Getting the body roll back to stock

My 99 has 147k miles on it and I'm chasing the dream of making it feel like my friend's 99 which has only 90k on it. His handles better than mine without that rockin feeling when you turn a corner, pull into a parking lot, etc..

I'm at stock height running stock tires 225/75/15 (he's also running that size tire and stock height.)

Since I'm new to these, I'm looking to see what sort of parts I need to fix my attention on. Mine has these silver tubed shocks on it that have a red "Reflex" sticker. I assume they are Monroe shocks. They're not terribly rusty, but I have no idea what their age is. I see they actually cost more than Sensatracs do new, but are they worth a crap? I plan on buying four Bilstein shocks for it sometime this summer.

The previous owner didn't pull a trailer or anything, but the back looks low to me. The leaf springs actually sit flat??? Every other vehicle I own with leaf springs including my '54 Ford sedan have a curve to them still.

My front sway bar bushings have enough play to see air through them. The end link bushings are squished and cracked, but look tight still.

Is there anything you guys would recommend to get it handling like its former self? I don't plan on doing any offroading with it. I'll be pulling a trailer, driving through a couple feet of snow, or crossing a cornfield sideways to chase after something, but I'm not planning on lifting it or putting tires bigger than 30x9.5 on it.

So any pointers on where my money is best spent would be appreciated.

Any thoughts on how to accurately measure the front sway bar diameter? I have some crappy calipers, but I'm afraid I woudln't know the difference between 26mm and 24mm with them.

Put in all four OEM shocks, new OEM springs front and rear, and replace those sway bar bushings, that should get you pretty close.

I grabbed a cheap caliper and measured my bar at just over an inch. There's only one sway bar bushing for the later models that I've found (waiting on mine to show up tomorrow), so I'm guessing you have the same bar. Inside diameter for the bushing is listed as 1.02".

http://www.jeep4x4center.com/product-information.asp?number=52088523

1.02" is just about 26mm. I'll check mine. Advance auto looked up sway bar bushings for me at lunch and came up with several sizes from 16mm all the way to 26mm I think.

The Reflex shocks have been out for a few years. The are an upgrade from OEM. I have Sensa Tracs, and they were a great improvement on my '90 - with about 150k miles at the time. The low speed rumbling/hop was eliminated and replaced by that new car squishy feel.

Seeing air in your sway bar bushings is basically saying you have no bushings at all - which is why the ride is so dippy. I'd make them the next priority, then a nice set of quick disconnects to get new rubber on the ends of that.

Next would be all the arm bushings, which wear out just like the sway arm bushings. Slop and crushed rubber in them contribute to horrible, imprecise, and uncontrolled handling. Just watch any 80's Chevy 1/2 ton and listen to one cross a railroad track. I'm surprised Jeeps bushings last as long as they do.

If the ride height and front to rear attitude look ok compared to your buddies, new springs would be a lot of work and expense for virtually little gain.

In addition to good shocks and new sway bar bushings, make sure you don't run the front tires overinflated. That will accentuate the rocking.

XJ springs look flat when they're all right, and even have a bit of reverse arch, so judge by height, not appearance.

If you intend to run stock height but your rear springs are getting tired, consider adding a leaf. You might be able to search here for threads dealing with this, as many here have done it. I've done it with both my current XJ's, adding a leaf from another stock pack, cut to size. It will bring the height back up without affecting the ride much if at all. You'll need a new center bolt and clips, but the u-bolts can handle another leaf, and you don't need to undo the bushings.

Really? The ride height varies by an inch even with good springs, and I'd think inverted springs wouldn't ride very good- mine sure don't, even with brand new shocks.

Luke, before you go nuts under there, soak all the hardware in a good penetrating oil, and read up on the rear upper shock mount fun. You can pretty much count on breaking bolts when you're underneath the Jeep.

hubs97xj said:

Really? The ride height varies by an inch even with good springs, and I'd think inverted springs wouldn't ride very good- mine sure don't, even with brand new shocks.

