mwdouglas

mine sits with 7"lift and 33's i trimmed the fenders like this for max flex before i was hitting the fender at half flex

mdcmn7

In PA we cant get anything inspected without a fender/flare covering the entire wheel.

Gotta keep the XJ street legal.... for now

mwdouglas

i here ya there he in va the tire can not stick out no more than 3" of the fender or flair

mdcmn7

I had some time last night, and all of my lift parts havent arrived yet, so I decided to build a cargo area box. I am tired of crap rolling around in the back of the Jeep and this should help.

mwdouglas

nice looking box

mdcmn7

Its time to get started on the new lift. I got a set of free ZJ springs, my rear leafs are sagging, and I think there is a wheeling trip coming up soon.

ZJ springs and a leafs from a 1997 dakota 4x4



I have a 2 inch puck up front already. I am hoping to get somewhere in the range of 3-4 inches all around

mdcmn7

It is a little cold and rainy here in PA right now, and I am still waiting for some parts, so I will prep my leaf springs so I can minimize the time the XJ is off the road.

I read the Dakota Pack is a little softer than the s10, so I am going to start off with all the leaves and see how much lift it gives me.

first I took apart the pack

I took the dakota main leaf, measured it against the main leaf on my XJ, and cut off the eyes so the leaf would be as close to the length of the one on my Jeep as possible. cleaned up the ends with the grinder to make them smooth. Did the leaves themselves with a sander to get off any old rust and hit them with some paint. The first coat looks like crap so I will give a few more coats.



I am also going to add some holes at the end of the dakota main leaves to that I can put some leaf tips on them.

mdcmn7

Because my whole point with this was to do a "budget lift" I have been paying attention to what I have been spending

The coils were free
Dakota springs were $45
u-bolts, center pins, bushing, shipping and paint $100
Shocks $175
Adj Track Bar $150
Discos $50

Its amazing how not budget a lift can be. This is of course no counting anything I break, havent found out I need yet, nuts, bolts, bla bla bla.

mdcmn7

The center pin for the Dakota pack was 3/8. A little bigger than the stock Xj pin. For some odd reason no one in PA had one in stock, and finding the u-bolts was like an indiana jones adventure. The XJ u-bolt is 1/2inch diameter with a 2.75 inch bend. All of the local parts stores wanted to give me 3/8 diameter u-bolt. It might not ever be a big deal, but the idea of going thinner on something just didnt sit well with me.

I called a local-ish spring shop who had everything in stock and is sending it to me as we speak.

Hopefully by the weekend, or early next week I will be able to start putting this thing together

mdcmn7

It was time to get a little more work done on the XJ today. I got this idea in my head that if I put some holes in the ends of my dakota leaf packs before I mount them to the main XJ leaf, I can add some leaf tips. I am guessing this will make them quieter? As it turns out, drilling a hole in a leaf spring is a pain.

I did a search and found that a masonry bit is the key. 1/2" bit, some time and pressure and it went through. dont know if its worth it, but its done now



Now that was done, I got the rest of the leaf pack back together, and it was time to get the XJ in the garage

mdcmn7

I have a small one car garage that doubles as a wood shop, shed, jeep shop, etc. So bringing in the Jeep can be tight, but it is warm, concrete, and well lit.

mdcmn7

Before I got the wheels pulled I measured the height from the center cap to the flares. The rear was at 18.5 and the front was 19.5

mdcmn7

Once the jeep was jacked up and the wheels pulled, I removed the rear suspension. I was expecting some of my rear shock bolts to break, and was not dissapointed



There is a solution to that

mdcmn7

I saw some posts with guys who cut holes in their floors to run bolts through where the old ones used to be. That seemed like a royal PITA. Once the chisel got the old nut off



I just fished a new one through.



I had a lock washer on the end and it popped right through.

mdcmn7

I made the BPE's from the old rear sway bar, and the problem was solved



If it breaks at any point I can just cut up the floor and run stronger bolts. This only took me about 20 minutes