Hello wonderful people!
I have spent so much time lately here researching and reading so before I start with questions I just want to say THANK YOU ALL for being such a great and helpful bunch! Jeep is not just vehicle, it's a way of life!
Please forgive me in advance on my questions, I know newbies come here all the time and ask same stuff but I guess that's just how it goes!
So, recently I scored completely stock `99 Sahara and I'm two miles away of hitting 111111. I bought it from a girl who owned it for 16 years and took a pretty good care of it. Maintenance was in time and most important of all, frame is very clean with some small surface rust which is extremely difficult to find here in Chicago area. Girl I bought it from lived in Georgia and moved here couple a years ago.
So far most of the work I did was related to cleaning. We were blessed with couple of really warm days around Christmas so I pulled all carpets out, washed them, vacuumed and wiped everything. I removed that front bumper, sanded it completely and spray painted it and it looks much better! Also, got the new fog light and replaced that busted one. Oh and those mirrors, I have spent way too much time removing paint from that aluminum but they came out nicely after painting!
Also got some new LED headlights so I can finally see where to drive at night.
As soon as springs come I'm planning on touching up dents and doing some buffing & polishing hoping to get rid of some scratches I see around. I am also planning on getting under, scrapping that surface rust on frame and depending on how it looks after treating those parts with phosphoric acid, then spray painting and protecting everything with fluid film or something similar.
Anyways, we are in winter now so I want to use that time to get some lift kit and turn this baby Jeep into adult Jeep. I swear, every other TJ I see around is bigger than mine!
So I did a lot of reading and went through that master thread "which lift kit to choose" couple of times.
Fact is I could probably go with 1" body lift and I would be okay as I'm not planning on doing any big off-roading.
I'm planning on driving this Jeep couple a miles daily to a train station and back and using it in on weekends for pleasure rides. During summer I could hit beach and some light trails. Really I would prefer to get comfortable ride on pavement more than extreme performance off-road. I would love to be able to sit in this Jeep and drive it 8 hrs on highway and have as smooth ride as possible.
However, car has regular Rancho 5000 shocks on it right now and they are completely rusted and look really nasty. Coils are also sagging so it's time to refresh those as well. With all that needed to be done why then just don't get a lift kit??!!
So I decided 2"-2.5" lift kit is probably best option!
1. BDS lift kit
I read really good stuff about them. Talk to some guys and they are recommending upgrading shocks to Fox but I'm feeling that might be overkill. Now when it comes to this lift I have read about settings diff slightly off center so getting a front and rear adjustable track bar is recommended.
Help me understand, is that specific to this lift or generally for every 2" lift?
This lift goes around $430 with NX2 shocks or $790 with Fox. If I add track bars that's around $350 more which is getting out of budget a bit.
2.ProComp springs with Rancho RS5000x shocks
Thank you Jerry for this! I have read somewhere you recommending this and I believe Chris is running Rancho's and sounds like you guys are happy with these.
This combination comes around $450 and that is totally acceptable. My question would obviously be what else I need to include with this?
3. Terraflex
Have some people recommending this but it does not seems like a great choice for TJ and price is almost double than option above.
4. ?? Maybe something else ?? Recommendations welcome!
So really, 2nd option seems like a best but I would like to know what else I need to make this process as smooth as possible. I know that TC drop is one thing that will most likely have to happen. What I'm trying to figure out is what other components I might need for this lift to perform smooth and don't cause any issues?
Now with lift kit I'm planning to add new tires as well. I think I have decided to go with 31x10.50r15. I don't think that I should have any rubbing issues with these and as far as I understood there is no any other extra work needed, these should just fit perfectly?
Again, question that's been asked hundred times but with everything I said above, which tires should I go for?
My gear ratio is 3.73 and with these tires re-gearing is not must?
Last but not least... as it's getting colder here I noticed that shifting into 2nd gear is getting a bit difficult. If I'm driving longer it gets a bit better.
I have read about transmission fluid and synchros and ordered some RedLine GL-4 so I'm planning on flushing that in hope it will fix it a bit. Also I remember seeing something about some bushing that could be removed to help with this but can't find that topic. Did I dream that?
I'm very sorry about my long post. If admin thinks we could split it into introduction and couple of other posts we can do that.
I thought it might be easier to have all at one place.
Thank you all!
EDIT:
If you know any shop or a good mechanic to recommend around South-West Chicago burbs please let me know.
I will have to hire someone to help me or do this for me because I would not dare to this myself yet!
