Front stress reliever???

[Matt S.]

Took the *cough*wrangler*cough* out last weekend, and well its obvious that stock flex sucks donkey balls. Oh and to clarify for you special people, that is not good!!

I am only talking front suspension here, so its related to the XJ. Here is what I am thinking to get a tons more flex out of a very small suspension lift. Please help with ideas.

I am getting 2"BB spacers, then going to build a frame mount track bar mount that is similar to the RE XJ bracket so that I can run a hard mount joint rather than a TRE. I think that will give me the most flex. Then get some CHEAP lower control arms and plate them for strength. Get some Bilstien 5150s that only have 4" uptravel and as much down travel as possible. I will have to get brake lines, and I will be making a a HD hiem steering system.

Do yall think that on that SMALL of a lift, I can attain much more noticable articulation? Oh and I dont want to lift big because I am going to be putting 35s on 3" lift (thank god for non-unibody)

Matt

 

[Bender]

You lift size has nothing to do with your available wheel travel. Your lift height will only effect where in it's total available travel your axle sits at static ride height. By changing the stuff you mentioned you can achieve the maximum allowable suspension movement before the suspension geometry itself limits you. You also lose some available travel by going to tires that require the use of bumpstops....but that's a trade that evenone is willing to make to a certain degree.

This is about the most travel you can get out of a short arm front suspension setup with the stock mounting locations. In this pic the front driveshaft is limiting the travel so the passenger side actually gets about 1" more droop.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/64836838/65412992ZSvZds

In the pic the steering linkages aren't binding, the trackbar isn't binding, the shocks aren't bottomed out, the lower control arms have spherical ball joints so they twist rather well. What is limiting the suspension from dropping any further is the actual gemoetry of the short arms and the bushings in the upper control arms as they are still rubber...with bolts loosened to see what the max droop was.

To tell you the truth I don't think I'd want my short arm front suspension to droop any farther than that or the axle would be under the drive seat!!!

 

[2xtreme]

Sounds OK. I assume your wranger is a TJ with front coils?

You do not want cheap control arms. You want control arms that allow as much articulation as possible (several available to choose from or make your own).

I suspect it will be easier to get more flex in the back with a TJ, but I am just guessing. I think it is important to understand how the whole truck flexes as awhole before spending a great deal on one ene or the other without understanding how it might affect the other end.

Michael

 

[GudaXJ]

Remove swaybar...= problem solved

 

[Matt S.]

Well, I will probly be building the arms. But even woth sway bar off, very limited flex. I understand the physics of it, I just have not built a stock style suspenios in 3 years or so. I guess, i will play it as it goes.