This write-up was NOT done by me. It was done by someone else. I'm simply sharing it here as it's a good resource for fellow TJ owners to have.
Install Notes
Before installing the lift, here are some notes I compiled from Blaine (aka Mr. Blaine), the guy who designed this kit for Savvy.
Install Instructions
About a month ago I purchased Savvy’s new Mid Arm Kit. I wanted to do a write up for Marty and the boys of Savvy Off-Road and hopefully give future Jeepers an insight on the installation process and what they may have to look forward to. I am in no way affiliated with Savvy but have had several of their products over the last few years to include their Springs, Short Arm Kit, Modular Under Armor (Tummy-Tuck) and Aluminum Tail Gate Cover. This is my first write-up so forgive my misspelling and grammar.
A two post lift would be ideal, but I didn’t have one in my Jeep shop (aka back garage). Get the jeep off the ground and supported with 4 good size jack stands. The bigger the stands the better because you will want as much room under the Jeep as possible to have room to work.
Once you feel you have the Jeep securely supported, you’ll want to jack up the axles and place jack stands under the axles to relieve some pressure from connected components.
(I used the jack to support the front axle because I only had 6 Jack Stands.)
I started with the rear end. You can look up a youtube video to see how to remove your axles. It’s a pretty simple process. Think I got both removed by myself in less than 3 hours. Took me almost as long to get the jeep jacked up, supported, remove the wheels, driveshafts and tummy tuck.
Once you have the axles removed, put them somewhere you can easily work on them. Now is an excellent time to do some routine maintenance and go over everything. I have pinion seals and bearings that needed to be replaced and a bad ball joint.
(Here is a picture with the rear axle removed and Savvys Truss sitting on the axle. This is a heavy duty Truss and placement is phenomenal. You will have to re-route your brake line but this wasn’t a huge deal.)
Here the front axle is removed. I had to get some more jack stand and put the axle on them as well.
Now the fun begins. It’s time to start cutting the stock brackets off. Hopefully you have a plasma cutter. A cut off wheel will work just fine, but a lot more time consuming.
This was the most time consuming process to cut all control arm brackets off the frame and grind everything smooth.
(Be careful cutting around brake lines, locker lines and electrical lines.)
You will have to un-clip all these lines. I pushed them all up in between the frame and the body. I have a body lift for the tummy tuck which gave plenty of clearance for lines and hoses.
Here you can see about where the bracket will go and why the lines need to be relocated. Do not forget these lines when it comes time to weld these brackets on.
Once I got all the control arm brackets removed from the frame and got everything ground down and clean I went back to the rear axle.
I removed this bracket that holds the brake line to the axle. It may not seem the brake line will have enough to be rerouted, but if you carefully work with the line it will bend around the diff cover.
You can see how I have the brake line in front of the diff cover for now. The bracket you see on top of the diff cover is what you will use to align the rear truss. I put this bracket on and tightened the bolts only tight enough to hold it in place.
(Tight bend of brake line around the truss.)
The top 2 bolts align the truss to the bracket I showed on the previous picture. I wasn’t a huge fan of the tight bend of the brake line but it hasn’t been a problem so far. Time will tell.
Here you can see where the upper control arm brackets were cut off the axle and the truss were welded to the axle. I was running short on time and didn’t grind the old brackets smooth, but I will when I get back from my Colorado trip. Prior to welding this bracket to the axle Marty recommended I grind the top of the axle housing I believe a 1/16, but don’t remember the exact measurement. See picture below.
Once I got the rear truss welded on and upper control arm brackets removed from the axle I began working on the front axle.
Again you have to remove the 2 upper control arm brackets from the front axle. This time I removed and ground clean and painted.
Again, the test fit was perfect. Marty gave me specific instructions on how to weld these brackets in place so I don’t apply too much heat and end up warping the axle tubes. 1-1/2” welds and 1-1/2” spacing in between the welds in the pattern you would use to tighten head bolts. A Criss/Cross pattern starting from the outside and working your way in. I took several breaks making sure not to warp anything.
