DIY budget 3" lift

Gumbo

NAXJA Forum User
XJ enthusiast from Italy - where lift kits are hard to find and very expensive...
Im planning a budget 3" lift + 30's for my '88 XJ (with the weak 2.1 liters Turbo Diesel).
I have previous experience in fabricating lifts, as well as lathe, mill, MIG and TIG welders, but no specific experience on XJs so I guess I better ask first, instead of learning the hard way.
So I am planning on the following:

Front
- 3" spacers
- Relocated brake lines
- Additional shim on LCAs
- Extended swaybar rods
- Adustable Trackbar (probably buy this)
- Shocks

REAR
- 2" Shackles (buy)
- T-Case drop
- 1" lift block (tapered to match the T-Case drop for proper operating angles).
- Relocated brake lines
- Shocks

I wonder if anything else would be required, and if the adjustable Trackbar and longer swaybar rods are indeed necessary on a 3" lift, because these questions are apparently questionable.

The truck won't see any off road use, but must be safe and dependable on road, because insurances may refuse to cover modded vehicles here.
 
See this section of NAXJA ( https://naxja.org/forums/frequently-asked-questions-and-writeups.165/ ) for ideas and technical info.


An extended or adjustable track-bar will be required. Extended sway bar links are recommend and not difficult to fabricate.
Stock XJ Cherokee leaf springs are prone sagging, especially when adding lift, you may want to install an additional leaf into the leaf spring pack. I have used a purchased add-a-leaf, and have installed a used leaf sourced from the auto breakers (junkyard).

I would recommend longer lower control arms, either purchased, or fabricated.
 
@ TimMn, I dont prefer add-a-leaf for vehicles that won't see much off road use because they almost always result in a harsher ride.
Sag generally happens because of (torque related) spring wrap, and tall lift blocks don't help in that regard due to the increased leverage.
Due to the weak engine that the truck is running, and on road use, I don't think this would be likely to happen.
However, in case of sag, I can still get a couple leafs from some junkyard.
With regards to the longer lower control arms, it is my understanding that with a 3" lift adding a shim to the pack is enough to restore proper caster angle, reason why I am not planning on aftermarket LCA's. What about this solution ?
Thank you for your suggestions regarding track bar and sway bar links. Just wanted to be sure I would not be adding stuff which is not really required.

Evan03, I also own a Chevy truck with 9" (6+3) lift on 39's, and I want to be more conservative on the XJ which is more of a daily driver, also due to the weak motor, which hardly turns 31's (despite the 4.56 gears).
I like a tall truck stance independently of the fact that 30's would probably fit with less than 3" lift.
I've seen pics of XJ's on 3" lift and 30's, and I enjoy the proportions.
 
In my opionio. The small tires will fit with little work as is. Zero lift


For your efforts your going to get all negative effects from the budget 3" lift.
You could just run the tires with oem suspension and be jus as capaple oe more capable offroad

At 3" your in the 33 35x12.5 tires category.
 
Evan03, 30's on stock suspension require removing the fender flares and 35's on 3" lift will fit only with MAJOR fender trimming and will still look stuffed real bad IMHO.
As I said I don't care off road capabilities, as this truck will never see any off road use. The purpose of the lift is just cosmetic.
That being said, what would be the negative effects in your opinion, with a 3" lift such as the one I described in the opening post ?

Couple pics of 3" lifts on 30s. Don't look bad to me.
.
391269d1501888390-3-inches-w-30-9-5-15-tires-jeep002.jpg

14692174_10153823625187117_7488195504854663425_o_5a713681f44eb44e90768ce38f2004583ef8b0e0.jpg
 
@ Evans03 I guess 03 is your date of birth ?
Anyway, looks are personal and with your answers you are not adding anything to the discussion under a technical point of view.
Not to mention your suggestion to run 35's with a 3" lift, a 2.1 liter diesel motor, Dana 30/44 and go wheeling with it.
On a truck that's more than three times your age... LOL.
 
30"s will fit with a 2" lift, 31's will rub. 31's will usually fit with a 3" lift, especially when installing an All Terrain style tire. I have built several add-a-leaf budget boosts and there was no appreciable degradation of ride characteristics, the steering, or the handling. I most often install a long used XJ Cherokee leaf. The main leaf with the spring eyes cut off works best, but I have used the second longest leaf as well. With an extra XJ leaf installed the spring load rating is increased slightly to fight sagging, and the flexibility and ride feel is equivalent to stock. Using a short thick overload/towing add-a-leaf usual results in a stiff suspension. I prefer longer lower control arms, but shims or control arms is an easy change from one to the other.

This is my 1998 on a 3 inch junkyard add-a-leaf Budget Boost. It was my daily driver for 4 years. When the 30's wore out I installed some 31's.

