2005 Rubicon; A Rubi Brother

Jamison C said:
Measured for rear shocks today.

If I did my math right, these specific Skyjacker Black Max shock’s ride height bias should be off by 1/8 or so.

My current eye-to-eye in the rear is 18 1/4” or 18.25”. These shocks show an even split at 18.15”.

Seems like a winner to me. If I did that right…
View attachment 381471
Click to expand...

Jamison,
I ended up going with the BlackMax 8518 for my kid's 2005 rear shocks. There were conflicting measurements I saw online on Skyjacker's
website for the extended and collapsed lengths, so I called Skyjacker and spoke with a tech. He confirmed that his "book" listed the measurements as seen below and copied from their website. Not sure if this makes a difference in your decision, but thought it would be worth bringing to your attention.

Lower Mounting CodeES24
Upper Mounting CodeBP18
Collapsed Length13.93
Extended Length22.71
 
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Mike Z said:
Jamison,
I ended up going with the BlackMax 8518 for my kid's 2005 rear shocks. There were conflicting measurements I saw online on Skyjacker's
website for the extended and collapsed lengths, so I called Skyjacker and spoke with a tech. He confirmed that his "book" listed the measurements as seen below and copied from their website. Not sure if this makes a difference in your decision, but thought it would be worth bringing to your attention.

Lower Mounting CodeES24
Upper Mounting CodeBP18
Collapsed Length13.93
Extended Length22.71
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. Looks like the split is at 18.32” with those numbers. So at 18.25” at right height is sounds like my margin of error is 1/4” or so. I can live with that.
 
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I want to put them on so bad, but I’m gonna wait till I have the front dialed in and do all four shocks at the same time. Probably have it all done by the beginning of the year.
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It’s been a crazy few weeks. Lots of things going on and distractions keeping me away from the Jeep, but I finally began tackling the front today.
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The goal is all adjustable Savvy arms and an adjustable track bar. I was doing good until I got to the cam bolts up front and those suckers were stuck on, and I mean stuck on. Nothing I had were breaking them free so out came the grinder to take the heads off of the bolts. I also cut the lowers in half for better accessibility. Everything went smoothly but I lost about an hour of time over this.
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Once I got the lowers in, I tightened them down and began adjustments. Got my bumps centered and then measured axle for squareness. This part is now complete.
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Thinking the hard part was done (LOL), I put the new BDS 3” springs in front and jacked the axle back up to ride height. This is where the fun began.

When I had the axle squared, I threw one of the adjustable uppers in place to keep the pinion from rotating. Once I got the axle jacked up at ride height, I was having a really hard time getting it centered for the track bar. It was way off. I decided to remove the upper I had set in place over the diff, and once finally free, the springs whipped the axle so far forward the pinion about went vertical. After some fighting, I decided to call it a day and just try again tomorrow. I can adjust the axle L/R with the jack under it so I think I’ll set the upper arms loosely to keep the pinion in place and then move the axle where it needs to be.

I’m close! Just need a little more time and fine tuning.
 
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Jamison C said:
It’s been a crazy few weeks. Lots of things going on and distractions keeping me away from the Jeep, but I finally began tackling the front today.
View attachment 387212

The goal is all adjustable Savvy arms and an adjustable track bar. I was doing good until I got to the cam bolts up front and those suckers were stuck on, and I mean stuck on. Nothing I had were breaking them free so out came the grinder to take the heads off of the bolts. I also cut the lowers in half for better accessibility. Everything went smoothly but I lost about an hour of time over this.
View attachment 387213

Once I got the lowers in, I tightened them down and began adjustments. Got my bumps centered and then measured axle for squareness. This part is now complete.
View attachment 387214

View attachment 387215

Thinking the hard part was done (LOL), I put the new BDS 4” springs in front and jacked the axle back up to ride height. This is where the fun began.

When I had the axle squared, I threw one of the adjustable uppers in place to keep the pinion from rotating. Once I got the axle jacked up at ride height, I was having a really hard time getting it centered for the track bar. It was way off. I decided to remove the upper I had set in place over the diff, and once finally free, the springs whipped the axle so far forward the pinion about went vertical. After some fighting, I decided to call it a day and just try again tomorrow. I can adjust the axle L/R with the jack under it so I think I’ll set the upper arms loosely to keep the pinion in place and then move the axle where it needs to be.

I’m close! Just need a little more time and fine tuning.
Click to expand...

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Not to be outdone by physics, I used them to my advantage today.