(My welds weren’t all pretty but they got the job done. Seems like the more beer I drank the worse my welds looked.)
I will put the documents that I received from Marty for the placement of the brackets that still need to be welded to the frame. Be sure to prep the frame and grind everything down to bare metal for good weld penetration. Also these documents will give you an initial setup for control arm lengths.
The location of the bracket placement is an exact measurement and the initial setup of the control arms are a starting point. You will have to make adjustments for pinion angle and I also have some clearance issue with diff cover clearance on the front. You absolutely need to test and tune. Get your bump stops set up correctly, ensure your axles are sitting square and get a front end alignment. Here are pictures of this kit on my jeep. I haven’t had the chance to test and tune, but will get this perfect very soon.
Another problem you may run into is your exhaust clearance. You will likely need to have your exhaust rerouted to clear the rear control arm.
Install Notes
Before installing the lift, here are some notes I compiled from Blaine (aka Mr. Blaine), the guy who designed this kit for Savvy.
- The new frame mounted control arm brackets are laid out on the center skid plate hole. We thread a bolt into them with a nut so they will self center.
- The belly pan will likely need to be trimmed at the back where it interferes with the control arm bracket.
- The rear brace for the truss to diff cover bolts is NOT optional. It should be used with a stock thickness diff cover to locate the truss properly fore and aft.
- When cutting the front cast mount off the diff, it should be cut halfway through on a horizontal plane so the ears stick up through the truss and then are welded up. This provides a mechanical bond, not a fusion bond from welding. (The truss can move with the weld filling the holes, and even if they do break, it can’t move, due to it still being a tight fit.)
- Don’t even try to do the axles under the rig. Yank both axles out, strip them down, weld on trusses, etc. Attempting to do this while the axles are still attached to the vehicle will take more time than it’s worth. Blaine has really stressed this point a number of times.
- One of the harder parts is making the rear brake lines look clean, and knowing the routing for them right off the bat. To make for a cleaner install, I suggest using the “Wizard” rear brake caliper relocation brackets. These brackets move the rear brake calipers to the front of the brake rotors, effectively clearing up more room for outboard shocks (should you decide to go that route).
- One of the rear brake lines along the frame will need to be re-routed. There are many ways to do this, but the cleanest and most presentable way is to re-shape the brake line to look like the one in the photo above, taking care not to kink the line when bending it. The brake line in the photo below was one that Blaine did by simply grabbing a piece of tube (or pipe) about the diameter of a beer can and wrapping the brake line around it. Twist it to point at the bracket and you’re good to go. You can use a universal mount such as the one shown to mount the line to the bracket. These types of brackets can be found at most ACE Hardware stores. Blaine has mentioned that redoing the flare isn’t worth it.
- The fuel lines (and some wires) going along the driver’s side of the frame will not be able to re-use the plastic clips they are attached from the factory with. The clean and elegant solution is to use the type of mounts circled in the photo above, which are called “Adel clamps” in combination will self-tapping screws to secure them to the frame. These can be found at any ACE Hardware or Home Depot. This makes for a nice and tidy install. You can see an example in the photo below.
- The exhaust system will have to be re-routed to prevent clearance issues. When cycling the suspension and at full bump, you’ll need to pay close attention to whether or not anything is coming in contact with the exhaust and re-route accordingly.
Install Instructions
About a month ago I purchased Savvy’s new Mid Arm Kit. I wanted to do a write up for Marty and the boys of Savvy Off-Road and hopefully give future Jeepers an insight on the installation process and what they may have to look forward to. I am in no way affiliated with Savvy but have had several of their products over the last few years to include their Springs, Short Arm Kit, Modular Under Armor (Tummy-Tuck) and Aluminum Tail Gate Cover. This is my first write-up so forgive my misspelling and grammar.
A two post lift would be ideal, but I didn’t have one in my Jeep shop (aka back garage). Get the jeep off the ground and supported with 4 good size jack stands. The bigger the stands the better because you will want as much room under the Jeep as possible to have room to work.
