New Comanche owner, Lift tips?

[Backpacker]

Hi all, pretty new to CC and the mj/working on cars in general. Bought an 89 MJ as my first car about a year ago, and have just done the basic upkeep like brakes, oil changes, and stuff like that. I Replaced my heater core check valve, most of my hosing, and the valve cover gasket to stop what I hope is my last oil leak this month, lol. The next step right now is my shocks, as they are shot. I would like to go ahead and do a moderate lift while it is all apart. I see a lot of people ragging on rough country, but with my very limited budget they seem to be the only reasonably priced rear leafs made specifically for the MJ. As long as I don't plan on doing any real crawling or difficult trails, would it be reasonable to just do their shocks/coils/leafs until I decide to upgrade to long arm or something of that nature? Sorry if this is way too wordy, just trying to give a full picture of what's going on. Also attaching pictures of the Jeep if anyone is interested. 

 

 

Edit: I guess my real questions are: Are there any real issues with rough country besides riding poorly on the road, such as poor quality control or bad experiences with the parts in general? And if so, are there other budget friendly complete kits that would require minimal modification of the parts or body?

Edited October 30, 2023 by Backpacker

[fiatslug87]

Welcome to CC. Please post your VIN in the registry.

[89 MJ]

Welcome! Rough Country is also known for a rough ride on road. Being that this is your first car, I'm also going to venture a guess that its your only car and your daily driver. You probably want comfort for daily driving. If you want a small lift, consider doing a longer shackle and a spring spacer. Its cheaper and will ride better.

[Pete M]

the MJ is very capable in stock form and much nicer to drive on streets.  personally I'd focus on armor and recovery points first.  then a rear locker.    (unless you have a dana 35, then I'd get a better axle and invest my cash into that.) 

[Backpacker]

27 minutes ago, 89 MJ said:

Welcome! Rough Country is also known for a rough ride on road. Being that this is your first car, I'm also going to venture a guess that its your only car and your daily driver. You probably want comfort for daily driving. If you want a small lift, consider doing a longer shackle and a spring spacer. Its cheaper and will ride better.

I think this is how I reply, please do let me know if it is wrong. I actually have a fair bit of experience riding and driving old jeeps that don't ride so great, including but not limited to my family 51 Willys pickup, a CJ3B, and mostly an 84 CJ7 (my former daily). I don't care too much about the ride, just want some more ground clearance for the roads in Alaska. Plus my shocks need to go so I figured I'd just go ahead and do everything while it is apart. I am looking for 4.5" so that I can run 32s with no worry about rubbing, since I won't ever be cutting my fenders. Would that be to much for just spacers and longer shackles?

[Backpacker]

11 minutes ago, Pete M said:

the MJ is very capable in stock form and much nicer to drive on streets.  personally I'd focus on armor and recovery points first.  then a rear locker.    (unless you have a dana 35, then I'd get a better axle and invest my cash into that.) 

I unfortunately have a mystery lift from the former owner that does not ride very well.  I have a fair bit of experience driving old jeeps so I don't mind it too much though. I am in the process of welding some armor right now, but I don't plan on wheeling it too hard or very often, just need the clearance for roads in Alaska. I need new shocks and was planning on just doing a budget lift while it is apart so that I know what is under there. Rough country is very tempting because of budget, and it has leafs made for the stock MJ shackle width which seems like it would make things a lot easier. I am also trying to track down a Chrysler 8.25 for a new rear axle, but I've been having some trouble. 

[Pete M]

pics of what ya got?  there are plenty of different reasons for a suspension to ride bad.  heck, you might simply need better shocks.  cheap shocks kinda suck.  also, what's the pressure in your tires?

[Backpacker]

3 minutes ago, Pete M said:

pics of what ya got?  there are plenty of different reasons for a suspension to ride bad.  heck, you might simply need better shocks.  cheap shocks kinda suck.  also, what's the pressure in your tires?

I don't have any pictures on my phone, I'd be happy to take some tomorrow in the light of day. If I recall correctly I have 30 or 33 psi last time I checked, whatever it said on my doorjamb. Pretty sure the rear shocks are shot based on how the leafs bounce when I go over stuff, feels just like the CJ7 I dailied previously when its shocks went out.