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I just don't see the point in affecting the Jeep negatively in every aspect of its steering and suspension geometry just to fit a f****** small tire on somewhat offset wheels that stick out farther? That's just my take on it if it looks cool to somebody then that's cool I guess but it still just a small tire driving around on the street. could just leave the damn thing alone and have a comfortably well handling rig instead of one that will never be as good as it was.


i wonder why everyone has such a hard time fitting such small tires on they're rig?Ive been 33x12.5s down to 2" with my fender tunning.. seems stockish size 30s on stock wheels would be no issue. But i am not afraid to tune me some fenders for clearance.
Though on the flip side i have actually no first hand experience fitting such small tires so may be talking out my ass.

I actually wheel my rig im 3-4"is on 35s with 4.88s both ends locked. 30 front is knock on wood surviving well with chromo shafts and grizzly locker.
I do pack 30 shafts on the trail and have chainged 5 or 7 got pretty good at it.
I did break the 8.25 27 spline shafts and upped to 29spline and havent had issues since. fingers crossed

Ive fabbed my steering around wj knuckles raised my control arm mounts at the axle to get better flatter geometry at ride height. I know how hard it is to get back what a few inches of lift does.

Dare i say my jeep may actually handle better than a bone stock jeep actual side by side comparison

Remembering back to my jeep as it came to me with a budget 3" lift and 31s already installed. It and i have came along ways.

Ill comment on the 35s and and 2.1 turbo diesel. Your fucked. Though my mind wonders of that has 4.10 gears. Either way your fucked.

Well with stock size tires like your talking about you may not be quite as fucked.


Tim
Its good to see another actually tuning they're leaf pack. Almost no one does taking the time to cut the eyes off the main leafe. Sweeeet.
 
Ill comment on the castor and driveline angles at 3" of lift. Msybe slightly on brake lines.

Brake lines if street driven may not need to be messed with. But will acasional strech to accommodate.

Castor id tune so rig has a good return to center when coming out of turn and holds a straight line tracking well down the rd. Castor will likly be in the 5-7deg ball park to accomplish this.
Adding a shim in the lower control arm may or may not get this done.

Steering wont be horrible if castor is doing its job. If castor is in 2- negative range jeep will wander around the road requiring constant corrections to drive a straight line.
This is one of the benifits of adjustable control arms. Castor is a non tire wearing angle that greatly effects drivability. Is user tunable. I also believe the actual number doesn't mesn much if jeep returns to center drives straight easily and driveline angle is decent. Wich at 3" it will be.

With a stock track bar axle will be pulled slightly off center to the driver side. Im not super picky about this. Id be more concerned that joints are tight and not floating around allowing steering to wander around.

At 3" id probly just run the driveline angle as is to see if taperd shims or tcase drop is necessary. For what it's worth im not running anything special on mine at 3-4" ish lift. I do run my jeep regularly on freeway connecting trails. But i likly put less than 5k miles a year on my jeep most ly trail miles.
Ill eventually do a super short slip yoke elimator but its kinda down on the list of things i want to do. Ill be loseing my speedo to do this wich is fine with me.

Thats my take on 3" lift.

With 3" lift well thought out steering track bar possibly control arm drop front locker gears good shocks winch armor recovery stuff on 33 35s the little xj can give bigger tire rigs a run for theyre money. Thsts my take a trail rig 3" lifted xj.
 
Evan, you are pretty spot on. The castor will make it feel a little bit twitchy. Drive lines and brake lines will be acceptable; even on moderate trails. Difficult trails the brake lines will pretend they are limiting straps, though. The PO put 3" front springs on my MJ as a leveling solution. Disconnected my 235s will rub in the front in certain terrain. OP shouldn't have a problem with the contact. I don't like the way it steers and have replacement CAs to go in. It may not be an issue with the OP.

ETA: Also still running the factory track bar.
 
Re: Caster angle
That's something I am determined to address. On this suspension design poor caster angle not only results in twitchy steering but it is the primary cause of death wobble, which is something I'm not taking a chance on.
Calculating how much the lower control arm would have to be "extended" to restore stock caster is very simple (there's even free apps on playstore/applestore, if one is lazy or can't do the math).
By knowing the maximum thickness of the additional shim that can be fitted, it would be possible to eliminate any trial and error and calculate wether a shim would suffice or if aftermarket Lower Control Arms are indeed required.
Anyone got an idea how much the stock LCA's can actually be shimmed forward ?
BTW what do you guys think about fabricating LCA's ? Not sure it would be worth the time and effort considering the relatively low purchase price as well as the risk in case of failure of a homemade control arm on a street driven vehicle.

Re: Add-a-leaf
@Tim_MN you obtained 3" rear lift just by adding a leaf or combined with block or shackle ? And from what vehicle ?
Unfortunately XJ's are basically no longer available at junkyards here, and as a result price of spare parts skyrocketed. I should look for some Japanese truck with spring leafs of appropriate size to fit the XJ and experiment.
That's one of the reasons why I was planning on a shackle+1" block instead of adding a leaf.

@Bent, how much is it sticking further on one side with the stock track bar ?