Once you feel you have the Jeep securely supported, you’ll want to jack up the axles and place jack stands under the axles to relieve some pressure from connected components.
(I used the jack to support the front axle because I only had 6 Jack Stands.)
I started with the rear end. You can look up a youtube video to see how to remove your axles. It’s a pretty simple process. Think I got both removed by myself in less than 3 hours. Took me almost as long to get the jeep jacked up, supported, remove the wheels, driveshafts and tummy tuck.
Once you have the axles removed, put them somewhere you can easily work on them. Now is an excellent time to do some routine maintenance and go over everything. I have pinion seals and bearings that needed to be replaced and a bad ball joint.
(Here is a picture with the rear axle removed and Savvys Truss sitting on the axle. This is a heavy duty Truss and placement is phenomenal. You will have to re-route your brake line but this wasn’t a huge deal.)
Here the front axle is removed. I had to get some more jack stand and put the axle on them as well.
Now the fun begins. It’s time to start cutting the stock brackets off. Hopefully you have a plasma cutter. A cut off wheel will work just fine, but a lot more time consuming.
This was the most time consuming process to cut all control arm brackets off the frame and grind everything smooth.
(Be careful cutting around brake lines, locker lines and electrical lines.)
You will have to un-clip all these lines. I pushed them all up in between the frame and the body. I have a body lift for the tummy tuck which gave plenty of clearance for lines and hoses.
Here you can see about where the bracket will go and why the lines need to be relocated. Do not forget these lines when it comes time to weld these brackets on.
Once I got all the control arm brackets removed from the frame and got everything ground down and clean I went back to the rear axle.
I removed this bracket that holds the brake line to the axle. It may not seem the brake line will have enough to be rerouted, but if you carefully work with the line it will bend around the diff cover.
You can see how I have the brake line in front of the diff cover for now. The bracket you see on top of the diff cover is what you will use to align the rear truss. I put this bracket on and tightened the bolts only tight enough to hold it in place.
(Tight bend of brake line around the truss.)
The top 2 bolts align the truss to the bracket I showed on the previous picture. I wasn’t a huge fan of the tight bend of the brake line but it hasn’t been a problem so far. Time will tell.
Here you can see where the upper control arm brackets were cut off the axle and the truss were welded to the axle. I was running short on time and didn’t grind the old brackets smooth, but I will when I get back from my Colorado trip. Prior to welding this bracket to the axle Marty recommended I grind the top of the axle housing I believe a 1/16, but don’t remember the exact measurement. See picture below.
Once I got the rear truss welded on and upper control arm brackets removed from the axle I began working on the front axle.
Again you have to remove the 2 upper control arm brackets from the front axle. This time I removed and ground clean and painted.
Again, the test fit was perfect. Marty gave me specific instructions on how to weld these brackets in place so I don’t apply too much heat and end up warping the axle tubes. 1-1/2” welds and 1-1/2” spacing in between the welds in the pattern you would use to tighten head bolts. A Criss/Cross pattern starting from the outside and working your way in. I took several breaks making sure not to warp anything.
(My welds weren’t all pretty but they got the job done. Seems like the more beer I drank the worse my welds looked.)
I will put the documents that I received from Marty for the placement of the brackets that still need to be welded to the frame. Be sure to prep the frame and grind everything down to bare metal for good weld penetration. Also these documents will give you an initial setup for control arm lengths.
The location of the bracket placement is an exact measurement and the initial setup of the control arms are a starting point. You will have to make adjustments for pinion angle and I also have some clearance issue with diff cover clearance on the front. You absolutely need to test and tune. Get your bump stops set up correctly, ensure your axles are sitting square and get a front end alignment. Here are pictures of this kit on my jeep. I haven’t had the chance to test and tune, but will get this perfect very soon.
Another problem you may run into is your exhaust clearance. You will likely need to have your exhaust rerouted to clear the rear control arm.
