I lifted my 95 XJ over the weekend using 3" coils and a s10 bastard pack. I also made the move to 31s while I was at it. I'm sitting about 3.5" taller in the rear but that's 3.5" up from nearly inverted leafs.

Since the lift the XJ now makes a horrible clicking/popping noise when driving. It seems to click/pop faster as I drive faster. I'm not 100% sure if it's coming from the transfer case or the rear u-joint. I only drove about 3 houses down before turning around and heading home.

What should I do to troubleshoot this?
Should I be looking into shims, SYE, or a t-case drop?

Keep in mind, this is a daily driver that's mostly driven in town and on highways.

 

Have you checked your drive shafts. The front might be to short causing it to bind and pop. Also the rear drive shaft can be at an angle that is causing it to bind. If you can roll the vehicle on flat ground and watch the drive shafts you should be able to see if it a problem with the drive shafts.

 

I did the same lift and tyre setup and my sway bar links hit on the front springs. Sounded terrible.

 

I had a bad scrub against the windshield wiper reservoir on one of the trucks I lifted...the reservoir eventually broke and the problem was "solved". It took that happening for us to figure out why, so better luck to ya!

 

^what? OP check your rear drive shaft, I'm willing to bet it's either binding or your u-joints are bad.

 

Fester2572: It's not the sway bar links. There's a ton of room for them on my XJ.

Oconee & sthon: I'll check the rear drive shaft when I get home from work. If it is binding, should I plan to pick up shims to adjust the axle angle or is there another route to go?

 

Do you have an SYE? If not a transfer case drop might fix your issues. Pictures would also really help...

 

No SYE.
I can take photos when I get home.

 

Shims probably won't help then. TC drop is cheap and easy enough to install.

 

I agree I have one from Rusty's Off Road it was under $30. My 99 XJ has his 3" lift complete HD 180# coils plus 2" spacer and rear springs with a greaseable shackle's 1 1/2" lift for a total of 4 1/2". The extra 1/2" in ft. was for the winch bumper and Talon 9.5 Superwinch's extra weight. I will be adding a SYE this winter when I pull the 4.0 and turn it into a 4.6 Stroker by a friend who builds race engine's and machine shop. Then to another friends shop who builds nothing but race motors and put the stroker on his engine dyno for a few pulls for the best setup and check HP and torque.


Fred/N0AZZ

 

Here are a few photos. Ended up busy on other projects last night and didn't get to work on this.

 

Looks like your pinion is angled too high.

The transfer case output and rear pinion should be parallel. Shimming would fix it. If you are going to do a t-case drop shim after you install that.

I had the same problem until I did my SYE. I had a loud clicking noise that was my driveshaft binding.

I would do a little research on driveline angles and pick up an angle finder.

 

+1 on the driveshaft angle. If you have a smart phone, you can download an angle finder app. Check out this link for some good info: http://www.quadratec.com/jeep_knowle.../article-3.htm

 

I don't think shims are the proper fix here. I would go with a TC drop. Moving the pinion angle down will only increase the angle at the TC.

 

Took longer than expected to get around to fixing this. That said, the transfer case drop did the trick. I ended up using 1" square tubing. Fairly easy install aside from the 2 hardened studs that had to be drilled out.

My only problem now is that when I turn just the right amount to the left I hear metal on metal. It sounds like a fan blade hitting metal or the exhaust rattling against something. Not saying it's either of those, just that it sounds like that. It doesn't sound like something that's going to cause serious damage so I'm going to drive it for a day or two then look to see what's been rubbing. I figure it'll be easier to spot since I'll just have look for what no longer has rust on it.