Motion Offroad

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Adjustable Trackbar - Your going to want an adjustable one, and your going to want one that's heavy duty. This essentially centers the axle under your Jeep. At 6.5" of lift you really should consider getting one with a heavy duty mounting bracket on the body side as well, as the factory one isn't up to par. Brake Lines - Get extended one's! At 6.5" you NEED them. Even if you don't think you do, you do! The brakelines are not something you want to "risk" tearing on the road or the trails. Just spend the money and get a good quality set of extended ones. Steering - At 6.5" you really should consider doing something with your steering. A crossover setup is really recommended. T Tie Rod - I guess you could call this part of your steering as a crossover steering kit should include it. But with 6.5" your often running 33" or 35" tires. If you wheel at all your stock tierod will soon become a pretzel. Several options available once again. Bumpstops - Most kits leave this important part out. Not sure if it's simply overlooked or the manufactures think they really are not that important. Bumpstops allow you to maintain control of where the upward travel of your suspension stops and prevents over compression and premature wear to your springs. In our opinion they are a very important part of your suspension setup. Coil Springs - You have many different options here. Different manufacture's offer different coil spring rates. Since your going with a SOA rear setup it's somewhat important to try to get as close to the same spring rate as your rear if you want your rig to perform well both on and off road. For instance you don't want to have a really flexy rear with your SOA and have a stiff front coil that does not flex well at all. A little plug for us, but we've matched our coils to the spring rates of the rear to give the best ride quality and suspension articulation possible. Quick Disco's - Get some! Many different options on the market. They really depend on what you want to spend and what your looking for in a set. We just recommend you keep your front swaybar connected for any street use; especially at this height. Control Arms - At 6.5" of lift your REALLY should be considering going with a longarm setup. Longarms have nothing to do with what type of wheeling you do. Better flex is just a by-product of having them. At that height (6.5") your control arm angle's are just way to steep and the ride will suffer greatly. Additionally if you ever try to go over anything, your jeep will be pushing itself over the axle, not pushing the axle forward with it. Having your control arms at that angle (short-arms) at that height your putting more abuse on your uni-body and just asking for trouble down the road. Longarms are the answer. SOA Perches - I'm assuming your going SOA in the rear? Just make sure you get some SOA perches that are longer to help with axle wrap. Shocks - Just make sure if you have longarms you have a set of long travel shocks for the front. We don't include shocks in our kits cause some people want to spend a lot of $$ on shocks since they are daily driving it, others want to get away as cheap as possible since it's just a weekend toy. But just make sure you get the correct length set of shocks for your lift height. SYE / CV-Driveshaft - A Slip Yoke Eliminator (SYE) adapts the rear end of the factory transfer-case from a Slip Yoke style to a Fixed Yoke Style. The origonal design for the MJ rear driveshaft is set up with what is called a single cardan rear driveshaft with a fixed length, fixed at the pinion, and slipping at the Transfer Case to make up for droop and compression of the rear suspention. An SYE eliminates the slip yoke on the t-case tailshaft by changing it to a fixed mounting point for the rear driveshaft, moving the slip yoke to the driveshaft. This also allows some u-joint setups with higher angle capability for a more vibration free ride down the road. There are two main types of SYE's, based on the output shaft that is used. The "HD" SYE uses a larger 32 spline output shaft, and is made by various top name vendors. The standard SYE kit provides a shortened stock 28 spline output shaft. One company offers a standard SYE kit without providing another output shaft, so the existing shaft is cut, then drilled and tapped for the new flange bolt. This kit is referred to as a "Hack and Tap". The main issue with the Factory Slip Yoke is the increased angles on the rear driveshaft after lifting a MJ. The more lift, the steeper the angle. The increased angles can cause issues with yoke clearance on the factory slip yoke and increased wear on u-joints. A common fix to cure the yoke bind issue is to use a Slip Yoke from a YJ wrangler. The increased angle also causes a need to Shim the rear axle to re-set driveline geometry and reduce vibrations. The problem with re-setting the geometry is that this causes the angles to be even steeper because in most cases, the pinion needs to move down and be parallel with the t-case out put. This increases the angles on the rear driveshaft more and more, and (the biggest issue) causes the slip yoke to be pulled out of the tail-cone more than is comfortable, and can cause the slip yoke to pull clean off the t-case mainshaft while at full suspension travel. The fix for this is to run a Slip yoke eliminator and a rear driveshaft with a slip joint in it. There are two main driveshaft choices - another single cardan (one u-joint at each end - two u-joints total) with a slip joint in it or a "Double Cardan, Near Constant Velocity" drivesahft with 2 u-joints at one end conected by a uni-ball and one u-joint at the other end. These are often refered to (incorectly) as CV driveshafts, and MOST MJ's have an example of one of these style shafts in the front end for a front driveshaft. Most XJ/MJ owners opt for the Double Cardan style shaft due to the increased angle it allows, and the corect pinion angle geometry allowing for a higher clearance under the pinon. Most driveshaft makers (local or mail order) will have some system of measuring on the vehicle to determine the needed length of your new driveshaft once you have your SYE installed. If you choose to go with a Hack and Tap SYE, you might need to have a flange syle driveshaft, and in talking with your drivesahft maker, you should mention this, and make sure he has all the adapters and will get you the parts you need. When do I need one? The general rule of thumb on lift height and need for an SYE on the MJ due to the longer wheelbase is at 6.5" of lift. These are general guidelines, and you will hear people needing SYE's at 2" and you will hear of people running no SYE and 6" of lift - it is all dependent on the vehicle and the owners description of "Fine". If you put on a lift, and then notice driveline vibrations, this is most likely due to the rear driveshaft, and could possibly be that you need a SYE and driveshaft. While you may be able to live with your driveshaft vibrations and how that affects you, it is certainly not good for the t-case bearings and seals. If a Lift Kit is sold with a "transfer case drop", a "motor mount lift", or a "high clearance slip yoke" - those are bandaids for a real problem - the REAL solution is to use a Slip Yoke Eliminator and a new driveshaft. Whew, that's all i can think of at the moment based on lift. Anything else will be based on what size tire you run and that't a totally new can of worms... We've tried/used a lot of different products at 6.5" on our MJ and we've built our kit based on what products we've been the most happy with and work well together. We've got a lot of RR time in putting our kit together. So above by stating what we did is based on those facts. Sorry if we came off the wrong way or trying to "sell" you on our 6.5" kit; that was not our intention!