[89 MJ]

20 minutes ago, Backpacker said:

I think this is how I reply, please do let me know if it is wrong. I actually have a fair bit of experience riding and driving old jeeps that don't ride so great, including but not limited to my family 51 Willys pickup, a CJ3B, and mostly an 84 CJ7 (my former daily). I don't care too much about the ride, just want some more ground clearance for the roads in Alaska. Plus my shocks need to go so I figured I'd just go ahead and do everything while it is apart. I am looking for 4.5" so that I can run 32s with no worry about rubbing, since I won't ever be cutting my fenders. Would that be to much for just spacers and longer shackles?

Being that you want a 4.5" lift, have you looked into going SOA? That would be a little more lift than you are looking for, but it would be cheaper than leaf springs.

[Backpacker]

10 minutes ago, 89 MJ said:

Being that you want a 4.5" lift, have you looked into going SOA? That would be a little more lift than you are looking for, but it would be cheaper than leaf springs.

4.5" is really the max I am looking for, I'd rather do 4" but I can't find any MJ specific kits at 4" under $1000. I'd also like to keep the leafs, I like the older look/feel quite a bit.

[gogmorgo]

Shocks aren’t really a “while it’s apart” sort of item. You don’t need to take anything else apart to replace them. 
If you really want to lift it, I would suggest talking to a local suspension shop if you’ve got one. Likely a lot cheaper to have your factory springs re-arched (because they’ve probably sagged below original ride height) than it would be to ship lift components up to you in Alaska, unless you’ve got a good local supplier. They can probably also add a little extra height for you, put in a full length extra leaf if you want.
Up front a set of ZJ replacement coils from the local parts store are going to net you about an inch over factory height reasonably cheaply, plus spacers if you want a little more. With a little grinding of the bushing sleeves you can make WJ lower control arms fit, which will get you a little more tire clearance if you want. But any XJ lift should fit the front. 

[Backpacker]

17 minutes ago, gogmorgo said:

Shocks aren’t really a “while it’s apart” sort of item. You don’t need to take anything else apart to replace them. 
If you really want to lift it, I would suggest talking to a local suspension shop if you’ve got one. Likely a lot cheaper to have your factory springs re-arched (because they’ve probably sagged below original ride height) than it would be to ship lift components up to you in Alaska, unless you’ve got a good local supplier. They can probably also add a little extra height for you, put in a full length extra leaf if you want.
Up front a set of ZJ replacement coils from the local parts store are going to net you about an inch over factory height reasonably cheaply, plus spacers if you want a little more. With a little grinding of the bushing sleeves you can make WJ lower control arms fit, which will get you a little more tire clearance if you want. But any XJ lift should fit the front. 

I do seasonal work in AK half the year, I am in NC for the winter so shipping shouldn't be an issue. I also much prefer doing my own work, and am on a tighter budget so I would like to avoid putting it into a shop. I am looking for 4" or 4.5" so that I can have 32s and not worry about rubbing or cutting up the body, would that be too much for the ZJ coil and spacers? And is there any benefit to using a shorter coil and spacers over a full coil?

[fiatslug87]

Have you looked at Zone Offroad?

[gogmorgo]

Should have read the whole thread, didn’t see the 4.5” part.
I’m currently doing the same thing. I’ll be doing all my own wrenching but I have a local shop building me a 5” leaf pack. It works out cheaper for me than ordering up a full pack from the States, although not a lot. They offered to doctor up my current springs for significantly less but I don’t fully trust them. The passenger side is sagged 2.5” and the driver’s is 4” low, even with a helper-spring shock only on the low side. I found out after my purchase over ten years ago that the guy I think is responsible a few owners before me has a history of… interesting… well repair is probably the wrong word for it. It’s a small town and people talk. The truck’s definitely had some questionable stuff done to it. 

At that amount of lift usually you’d want to consider flipping the springs over the axle, if you trust them. I chose not to because I’ll be working in the snow in my driveway and I wanted a much more direct interchange than having to mess around with getting perches moved, etc. 
Up front I got a long-arm upgrade kit for an XJ. Mostly because I felt like if I was doing the lift I might as well go all out if I was replacing all the suspension anyhow. I chose the BDS kit because it’s a proper four-link that I was able to get through a Canadian supplier. So far it’s the only thing I’ve ordered that actually showed up, and it looks like good quality stuff. Can’t say it was cheap however. 

