Juan4you

This is what I got with the RC 4.5 X series kit







As you can see, no binding. But I still had hell of a time setting the arms, both upper and lower.

Juan4you

it seems your axle is too far back. how to fix it... shoot IDK! I think my arms are at 17 and 18.5, this was the only way to get them in. I'll check my #'s right now

Juan4you

my bad, uppers are at 16.5 and lowers are at 17

OEJ

thank you for the year.
i have the same part number on mine. its gotta be ur control arm length.
please let us know the outcome. i've got to know because i'm installing mine next weekend...lol.

First RC 4.5" leaf pack issues and now possibly this??? wtf. i hope its ur adjustment on the c/a's.
thanks again

Trumpster

I would really like for Jason to chime in here. He's saying that my control arm length is too long for the lift size, which would mean that there is something wrong with the design of the track bar.

Everything I've seen and read has said that I'm in the ball park give or take about 1/2'' for control arm length albeit on the longer side of things at the moment. So going longer doesn't make sense as a solution, especially if the factory track bar lines up square in the bracket without binding. That tells me I've got my castor and axle position in a pretty good spot if the factory bar lines up just like it did before the rig was lifted only a tad short of hitting the mounting hole.

Everything I'm looking at here adds up to a track bar that's simply not designed right for the vehicle. Especially after the issues with the 4.5'' leaf packs being over 2'' shorter than they should have been.

Jason from RC has been great on the customer service front in taking care of me on the springs (and the guy I talked to on web chat was pretty nice too) but this whole thing has been incredibly frustrating. I'm sure we'll get it worked out eventually and I hope I can help other people going forward so they don't have the same issues.

Juan4you

forgot to mention I have 1.5" coil spacer to level out the front. checked with RC and they told me the arm specs are the same for the 4.5"lift and the 6.5"lift... dont understand how that makes sense. Arms being the same length with 2" lift difference.

ericfx1984

wait this thread is still going... just adjust the lowers until the axle is centered in the wheel well, then adjust the uppers until you get the desired caster/pinion angle

this thread should have only had one reply

Trumpster

This thread is still going because that's not the right answer here. The wheel IS centered in the wheel well and was when the original pictures posted here were taken.

I ordered an IRO track bar today to drop in to prove that this "compatible" track bar that came with the RC kit is in fact not a proper fit. As soon as I get the new track bar I'll make sure I get the update in here...to keep the thread going

OEJ

please do.
meanwhile my lift is scheduled to be insalled this weekend.
i have fixed lowes and adj uprs,so we'll see. i will report back too; since i have the same tb.

ericfx1984

so we know you confirmed the part number, hmmm.... is it bent incorrectly?

did you try adjusting the lower arms or are you just taking RC's word for it

but it is centered, so hmmm... are you sure your unibody has not been tweaked? Or maybe your axle is bent from a collision.

if there is something wrong with the track bar then why has no one else had that issue before?

but I have to agree the angle doesn't look quite right

Trumpster

I have no idea how more people haven't had this issue before. I know the previous owner of the vehicle and it has never been in any sort of wreck or collision. The lady who had it before me drove it pretty easy and it never saw anything more than a gravel road at the worst.

Axle is straight, double checked the control arm length, cross referenced several sources for the proper length of the control arms and if anything I'm slightly long but in the right area for the lift size since, of course, all Jeeps are different.

I have no way to verify that the track bar is bent properly since I have nothing but the stock bar to compare it to; looking at the stock track bar vs the RC bar, I'd say it's bent wrong.

I'm wondering if this is like the 4.5'' leaf pack issue where it just took a long time for it to come to light because people were just making it work instead of making it right.

GRIMUS99XJ

I have stayed out of this the most I can simply because its the same bar we have ran for many many many years. granted we have changed the bushings and the joint a few times to correct some quality issues but the bar has never changed. I ran it on both my 99 and my 88 xj and I have sold +1900 of them just this year, with this being the first and only complaint about it "not being right". I am at a loss of words as I do not know what to say. If I thought maybe just this one bar was bent wrong then I would replace it no cost no problem but I still think its not the trac bar but its more with your jeep and or the angles of everything else.

To the question about the 4.5 and the 6.5 adj arms being the same length they are not but we do give the same starting point or reference point with both kits.

Again Brian I am not sure what else there is to do and I am very familiar witht he IRO trac bar and Im pretty sure you will have the same issue with that one if thats the only thing you change.

Not trying to give up here and wash my hands but there is only so much I can do.... I am open for other suggestions and will continue to monitor this thread. Thanks to all for their input and feedback

Jason

Trumpster

No problem Jason, I know there is really nothing we can do at this point. I have nothing to reference the bar to other than stock and the stock one lines up so I have to assume it's a problem with the RC bar.

If the IRO bar lines up then I'll be stuck on the conclusion that this TB is wrong. Who knows, maybe I just got the one TB that was enough on the end of the tolerance that it is out of spec when assembled.

Like I said before, you've been nice and took care of me very well on the rear leaf springs issue, but I'm bummed that I've had so many problems with this lift. More than 2 weeks later my Jeep is still not drivable, I'm out a lot of time, my DD has been down making travel a pain, and I've had to spend another couple hundred dollars to have a mechanic look at this and order a new TB. Just all around frustrating.

With any luck I'll have the IRO TB by the weekend and be able to get this updated and case closed. I guess we'll see if it fits or not when it gets here.

Trumpster

Well OEJ, the track bar is set to be here on Saturday so I can't give you any feed back until then. Hopefully FedEx will just decide to deliver it early but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I'll report back as soon as I get it installed on Saturday.

OEJ

thanks for the update Trumpster.....but...
i'll be installing my lift saturday too...lol. i guess we'll both know.

I also managed to have a total of 4 guys to help. 2 doin the front, 2 doin the back. Its gonna be like nascar up in here...lol. I will start another post with pics or just add it to the lift thread.