George

[Gold Cobra]

I got the front axle pulled last night to start work on the drop. As soon as it was out Dustin (TORX) decided to open my hood and break a 40 of Old English in my engine compartment. For no reason. That stopped all progress.

 

[Comanchedude]

Dropped Comanche is GAY. . HaHa.

 

[supertubesocks]

Get new aluminum blocks and a 36 grit flap disk on an angle grinder and round them to fit the contour.

 

[Gold Cobra]

Well since all the OE has dried I got to work on relocating the factory control arm mounts.

Uppers cut off

Uppers trimmed down and tacked into place;

This is where I had to stop because I was completely out of gas for the welder. I had zero gas because I let BPB borrow my welder and he brought my bottle back so empty there wasn't even a reading on the gauge. Unless I get off early one day this week, I won't be able to get to the welding supply shop until next Monday. FML.

 

[High2by]

Have you decided what wheel/tire combo you're gonna run?

 

[Gold Cobra]

So I spent the last two days with the help of my local chapter thrashing on my axle. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but the axle mounts were lowered 2.75", we trussed the bottom of the beam and knocked about 2" out of the center of beam to help with oil pan clearance. We also took a bent track bar, cut it and sleeved it to make it straight, and adjustable.

RedJeep2.0 "free-handing" the cut on the beam, because I was too scared.

Big thanks to RedJeep2.0 for the help there's no way I could have gotten this much done without his Arizona Tea fueled energy. Thanks to Mnkyboy for making my horrible notches look better. Also thanks to SpecFab for the use of their tools and their shop, without it I'd still be in my garage trying to cut the beam using a pile of cut-off wheels.

 

[Gold Cobra]

Today we (RedJeep and I) got the axle mocked into place and fooled around with the front ride height as well as overall clearances. Considering I made as lot of guessing and made things up as I went along, everything seemed to fit perfectly into place.

The rubber pads were removed from the upper bumpstop towers then I cut out the cup as well. Shortening the upper towers about 4". A little over 1.5 wraps were cut from the stock 2wd springs. Leaving a little less than 3" of up travel.

As far as what tires I plan to run, I'll be running a 235/75R15 for now since they're new. It didn't turn out as low as I had hoped, but it'll do for now. The rear is going down another inch, then I'll drive it for a while and see how it works.

 

[Lowrange2]

Shorter, wider tires on Icons and lower! Looks great so far!

 

[RedJeep2.0]

Needs 20s

 

[Lowrange2]

No 20's. 16's. Alloy 16's. More of the street/strip look would be awesome.

 

[kastein]

Looks great, but I really hope you plan on bracing those LCA mounts and I'm honestly not sure if I'd have used DOM that small to brace the axle housing after clearancing it for the oil pan... the LCA mounts for sure need to be boxed in at the front at the very least I'd say.

 

[Gold Cobra]

The lowers will be boxed in for sure before final install. That was just initial mockup. As far as the DOM size, 1.75" is what I had lying around, as well as the only size die I own for my bender. I'm sure it'll be fine. This is a pavement princess and the axle won't be subject to any real abuse. Plus if it bends, it just gives me some negative camber, which will just make it cooler, right?

 

[kastein]

hahaha, true. Figured you had something in mind for bracing the LCAs but... wanted to make sure.

I've mildly buckled stock LCA mounts on a potholed road (yay Massachusetts DOT!) so just looking at those was sketching me out.

 

[emptypockets86]

Just curious, what is your rocker to ground clearance?

 

[Gold Cobra]

So I blew up the last two pairs of 2" blocks. My souloution......

....a 3" block! So the other blocks were cracking do to the curve in the perch and of the leaf. Also the 2" inch block just wasn't low enough. So I scored these blocks from Mnkyboys wrecked XJ and ground the blocks to match the contour of the perch and leaf. Worked great.

So this will be my ride height for now.

I'm really happy with it now that the back is down another inch. I've got plenty of up travel front and rear and didn't make any unibody modifications. All I have left to do now is box in the lowers, paint the front end, and pick up some new shocks for up front. Then I can go cruising for chicks.

Before;

After;

 

[kastein]

Hollow aluminum blocks are always going to crack eventually... no other way to put it.

I forget where I got them (probably rough country? I know I ordered something from them for my MJ) but I did find a vendor for 2" cast iron lowering blocks.

 

[Gold Cobra]

Also for those who are wondering, here are some ride height measurements. Keep in mind I'm currently running a 235/75R15 which I'd consider pretty big for this application.

Center of front hub to bottom of flare: 14.5"
Ground to pinch seam below rear of the door: 13"
Ground to door handle: 36.5"
Ground to tailgate handle: 35"

For comparison my Wife's stock 01 XJ 4x4 running a 30x9.50R15 (The Brendamobile)
Center of hub to bottom of front flare: 18"
Ground to pinch seam below front door: 16.25"
Ground to door handle 39.75"

I'd love to compare these numbers to any other "low" MJ or XJs out there. So if you too have dropped your junk, grab a tape measure and post the results.

 

[emptypockets86]

Center of front hub to bottom of flare: 17.75"
Ground to pinch seam below rear of the door: 13.5"
Ground to door handle: 37"
Ground to tailgate handle: 36.25" range, she's not on even ground front to rear

 

[High2by]

That looks good. I'm just not sold on the blocks. Maybe linking the rear would be another option?
I'm unsure about my front axle too, I'll be doing something similar to what you did but a little different. I'm still figuring that one out too.

I'm trying to work out my tire sizes to get the stance I want for mine. I'm thinking 295/50R15 in the rear and 245/60R15 for the front. From what I've read, there's only about 1/4" difference in overall diameter so they should show the same amount of sidewall.

 

[Gold Cobra]

I'm not a fan of blocks either, especially a 3" aluminum block. However, the blocks are a giving me exactly what I want. I needed to drop the rear while maintaining payload capacity without modification to the bed or unibody. Blocks do just that. I may link the rear down the road but I wanted all of these modifications to be easily reversible in case I wanted to do a four wheel drive swap.