dwentz

Last weekend I purchased a 92 XJ with 128K miles on it. Its in great shape inside and out for its age. I purchased it to tow a small ski boat which is right at 3000 lbs. The XJ should handle this fine, it does have a class iii on it already. I need to replace the shocks on it, and I have noticed that the springs in the rear are sagging, so I need to replace them. I have searched and read all that I could fine, but most of what I have seen people recommend are springs that will lift the Jeep. I am not interested in adding height to it, just would like to find some springs that are up to the task of towing my boat. I do plan on driving it during the week for work and do not want to rough of a ride or anything. Anyone have any particular suggestions on what would work good for towing, and not add to the height of my XJ.

Thanks,

Dale

JerrytheJeep

Well you'll want a spring that's a little stiffer than the oem xj ones. Generally you'll get a slightly taller ride height afterwards though. I know Quadratech sells oem springs, and I believe the "country" xj had a stock 1" lift (stiffer springs) so if you try and find those you'll probably get what you're looking for. If not, quadratech.

Or you could do a bastard pack, which is adding more leafs to your existing pack from another xj, or vehicle with similar shaped leafs.

salad

Look for any OE-style "heavy duty" springs.

Quadratec ones Jerry mentioned:
http://www.quadratec.com/products/56010_11.htm
http://www.quadratec.com/products/56010_0016.htm

RockAuto.com also has Omix-Ada 1828017 for $89.39 each

dwentz

I wanted to follow up on my spring question. It seems that I find lots of threads that ask a question and the person gets answers but never posts how things work out or which solution fixed their problem. I did not want this to be another one of those threads!


After some more research I ordered a pair of Old Man Emu Medium Duty Springs. They will add lift that I originally did not want to do but after looking at the options I thought that this was the best option.

The springs came in Saturday morning. But the XJ developed a shake under torque during a trip my wife and I took saturday. I suspected that the u-joints were bad, and thought it best to fix the shake before I changed anything else in the drive train set up. The drive shaft had no play in it at all, but when checking it out I noticed that the rear seal on the transfer case was leaking a bit, so decided to pull the drive shaft anyway to change the seal. The u-joints were not wore out, one of them would hardly move at all. When I disassembled the real u-joint to replace it this is what I found.




When I tried to press the cap out it shattered. No grease inside at all and lots of rust powdered bearings. (I had just greased all the u-joints a few days earlier.

Some of the others were not as bad, but still had a pattern on the u-joint.



After replacing the rear u-joints the shake went away and the XJ was also quieter that it was before. While I was at it I thought I might as well do the front drive shaft also, but the parts store did not have all the additional u-joints, so I will rebuilt the front once the rear springs are in.



Comparing the new springs to the stock springs they look to be built much better. They have an extra leaf, and are built from heavier gage steel. Here is a photo of the new springs compared to the old ones.




They are taller than the stock springs 2 to 2.5 inches. Before I ordered the new rear springs I had ordered Monroe 58594 Sensa-Trac Load Adjusting Shock Absorbers and replacement OE bump stops. As they are both for a stock height XJ I will be building some spacers to lower the factory height bump stops, as well as the shocks from 2 inch square steel tubing.

I have now have the rear springs off the Jeep. It took lots of PB breaker, some long extensions on the breaker bar, a few saws-all blades and lots of cussing! Interestingly the drivers side front nut weld broke. After cutting it with the saws-all the small amount of the bolt that was left in the nut unscrewed by hand. I am not sure how that happened, maybe the heat from sawing? I need to open a hole from above to get to the nut yet, this seems to be a common problem lots of people run into.

I have ordered the correct hardened replacement bolts, sway bar bushings, and replacement stock shackles which I did not order originally.

I have read that most people remove the sway bar when they do a lift. As I am doing a minimal lift, and I am going to be towing with the XJ I am going to retain the rear sway bar for now. I can always remove it later it it becomes a problem.

I have not ordered anything to raise the front of the XJ to match yet. I thought I would get the back done so I can measure where it is at compared to the front with and without the boat attached. At this point I am planning on just adding spacers to the front springs. I also replaced the front shocks with Monroe Sensa-Trac so depending on how much lift I add I will have to decide if I want to add spacers to them or leave them as is.

I will follow up again once the springs are installed.

Dale

dwentz

OK here is another update on my rear spring adventure.


I ordered a set of OME Medium springs from Morris 4x4, they had free shipping and came out to be a little cheaper than any one else. After installing the springs I measured and I had over 4 inches of lift over factory in the rear. I also had to add a longer rear brake hose. I ordered one from a 95 YJ as it was the same just longer than the stock one. That worked out well.

Here is the measurement of Rear after the new springs were installed



Here is the front



And here you can see the difference




After lots of waisted time and lots of research I discovered that the springs I ordered from Morris ARB CSE034RA where what was not shipped. Now the invoice had that number the tags that were attached to the springs had the number, but the springs had CS033RB painted on them. I also mentioned that one spring had a 0-> on it and the other had a +-> on it. I call Morris and talked to their customer support on Saturday and they checked their warehouse, and she said that she would have to call the manufacture on Monday to see what was going on, and if there was a problem they would send me the correct springs etc.



On Monday morning I also e-mailed all the same info to ARB with photos of my install. They e-mailed me back Monday afternoon with this info.

I apologize for the mix up. The CS034RA springs were discontinued and replaced by the CS033RB springs. The CS033RB is a better spring and is also modular. What this means is that you have leaves in the pack that can be removed to adjust height and spring rate. I would start by removing the second leaf down from the main leaf to get the height that you desire. You can also remove the inverted overload if needed, but I would start with the second leaf and then let the springs break in and settle before I messed with the overload. The "+" and "o" are just marks put on the springs during the mfg. process and mean nothing in the overall scheme of things.

So this evening I removed the 2nd spring and I am now at a little over 3 inches. Still not the 2.5 they advertised but I will wait and see how they settle in.

I still have to order my spacers for the front and shocks. The shocks I have or for stock height and I purchased them before I decided to the heaver springs in with a little lift.

So of anyone else runs into this issue I hope this helps them out and they do not waist as much time as I have with this simple project.

Dale

JerrytheJeep

Sounds like a trip! Carrying 100-200 pounds in the back will help them settle faster.