Short arms are definitely a ton cheaper than long, but 4” is starting to be a lot for original suspension pickup points and ride will start suffering. Some people are happy with it but others aren’t. Mine is mostly a highway cruiser at this point so that aspect is more important to me than other points. It’s incidentally part of why I chose a 4-link long arm over the more common and much cheaper radius arm setups, as it does a better job maintaining suspension alignment specs through suspension travel than a radius arm will.

 

I was going to go with full coils up front but I’m having trouble with retailers being honest with me about lead times and I don’t have them yet. I have an unknown set of lift coils supposedly around the 3” mark kicking around somewhere that may just end up with spacers on top at this rate, assuming I can figure out what I did with them.
The advantage of going with stock replacement springs with spacers on top is your local parts store can usually get them without you paying shipping, and spacers are small, lightweight, and cheap to ship. Plus you’ll get reasonably close to an original spring rate, lift springs are all over the place for that. And you can fine tune the setup pretty easily to get a good front/rear stance. But 4” is again a little much for a spacer lift, you start running the risk of things popping out on you with a taller spacer. 3” on top of a ZJ spring would in theory get you there safely, but it doesn’t give you much wiggle room to add another spacer if you need to make up for a heavy bumper, winch, etc. 
I was going to build my own sway bar links and spacers for my bump stops if I need them. Gotta save a little coin somewhere. 
This project started because I need winter tires and I decided to lift it to make the Hakkas I got for my ZJ fit, because that’s parked for the winter and I was having trouble tracking down a set of tires I wanted to run in a size that would fit my saggy suspension. There’s, uhh… there’s been a little scope creep, yeah. #JeepMath lol. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Backpacker]

19 minutes ago, gogmorgo said:

Should have read the whole thread, didn’t see the 4.5” part.
I’m currently doing the same thing. I’ll be doing all my own wrenching but I have a local shop building me a 5” leaf pack. It works out cheaper for me than ordering up a full pack from the States, although not a lot. They offered to doctor up my current springs for significantly less but I don’t fully trust them. The passenger side is sagged 2.5” and the driver’s is 4” low, even with a helper-spring shock only on the low side. I found out after my purchase over ten years ago that the guy I think is responsible a few owners before me has a history of… interesting… well repair is probably the wrong word for it. It’s a small town and people talk. The truck’s definitely had some questionable stuff done to it. 

At that amount of lift usually you’d want to consider flipping the springs over the axle, if you trust them. I chose not to because I’ll be working in the snow in my driveway and I wanted a much more direct interchange than having to mess around with getting perches moved, etc. 
Up front I got a long-arm upgrade kit for an XJ. Mostly because I felt like if I was doing the lift I might as well go all out if I was replacing all the suspension anyhow. I chose the BDS kit because it’s a proper four-link that I was able to get through a Canadian supplier. So far it’s the only thing I’ve ordered that actually showed up, and it looks like good quality stuff. Can’t say it was cheap however. 

Short arms are definitely a ton cheaper than long, but 4” is starting to be a lot for original suspension pickup points and ride will start suffering. Some people are happy with it but others aren’t. Mine is mostly a highway cruiser at this point so that aspect is more important to me than other points. It’s incidentally part of why I chose a 4-link long arm over the more common and much cheaper radius arm setups, as it does a better job maintaining suspension alignment specs through suspension travel than a radius arm will.

 

I was going to go with full coils up front but I’m having trouble with retailers being honest with me about lead times and I don’t have them yet. I have an unknown set of lift coils supposedly around the 3” mark kicking around somewhere that may just end up with spacers on top at this rate, assuming I can figure out what I did with them.
The advantage of going with stock replacement springs with spacers on top is your local parts store can usually get them without you paying shipping, and spacers are small, lightweight, and cheap to ship. Plus you’ll get reasonably close to an original spring rate, lift springs are all over the place for that. And you can fine tune the setup pretty easily to get a good front/rear stance. But 4” is again a little much for a spacer lift, you start running the risk of things popping out on you with a taller spacer. 3” on top of a ZJ spring would in theory get you there safely, but it doesn’t give you much wiggle room to add another spacer if you need to make up for a heavy bumper, winch, etc. 
I was going to build my own sway bar links and spacers for my bump stops if I need them. Gotta save a little coin somewhere. 
This project started because I need winter tires and I decided to lift it to make the Hakkas I got for my ZJ fit, because that’s parked for the winter and I was having trouble tracking down a set of tires I wanted to run in a size that would fit my saggy suspension. There’s, uhh… there’s been a little scope creep, yeah. #JeepMath lol. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That all makes sense, thank you! With the long arm up front, what did you end up doing in the rear? I could consider shelling out a little extra for front suspension, just worried about finding leafs for the rear that match stock MJ shackle width.

