front 3" lift

[pamike]

i found a comanche with about a 3" lift on it. i got the coils, shocks and tried to get the lca's but i couldn't get the right side frame bolt out. i measured the lca's and they measured the same as the stock ones. will i be able to run the coils and shocks with my stock lca's? i really don't see any difference in them other than strength.

[SW86]

yes. :thumbsup:

[pamike]

now the only other question i have is, where can i get a aal or aal and shackle for the rear.

the 3" rough country kit comes with coils shocks and aal's so i'm assuming i'll get the lift i want from some RC aal's. where can i get just aal's without buying the whole kit?

[kyleag89]

Try calling RC, they should sell you just the aal.

[MjPioneer]

I think Hellscreek has some sort of AAL option for us. I think.

[Pete M]

sure those were aftermarket arms and not custom? I can't think of any lift whose arms aren't longer. :dunno: that's kinda the point of the arms, to correct the geometry. a 3" lift only needs them to be a little longer. there's some adjustment built into the factory lower arm mounts that you might be able to tweak

 

individual results can vary using stock arms on a lift. your caster angle will lessen, sometimes leading to wandering on the road or even DW.

[pamike]

all i know is they definitly werent stock. they were square fully boxed. and i'm not 100% sure but i think they had poly bushings. the shocks i pulled off said trailmaster on them. so maybe a trailmaster lift.

after beating on the bolt for over an hour we gave up. the one that i did get off i stashed under the seat so if i can find a battery powered sawzall to borrow i'll just cut the bolt on both sides. i took a measuring tape with me and i measured them and compared them to an xj that was setting nearby, i got the same measurement.

 

i currently have a hellcreek long aal under my truck. i put it in when i swaped in the d44. my truck sets level. i got no lift from it. all it did was stiffen up the springs.

[Pete M]

square doesn't sound familiar either. :hmm: but maybe I'm just out of the loop. :doh:

[pamike]

i should have took my camera and got a pic but i didn't think of it.

what i'm thinking of doing is just putting the coils and shocks on the front and take it for a drive and see what happens. i have a subaru for a daily driver so i'll still have transportation until i can get the lca's.

[mnkyboy]

It should drive fine, i have 3" coils on my XJ with stock arms and it drives fine.

 

I ran my MJ for a while at 5"+ on stock arms with no problems

 

I also just got a set of boxed aftermarket upper/lower arms for the XJ,not sure on the brand but they look fairly old.

[jpnjim]

The grand daddy of all XJ/MJ lifts was the 3" Rancho,

 

and although I never ran their LCA's, they were purported to be the same length as stock, and were square, with poly bushings.

(+ painted Red, tho I'm pretty sure they were also marketed as part of a "Dick Cepek" kit, and painted black 8, or 10 years ago)

 

The LCA's stock length was the reason I didn't get a set when I bought their 3" coils in the early 1990's (still running those same Rancho coils FWIW, 16+ years later, now in 'her' ZJ)

[jpnjim]

Ancient-XJ history lesson (according to my bad memory anyway):

 

Rancho 3" coils, boxed, stock length LCA's, shocks & AAL's was the first name brand XJ lift,

closely followed by Trailmaster's 4" kit, that used the control arm drop brackets.

 

The first round LCA's i can remember were Pro-Comp's a few years later (for their 3" kit), they were bent, with a reinforcing plate (with maybe 3 'speed' holes in it).

 

Tompken Machine was out around that time, with a 4" kit, closely followed by a 6" (4" + 2" steel spacers).

 

'Golden Desert Mercantile', later reformed as 'American Metal' was another manufacturer that offered 3", 4", and 6" plus kits 'back in the day', but they quickly fizzled out.

 

SkyJacker also had a 3", and then a 5" on the drawing board (they even released part numbers & drawings), but never actually produced the 5".

 

There were probably a couple others I'm leaving out, but those what I remember being available before the TJ came out, and EVERYONE started making XJ compatible stuff.

 

We need an old delusional granpa one of these --> :smart:

for posts like this. ;)

[mnkyboy]

mine measure slightly longer then stock,they are angle cut and fish plated to give them a bend.

[HellCreek]

i currently have a hellcreek long aal under my truck. i put it in when i swaped in the d44. my truck sets level. i got no lift from it. all it did was stiffen up the springs.

 

That is exactly what they are designed to do. They are not meant to give you any lift - at least not much. They are designed to give you more load capacity. We made them so that the folks who were cutting the eyes off of XJ springs wouldn't have to do that.

 

-Tom

[pamike]

i currently have a hellcreek long aal under my truck. i put it in when i swaped in the d44. my truck sets level. i got no lift from it. all it did was stiffen up the springs.

 

That is exactly what they are designed to do. They are not meant to give you any lift - at least not much. They are designed to give you more load capacity. We made them so that the folks who were cutting the eyes off of XJ springs wouldn't have to do that.

 

-Tom

 

thats the reason i bought them, i wanted more load capacity without lifting the truck. but when i found the 3" coils at the junkyard for $10 each i couldn't pass them up. i now have them on my truck and the front sets higher. i am now thinking about throwing in a 2-3" aal in addition to the hellcreek aal to level the truck out but i don't need the whole lift kit.

 

i drove the truck around with the stock lca's and it drives just fine.