Mark Treleaven

*****This has been asked but I have never found a proper answer besides buy adjustable control arms. That answer makes sense if both bump stops rub but just my driver side is rubbing.


So, I had a 3.5" lift, with stock arms, 2" extended bumpstop and stock track bar. The coil on the drivers side rubbed sometimes on heavy flex but never raised concern.

I recently put in 4.5" coils with a .5" spacer, adjustable track bar, and fixed longer LCA's with stock uppers. They are from a 3.5" lift but figure they are better than having stock control arms. My drivers side coil is bowed backwards causing the bumpstop to rub the forward part of the coil. It is constant, not just flexing.

I have looked at several other XJ in the local club, and even had a HD Mechanic who has a built XJ look at it and we could not figure out why.

We looked at the axle and it does not appear to have spun at all. The adjustment shoe on the drivers side is almost back as far as it can go.

I am going to take it in for an alignment but I wanted to see if anyone else had any other advice besides where I am currently at.

Another option I had suggested to ne is to run one adjustable upper control arm in a 3 link style setup but I would rather not do that as it is occasionally used for commuting.

In the pics, I have rotated the pics so they are easier to compare.

4.3L XJ

So your question is?

Mark Treleaven

Like it says in the post, does anyone else have any other advice on what to do next. It has to be fairly common and the only posts i have seen about it dont have the final solution.

4.3L XJ

So here is the deal. Your control arms are too short for the lift you have. You are running 5" of lift if I get your info correct. What you need to fix this right is to either go to long arms, which would be the best for that amount of lift, or get some adjustable short suspension links. When those short arms have that much angle on them it pulls the axle back. Just simple geometry. The rule of thumb is that costs go up exponentially with each inch of lift. Have you addressed your track bar yet? That will need to be changed too or you will get cupping on the front tires

Mark Treleaven

The lowers are from a 3.5" and the basic chart I was following says I might need to adjust my uppers .25 of an inch to be correct.

The real question Is, if my current set up is all wrong, why is my passenger side perfect.

Tbone289

That's a good question. It definitely appears that the axle is pulled rearward in your driver's side picture. You can see it in the coil and the shock as well. There is an obvious difference in the location L to R.

4.3L XJ

Part of that answer is that the factory built a different castor angle from right to left. I know sounds crazy, but they did so the vehicle would naturally pull to the right. Mine has it as do most everybody else. But you should also check your length on the links and take nothing for granted

Tbone289

Yeah, I would be under there measuring everything side to side. If you do enough of that, it will lead you to the answer.

bigvig

My first thought after reading your post was your control arms are too short. I was changing the bushings in mine just the other day and when JUST the lower control arm was out the axle bound back about 3 inches and caused exactly what your photo shows.