'88 Eliminator... Feb. 2009 - Feb. 2026

[Smokeyyank]

Looking good! When I got my truck from Troy he had some cut ZJ springs on it. For a rear sway bar why wouldnt the ZJ one work? Sucks on ruffstuff, I got the stuff I needed from Barnes a few days after canceling the ruffstuff order. 

[neohic]

The ZJ rear bar is too wide. For where I want it to live it’d crash into the leaf springs. Originally, the ZJ sway bar ties into the control arms which are spread wider than our leaf springs. Reusing the current front as the rear just fits so much better. If handling feels weird, I’ll look into getting a WJ bar for the front. 

 

Ruff Stuff… … I just want to cancel the order but they need to pick up the phone or reply to an email for me to do that. Buddy of mine has heard a similar story from others in his fabrication circles too. 

[neohic]

Chasing more low might not be worth it. This morning I went out to put a second coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Plus on the floor and I played around with some coil options.

 

 

I took the rear ZJ coils and cut one full coil off the big end. With everything back in I gained another 1/2” of drop when compared to the SCCA coils. I also took out the factory bump stops to see what was going to be the next thing to crash into something else. There’s another 3/4”  between the top of the differential and the frame/engine mount. Worth it?… probably not. Who am I to question the suspension tuning of the Archers anyhow?

 

 

With the bump stops out I put the SCCA coils back in to see if they’d settle at all. In the past, I’ve tried rear ZJ coils and they’ll net about a 3” drop. With cutting a full coil off they’ll get you about 3 3/4” drop. The SCCA coils drop about 3 1/4” or so. Good to know, but I’m sure I’ll just leave well enough alone when things get finalized.

 

Finally, poking around I found a couple of bad tie rod ends. I ordered everything from the steering box to the knuckles to just be done with it and not have to worry about knocking loose stuck threads.

[neohic]

I wish I had more to report but I’ve just been very busy. Today I received the last of my Ruff Stuff order though. Two full months to get two control arm mounts, leaf spring perches, u bolts, and a couple bushings. I’m grateful that towards the end I did get an email response from them, but overall I wish I would’ve been completely done with this project a while ago. Can’t say I'm mad, but I definitely have that disappointed dad feeling. 

[neohic]

With all the parts here, I finally pulled the 4.10 Dana 30.

 

 

The control arms needed to get reworked, however after pulling them I found that the lower bushings were completely wasted. I think these were Rubicon Express arms and they had a flex joint at the frame side that were noisy since the day they went in the truck.

 

 

Being these had a goofy axle side bushing, I decided to just start from scratch. The uppers were fine to just cut the flex joint off. They got replaced with 2”x.250” tube so I could run a standard poly bushing.

 

 

The new lowers also use 2”x.250” but I used a scrap of some fancy 1.75”x.120” DOM to connect the dots. They’re overkill for what they need to be.

 

As for the 3.73 Dana 30 going in, the lower control arms got cut off because they were well on their way to falling off. I replaced them with Ruff Stuff 3/16” brackets and put it under the truck on jack stands.

 

 

Everything needs paint then it should all just fall back into place. 

[neohic]

Kind of a big day for the Eliminator! The axle and parts got painted and installed for the last time. Black… everything black this time. Last time the truck got a birthday the control arms got painted hammered silver and the axles were hammered gray but the diff covers were also silver… IT WAS TOO MUCH!! Younger me clearly wasn’t thinking about tasteful choices that older me might not like. 

 

 

Looks like 1/4” is the magic number. There’s 1/4” of clearance between the bump stops, upper control arm hardware to the frame, and from the driveshaft to the exhaust. The floor patch got painted and undercoated also. I touched up the undercoating around the rest of the truck too. All that’s left is to swap over the brake calipers, nut and bolt everything again, and double check the alignment once it’s back on the road.

 

 

Then on to the rear!

[neohic]

Time for the rear.

 

 

With everything out of the way it’s nice to see a quick turn around being there’s a third or so less moving parts.

 

 

4.10 axles out. I’ll probably hold on to these for at least a year… we’ll see.

 

On to those nifty fiberglass leaf springs. The bushings that were at the frame side were just glued in and fell out with a little wiggle. Keep in mind that these were never mounted on anything from the late ‘80s until I briefly mocked them up in an ‘89 I used to have and then taken back out. I’m sure the glue was just fine in their prime but I didn’t trust it after this long.

 

 

Luckily the I.D. was 1.5” so a standard poly bushing went in the old bushing’s place. I never had a shackle side bushing as long as I’ve had the springs. A while back I had some bronze sleeves made up but I was never crazy about how they turned out. A friend of mine purchased a lathe and was itchy to use it. He spun some delrin for me.

 

 

Little bit of a difference between these and the metric ton springs coming out. 
 

 

Shackles are just plain ol’ stock XJ. Next on the list was figuring the rear sway bar. My material scraps are getting low but I managed to find enough to make it work.

 

 

The axle side mount was an old set of shock mounts I kept from a while back and the frame side bolts on with the bump stops.

 

 

Made for a good landing spot. I need to get the bar where I want it to live and then I’ll figure out end links. The axle pinion angle got measured up and some good tacks got put on the spring perches. Of course I had to throw the wheels on to see where we’re at now.

 

Mmmmmm…