You should never have to use a drop pitman arm. DPAs should ONLY be used if you're lowering the trackbar mount on the frame, or raising it on the axle, otherwise it will CAUSE bumpsteer. The whole belief that you need a drop pitman arm with a lift has been perpetuated from the days of leaf sprung vehicles without trackbars. On these vehicles you wanted to keep the angle of the draglink as flat as possible to minimize bumpsteer. On vehicles with a trackbar (like your MJ), you want to keep the draglink as parallel to the trackbar as possible to minimize bumpsteer. With a DPA, your making it worse. A dropped pitman arm will also increase the amount of torque/axial loading on the shaft your steering box experiences. If you've ever talked to anyone who's running larger tires and had a frame failure to the steering box mounting area, they'll be the first to tell you that you don't want to do anything to put more stress on the steering box...

The Skyjacker subframe will not work on the MJ's due to the different lower control arm mounts and the way the sub-frame is different than the XJ's are. As far as the rear goes, most 6.5" lifts on the market use SOA with your factory leafs. This helps with the ride quality as well as suspension articulation in the rear. The flatter the leaf is, the better it will essentially flex. Using a 6.5" leaf mean a lot of arch, and a thicker pack that won't flex real well. Not to mention being spring under axle also hinders ground clearance. We tested some 6.5" leafs to use with our 6.5" lift and thought they did the job, however we felt that SOA was the better solution for the reasons stated above.

TNT's kit uses RE 5.5" front coils (which sit closer to 6"). If your going to be running BW's you'll have room for 35", if not even 37" tires.

