Well I've finally completed the install/renovation of my suspension. I got kinda side tracked by beautification, but I am very impressed by the way everything turned out.
Only a few small problems during the install.

1. I managed to break 3 out of the 4 bump stop bolts in the frame. I will work on extracting them tomorrow.
2. The rear upper control arm bolt provided in the kit, stripped while being torqued to the factory spec of 66 ft lbs. That should be fun to get out and now have to replace.
3. Had to grind the Moog upper control arm bushings to fit.
4. Had to grind out the poly bushing on 1 of the sway bar disconnects, so that the lower pin would fit through. Then I had to grind part of the face off, to make the cotter pin fit as well.
5. Was sent the wrong u-bolts and had a hard time finding some locally.

I say those are small, because they can all be corrected. I am very thankful nothing catastrophic happened or broke completely.

Now having said that, so far I am very impressed by the quality of the Metalcloak fabricated parts. Everything seems over engineered and almost hand made. Gives a very personal touch and I like that. I am hoping the zinc chromecast lasts a while, cause it looks really good under there right now.

I probably won't drive it until I get my driveshaft from Adam's driveshaft, so that review will have to wait, in the mean time I think I'll start a build thread with some more pictures.

 

This is as short as the sway bar disconnects get.
I could mount them on top of the sway bar and get a level sway bar, but then I have a more difficult angle to slide them on the pin at the bottom.

 

This is how much shorter these disconnects need to be to give a level sway bar, when mounted on the bottom. I would have to cut 2" off and re thread the rod with a 1/2"x20 tap.



What would you suggest? Not real happy about the modifications surrounding these disconnects, to make them work. I also noticed it is the exact same design as Rough Country uses. Not something you would expect, with the high quality of the other components. Makes me wish they would have just included JKS quicker disconnects, I would have paid extra, if I would have foreseen this many issues with them. /rant over

 

I too have the same problem with them. and you HAVE to disconnect them when you go off road, or you damage your vehicle like me:



I think I'm going to swap them for something shorter, they are too long. I would hit up Metal cloak and mention it to them.

 

One I would contact metal cloak.
I bought those same disconnects of a guy on Craigslist I believe they are made for an eight inch lift. I chopped a few inches off of it and welded it to the bushing, left the threads alone. On a side note I believe you want the sway bar at a ten degree angle, not flat.

 

Great lift....

I'm looking at adding their upper and lower control arms to my xj..

I also had to cut and rethread my sway bar disconnects to get a proper length, but I'm running just a 2" OME lift on the front.

 

I sent Metalcloak an email since they are closed for the holidays. I also let them know about your video and same issue, aroundincircles. I am thinking these are meant for a TJ, which have a bigger space between the mounting points for disconnects. So I will wait to see what they suggest before I hack them up to make them work. My dremel is on standby though, haha.

*EDIT - after further reading, some people suggest to run a long enough sway bar link to cover the amount of suspension droop you have. This is to prevent the sway bar from rotating 180 degrees and causing a whole lot of trouble on coming back down. However, I don't see a situation where I would experience full droop on the road. When I'm offroad, I'll be disconnected anyway so it won't matter.

 

not that I would know cause I havent run a swaybar in 2 years but could you move the mount from the bottom of the swaybar to the top of the swaybar to grab some extra room?

 

short answer no. at least not safely. That is how I originally had it, and metal cloak saw my videos (over at www.youtube.com/jeeppatriotchannel) and told me that they were not designed to have the weight held by the bolt. that the mount pushes up agaisnt the sway bar, and holds the weight/pressure.

 

I don't wanna get too crazy with pictures, until I get shackles, tires and start a build thread. But here are some completed pictures with a before shot. Keep in mind, I have removed the 3rd leaf from the pack to help compensate for the 1" lift shackles and relocation boxes. After I put those on next weekend, it should level out and look perfect.

 

looking really good!

 

Thanks to everyone for the feedback and to AroundInCircles for the video. I've talked with the engineer and we are working on a better option there. As soon as we have that corrected, we will send out the new links to all our Cherokee kit owners.

Send me an email at matson at metalcloak if you have any questions.

-Matson

 

Awesome, thanks for the concern. Let me know if you need any further pictures or information. Being one of the first XJ owners to run this kit, I guess I shouldn't complain that everything isn't perfect from the get go. I am looking forward to what you guys can come up with.

On a side note, I extended my upper control arms to 16" to correct the front pinion angle and cure some driveline vibes I was having up front. I know 15" is the recommended starting point, but that isn't even close. At least on my 2001 it wasn't.

 

So after an alignment and further discussion with Metalcloak I decided to readjust my control arms for a better caster angle.

What I started with was the recommended starting lengths:
Uppers: 15.00"
Lowers: 16.625"

Had bad front drive line vibes so...

I adjusted just the uppers to a better pinion angle and had:
Uppers: 16.00"
Lowers: 16.625"

Went and had an alignment and found out I was at 4.7* caster. Not the optimum angle and the steering felt real light and twitchy, plus bumpsteer.

So I consulted Metalcloak and readjusted to:
Uppers: 15.25"
Lowers: 16.00"

This seems to hit the sweet spot! No driveline vibes and nice firm, stable steering. But I threw $100 away at the alignment, cause it's all jacked up now. I should be able to get my toe and steering wheel pretty close though.

I took measurements before and after I adjusted and I estimate that I've gained around 1.75* of caster, so I should be around 6.5*. Which leaves me confident that I can push out the uppers to 15.5" if I encounter any vibrations in the future.

*Side note: I should get the JKS shackles and Liquid Iron Industries reclocation brackets on tomorrow, so it's almost done!