Stance after a 2 inch lift?

BobK

TJ Enthusiast
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Apr 11, 2019
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386
Location
Parker, TX
I finished my 2" coil/spring lift last weekend, with adjustable control arms and an adjustable front track bar. The rear track bar is the OEM fixed length mounted to a 2" track bar relocation bracket. After the lift (also a 1" body lift) I took it to my local Jeep shop for a 4 wheel alignment. They had to adjust one lower control arm to center the rear axle and they adjusted the thrust angle by less than a degree. They seemed to think that I really didn't need an adjustable rear track bar.

Today while trying to buff out the paint, I had a chance to look closer at the Jeep and noticed a few things. To my eye, the Jeeps stance is higher in the front than the rear, so I measured to a fixed point on each fender and the front drivers side appears to be an inch higher than the passenger side. The rear is within 1/2 or less, but higher on the drivers side. This brought me to take a closer look, and measurement, of the centering of the axle on each side front by measuring using a 2 x 12 tight up against top and bottom of each tire and then measuring from the center of the wheel to the body. In the front the difference is less than 1/4 inch, so I may try to make a small adjustment to the track bar there. On the rear, the difference is almost an inch (7/8 inch difference between the two sides). To my eye, I need to acquire a rear adjustable track arm and adjust away 1/2 of the difference. Will this throw off the 4 wheel alignment that I jsut got done?

My questions are:

1) Is a front high stance (to the eye) normal for a TJ? A lifted TJ?
2) What should I look at to see why the drivers side front is 1" higher than the passenger side front?
3) Should I buy a rear adjustable track arm to adjust for the difference of the axle pushing the tire out on one side?
4) Will making any of these adustments to the track bar(s) throw off the 4 wheel alignment?

As always, your thoughts and input are welcome.

Bob
 
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Having the trackbar a bit off is not a big deal. Every time the suspension flexes the axles move side to side a bit. If it is driving and tracking well I would be inclined to leave it. Shifting the axle over may throw off the 4 wheel align a bit, but not enough to bother anything. Where is that extra inch coming from? Measure the spring height side to side. Some companies make their springs side specific. OME is one of them. You could pull the front springs and swap them to see if this helps. It could help level out the rear a bit also. Check that you have not forgot a bushing or spacer somewhere too. Hope this helps, but a few pictures and some of these guys here can spot what thread pitch you are using, and I'm sure could find your problem. Detailed pics of each spring setup and some steering and other underside pics can help.
 
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Having the trackbar a bit off is not a big deal. Every time the suspension flexes the axles move side to side a bit. If it is driving and tracking well I would be inclined to leave it. Shifting the axle over may throw off the 4 wheel align a bit, but not enough to bother anything. Where is that extra inch coming from? Measure the spring height side to side. Some companies make their springs side specific. OME is one of them. You could pull the front springs and swap them to see if this helps. It could help level out the rear a bit also. Check that you have not forgot a bushing or spacer somewhere too. Hope this helps, but a few pictures and some of these guys here can spot what thread pitch you are using, and I'm sure could find your problem. Detailed pics of each spring setup and some steering and other underside pics can help.

Thanks, good advice to include pics. Here is the updated suspension lift, it includes Rock Krawler coils and shocks (2" lift), Currectlync steering system, Teraflex steering stablizer, Steinjager sway bar end links and adjustable control arms. In hindsight, the only component that didn't get replaced was the spring isolators.

Let me know if there are any other questions or pics that would help.

Bob

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Sitting in the driveway, the compressed springs measure 14 1/4 inch on the passenger side and almost 15 inches on the drivers.

Should I consider replacing the spring isolators?
 
If you look at the springs D side has top 4 wraps in contact and 4-5 space is small. On P side top 4 in contact, 4-5 has a much larger spread. That appears to be the issue. Are they both rotated in the upper bucket so the very end of the coil is sitting in the bucket properly? That could cause the spring to look off in the pictures. Some have a slightly longer spring on the D side so when a person is sitting in the Jeep it will level out when driving. [I read this in a forum. Not from any official install document so it may be total B.S.] but it sounds good. How many miles have you put on it since the lift? Everything looks correct so maybe a few hundred miles may help it settle. If everything is correct and it still bugs you put a coil spacer in the low side to level it out.
 
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Looks like your track bar is contacting your diff at some point in its travel. Meaning your control arms need adjusted or you need a thinner profile diff cover.
 
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Also, turn your currie clamps upwards to avoid contacting the rocks.

He'll need smaller diameter bolts in order to rotate the clamps. I forget the size, but it's the next size smaller metric in a fine thread.
 
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So respond to all the comments above.

1) I have not driven it very much at all since the lift, but that will change this week.

2) I plan to put it up on jack stands today or tomorrow and sag the axle so I can take a closer look at the springs and how they are seated in the base and on the isolators.

3) If it remains this way after review and usage, I will put a space spacer on the passenger side.

4) The mark on the diff cover is from before the lift, the stock track bar did indeed make some contact with the diff. The new track bar appears to clear the diff when I cycled the suspension.

5) I would have to change the bolt size on the clamps and when I tried to rotate the Currie clamps there was no ability to rotate.

6) A portion of the difference between the drivers side and the passenger side turned out to be due to different tire pressures. These were new wheels/tires mounted hastily by me after the lift without checking tire pressure. Drivers was 41 and passenger was 32, both have been lowered to 30 now, causing the height diff to change by almost 1/2 inch.

In hindsight, I wish I had changed the spring isolators, thoughts on going back to do that now? Seems like a lot of work for little possible gain.
 
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