UNUSUAL COIL SPRING ISSUE. HELP.

This is my first post in a forum. so excuse my manners. I have a 1995 Jeep cherokee 5.5" lift. consists of rubicon express 5.5 coils, rouch country control arm drop brackets, jks adjustable lowers, ironfab adjustable uppers. jks adjustable track bar. my sway bar mounts on axles have been welded extended. Erm, thats about it upfront. my issue is... i have a bent coil spring. Yes i searched. no one has had this issue like i have. are the arms the correct lengths? Yes. is the coil bent removed from jeep? No. is the bump stop drop down bent? No. my lower arms are set same length. and my upper arms are same length. the passenger coil is ever so bowed that is will rub the bump stop drop down metal cylinder. In the end to get it driveable i had to set the passenger upper bellow 15" and the other 3 arms are set at what they should be. I know it sounds odd but that is truly the only way to stop the rubbing. Leads you to think an axles bent? NOPE. dana 30 is healthy as can be. Leads you to think i dont know what im doing, honestly im no expert but this jeep has 2 shops scratching there heads over the issue. NOW lets talk when it started.


installed the lift, everything was perfect.

went to a jeep event with street tires cause my ups has my 35s hostage. so stock jk take offs 32 sra wranglers

i hit a row of logs real hard. impacts tires HARD. bust an upper arm that was used and worn anyway. ( only part of my pieced together lift kit that was used was the uppers)

So i busted the passenger upper arm

i welded it with a jeepers welder on his work truck and limped er threw the woods than home.

since that impact this coil looks like this, even with new control arms up top. wo every part of this kit is brand spaken new now. under 200 miles new. and that impact jard god knows what, so bent coil on passenger side, and much head ache later i am here. I have tried countless things.

shortening lowers, extending uppers. extending both. shortening both. in the end when all 4 arms are set at "correct lengths" the driver coil is perfect and passenger is bowed and rubs the bump stop drop down metal cylinder. the ONLY way i get coil to stop rubbing is setting the passenger upper way to short and the other 3 correct lengths.


yes the coils seated in perch

Sorry for now pics, new to forums, on a cell phone here.. thanks. )

Sounds like maybe you bent the control arm mount on the axle. Let's see some pics

youtube link coming soon. is that allowed?

https://youtu.be/7ObCZ3RW724

heres a video

Just watched your video, sounds like you must have bent something that you aren't seeing when you broke that upper arm. I'd look at your control arm drop brackets and see if they still look ok, make sure the hardware holding them in is ok and not broken also. It's very unlikely that the coil spring is bent since it's made from spring steel which means it's designed to flex and bend but has memory so it will return to its original shape. It could possibly be related to your track bar which should center your axle under your Jeep, make sure it looks ok side to side. Sorry I can't be more help, but it sounds like your Jeep was ok before the log incident, and after that it was fubar. Something must have gotten bent when that happened.

Is it possible you slammed the bump stop and that is bent not drop brackets?

I would assume that the sway bar is straight to the frame, measure end of sway bar to front of bump stop tube?

I would suggest that actual measurements are required to determine what the problem is.

Have you measured both the location and the angle of both the bumpstop tubes ? Have you considered just bending/moving the offend bump stop tube ?

Did you twist the axle tube ? If you measure the Caster on both sides you will answer that question.

Jks adjustable track bar. Side to side its all measured up fine. I am at a loss of what to do at this point. Regarding the reply of just bending bump stop tube, i pondered that. But i dont want to go bending things until i figure out what exactly it is, alao no clue how id even bend that hunk of steel. Also, the impact was hard, but not as hard as i made it out to be. Am i hurting anything with my lowers being how they should be but uppers being seperate lengths? driver 15.125 i believe. and passenger way under 15". I may just take it to a shop which i literally never do. But what will they do that i have not?

also, drop brackets and hardware not bent or broken. This is driving me insane.

Maybe I read this wrong, but the frame "is not" symmetrical on all XJ's!

Measure from rear hub to front hub, both sides, compare.


Measure from the front leaf spring bolt to the bolt at the drop bracket for the LCA, left and right, compare.


BTW, holding the tape out from the hub with the wheels on and guessing center will tell you nothing........wheels off and front hubs/steering straight.

Try an alignment shop, they can tell you if your axle is straight and check your caster and camber. I'd adjust the arms to where you want them, lowers same length, uppers at different lengths, and then see what the alignment shop has to say once they get your jeep on the rack. It's all digital with lasers and such, so they should be able to tell if anything is out of wack, even slightly.

To the most recent reply. I am for one iffy to run upper arms at seperate lengths. But even with my passenger arm as short as it goes it still doesnt fix the issue. It just slightly fixes it. Its as if a magical 13" arm or so would fix it. which is crazy cause im lifted 5.5" and stock arms are 15" with no lift. I am getting an alignment after i fix this issue. Should i just set my uppers back to the lengths they should be... make my coil touching again.. and take it for an alignment from there. im just scared its going to be done, be charged $150-$200 and be back in the same boat..

and axle from hub to hub isnt bent i was told by a few shade tree mechanics. Theyve done some 3/4 links and serious stuff so i sort of trust em

Jeep Driver said:

Measure from rear hub to front hub, both sides, compare.


Measure from the front leaf spring bolt to the bolt at the drop bracket for the LCA, left and right, compare.


BTW, holding the tape out from the hub with the wheels on and guessing center will tell you nothing........wheels off and front hubs/steering straight.

Click to expand...

Shall I repeat myself?



I don't care what some shade-tree mechanic said, until you start taking some measurements........


You bent or damaged something. Either your drop brackets are out or you twisted a tube.


I would bring all the arms back to the same measurement, measure the bolts at the drop brackets to the rear springs to see if everything is square........if so, if square............you spun a tube, time for a new axle.



You play.........you pay.

If you want to go driving over logs.......stumps.......boulders...........this is what your D30 should look like, trussed and welded.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u_6XIDKMPFE/maxresdefault.jpg

reply to Jeep driver, i will measure from drop bracket lower arm bolt to rear leaf front bolt when im home and report back. Didnt think of that, because thatll tell me if a drop brackets out of wack. thank you for the insight. Also, i dont mind paying for parts or even fixing stuff. Time and money are whatever. NOT KNOWING, is whats driving me utterly NUTS. So im going to measure lower arm bolt to front leaf bolt on both sides and report back. Will be too dark to adjust arm lengths back to matching, but atleast i can tell if the drop brackets are bad or not for now. Swore to never use a rc product, so wouldnt surprise me if that was the issue. Idk how that company stays afloat.

Jeep Driver said:

If you want to go driving over logs.......stumps.......boulders...........this is what your D30 should look like, trussed and welded.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u_6XIDKMPFE/maxresdefault.jpg

Click to expand...

also i plan to build my dana 30 eventually. But as of now i do ever so slight offroading. Usually its stuff a 2wd ranger could get threw, but went to an event and the asshats sort of forced me over it because i couldnt back up due to other folks. and no go arounds. Never log again. I never do that sort of stuff. no rocks, logs etc.

Maybe I couldn't see it because the video was blurry but, is there a jam nut on the passenger lower control arm?

update video

https://youtu.be/BMlra0trFLw

Got it a tad better with a bfh