Luke, before you go nuts under there, soak all the hardware in a good penetrating oil, and read up on the rear upper shock mount fun. You can pretty much count on breaking bolts when you're underneath the Jeep.

Click to expand...

If they're really inverted, then it's bad, but they have a funny shape, and if you look at a set of stock springs you'll see that even fairly healthy ones will go flat or negative near the ends, in part because the step from leaf no. 2 to no. 3 is so long.

edit to add: Yeah, those shock bolts. For years I've been shearing them off and then drilling and tapping, and finally last time I did it, I just punched the old captive nuts out. I then took some strips of approx. 1/2 inch wide by 3/16 thick mild steel, cut them about 6 - 8 inches long, drilled and tapped them near one end, to 5/16 coarse thread, and fed them in. You can bend the strips so they lie flat enough to catch the bolt thread. The strip serves as a handle, and although the original bolts are metric, they're so close to 5/16 coarse that there's no problem there.

As far as smoothing out the ride, I'd recommend new swaybar bushings and maybe a more rigid swaybar if you can get your hands on one. Make sure your front swaybar is in good condition, but you will actually get better handling in the snow with your rear swaybar removed. Your choice of ride quality vs. traction. If I'm not mistaken, old man EMU actually designs a suspension kit specifically designed for ride quality where they adjust a couple of the ride components to make the ride a lot more smooth. As for the back springs, I'd recommend getting a 2" AAL or some 2" rear lift springs in there. They'll eventually settle out and sit at stock height. Mine did.

If you plan on pulling a trailer with it, I'd recommend wiring up a trailer blinker and a class III hitch.

Here's a large photo from last weekend showing a side shot of my jeep with the trailer hooked up to it. The jeep came with a class III draw bar. I had to purchase a wiring adapter to install off of the driver side tail lamp harness, which works great.

My trailer is a home-made 6x8' jobby that weighs about 300# The scooter weighs another 300, so I guess I'm only really yanking around about 600-700 pounds worth of stuff. Maybe up to about 1000# with a fully loaded trailer.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3566237635_09eebabcf1_o.jpg

You can see the ride geometry there. I think it might sag a bit, but it didn't see excessive. I'm going to try to get the proper sway bar bushing kits this week after it quits raining and install them. I'm running my tires at 40 PSI at the moment. That might be a bit on the high side.

Hopefully I won't shear off the shock bolts when it's time to change out the rear shocks . I'm a fan of PB blaster and waiting.

The Edelbrock IAS shocks have a damn nice ride. Maybe worth checking into.

OK, here's a question: Do the 1999 Cherokee Sport models have a rear sway bar? If so, mine is completely missing. That would explain why it rocks back and forth if it's supposed to be there.

My 97 Sport has one, although calling it a bar is a bit of a stretch. Have a look around the u bolt plates and the "frame rails" just forward of the axle for either the end links or signs of the mounting brackets- I don't believe a rear sway was a standard offering, at least not on all years.

I definitely have no rear sway bar. The holes are in the frame where it would mount, and they look like there has never been a bolt in them, and the paint on the frame isn't scratched from where mounting brackets would have been. Either the first owner removed it or I have one of the jeeps they overlooked.

I installed some blue Moog brand sway bar bushings up front and it really changed the feel. For 12 bucks, I'd consider that a positive. The jeep corners and turns corners much tighter and has quicker response with less body roll. I still get roll pulling into a driveway though. I'm going to chalk that up to the whole missing rear sway bar thing.

Since I'm keeping mine on the road 99% of the time, I might try to piece together a rear bar and associated linkages. There is almost an understeer problem at the moment. It doesn't spin out or anything, just feels unbalanced with the front end tightened up.

I got my 99 with the Up Coutry suspension package, it doesn't have a rear sway bar. It came with Bilstein shocks straight from the factory. I did what joe peters suggested and have been very pleased with the results.

My stock 99 sport definitely has a rear bar.

I just figured out that my XJ has the Up Country package rather than the towing package. It's got those skid plates under the front suspension parts and gas tank as well as the tow hooks up front. I had to remove the skid plate up front to get at the sway bar bushings I replaced.