HQuakers

I just purchased a 97 Sport with the following:

AX-15/ NP242
3" Skyjacker Lift (I think) with 1.5" spacers in front and 1" blocks in the rear. I measured the total lift at 4.25" front/rear.
32x11.5x15 BFG KM2
Dana 30 with 3.73
Chrysler 8.25 with 3.73
Transfer Case Drop
New skyjacker shocks and LCA bushings.

I would describe the ride as just OK. I used to have a 98 with a 3" Skyjacker and it rode extremely well. I commuted 40 miles each way on it and it never missed a beat. This lift, however, seems to have a bad COG and is quite bouncy. If I hit a medium-large bump in the road, it will bounce forward and back a few times and seems to jump all over the place on large bumps. Handles worse than my old Cherokee.

Would the spacers and blocks cause this? It doesn't seem like much (1.5" and 1") but I know how finicky the XJs can be with suspension.

If so, maybe I should take them out and go down to 31s to get some driveability back. I'm also getting some slight front end wobble at 45-55mph, which I think may be contributing as well.

Thanks for any help.

akio1321

it sounds to me like you could have bad shocks. if you hit a mid sized bump and it is bouncing then the shock absorbers are probably going bad or have gone bad.

Laxbro26

+1

Donnie_K

as far as the high COG. It's not the lift height, it's the parts used to lift it. lower lift springs are softer than higher lift springs, allowing more body roll. When you take softer springs and add spacers and blocks to them, you've made your ride alot worse. For now I would ditch the blocks and spacers, or keep the spacers, get all new shocks, and replace the rear springs with some 4.5" rough country springs or something.

HQuakers

I know the shocks were replaced recently so they are pretty new. I'm wondering if they were replaced with 1-3" Skyjacker shocks or the 4-5" Skyjacker shocks. Based on what Donnie said below, I think they may be the 1-3" shocks.

Thanks, totally makes sense now. I think I'll just ditch the spacers and blocks and start trimming so I can still fit the 32s.

I appreciate everyone's help thus far.

HQuakers

Just did a little more investigating. The front shocks only appear to be new, not the rears. The fronts are Rancho FS5239 and are made for Cherokees with 3" of lift. The rear, I'm assuming, are original to the 3" kit and have two numbers on them: 48764 and P3381.

Looks like I'm probably gonna be ditching the spacers/blocks as I don't want to have to redo the whole suspension just to get 1-1.5" of lift. I'm just as content with 3".

Another question: Since the lift sits at 4.25" now, by removing the 1.5" spacer in front and the 1" blocks in the rear, I'm looking at 2.75" in the front and 3.25" in the rear. Would leveling out the suspension with a 0.5" spacer in the front be ok? Or should I lower the rear by 0.5" somehow, since the shocks are rated for 3" of lift.

Thanks again everyone.

Metmknice

The coil spacer should not affect ride much, but the block definitely. I personally don't mind sitting a bit taller in front. But what you can do to help even it is get a pair or 2 of stock coil spring isolators and stack them. They work similar to coil spacers, but can typically be had for cheap/free depending on where you find them.

HQuakers

Great, thanks. I was thinking of just picking up a pair of OME 10mm spacers ($10 each) but I may go the stock isolator route.

HQuakers

Just wanted to update this. Took out the coil spacer and the rear block. The bounciness is virtually gone and no more wobble from 45-65mph. Rides much better now. I trimmed the fenders and installed the Bushwacker flat flares. Plenty of room for the 32s so I'm gonna keep them:

Donnie_K

Wow man, that' looks good!

bheath

i had mine lifted to 5 inches and it rode like crap also. plus i didn't really need that much lift. i just got caught up in lift talk. so i lowered it back down to 4 inches and it now rides alot better. (took out the shackles and spacers). mines gonna stay at 4 inches for a while. glad you got what you were looking for.

_StationWagon_

HQuakers, the reason the ride was bouncy was because of the angle of the control arms. Once you lowered the lift they went back closer to stock geometry. At 4.5" lift the control arms go from being parallel with the ground to a pretty steep upward angle, thus altering the geometry, and the ride quality suffers greatly. This is why it is usually recommended to add drop brackets when you get over 4" lift. Believe me, my ride quality smoothed out so tremendously after adding the RCX drop brackets that I actually thought something was broken. The Jeep felt like it was floating across the road. Amazing.

You would have achieved the same results by keeping the 4.5" and adding the drop brackets, or long arms (which I never recommend to anyone for a street driven rig altho they are the latest hotness. Personal preference). Anyway, you're happy now, so all's well.

Donnie_K

That's odd? I don't have drop brackets and the ride on my 4.5" (which measures closer to 6) isn't any worse than most stock cherokees I've been in... when you add spacers and blocks you're raising the center of gravity and increasing forces on suspension components that were not designed for such things.

HQuakers

The forward part of the lower control arms were actually very close to parallel. The angle now isn't much different than the angle before. I didn't measure so I can't tell you what they were like before and after. Also, my shocks were virtually useless as they are only rated for 1-3" of lift. I was literally swaying fore and aft several times after hitting bumps.

One of the reasons I wanted to lower it back down was the fact that once you go higher than 3", then you have to worry about upgrading other components in the suspension. I figure, with some time, patience, and a lot of swearing, I could essentially lower the lift for $50 ($35 for U-Bolts, $5 for cutoff wheels, $10 for misc supplies) instead of dropping more $$ to keep it the way it was. I did end up spending $$ on the flares and bedliner, but that wasn't required when doing this job.

You're right, though, as I'm way happier now that the lift is where it should be (3" Skyjacker kit) and the ride has improved.

I do like the lower COG, not gonna lie. And I agree, I was probably gonna do tie rod, track bar, SYE, and LCAs/Drop Brackets if I kept it at 4.5"

I don't want this to get into an argument between everyone about what's good/bad about certain lift components and such. Just glad everything worked out and your help made it easier for me to decide what to do. Thanks for the well-wishes everyone.