[Backpacker]

48 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

Have you looked at Zone Offroad?

Just checked Zone Offroad, looks like I can get a pretty complete kit for even cheaper. Is it a better brand?

[gogmorgo]

27 minutes ago, Backpacker said:

That all makes sense, thank you! With the long arm up front, what did you end up doing in the rear? I could consider shelling out a little extra for front suspension, just worried about finding leafs for the rear that match stock MJ shackle width.

Got a local shop building a set of leaf springs. Specifically they’re getting in a set of original height replacement springs and then adding some arch and probably an extra leaf. They weren’t 100% on what all they’ll need to do until they have the springs in hand, but the guy who runs the show there is a friend’s uncle and has been doing suspension work for going on 50 years now so I trust I’ll end up with a decent product.

I will say that it would cost me like 3/4 of what he quoted me was the cost of the new leaf springs he ordered, but even with that it works out to half the cost of getting even the Rusty’s springs brought up here. Shipping long heavy things to Canada is absolutely brutal.
 

If you’re looking at long arm levels of front lift it would definitely be worth looking into going spring-over-axle in the rear. Welding spring perches to the top of the axle. It’ll be a lot more cost effective than finding replacement springs, even if you’re paying someone else to do the welding for you. 
 

Also because I brought them up, the Rusty’s springs are hit or miss on quality. There’s more than a few instances of them being too short. Short enough to cause problems with shackle angles. And their response to complaints has not been great. 

[fiatslug87]

31 minutes ago, Backpacker said:

Just checked Zone Offroad, looks like I can get a pretty complete kit for even cheaper. Is it a better brand?

Don’t know, they did build a pretty nice MJ, maybe others can chime in. BDS also makes some kits.

[ghetdjc320]

BDS, Zone and Fox are all related companies. I’ve had good success with Zone and BDS and have run both. Anything over about the 2.5-3” mark is where you are going to need to start looking at many other factors, steering geometry, brakes, adjustable control arms, track bars etc. a simple puck and shackle lift along with some decent shocks and 31’s is a very good route 

[DesertRat1991]

A contrarian point of view and some things to think about...

 

1. This is your first car and you don't intend to wheel it? Does that mean that you are a highschool kid that really needs reliable transportation to/from school and work?  And you want a lift to make it look more badass? If so, then consider...
2. The higher you lift, the worse your gas mileage will be.
3. Moving to bigger tires without regearing will make an old, slow truck feel even slower.
4. Doing a short arm lift with an intention to move to long arms later is a bad financial decision that many of us have made.  Pick one or the other, save up, and build it once.
5. Are you aware that a stock MJ can fit 31's with no lift at all, and that the difference between 31's and your target 32's is only 1/2" of ground clearance?
6. Old leaf springs aren't all bad. Your old leafs will flex better than a new leaf pack.  If they aren't broken or riding flat with no load, they might be worth saving. You said the rear end is bouncy? I like your plan of focusing on the shocks first.

 

An alternate strategy for building a very capable street truck on a budget...

 

1. Start in the rear. Rehab your current leaf pack with new eyelet bushings. De-rust lightly with a wire wheel. Nothing that will build heat. Repaint with self-etching primer, then hit with anti-rust paint. Achieve a mild lift with aftermarket boomerang shackles. Measure for shock fitment. Then spend your money on GOOD shocks.  Call it done.
2. Rear is set, design a mild lift for the front to match your desired rake/ride height.  Forget about 4.5" on 32's.  Aim for for a 0-3" short arm lift on 31's. Spend your money on replacing every bit of old degraded rubber you can find (all bushings), GOOD shocks and a new steering stabilizer. 
3. Tire choice. You want a badass looking truck.. so pick an aggressive looking 31" on nice wheels if you like. What's odd is that you should pick something tall and skinny for the Alaskan snow but, here in NC, a wider footprint with deep treads works better in the clay.

