For anyone who is curious,
@UnlimitedLJ04 on WF spoke in detail on this exact situation:
“when you install a SYE, you need to align the pinion angle. this requires adjustable uppers, with lowers highly recommended.
several things happen when you rotate the housing to point the rear pinion at the t-case with the
double cardan shaft.
1. the rotation causes the fixed track bar mount to rotate back, toward the gas tank. meaning it's no longer parallel with the frame mount. because of this non-parallelism, you can't get the stock bar installed unless you either stress the heck out of the bushings (not good) or cut the bar, rotate it, and then sleeve it (requires welding).
2. lengthening the uppers to align the pinion actually lengthens the wheelbase slightly. this means the bumpstops become slightly misaligned, and the track bar is pushed toward the gas tank mount. the rear
track bar bracket and/or diff cover can also be pushed into the gas tank skid during suspension travel.
Examples:
3. that lengthening of the wheelbase will actually push the tire back in the
wheelwell, and you get the tires contacting the rear of the
wheelwellduring travel...at the steel of the fender. this isn't a flare issue...its a steel vs rubber issue.
Example:
from:
No Lift Tj Part2 Rear Stuffed Photo 2
If you've ever taken off your rear flares, you can see how much they cut away based on the holes...
Ok. So how do we fix these problems? Well, remember the
adjustable lower control arms were highly recommended? One reason for that is so you can SHORTEN the lowers in the rear as you extend the uppers...to keep those clearance issues from arising.
So where the
CV style track bar bracket fits into all this? Well, you'll notice these angled brackets do two things - they try to put that parallelism back in place with the rotated housing, most are setup for a 4" lift. They also push the
track bar forward on the axle mount to avoid problems #2 and #3. The issue with them is they don't have any adjustability if you need it...it's fixed, so you may still have an anti-parallelism problem.
The caviate to the adjustable lowers for the rear is they need to be able adjust shorter than stock. Many aftermarket companies arms do NOT, including the Rokmen's I run. You can cut some thread off and hope you don't mess it up, or keep them at stock length and hope for the best. On my LJ, I hoped for the best because the housing rotation required to align the pinion on the long wheelbase wasn't that severe...and the issues are very close (if you've poked through my build thread you've seen them).
You need a
relocation bracket with a lift (or to fabricate/weld-on a taller, open top bracket). Thats due to the interference adjustable track bars create with the weak stock closed top bracket.
The replacement/relocation bracket doesn't need to be a
CV style - however you do need to account for the anti-parallelism problem. That is easily done with an adjustable rear track bar, preferably one with a flex joint on at least one end. The new
Currie rear track bar (available through Savvy) is supposed to address gas tank frame mountinterference issues mentioned in #2...although I haven't seen full bump pictures of it myself, so I'm still skeptical...but at least this is the first time I've ever heard a company agree the problem exists!
So in other words, either a CV or non-CV style bracket will work IF you place the housing correctly in the
wheelwell with adjustable uppers AND lowers, and you run a track bar that accounts for the potential misalignment.
Personally, on a SWB TJ with a CV shaft, I'd probably cut the rear track bar mount off....then reinforce & move the uppers forward a bit, and weld on a 1/4" wall open top track bar mount, while running the new Currie track bar. Or better yet, triangulate the rear uppers and toss the stock track bar aside altogether. I've been considering fabbing a new axle side rear track bar mount for my Jeep for a long time...maybe next year”
I used what photos were avaliable, however some links were broken. I hope if anyone has any questions in the future this proves useful,
@Rex Baucom thanks for sharing.