gully369

After lifting the ZJ I ran into some death wobble. As you can see on the front arm the bushings are shot, and the arms were maxed out at just shy of 7* of caster. So I figured I should get some longer ones and heard about the JK rear UCA swap. The rear swap went fine I have some clunking but I think that is my rear swaybar that is not connected as of yet. I digress. So the front arms bushings are shot and I am in the middle of swapping out my front control arms and ran into a slight snag.



The top arm is a rear upper JK arm 17 1/2"
The middle arm is factory ZJ rear LCA 16 3/4"
The bottom arm is factory ZJ front LCA 15 3/4"

My original plan was to use the JK arm until I saw the three together. I am afraid the JK arm will be two long and mess my front drive line angle up and cause vibrations. I am leaving the front factory UCA in place. Any thoughts. I am thinking I should probably used the rear arm but was hoping for some input.

gully369

Already bumped off the first page in 35min...crazy

I need some opinions here

Gorillaxj

did a little goggle search, and found this,

Control Arm Length Application Chart
factory control arm lengths according to Tera-flex
•all front upper control arms- 15 1/8”
•all rear upper control arms- 13 1/4”
•all TJ lower and ZJ front lower arms- 15 3/4”
•XJ front lower control arms- 16 1/4” - However my stock front lower arms measure 15 3/4 (same a tj/ZJ)
•ZJ rear lower control arms- 16 11/16”
•WJ front lower control arms- 16”
•WJ rear lower control arms- 19”

Maximum adjustment from factory length is +/- 3/4”.
Adjustments can be made to the front arms to adjust the caster, and to the rear to adjust the pinion angle.
Flex Arms may be lengthened or shortened if necessary.
Adjusting the arms in or out more than 3/4” from factory settings will void any warranty.

Control Arm Length Application Chart
For Jeep Cherokee (XJ)

Lift|Lower Control Arms||Upper Control Arms
|Decimal|Fraction|Decimal|Fraction
Stock|15.75 |15 3/4|15.00 |15
2” |15.92 |16 |14.88 |15
3” |16.09 |16 |14.92 |15
4” |16.33 |16 3/8 |15.03 |15
4.5”|16.47 |16 1/2 |15.11 |15
5” |16.62 |16 5/8 |15.21 |15 1/4
6” |16.97 |17 |15.44 |15 1/2
7” |17.36 |17 3/8 |15.74 |15 3/4
8” |17.81 |17 3/4 |16.09 |16
9” |18.30 |18 1/4 |16.50 |16 1/2
10” |18.82 |18 3/4 |16.96 |17



don't know if it helps you much as its based on a XJ, but based on this and the fact you have 4" lift (in sig) I would go with the middle arm...

AOR

Crown Automotive Adjustable lower control arm kit.



These fit 0-6" short arm lift kits and come with new greaseable bolts. Fits Cherokee XJ and Grand Cherokee ZJ model fronts. They are 1.25" tubing with .25" wall.

They have a 12 month/12,000 mile mfg warranty.

Namaste,

Allen

angelsman

Did this work? I'm gonna try this next week. I'll post pics.

lonewolf411

Im interested if this worked! Please post pics and advice

angelsman

It worked great! Pushed the axle forward where it should be and it rides so much better. The bushings on the ZJ lcas were in good shape so I left them alone. Did the swap in an hour. Used a small bottle jack to push axle forward. I picked up the arms for $50 at a local salvage yard.

angelsman

With 4.5" of lift, the rear ZJ lcas work good on the XJ front. Cheap and easy!

angelsman

Actually rolls pinion down to far. Need adj uppers to twist pinion back up.

ZJ_Joe

Ive got a 95 ZJ and my buddy has a set of short arms off is TJ that hes gonna give me.. by the chart above the frotns are the same right? but what about the rear it looked like the tl wjere a lil shorter than the zj is there anyway to still make this work?

angelsman

Front lowers should be the same. Not sure about ZJ to TJ rears. ZJ rears are about an inch longer than TJ, XJ fronts.

gully369

The JK arms are definitely on the long side, and gave me caster of around 14 with all of the adjust ability taken out of the cam bolts in the lower arms. They make the pinion angle ridiculously stupid. When I had it aligned after the owner of the shop told me not to take it offroad or I would tear the pinion out of my front axle. You must have adjustable uppers if you want to flex at all. I have run it this way for nearly a year though and am now getting the adjustable UCA's and extended brake lines for an upcoming trip.

On mallcrawlin they recomended using WJ arms to replace the lowers. It looks like a much better solution.

Joe, if the rears are factory length they probably wont be of much good to you.

rabies

wat if an idiviual had a lifted xj about 4"
would WJ upper n lower arms work?
iv got the upper n they r a tad longer n way beefier

rabies

update.
i put on WJ control arms on front upper.
mine were rusty and flimsy.
i think these are aftermarket.


it helped a tad with death wobble. oem ca had a super bad bushing(poly)
seemed to help angle also with lift. 3.5" 31s.
after alignment i still have slight wobble at 65mph. i think the lower control arms r junk(and bushings( they are very thin and flimsy.
i think rear upper JK arms will work for teh front lower (since uppers are now a tad longer it should work mathmaticaly

1DogRescuer

While this thread is a little [old], it has some really useful information. I am hoping to get clarification on a few things. Some of the posts don't Specify whether they are swapping Upper or Lower CAs, and to which new location on XJ [upper or lower] .... though, I very Easily could have simply missed it.

I have a mall crawler 2WD that I will be lifting 3in. in order to run 31" JK take-offs. So, I don't have any front drive pinion issues to be concerned with [I don't think ?]. In a test fit, where it was clear that I would need a Lift, it also seemed that the caster [?] was set quite a bit too far rearward in well. My tires hit BACK of wheel well far sooner than the front, as it was lowered.

That leads me to think that I need even longer CAs to move front forward, as well as compensate for Lift of 3in. I am trying to do the math, and unless I am mistaken, I need my Front Lower to be as close to 16.6875 as possible [are the previous measurements Center hole-to-Center hole ?], and Front Upper to be as close to 15.75

Am I in the right ballpark, or way off ? ANYONE ? Because it will be a Mall Crawler, I see no reason to spend big $$s to get beefy adjustables ... unless that is my only option to avoid any handling ailments at fwy speeds of 75mph or so.

I would prefer to find OE swap solutions for several reasons: BUDGET, rubber bushings, ease of acquiring. If ANY of you could PLEASE HELP clarify what I need, I would be profoundly appreciative. Feel free to email me directly, if easier.

THANK YOU All .......

OE, BTW, those Crown Adjustables a couple of posts before mine .... link No Worky. Could those be the Least Expensive option for me to accomplish my goals ... since Crown+cheap Chinese products ..... ? Last, what do I do about Rears for 3in. Lift ?

THANKS