beasticles
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Northern VA
I started installing my IRO adjustable upper control arms (I also bought lower control arms from IRO as well, just haven’t installed yet) on Sunday and continued the process last night (had to make a trip to Lowe’s yesterday after work to buy new hardware for the UCA bolts – whoever decided using flag bolts on the UCAs for our Jeep XJs was a good idea a GENIUS [sarcasm].
With the RE 3.5 lift I netted a little over 4” of lift in the front and about 4.5” lift in the rear. I am also running Rough Country LCA drop brackets with stock LCAs.
I started with the uppers first since I figured they would be more of a pain and I wanted to get the hard part done first (I was right). Using the UCA and LCA length chart I found here: http://www.xjtalk.com/showthread.php?t=9520 I adjusted my uppers to right about 16.5” (a tad longer than the chart shows for a 4" lift but it looked better than 16 3/8" on my pinion) which made a dramatic improvement on my pinion angle.
How does my caster look?
I did a mock up (put the tires back on and gently lowered the jeep onto the tires to check pinion angle and caster on the ground – it looks about right – right around 2 or 3* –which I know is a little low - should be closer to 5-7*, correct?). I am thinking of buttoning it back up with the stock LCAs and drop brackets and seeing how it rides. My tires are actually perfectly placed in my wheel wells right now – if I pushed the axle farther forward by installing the adjustable LCAs – my tire would likely be too far forward in the wheel well. I will likely install them since I have them and dial them in to the shortest setting which is 16" - my stock UCAs are 15 3/4")
Can you guys take a look and let me know what you think? I feel like with all suspension stuff it's trial and error. But should I be concerned with the caster being too low?
Once I rotated my axle with the adjustable UCAs I also see that my sway bar is impacting my springs. The RE 3.5 kit came with longer 6” sway bar end links. I actually think slightly shorter end links would solve my problem by pull the sway bar down- and away from the coil springs. Probably need about 5” end links – does that sound right to you guys? Just so you know this is not an issue of the axle not being centered - the springs are lined up evenly in relation to the unibody frame on both sides.
Another pic of the sway bar hitting the coils:
With the RE 3.5 lift I netted a little over 4” of lift in the front and about 4.5” lift in the rear. I am also running Rough Country LCA drop brackets with stock LCAs.
I started with the uppers first since I figured they would be more of a pain and I wanted to get the hard part done first (I was right). Using the UCA and LCA length chart I found here: http://www.xjtalk.com/showthread.php?t=9520 I adjusted my uppers to right about 16.5” (a tad longer than the chart shows for a 4" lift but it looked better than 16 3/8" on my pinion) which made a dramatic improvement on my pinion angle.
How does my caster look?
I did a mock up (put the tires back on and gently lowered the jeep onto the tires to check pinion angle and caster on the ground – it looks about right – right around 2 or 3* –which I know is a little low - should be closer to 5-7*, correct?). I am thinking of buttoning it back up with the stock LCAs and drop brackets and seeing how it rides. My tires are actually perfectly placed in my wheel wells right now – if I pushed the axle farther forward by installing the adjustable LCAs – my tire would likely be too far forward in the wheel well. I will likely install them since I have them and dial them in to the shortest setting which is 16" - my stock UCAs are 15 3/4")
Can you guys take a look and let me know what you think? I feel like with all suspension stuff it's trial and error. But should I be concerned with the caster being too low?
Once I rotated my axle with the adjustable UCAs I also see that my sway bar is impacting my springs. The RE 3.5 kit came with longer 6” sway bar end links. I actually think slightly shorter end links would solve my problem by pull the sway bar down- and away from the coil springs. Probably need about 5” end links – does that sound right to you guys? Just so you know this is not an issue of the axle not being centered - the springs are lined up evenly in relation to the unibody frame on both sides.
Another pic of the sway bar hitting the coils:
forum, you're my only hope!
