Just throwing this out for anyone who hates the "jackhammer" noises when hitting bumps, get a set of bar pin eliminators.

I did this having no idea how much it would improve and holy cow my XJ rides like velvet now. My xj is daily driver so the ride on the road is as important as the trail.

I did both Front and rear, the ones i got are made by terraflex, installed in 20 mins, quite possibly the best bang for buck mod I've done.

Be advised, this will absolutely shorten the distance between mounting points on your shocks, thus limiting compression distance (increased droop, decreased compression). I'm contemplating going to shorter shocks, though now I have an excuse for increasing the lift a bit.

Highly recommend!

 

Yep that's what they're for. Where your shocks slipping in the bushing and hitting the mount on the axle? Mine don't make any noise.

 

Rear was making more noise so no, had nothing to do with hitting the axle. They must have been sliding back and forth in the stock cavity they sit in, or just banging back and forth enough in the wallowed out bushing to make noise, even after new shocks.

Of course the eliminators squish the sides of the bushing so there isn't any slop up and down, or back and forth for that matter.

All redneck science aside they made a big difference in quieting the ride over washboard, bumps, etc.