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Alright Gang,
Sorry for the lack in posts, had to get time to work on the jeep with my schedule and then to get time to sit down to a desk top to post my latest endevors. (I tend to read the forums on my phone or tablet)
So a few weeks ago, (7/21) I had a chance to put the shackle relocation brackets in, remove the add a leaf and see how things went.
-The first pic shows the rear leaf springs as they were. you can see the two leafs ending in the same sopt on this one side. It was kinda hard to get pics with everything together.
-The second pic is of the bolt in shackle relocation brackets from HD Offroad engineering. These things are BEEFY!!!! They came super qwuick and were super easy to install. The biggest problem was needing to cut down the bumper bolts a bit and that was only because there isnt alot of space. These brackets are well thought out and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to relocate shackles and they dont have access to a welder or the skills to weld.
-The third and fourth pic show my leaf springs BEFORE I removed the add a leaf. You can see how the one leaf does not sit the same as the other leaf spring.
-The other pics are what happened after i got everything put back together. In these pics I have jack stands under the axle so everything on the suspension is sitting on its own weight. As you can see the leaf springs went completly flat. These are brand new. I am kinda pissed.
So as I see it, right about now I one have about one option. Replace my leaf Springs. While not the best option, I guess you live and learn. I am looking at this leaf spring from Quadratec.
If I did my research correctly this is the upcountry leaf spring with the higher weight rating and the 1 inch lift.
Gonna sit on this and think for a bit so if anyone has any other ideas, I am open to listen.
Well to credit BDS, I did not buy the leaf packs from them. I got them through Amazon well over a year ago. Not sure I can do anyhting about that. I am putting this one in the "I screwed up" catagory.
I am happy with my OME springs. They started out a little bit of a rough ride, but after breaking in they are fairly smooth. Those shackle relocation brackets are one of my next upgrades. My shackle angle with the OMEs is a little steep, not straight up and down, but not 45 degrees either.
Hey Gang,
Sorry about not posting much, but between work, and family life, a tight budget, and summer temps here in the desert I have not been able to do much. But today I get to report some great happenings! This weekend I was able to order my new tires, wheels, and lug nuts! Wheels should be in today, tires Wednesday or so, and hopefully I can get them mounted and installed this Saturday! I will of course be posting pictures, and hopefully lower temps are on the way so I can start working on the list of projects I have sitting in my garage.
Nice looking wheel. And we all understand about the "money/baby/family/time" vs. XJ Time.
How's the leaf spring situation coming along? Did you get the Upcountry/HD springs? Have you thought about building a bastard pack?
What tire are you going with? And, why did you choose that tire?
(I'm currently fed up with deciding WHERE to buy tires. Do I buy online? From where? Who's gonna install the things? Buy locally? Every single tire shop around me has deals, deals, deals. Gift cards, percentages off, money back. I don't know. I guess I'm just being indecisive. Sorry for the rant. [Though it felt nice to type it out.])
I bought my tires on Amazon and had my local Firestone mount and balance them. Amazon had the tires I wanted at the cheapest price, on Prime! Had my tires in two days, very satisfied. Firestone is the best price I have found on mounting and balancing.
Mahoney - I finally went with a Falken Wildpeak A/T3W Tire. Not my first choice but a good solid alternative. I chose this one as after a thread on here about it and doing additional research I found it could work for what I want, and the fact it was 40 dollars less then my original tire I wanted, the budget liked it. The wife and I were talking tires, and how we need to get new ones for the Jeep. I have a deer hunt coming up next month and will need them for that as just getting to deer camp can be interesting. Well armed with that information we knew labor day would be our best bet to catch a sale, so I found one at PEP BOYS. Well they didnt have 31" only 30" and not in stock anywhere in the local area, so I would have to order online. well, no worries, until I could not order the size I wanted as it was not the stock size for the jeep, so the online web page would not let me order it. Made phone calls etc, and after receiving some pretty crappy customer service, I said F%(k it and went to discount tires website. and decided I could eat a little bit of price for better service. I went to them as they take the brand credit card my wife and i use for car repairs and such things as this. Well the next day he called me up to finalize my order and let me now of some rebates I was not aware of, which actually brought the price to within $40 of PepBoys, so I am kinda happy! As for the rear leafs, I will be ordering some of the high country ones next week and will hopefully be putting those in soon. And no worries about the rant man, isnt the purpose of these forums to discuss things with like minded people? Hell I took 3 months of research just to figure out what rear bumper I wanted to buy so I totally understand ya!
Bad Idea - I looked at that option, but after shopping around this one ended up getting me the best price with install and road hazard coverage. not to mention free rotation and balancing. But all areas are different and change with the season on price.
Awwww yea, got the tires and wheels mounted! New lug nuts have not come in yet, but they will in a few days. Tires were rubbing on the front bumper caps so had to remove them and get rid of the "black eye". Good thing I was planning on removing them and modding the front bumper anyways. And after bringing the old tires home, the rear leafs are REALLY sad......you can see in the pictures..... well those will be ordered next week.
So 2 weekends ago I had finally got in the new leaf springs and bushings. I had also ordered new lug studs for the rear and was planning on changing those out as well. Well then the problems started. First....battery was dead....oh well. Then as I was taking everything apart I started having a problem removing one of the nuts on a U bolt. Some how it got crossed or something and wouldn't move one way or the other. Well, that stopped that until I could get new ones to replace the one I was going to cut off. Well I can still work on the lug studs right? Nope. I got one out easy enough, but my electric impact just couldn't get the last little bit to seat. Well damn. Figured I would call it a day and go get a few beer with the father in law and watch the game. As we were watching the game we made a plan to get an air impact and I would borrow his air tank. Well fast forward to this past weekend and I decided to give it another shot as all the items I needed can come in.
So I got everything ready, painted the bottom of the u bolts to help with rust. Got all the u bolts off and cut the one off. hit the plates with a flap wheel to get the little bit of rust off so I could paint those too. Finally got everything switched out, and settled it on it own weight......and the leaf springs went flat. Again. I have to be doing something wrong I guess but have no idea as everything is pretty straight forward. I will admit it is sitting level and from the outside looks fine. I attached pictures of the u bolt I cut, and I took pictures of everything under its own weight. Took some pics of the shackle angle as well but those didn't come out as well. And by the one picture you can see it looks like it is sitting fine. I don't have any other ideas, I am all out so if anyone has anything to add I am all ears.
07-18-2017, 11:43 AM
