Control Arm Drop Kit Question

[75sv1]

My version of DW is think your on a bucking bronco.  Not, fun. And not fun if there is a semi on your tail. 

[Big_Mark]

4 hours ago, 75sv1 said:

My version of DW is think your on a bucking bronco.  Not, fun. And not fun if there is a semi on your tail. 

Or if it wasn't there on the way TO the trail but you have it AFTER wheeling, then you "get" to drive home FROM the trail with the DWs, this is when you pray for "coming home from a weekend vacation" traffic on HWY 2 (in my case) 

 

Good catch on the short lowers, yeah that would cause the springs to bow back like that!

 

More geometry at play!

[Andy in Pa]

Ok, let me start off by saying that there is not necessarily a cheap way to lift any MJ or XJ this much. 

 

You definitely have a caster problem with that front end that drop brackets will fix.  If the castor is anything less than 7 degrees, the wheel will feel very floaty and not come back to center well at all.  If its in the negative, there is not enough camber adjustment you can make to make it perform correctly on the road. 

 

If your still running stock uppers, please at least weld some steel on the bottom to box them in.  Otherwise they WILL bend if you plan to wheel this MJ.  In the short term, drop brackets will at least improve your angles, help the suspension to cycle in its correct arch, and immensely improve the ride quality.  The lower control arms you have on there are meant to work great UP TO 4" of lift.  You have at least 6" there. 

 

And yes, the drag link should be on the bottom of the pitman arm 80% of the time.  The only time it goes above like you have it is if it has bump steer... which means the drag link angle and track bar angle don't match.

 

[75sv1]

1 hour ago, Big_Mark said:

Or if it wasn't there on the way TO the trail but you have it AFTER wheeling, then you "get" to drive home FROM the trail with the DWs, this is when you pray for "coming home from a weekend vacation" traffic on HWY 2 (in my case) 

 

Good catch on the short lowers, yeah that would cause the springs to bow back like that!

 

More geometry at play!

Or, it's so bad, your track bar bracket to the axle breaks off. A 6 hour drive becomes 12.

[Warren99]

The replacement heim should be here tomorrow. Once I put that in and move the drag link to under the pittman arm I'm expecting the wobble to be gone. But after that I wanna look into getting the proper control arm lengths. I see the chart but the only problem is I have no idea what the actual lift is I have on my truck. What is the best way I can get an actual measurement of it? 

[camjeep3]

Best way to measure you current lift height is measure top of axle to bottom of frame. This link will give the procedure in detail. As well as the stock distance. Take your number and subtract the stock number.... Thats your lift height!

https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=912893

[Pete M]

On 3/6/2022 at 8:15 PM, Pete M said:

and the lift height thread: 

 

 

 

this is how to measure the height

[Warren99]

I have roughly 5" of lift. LCAs are roughly 16" and uppers are maybe 15"-15.25". The graph is 5"= 16.62 lower and 15.21 upper. So I think I'll experiment with shims on the lower and see where that gets me.

[Warren99]

Before I got around to the shims I rebalanced the tires on our machine and funilly enough that sorta got rid of the wobble, there was still slight wobble but the actual major stuff was only when braking hard . Regardless, I just need proper control arms like some have pointed out, even if I fixed the caster, the current ones I have are angled pretty far down, the axle is backwards in the wheel well and the UCA are still stock.

So that leads me to long arms. Should ride better and fix all the issues. Ideally I'd like something that bolts on, which is why I'm looking at brands that use a new crossmember. 

 https://rustysoffroad.com/collections/xj-cherokee-84-01-mj-comanche-86-93-long-arm-suspension-upgrades/products/rustys-xj-cherokee-4-link-long-travel-upgrade#.Yougf3bML1s

I like these particularly since its still a true 4 link and not radius arms. Any reason I shouldn't be able to use this? Anything I might not have taken into consideration?