So my biggest issue was trying to keep the axle centered with the springs in without the pinion trying to go to orbit. What I ended up doing was installing the uppers loosely, measuring the axle at ride height with the springs in, removing the springs, then jacking the axle back up without the springs in at the measured height. This allowed me to very easily maneuver the axle left and right. Once I had the track bar in, I dropped the axle, put the springs back in, raised it all up and got some jacks under the axle so it was back on its own weight. Everything lined up very nicely.
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Once I had the jacks under the axle, I was able to loosen the uppers back up and use the jack to rotate the pinion. I remember reading the write up on how to adjust the uppers so the bolts slid out easily. That’s easier said than done depending on joint position, so I ended up adjusting both arms until they were in a neutral position. In other words, they were attached at both ends, and I moved both arms until they felt the “easiest” to turn, meaning there was little to no bind. Now I know that they’re not fighting each other at ride height.

All I have left is to do an alignment and the front will be dialed in until I can weld in the JJs at the axle. The rubber bushings are definitely not designed for these arms.
 
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I finished up the alignment last night and wow, I have never felt the steering and ride so tight on any of my jeeps. Since I bought the Rubi, there has been a noticeable shimmy at higher speeds which I attributed to poor bushing composition. It wasn't DW but it was definitely close. Now that is completely gone. I still need to weld in the two axle JJs (I could use some guidance if any of my local AZ peeps feel like lending a hand), but I'm very happy with how everything has turned out. The steering also feels really "smooth." I don't know how to describe it, but since getting the arms set the return-to-center just feels so much better and the steering is much more responsive, but also firm and stable.

I also measured for shocks and found a set of Black Maxes for the front that will split the the travel perfectly. I'm excited to see how the new shocks will round off the quality of the ride, especially since these seem valved best as an off-the-shelf shock for the TJ. The boat-like feeling already feels like it's diminished just from properly setting up the front arms.

I have a little more tweaking to do on the rear end and pinion. I didn't get the track bar even enough so I'm going to use the method I used for the front and measure the axle-to-frame split, remove the springs, then use a jack to push the axle L/R. The JJ's allow enough droop that I can get the springs in with the track bar installed.
 
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RINC said:
Could you get a measurement of your belly height with the stock TC skid? Asking for a friend.
Click to expand...

Yes I’ll check next I work on it.

I got everything dialed in nicely yesterday, but sadly I still have vibs at 60mph. This didn’t start until I did the rear arms so I know it has to do with the angles. So I’ll pull the front shaft so I can isolate and dial in the rear issues. I ended up with 8° at the TC and 7° at the pinion, with the rig on the ground. When I tightened the arms down it was measuring at 8° both ways so maybe the axle load is pushing the pinion up to 9° or so and causing issues? Not sure yet.

All I know is I didn’t have a single vibration issue until the rear arms went on. Same amount of lift. So close, yet so far.
 
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So I discovered that my front driveshaft is the offender here in terms of vibration. I mistakenly set my rear driveshaft up like a DC shaft when I did the arms, and this has since been corrected. However, when I reset the rear arms is when I also put on the front arms. These are also dialed in nice with the pinion and driveshaft in parallel. I did a test the other day and with the front shaft removed I had a smooth and quiet ride. So I think my next step is to maybe rebalance the front shaft? I didn't have any vibration issues with the sock arms even after the regear, so I'm not sure what has changed except me changing the geometry around to best suit 3" up front. Then again I did raise the front from stock + 2" spacer to a 3" spring.

What do you think the next best step is? I plan to go custom shafts when I do my tuck but I would like to solve this in the interim.
 
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Jamison C said:
So I discovered that my front driveshaft is the offender here in terms of vibration. I mistakenly set my rear driveshaft up like a DC shaft when I did the arms, and this has since been corrected. However, when I reset the rear arms is when I also put on the front arms. These are also dialed in nice with the pinion and driveshaft in parallel. I did a test the other day and with the front shaft removed I had a smooth and quiet ride. So I think my next step is to maybe rebalance the front shaft? I didn't have any vibration issues with the sock arms even after the regear, so I'm not sure what has changed except me changing the geometry around to best suit 3" up front. Then again I did raise the front from stock + 2" spacer to a 3" spring.

What do you think the next best step is? I plan to go custom shafts when I do my tuck but I would like to solve this in the interim.
Click to expand...

You will need the front driveshaft where we will be going.
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Ok so all I can say is WOW. The PITA process that is adding and adjusting adjustable components while rolling out and under your Jeep was all worth it after getting these shocks on.

The ride firmed up so much but it is also so smooth and balanced. It stabilized things enough that the seat even feels like it has more bolster and support to it. I don’t know how to explain it, but absolute night and day difference.

So worth the process I endured to get here.
 
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