 

Either way, a mildly lifted MJ on 31's is a very capable and functional truck.  With unlimited funds, sure go wild and build your dream truck.  But on a budget, I would recommend aiming for a good balance of street performance and reliability. 

 

 

[gogmorgo]

Everything he said up there is worth considering. 
The typical budget boost is just spacers on the stock springs up front and then lift shackles in the rear. 2” won’t even see you needing to change out shocks or factory control arms, although it’s not the worst idea to get new. The originals are kinda flimsy, I wouldn’t bother putting new bushings in, just replace the control arms outright if they need new bushings. Going to the WJ control arms gives a little more strength and tire clearance. 

My own lift is definitely not the cheapest way to do it. I’m spending extra money on it for convenience. 
 

Also good winter tires make a huge difference in snow over even the best all-terrains. Just saying. 

[ghetdjc320]

X3 to the above. 

[Backpacker]

16 hours ago, DesertRat1991 said:

A contrarian point of view and some things to think about...

 

1. This is your first car and you don't intend to wheel it? Does that mean that you are a highschool kid that really needs reliable transportation to/from school and work?  And you want a lift to make it look more badass? If so, then consider...
2. The higher you lift, the worse your gas mileage will be.
3. Moving to bigger tires without regearing will make an old, slow truck feel even slower.
4. Doing a short arm lift with an intention to move to long arms later is a bad financial decision that many of us have made.  Pick one or the other, save up, and build it once.
5. Are you aware that a stock MJ can fit 31's with no lift at all, and that the difference between 31's and your target 32's is only 1/2" of ground clearance?
6. Old leaf springs aren't all bad. Your old leafs will flex better than a new leaf pack.  If they aren't broken or riding flat with no load, they might be worth saving. You said the rear end is bouncy? I like your plan of focusing on the shocks first.

 

An alternate strategy for building a very capable street truck on a budget...

 

1. Start in the rear. Rehab your current leaf pack with new eyelet bushings. De-rust lightly with a wire wheel. Nothing that will build heat. Repaint with self-etching primer, then hit with anti-rust paint. Achieve a mild lift with aftermarket boomerang shackles. Measure for shock fitment. Then spend your money on GOOD shocks.  Call it done.
2. Rear is set, design a mild lift for the front to match your desired rake/ride height.  Forget about 4.5" on 32's.  Aim for for a 0-3" short arm lift on 31's. Spend your money on replacing every bit of old degraded rubber you can find (all bushings), GOOD shocks and a new steering stabilizer. 
3. Tire choice. You want a badass looking truck.. so pick an aggressive looking 31" on nice wheels if you like. What's odd is that you should pick something tall and skinny for the Alaskan snow but, here in NC, a wider footprint with deep treads works better in the clay.

 

Either way, a mildly lifted MJ on 31's is a very capable and functional truck.  With unlimited funds, sure go wild and build your dream truck.  But on a budget, I would recommend aiming for a good balance of street performance and reliability. 

 

 

I'm 20, took a while to own my own vehicle because I had access to a lot of older jeeps that I could drive, I picked the MJ as my first car that I bought and owned. I really need the clearance because I spend half my year in a pretty rural town in Alaska, and need the ability to not die if I hit a moose, which requires a little bit of height. I don't plan on doing extreme wheeling like a lot of people, but I do need to get down some dirt roads and up and down a pretty rocky dry river bed for work, which also takes a pretty fair bit of clearance if I don't want to bottom out, my friend has a hilux with 2 inches and has difficulty making it through that area. I have been looking around and if I combine a zone offroad kit with a pair of new leaf packs I can do 4" for under 1000, unless I get their more expensive shocks. Do you have any experience with the zone offroad shocks, and is it worth the extra couple hundred bucks to do their 800 series? Sorry again if this is wordy and poorly articulated.

[ghetdjc320]

If you want to go 4” lift, you’ll need to consider your brakes, steering and suspension geometry. But if a 2” lifted Hilux struggles, an MJ on 32’s won’t do much better. For your commute I’d look more into traction aids (lockers) and a good front bumper. 

[zomeizter]

Ha! I lifted mine to fit 33-35ers and am still running 31 inch mudders on steelies since the north AL woods haven't stopped the lil beast with such. I believe it's them lockers though, get you some traction aids and give it a whirl OP...