I have spent so much time lately here researching and reading so before I start with questions I just want to say THANK YOU ALL for being such a great and helpful bunch! Jeep is not just vehicle, it's a way of life!
Please forgive me in advance on my questions, I know newbies come here all the time and ask same stuff but I guess that's just how it goes!
So, recently I scored completely stock `99 Sahara and I'm two miles away of hitting 111111. I bought it from a girl who owned it for 16 years and took a pretty good care of it. Maintenance was in time and most important of all, frame is very clean with some small surface rust which is extremely difficult to find here in Chicago area. Girl I bought it from lived in Georgia and moved here couple a years ago.
So far most of the work I did was related to cleaning. We were blessed with couple of really warm days around Christmas so I pulled all carpets out, washed them, vacuumed and wiped everything. I removed that front bumper, sanded it completely and spray painted it and it looks much better! Also, got the new fog light and replaced that busted one. Oh and those mirrors, I have spent way too much time removing paint from that aluminum but they came out nicely after painting!
Also got some new LED headlights so I can finally see where to drive at night.
As soon as springs come I'm planning on touching up dents and doing some buffing & polishing hoping to get rid of some scratches I see around. I am also planning on getting under, scrapping that surface rust on frame and depending on how it looks after treating those parts with phosphoric acid, then spray painting and protecting everything with fluid film or something similar.
Anyways, we are in winter now so I want to use that time to get some lift kit and turn this baby Jeep into adult Jeep. I swear, every other TJ I see around is bigger than mine!
So I did a lot of reading and went through that master thread "which lift kit to choose" couple of times.
Fact is I could probably go with 1" body lift and I would be okay as I'm not planning on doing any big off-roading.
I'm planning on driving this Jeep couple a miles daily to a train station and back and using it in on weekends for pleasure rides. During summer I could hit beach and some light trails. Really I would prefer to get comfortable ride on pavement more than extreme performance off-road. I would love to be able to sit in this Jeep and drive it 8 hrs on highway and have as smooth ride as possible.
However, car has regular Rancho 5000 shocks on it right now and they are completely rusted and look really nasty. Coils are also sagging so it's time to refresh those as well. With all that needed to be done why then just don't get a lift kit??!!
So I decided 2"-2.5" lift kit is probably best option!
1. BDS lift kit
I read really good stuff about them. Talk to some guys and they are recommending upgrading shocks to Fox but I'm feeling that might be overkill. Now when it comes to this lift I have read about settings diff slightly off center so getting a front and rear adjustable track bar is recommended.
Help me understand, is that specific to this lift or generally for every 2" lift?
This lift goes around $430 with NX2 shocks or $790 with Fox. If I add track bars that's around $350 more which is getting out of budget a bit.
2.ProComp springs with Rancho RS5000x shocks
Thank you Jerry for this! I have read somewhere you recommending this and I believe Chris is running Rancho's and sounds like you guys are happy with these.
This combination comes around $450 and that is totally acceptable. My question would obviously be what else I need to include with this?
3. Terraflex
Have some people recommending this but it does not seems like a great choice for TJ and price is almost double than option above.
4. ?? Maybe something else ?? Recommendations welcome!
So really, 2nd option seems like a best but I would like to know what else I need to make this process as smooth as possible. I know that TC drop is one thing that will most likely have to happen. What I'm trying to figure out is what other components I might need for this lift to perform smooth and don't cause any issues?
Now with lift kit I'm planning to add new tires as well. I think I have decided to go with 31x10.50r15. I don't think that I should have any rubbing issues with these and as far as I understood there is no any other extra work needed, these should just fit perfectly?
Again, question that's been asked hundred times but with everything I said above, which tires should I go for?
My gear ratio is 3.73 and with these tires re-gearing is not must?
Last but not least... as it's getting colder here I noticed that shifting into 2nd gear is getting a bit difficult. If I'm driving longer it gets a bit better.
I have read about transmission fluid and synchros and ordered some RedLine GL-4 so I'm planning on flushing that in hope it will fix it a bit. Also I remember seeing something about some bushing that could be removed to help with this but can't find that topic. Did I dream that?
I'm very sorry about my long post. If admin thinks we could split it into introduction and couple of other posts we can do that.
I thought it might be easier to have all at one place.
Thank you all!
EDIT:
If you know any shop or a good mechanic to recommend around South-West Chicago burbs please let me know.
I will have to hire someone to help me or do this for me because I would not dare to this myself yet!
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