hey guys, i bought this 96 jeep from a guy off another site. everythings been fine with it. loving it. just one thing concerning me right now. we went out playing last night and when i got up this morning, i was looking at the outcome of last night. everything drove fine on the way home and while playing but this one thing has me concerned. the front spring on the passenger side seems to be sitting funny. i got under the jeep and everything seems to be in place, from what i can tell. any help will be appreciated. it is missing the little keeper, but it seems to be sitting on the axle in place. heres pics of the jeep and both front springs and closer up pics of the passenger side with the wheel off.....

 

it does look kinda funny.... get some better pics like your control arms and actual springs

 

It looks like that passenger spring is not on the perch right but its hard to tell with the tires on. the gap between the tires and fenders looks even on both sides so I deffinateley suspect the spring. If you check where the spring sits on the axle the end of the coil should sit right in the groove on the spring perch and there should be a small clipp with one bolt holding the spring on. if you have to you could use the other side as a referance or try to post some pics of the spring up close with the wheal off so we can see better whats going on. Oh ya welcome to the forum and good luck.

 

Can we get a picture from the front underneath?

 

heres some pics with the wheel off. i did notice the keeper was gone, didnt realize that would play that big of a factor in all this.

 

Honestly think you might have something bent. The reason I say that is for the spring to be arched like that the housing has been pulled back. Easy fix adjust your lower control arms.

 

Yes the keeper is gone and the spring has spun, just jack it up until the spring is loose and rotate it until the end of the spring catches in the groove. Thats what the notch is for just to the back of the spring then youl most likeley be headed to the jy to get the keeper unless you know a better place to get one but its a pretty simple fix. Be sure to let us know if that fixes it.

 

certainly will let yall know. i dont think ive bent anything cause i have beat on it that hard. just been in some easy mud. ill let yall know. thanks for all the tips and help. ill see if i can get a keeper from work, maybe they can still order em, its nice working at the jeep dealership sometimes.

 

The bolt in those spring keepers strips out real easy. You may want to check the thread first. An interesting thing to do might be to jack the Jeep up with the jack under the unibody rail. That way you could see if the actual spring is bent when the suspension sags. Not likely, but would be nice to verify. Also, like another guy was getting at look at your lower control arms where they bolt in on the unibody. See if they are in the same location (fore/aft) Drivers side to Passenger side.
It does look like the bottom of your spring has rotated out of the notch it's supposed to fit in. Compare the end of the bottom of the spring Drivers to Passenger.

 

thanx. i had a jackstand under the body and jack down and spring looked ok, when i took the pic, i was actually putting the wheel back on. but ill check it out and let yall know. thanks for the help

 

Holy short lower control arms!! Get some long arms or some drop brackets.

 

sorry, but could you explain, like my name says and it says in the open title, im new to all this. i bought the jeep with the lift on it. im not into all the flexing and all that yet.

i checked the spring today and its actually in the perch how it should be, and control arms are tight. could the spring just be starting to sag? if so how would i go about measuring for new springs and all that?

 

I can assure you if it still looks like the picture the spring is on the perch wrong.Its not to far forward or back or left to right, the bottom of the spring is not level like the top, thats why theres a little groove on the spring perch that the spring sits in to keep it level. If you jack it up from the frame so the spring is loose and rotate the spring counter clockwise without lifting the spring off of the perch it will stop when it gets to the right spot. I can see in the picture (middle pic second set) that this is your problem, I prommise just try it.

 

chances are that if your keeper is missing it probably stripped out (common problem) and fell off. you could try re-tapping and putting a junkyard keeper on or go to www.ironrockoffroad.com and buy a heavy duty keeper which uses 2 rather large self tappers to hold it down. also, it looks like those springs might be kinda worn out. if I were you I'd order new springs from IRO for the full length of the lift and toss those spacers on top

 

just a thought here guys. if the keeper was missing, maybe the spring came out of the perch and got hung up and bent it. by the time he got home, it had centered itself