Evan03, the 2.1 liter comes factory stock with either 205 or 215's (mostly 215's) and 4.56 gears.
It struggles with 31's (and has a tendency to burn the head gasket as a result) so anything larger than that is out of the question. Shitty motor ? Yes, but that's what Chrisler decided to market in EU back in the days, so it's take it or leave it, and since I overall enjoy the truck I'll take it (and recently bought one).
Also because with gasoline at about $8 per gallon (1.80 Euro/liter) a shitty 2.1 turbo diesel will make a good daily driver that will save you a lot of money compared to a truck with a big lift and tires and a small block Chevy.
With 215's the trucks looks really silly though, and 30's (235's) are probably a good compromise IMHO, considering that with the 215's the truck is responsive but revs a little too high at highway speeds, 3000rpm at about 60mph or so and that with 31's the truck feels sluggish and basically lose fifth gear.
The reason why I (and possibly other people) am installing lifts to run "small" tires, is because I don't want to trim the fenders, remove the flares etc., and also because I don't like neither the "low rider", nor the "stuffed" looks, which other people apparently enjoy.
Also smaller tires don't have as much impact on a 30 plus year old vehicle (mine is an '88), and in my experience, a lift kit if properly designed in all aspects (including driveline, suspension geometry, steering and brakes) will not affect handling and drivability.
My other truck, a 94 Chevy Silverado with a 6" subframe lift (no spindle lift) + 3 inch body lift and 39's handles MUCH better than stock, rides firmer but not harsh and with much less body roll. Same as the '75 Blazer with a 5" lift and 36's.
 
The ifs chevy lifted is a completly different animal. Its only draw backs is even with stock size tires they eat idler arms. While the 6" lift nearly retains factory geometry with the dropped front end along with lowered torsion bars.

My first step in the offroad world was a 89 ifs chevy that i beat on with a torsion bar lift then later converted to a ford solid axle and one of ORU first sfa conversiin kits.

That truck i was to young to actually know or care what i was doing to be able to tune it well or at all. Nearly 20 years later my view on most everything is much different. I now tune things to work for me.

Take a xj lifted 6" and everything is still tied to oem brackets with the xj fad being a flat belly so all geometry angles are increased

3" is definitely the way to go and why i chose to keep my lift as low as possible along with raising brackets at the axle end to gain back what i lost. Or most what i lost.

The diesel im sure is a fine motor. The 4.0 in my opionion is a gutless wonder aswell.

The calculators ive found cant replace actual tuning. Just to many variables in driver feedback aswell how actual on vehicle numbers are gathered. Calculators do make good guidelines to tune from.
 
Yes, gear speed calculators do not take into account the mass (and related inertia) of larger wheels, as well as worse CX due to the taller stance. They are perfectly fine to understand how much the motor RPM will vary at a certain speed, but how fast the truck/motor will reach that speed/rpm is another question.
However, suspension/steering/driveline geometry is a different matter.
Taking the right measurements in the right spots one can rather easily calculate (trigonometry) what must be done to restore the original geometry, and this can be done with any vehicle. There's free online computer software such as Geogebra (as well as paid CAD packages) which can also calculate torque, stress on components, COG, squat&dive etc.
When I started "playing" with this stuff in the 80's none of this existed and everything was basically trial and error, because even internet forums didn't exist back then, so you were pretty much on your own, and 4 wheeler magazine and Petersen 4 wheel were basically the only sources of reliable technical info.
Today a DIY'er with some knowledge can design suspension components just as good (or better) than Aftermarket brands, and that's really amazing.
That this can be cost effective is another story though, especially in countries such as yours, where all sorts of kits are readily available and affordable.
The last kit (quite simple) I fabricated for a friend, exceeded 300 bucks just for materials and Argon gas...
 
Well the other day I bought three pieces of 4" long neoprene rubber bar to turn some bushings for the ATV.
3/4", 1" and 1.5" diameter.
Total including taxes is about $30.
Everything has become so expensive after Covid.
Argon bottle refill is $80, was 50 before Covid...
Believe me when I say that spending 300 bucks at the industrial supply shop happens real fast..
 
Your pricing sounds similar to here. Im 90 bucks for welding gas refill. Not sure 30 bucks buys any kind if raw material.
Spool of welding wire is 60-90 for 11lb roll.

Diesel and gas are about $3.50 gallon

McDonalds meal 15 buck's
 
The stock control arm caster shims are located in the frame mount for the lower control arm. I have never bothered to change them when lifting, I just install some low cost extended control arms suitable for a 2-3 inch lift. A small amount of additional toe-in usually results in acceptable tracking and return to center.

NAXJA Member go.jeep has a good write-up here > www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAlignment.htm which may have migrated to his new website >> http://willyshotrod.com/

For 3 inches of lift I installed an XJ main leaf with the spring eyes cut off, and if I recall correctly the next longest leaf. If there are no XJ's to use for donor parts, a Ford Ranger or Chevy S-10 mini pick-up will be similar. I would suppose some of the Japanese mini pick-ups would be suitable donors if the leaf width is correct. The low cost of donor springs, the ease of install, and the simplicity to mix and match, are some of the benefits. If you don't like the lift height, or the ride quality, you can easily change the individual leaves to some other hybrid configuration, or leaf donor.
 
I would also look into shackle relocation kits. Keep in mind that a 2" lift shackle needs to be about 4" longer.
 
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