The general rule of thumb on lift height and need for an SYE on the MJ due to the longer wheelbase is at 6.5" of lift. This will vary based on a SWB vs LWB as well as what rear axle your MJ originally had as the driveshaft length vary among these variables. These are general guidelines, and you will hear people needing SYE's at 2" and you will hear of people running no SYE and 6" of lift - it is all dependent on the vehicle and the owners description of "Fine". If you put on a lift, and then notice driveline vibrations, this is most likely due to the rear driveshaft, and could possibly be that you need a SYE and cv-style rear driveshaft. While you may be able to live with your driveshaft vibrations and how that affects you, it is certainly not good for the t-case bearings and seals. The main issue with the factory slip yoke is the increased angles on the rear driveshaft after lifting your MJ. The more lift, the steeper the angle. The increased angles can cause issues with yoke clearance on the factory slip yoke and increased wear on u-joints. A common fix to cure the yoke bind issue is to use a Slip Yoke from a YJ Wrangler. But be advised that what you gain in length, you loose in spline engagement and it's just about a wash (in our opinion). The increased angle also causes a need to shim the rear axle to re-set driveline geometry and reduce vibrations. The problem with re-setting the geometry is that this causes the angles to be even steeper because in most cases, the pinion needs to move down and be parallel with the t-case out put. This increases the angles on the rear driveshaft more and more, and (the biggest issue) causes the slip yoke to be pulled out of the tail-cone more than is comfortable, and can cause the slip yoke to pull clean off the t-case mainshaft during suspension articulation. If a lift kit is sold with a "transfer case drop", or a "high clearance slip yoke" - those are bandaids for a real problem - the REAL solution is to use a Slip Yoke Eliminator and a new cv-style rear driveshaft.

When the exhaust temperature is hotter then the inside surface of your exhaust system, you produce condensation. That causes condensation everytime you start up the vehicle, in cold weather, you produce more. If you run the engine long enough, it will empty the water from the low lying areas, which is why you should not just jump into your vehicle in the winter, drive 1 mile and stop it. That will rust out your exhaust more quickly. In the summer, you produce less condensation because the pipe and the exhaust stay at a closer temperature which produces less condensation.

The biggest question is what size tires are you going to be running. Boggers are typically an "odd" size and are wider than normal tires are. The extra width and depending on what size rim (8" wide or 10" wide) and the backspacing of that rim will greatly determine what size lift and how much trimming you'll need to do to clear them at full lock. Based on a 12.5" wide tire this is what we recommend with our lifts WITHOUT any major trimming. 3" = upto 31" tires 4.5" = upto 33" tires 6.5" = upto 35" tires Now with minor (or major) trimming and proper bumpstops you can fit a much larger tire than recommended above.

Lever towards front of MJ 2H - 4H - N - 4L Lever towards rear of MJ

XJ leafs won't bolt up as the length eye to eye is different. I guess the first question would be how much are you wanting to lower it? You can use a XJ rear shackle and it will lower it 3/4"-1". Another option would be to make a "bastard" pack using the MJ main leaf and other leafs from another vehicle with a flatter pack. Also if your MJ is 4wd you can swap in a set of 2wd leafs and it should lower it some as well.

Our LWB sliders have been out for about a week now. More info can be found on our website.

Yes they can be ran with the factory front skid. And no, you do not have to remove the steering box to install them. The bracket on the driver side does not touch any of the bolts holding the steering box to the frame rail. The rear nut on the drivers side sits behind the box, and is a bit tricky to get to, but with either small fingers or taping the nut to a wrench it can be done without removing it. (ignore the "blue" hook, they come with black ones)

I would HIGHLY recommend the C4x4 one's over anything else. They include a very key part that helps prevent the brackets from bending. Rusty's, and Omix-Ada (sold threw Keystone and may other retailers) do not include the additional bracket that keeps them from bending during a side pull. I can't tell you how many sets of Rusty's I've seen bent after a few pulls. Unless you can find a set of OEM one's for cheap, the C4x4 one's sell for $75 powdercoated and are super beefy. We've yet to have a customer tell us they've bent a set. We run them on our own rigs and I've came down REALLY hard on them a few times on a rock and they've held up great. Here is a photo of the additional bracket I'm referring to.

