New to TJs and off roading, need suspension knowledge

Such an honor to have the least experience on the whole forum based off milage numbers.
How many miles have you put on a tj. So let me understand this. You know a lot about tjs, yet you haven’t sat in one for say...5k miles.(just a prediction). Enough to get the oil dirty? Hahah. Are you a major troll?

You can probably tell me how to change my oil, and all the things I need to remove or replace, but you’ve never changed it yourself. Hahah sounds like an auto zone employee right there.
 
How many miles have you put on a tj. So let me understand this. You know a lot about tjs, yet you haven’t sat in one for say...5k miles.(just a prediction). Enough to get the oil dirty? Hahah. Are you a major troll?


PM me if you have further questions. You are derailing a thread.

Send me a multiple choice TJ/LJ test or something.
 
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Lol, you guys are a trip. I have been working my butt off but also reading what you are sharing with me and looking stuff up. I've also been crawling under the Jeep trying to determine what I have for aftermarket parts. It appears to have an RE1600 trackbar with a worn heim joint. I searched like crazy and just ordered a Ruff Stuff replacement rod end. It I have also replaced a handful of worn bushings so far and things are starting to tighten up with ride and steering.

I really like the looks and price of the RS5000X shocks! I may not be able to wait for the next mail in rebate though. These will likely be my next purchase, followed by the ZJ steering upgrades.

Also, here are some pics!

IMG_20190504_100333_01.jpg


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Welcome to the forum. I'm just south of you, on the other side of the flats, in north Everett. You're going to dig on all the information that flows through these "pages"!!! Folks on here love 'em some pictures, so how 'bout it? ;)
That's awesome! I work in Everett and drive home on 529 about every day, usually in the Fusion though. Once I get a few more things fixed, I should be ready to go wheeling on more than just dirt roads!
 
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Hey guys, I bought and installed the Rancho RS5000X shocks. Huge improvement! Thanks for the advice, it's driving so much better! The spring perches were contacting the shock body and I didn't want to invert the shocks so I trimmed some off of the spring perches. I also replaced the trackbar heim joint and centered the body over the front axle. One thing I wasn't sure if is that there are two holes for the lower trackbar bolt. With the inner hole, the trackbar was as short as it would go with no adjustment room so I moved it to the outer hole. From the pictures I found online, this appears to be the factory hole location.

Next up, ZJ steering upgrades and an alignment. I know it is toed in way too far, I tried to do a driveway alignment but the tie rod adjusting sleeve was seized. I removed the wheels and clamped two bars to the brake rotors. At my 35" tire diameter mark, the bars measured 1" difference in width between the front and rear points and I'm reading that it should be more like 1/8". I didn't mess with trying to free up the tie rod for too long because I'm replacing it anyway. I still need to figure out how to measure camber!
 
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1/8 on the outside of the adjustment. Closer to 1/16 works a lot better on mine. With the new ZJ steering adjustment is ridiculously easy. Every J eep is different tho. Make sure the axle is centered, then set the steering wheel centered, then the toe.
 
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Hey guys, I bought and installed the Rancho RS5000X shocks. Huge improvement! Thanks for the advice, it's driving so much better! The spring perches were contacting the shock body and I didn't want to invert the shocks so I trimmed some off of the spring perches. I also replaced the trackbar heim joint and centered the body over the front axle. One thing I wasn't sure if is that there are two holes for the lower trackbar bolt. With the inner hole, the trackbar was as short as it would go with no adjustment room so I moved it to the outer hole. From the pictures I found online, this appears to be the factory hole location.

Next up, ZJ steering upgrades and an alignment. I know it is toed in way too far, I tried to do a driveway alignment but the tie rod adjusting sleeve was seized. I removed the wheels and clamped two bars to the brake rotors. At my 35" tire diameter mark, the bars measured 1" difference in width between the front and rear points and I'm reading that it should be more like 1/8". I didn't mess with trying to free up the tie rod for too long because I'm replacing it anyway. I still need to figure out how to measure camber!
There is a how to section on this forum that will help you tremendously! I have been running the ZJ steering with my 35s and it has worked great.
Good luck on your build and welcome to the forum.
Igoo65
 
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Can you describe the difference you notice between 1/8" and 1/16"?
1/8 felt stable until I get on a back road that has the crown all messed up. I live on one of those. It would track real "darty" one second all good, then sudden move to the right or left and real vague feel. But once on a better road back to 1 handed steering. I thought it was the worm out tires I'm running right now on her. Had a real hot and soupy humid day that was too hot for anything other than on the cool driveway under the fender shade so I decided to try and tweak it a bit. When I set it to 1/16" it was a 1 finger driving on all the roads. You could still feel the road change pitch and crown, but 1 finger was all I needed to easily control her. New tires by end of month, but not a big need now. Cooper is running a deal. Buy 4 tires and get a $70 debit card. This month only.
 
I get the ZJ steering upgrades installed and toe-in is set to 1/16". It's driving pretty nice now! I also swapped out the head unit for an Alpine ILX-W650, Morel 5 components in the front, and Morel 6 coaxes in the soundbar. I still need to mount the front and rear cameras though.

One thing I noticed is that a polarity/phase tester that plays pops through the speakers and measures them with a little unit is identifying the soundbar speakers as reverse polarity (fronts are good). I double-checked the wiring and it's correct. Is something weird with my Jeep? Did the Jeep engineers do this on purpose due to the close proximity of the soundbar speakers to our head? Were they trying for a poor version of time alignment?

My head unit has built-in time alignment settings that I'll be playing with, but it is striking me as weird that the soundbar speakers are wired correctly, but still out of phase. I may start a new thread in the stereo section about it.