Rusty's 4.5 lift

Im attempting to hold onto my money long enough to save for a Rusty's 4.5" lift for my 94 xj. I plan on installing it myself but have never done a suspension lift before. Does anyone have experience in doing this? is it a pretty easy install?
and about how long do you think it would take including the fumbling around trying to figure out what's waht? also where can i find new bumpstops for the front and back?

tahnx
pat

I only have a small bit of experience with Rusty's stuff so I won't comment on the quality but I would recommend you run a search and form your own opinion on the craftsmanship of the components.

Also keep in mind while reading that Rusty's (and most other companies) does not design the suspension packages to be ran with arms removed, Dana 60's and 39" tires.

HTH

Dirk Pitt said:

Also keep in mind while reading that Rusty's (and most other companies) does not design the suspension packages to be ran with arms removed, Dana 60's and 39" tires.

Click to expand...

HA HA Ha i laugh at that...


i assume that the 4.5" lift from Rusty's will be no different than the Mutt lift that i put on:
www.opiebennett.com/Lift.htm
or the 4.5" RE lift that yucca man put on:
http://www.yuccaman.com/jeep/45lift.html

hope this is helpful...

Oh, and i have 2 friends with Rusty's 3" AAL, and the AAL colapsed after 20,000 miles of HIGHWAY driving and the front right spring saged on off them. Stock axles and 31" tires on both... (With both uppers in place)

I am on my second rusty's lift. 4.5" the first time and 6.5 now. I have nothing but good things to say about his product. IMHO I believe his stuff is great.

A buddy of mine was Running Rusty's full leaves in the rear of his XJ with 31 inch tires. We were at Tellico on guardrail and he was doing fine until he took a bad hop. All at once he broke a rear axle shaft, and a rear leaf spring pack. (Not just one leaf... but a few). We took the leaf pack off to try and weld it enough to get him off the mountain and we noticed what looked like big bubbles in the steel. The breaks in the metal were right at the edje of the bubbles too, which led us to believe that they were imperfections in the material.

HarveOut-

I had the Rusty's 4 1/2 kit on for two years. The install was pretty straight forward if you are mechanically inclined. As I recall the instructions weren't the best, but if you remember how things came off it shouldn't be a problem. The leaf springs were the only fight I had. Getting the lifted springs into stock shackles is a little bit of work. Rusty's first leaf springs definitely were not the best(mine broke), but my replacement ones were of much better construction. (Those were free replacements) The front springs and the rear leafs didn't sag at all.

I've got Rusty's 4.5" kit running 33's and the install was pretty simple with basic tools. It took a day and a half to install. I was very pleased with the kit and still am two years and 40,000 miles later. I did have to upgrade to the HD trac bar. I couldn't keep TREs on the ftame side of the trac bar.

Ditto what tom said, I have been pleased with our 4.5" rusty's lift for a year and a half and have been running 32's. I also had to upgrade to the HD track bar bracket, installed a SYE and new rear ds. I am now looking into doing a long arm conversion since sometimes the ride is a bit harsh in the front end.

As for you being able to do the install, it will probably take you a weekend with most common hand tools. The only problem we ran into was the bolts that hold the leaf springs to the unibody were rusted in place and gave us fits. Soak all bolts with lube every day for a week b4 you do this install, it will make life easier.

I have been very happy with my Rustys 3 inch lift. What size tires are you going to run? I got 5 inches out of the rear springs and I put a 2 inch spacer in the front and stuff 31's no problem with stock bumpstops. I compared mine last year at Moab with a guy who had the 4.5 lift and mine actually sat higher than his. You might want to get the 3 inch and throw on a spacer and save the extra money and get a new track bar for the front. after about 25,000 miles I've had no problems and the rear springs have settled in at about 4.25 inches.