Bump stop conundrum

Bighammer

Bighammer

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 6, 2021
Messages
105
Location
Oregon Coast
#1
I’m getting closer to the point of installing the lift parts I’ve cherry picked for my 3” suspension lift. Seems like the bump stop is very important to get correct. Not enough bump stop and things clang together. Too little and the suspension travel is limited unnecessarily. Am I right so far?

#2
So in order to determine the ideal bump stop height, I’d need to cycle the suspension (on a lift with shocks and springs removed) Then measure the travel distance and use appropriate bump stop so it’s the only thing “bumping” anything. (Shocks, etc). Am I right about that?

#3
if I’m fairly close to the correct order of doing this, now I have a jeep up on a rack waiting for the new bump stops to be shipped. Could take a week!. Isn’t there a decent way of compromise so I could have everything together all at once? I don’t have the luxury of having my own lift.
 
#1 I think you meant to say too much bumpstop and you’d limit your up travel.

#2 you cycle your suspension without the springs. It’s very important to leave shocks in and tires on. You want to ideally get your bumpstops set so that right when your shock bottoms out on uptravel your bumpstop makes contact with the cup. Don’t include the rubber bumpstop itself since this will completely compress. If your tires get into a fender before your shock bottoms out then you either need more lift for your tires, less tires for your lift, or high lines if it’s less than roughly a 1-2” difference and you want to go through that trouble.

#3 you’ll need to do this once your Jeep has all of the lift components installed as it will when you finish the install.

Hope that helps!
 
imahnu17 said:
#1 I think you meant to say too much bumpstop and you’d limit your up travel.

#2 you cycle your suspension without the springs. It’s very important to leave shocks in and tires on. You want to ideally get your bumpstops set so that right when your shock bottoms out on uptravel your bumpstop makes contact with the cup. Don’t include the rubber bumpstop itself since this will completely compress. If your tires get into a fender before your shock bottoms out then you either need more lift for your tires, less tires for your lift, or high lines if it’s less than roughly a 1-2” difference and you want to go through that trouble.

#3 you’ll need to do this once your Jeep has all of the lift components installed as it will when you finish the install.

Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
That definitely helps a lot. Thanks for the excellent reply.

But just to show my ignorance about it, I’m still a bit confused b/c some people put the bump stop on the bottom, some put it on top. I don’t know if it’s going to matter, (or does it?) as long as the bump stop does what it’s supposed to do.
 
For the front typically the bumpstops are added to the bottom and the in the rear they are typically added to the top. It doesn’t particularly matter as long as they don’t bind on the coil spring as your axle cycles. I have 2.5” of bumpstop added over stock that are added to the top of the bottom of the spring perch.

In the picture, look inside the coil at the bottom and you’ll see the added bumpstops.

5CC6EE7E-D6F5-414D-A8AF-F9230AB75A91.png
 
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I think it might be better to add the extra stop to the bottom up front because if you make the top bump stop longer, at some point, it will bind with the spring and risk getting pulled out. As far as your dilemma about having the Jeep stuck on the rack, you could just run the stock bump stops until the new ones show up. Just keep the Jeep on the street until then. As long as your aren't flexing the suspension hard or tearing through whoop-de-do's, you're pretty unlikely to make any contact with the bump stops. That said, you'll have take a few things apart all over again to get the new stops installed which isn't much fun. If you don't need the Jeep and can let it sit, that might be the easiest thing to do.
 
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