people do it, if you have the manual, im not sure but i think its too small, although, with 8 inches of lift i dont even know if your front will be good enough, put it on and see how maxed out it is, if you have room, do it if not, dont
and dont wheel it

yea, I won't wheel it, kinda just a temporary thing with the front driveshaft in the rear, its pretty maxed out maybe like a 1/2 inch left of play in it. the whirling noise is coming from just in front of the fire wall, not really sure if its in the motor or it could be the front yoke spinning freely, because their is no ds on it. I had my front end aligned yesterday, and the mechanic who did it said he couldn't get the steering wheel to be straight, because he would have had to loosen the draglink so much that it would have just been hanging on by a thread or two, so Im just driving it with the steering wheel crooked. Does anyone know where I could get a longer threaded upper piece for the draglink?

You're not still using stock steering at 8" are you? If so, you need to upgrade! Look Here!
What size tires are you running that you need 8"?