http://www.jet-hot.com/

If you go SOA in the rear your looking at anywhere from 5-7" of lift depending on what leafs your MJ came with from the factory. If you run a 4" leaf in the rear SOA your looking at a LOT of lift (to much really). Deaver leafs are nice (and ultra $$). Unless you want to go all out, or are going to be running your MJ in JeepSpeed their are cheaper solutions available for new rear lift leaf packs. Realize that Deaver's turn around last time I spoke with them on a custom set of leafs was at around 6 months wait.

http://www.jeeptv.com/user_video_detail.php?mId=5890

I know you don't probally have access to this type of equipment, but a come-a-long, some heat, and a BFH using this process is what I'd do for a "DIY" job. Starts around 12:40... http://www.jeeptv.com/user_video_detail.php?mId=5881

This is only for 1997 and up I believe. The Renix era used one style, than the HO from '91-'96 used another style. Than in 1997 they did away with them completely.

One question ran threw my head the entire time I was watching that... How many hands were they using to hold the video camera?!? Sorry but I'd be holding onto the line along the side with BOTH hands. :eek:

An AAL is adding height by using a higher spring-rated leaf to compensate for the additional height that you're trying to achieve. This means that the added leaf has to be much stiffer in order to lift the vehicle. You are asking this one leaf (per side) to not only lift and support the vehicle but it also has to deal with the resistance of the less curved stock spring pack. This often leads to many issues down the road, typically a very saggy factory pack after awhile. If it's just a temp. fix for awhile your fine, but I wouldn't run them forever. So as long as you realize to begin with that they may have side effects down the road (aka sagging again) and it's not going to be used for much offroading you'll be fine. Another option is a set of extended shackles. I'd honestly run an AAL on the factory packs before I put a longer shackle on them though. If you pull your factory packs apart you should use a new center pin, and you should also replace the u-bolts as you should NEVER re-use u-bolts after they've been on an axle for any period of time. With that being said, I've got a set of new 2" XJ AAL's that I'm honestly tired of tripping over. I'll let them go for cheap if your interested. Includes new center pins. PM for more info if your interested.

ZJ D44's are JUNK! They are an alum. center section and are known to fail under any amount of stress. Even if it was given to you, I wouldn't waste the time to put it under your MJ.

Last week (Nov. 4th-7th)

If you go SOA in the rear your looking at a min. of 5.5" of lift depending on what rear leafs your MJ came with from the factory. Most of the time going SOA in the rear you'll need a 6.5" front coil to make the MJ sit fairly level. Just don't want you to go SOA in the rear and be major "butt high", than want to bump upto 6.5" of lift and realize what you bought in your cheaper lift kit isn't going to work at that height. If you decide to not go SOA do realize that an AAL is adding height by using a higher spring-rated leaf pack to compensate for the additional height that you're trying to achieve. This means that the added leaf has to be much stiffer in order to lift the vehicle. You are asking this one leaf (per side) to not only lift and support the vehicle but it also has to deal with the resistance of the less curved stock spring pack. This leads to many issues down the road, typically a very saggy factory pack, and sometimes broke factory leafs. In my very humble opinion I will always recommend a full pack replacement for a long-term solution. When you have a full leaf pack with springs of all the same spring rate then they will work much better. More often than not it will provide a better ride, more flex and a longer lasting more reliable lift than an AAL ever will. Yes, its costs more but I tend to think long term. An AAL may be a cheaper solution now, but down the road you'll end up most likely spending more money fixing the problem's caused by the AAL's.

Well if Josh told ya it's bent, than their is no question about it. ;) As Brent stated, you could always change the shafts in the D44 to a 6 lug pattern. The new Alloy chromo shafts are now being sold with both the 5 lug and 6 lug patterns on them so you can choose what combo you want. If you do go with a Waggy D44, the easiest way to get it under your MJ is to call up Bob @ Treks (TNT Customs) and order the truss system for it. You'll thank yourself later for just going that route. As for the steering stuff, sucks about Phat Jeeps. I'm not sure what to tell you about that.

Uppers - 15.50" Lowers - 17.25" If the control arms are hitting the coil buckets than you'll be very limited in any amount of down travel. This is why many control arms are "offset" on the LCA mount on the axle end or the arm itself is bent; to allow for clearance.