4" lift am i asking for trouble

acantare

NAXJA Forum User
Location
western MA
Im piecing together a lift ( as i mentioned in a previous post) for my brother for cheap. I currently have found setup to lift the rear 4" and am going to order rear shock relocators from detours. I know i also need longer brake lines and may need t case drop and axle shim. My concern is that if i go 3" coil and 1" spacer to net the front lift can i go with stock control arms still he has more money?
 
If he's got the money, get new control arms, at least the lowers. Might not have to mess with the uppers on 4" of lift. My RE lift sits at 4.5" and I've got new lowers, stock uppers. Rides, handles, flexes, functions fine.
 
at 4" of lift you should have no issues with the stock control arms. You should be able to adjust the castor back to nearly stock and should work. The bigger advantage of the aftermarket lower control arms is that they are much stronger if they are used off road significantly you will want to upgrade them at some point down the road.

You probably don't need longer brake lines on the 4" lift. put it all on and flex it and make sure they don't stretch, you should be ok with the stock ones.

Michael
 
2xtreme said:
at 4" of lift you should have no issues with the stock control arms. You should be able to adjust the castor back to nearly stock and should work. The bigger advantage of the aftermarket lower control arms is that they are much stronger if they are used off road significantly you will want to upgrade them at some point down the road.

You probably don't need longer brake lines on the 4" lift. put it all on and flex it and make sure they don't stretch, you should be ok with the stock ones.

Michael

Yea I ran stock lines with my 4" lift and never had a problem, but I did finally replace the rear line with one that is slightly longer because I had one and plan to lift it more later. I'm also running stock control arm's with almost no problems. The only thing is that when running stock control arms, with any amount of lift, the axel will be pulled back into the finder. To get my 33's to fit with my 4" lift I had to trim a lot out of the back of the finder but if I had longer lower control arms I would not have had to trim so much. Oh and when I disconnect the front and start to flex the stock control arms they start to twist and I have gotten to the point that I am surprised they are still in one piece.

I say that if he has the money then get longer lower control arms and maybe even longer brake lines if he plans on disconnecting the front.

Chris
 
acantare said:
im looking at it as phase 1 liftand brake lines if needed. phase 2 control arms and jks disos.

Thanks

Good call. Are you getting longer shocks with the lift? You also might want to get a good steering stabilizer to go with the lift too. I got a skyjacker steering stabilizer, it wasn't that expensive, and I'm really pleased with its performance. I only got it because I blew the seals out of my stock one and it finally gave out while I was driving down the high way, not a fun experiance. I'm not really sure what I did to blow the seals out but my jeep is an 01 and I think it would be a good idea to just replace it before it breaks.

Chris
 
Get control arms upper and lower. I went wheelin with a friend and he lost power. When I tried to get to where he was both my upper control arms broke. I had No control over the front end. We ended up staying at Evens creek for the weekend. It took two rigs to get me to the parking lot. Long story short it cost me 200$ for upper control arms. The weekend we stayed there was worth a lot more. Luky for me some one was there with a welder and we hillbilly welded it. Drove it home and will never go wheelin with out the proper gear.
 
im going to get new stock shocks or ZJ up country shocks for the rear with the Detours 3.5" drop bracket. Up front ill prob get rustys 4"-5" shocks up front.
 
found cheap set of 4" super lift springs for the front of a TJ. New plan is to run those with a tereflex 1" spacer. Does this sound like a good plan for 4" lift?



also do TJ front shocks work on a XJ??
 
after sitting a long time the lift is in. The front coils gave us 4.5" over stock the rear leaf packs gave us 3" over stock.

I am pushing for a 1.5" shackle my brother wants to just buy a lifting block.

Being 4.5" im trying to located longer LCAs and an adjustable track bar

We are going to add YJ rear brake lines

Would it be bad to drive with stock LCAs and stock trac bar for a few months?
 
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Forget the block, go with a shackle.

For the LCA's and tracbar I would limit my driving as much as I could and get the correct parts for the lift asap.
 
at 4.5", you really need a adjustable trackbar, adjustable lowers and it would be a good idea to have adjustable lowers.

how about getting an adjustable track bar and getting the RC drop brackets and use the stock arms?
 
so if ive read corectly i could use a control arm drop bracket and keep stock arms? If this is the case ill look around for good price on drop bracket.
 
correct. I believe rough country has them the cheapest.

as far as brake lines, use lines for a 3/4 ton GMC pickup. they're 7" longer, and about $15 a piece.

I'm at 5" and I am using stock arms... they work, but I really want to push my axle foreward again.
 
acantare said:
so if ive read corectly i could use a control arm drop bracket and keep stock arms? If this is the case ill look around for good price on drop bracket.

False, the only thing the drop brackets do is correct the harsh angles caused by the 4.5" lift. You still need longer arms.
 
As a side note, to the op. If you are planning on buying both the drop brackets and arms you may aswell go for a LA conversion. It would be about the same cost to you and well worth it.
 
89xj said:
at 4.5", you really need a adjustable trackbar, adjustable lowers and it would be a good idea to have adjustable lowers

how about getting an adjustable track bar and getting the RC drop brackets and use the stock arms?


edit: oops, i meant uppers

as for the drop brackets, you dont need longer arms, they can be used with stock arms
 
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