ok just bought a 1981 cj5 and looking to put a lift on it and want to know what the best way to go about it so spring over i can do for under $200 dolars and 4" skyjacker is $650 whats your guyes in put o i will do a s/r when i do eather lift for driving on the street.i live in the north west and does not need to be extreem i have a sammy for that jut want something to jeep well.

thanks Dan Johnson :massey:

SOA for under $200? Tell me how. I am contemplating the same delima, except I would not put a 4" spring lift on if I went SUA. I was going to do 2.5", more fender trim and a small amount of body. 2.5's will flex better than 4", with the whole spring pack in place. Anyhow, are you aware of what needs to be done with SOA, like lengthened brake lines $90-120, longer shocks ($30-45 each), and a hy-stear system fabrigated or bought? Just with the brake lines and shocks, you have exceded $200. You may need to buy new U-bolts and spring perches as well. If you have all this all figured out and it all is less then $200, then post back and I will follow your lead and do the same thing. I'm down with the cheapness.
Shaggy

How the hell are you gonna do an SOA for $200? Crap, the d-shaft I bought when I did the SOA on my CJ cost more than that!

well do ing lots of fab work and brake line from recking yard kinda cheap $100 for es3000 shocks drivelines got a guy that does them cheep or do my self what eles is there to do done sammys for mass cheap cant be much different :massey:

moto and friends,
I just completed an SOA for a friend this past weekend. ['71 C101, Jeepster: 225 Buick/Th400/D20/D30, open knuckle/disc/ D44 11" brakes, locker]
It's my ninth SOA for myself and/or friends. and it came out beautifully. In one pop he went from 28" tires and SUA, to 35" tires and SOA. Let's see what we spent:
4WPW 4" drop pitman arm (about $70)
new shocks (Kragens, (2) @ 11.95ea for rr, and (2) @ about $31 ea. for front They work great. The application was for a '75 FS Blazer
We fabbed up some lower shock mounts for the axles
New spring pads for 2" and 2.5" wide springs, (I had some laying around so maybe $20)
This is the only application I've ever done where the rear driveshaft looks like it has the spline length to work, stock.
New front driveshaft from General Driveshaft ($250) We had to start from scratch here as the orig. was of very tinky design and unusable.
bump stops from an MJ from my parts box.
By pulling the hardlines for the front brakes down about 5" and fabbing a bracket using one of the orig. bumpstop threaded holes in the frame, we reused the orig. holes on the front. On the rear, we fabbed a bracket 5" higher on the axle where the 3 way connector sits.
The time consuming part of the SOA conversion for this application was the building of the spring packs. We added 3 leaves to each pack, a long main leaf, a couple shorter leaves down in the pack. I have a lot of old springs laying around (just for this purpose) so we cannablized them. The packs are now 9 leaves on the front rear. The problem was that the centering holes on all four sets of the C101 are offset, and the springs are very long. We found suitable leaves and just redrilled the holes to fit our needs. I used a drillpress and titanium bits as the spring steel is pretty hard.
I used my on board welder from my CJ8 to do the project.
So, at least in this case we, didn't spend a lot of money. He's very happy. Only the front driveshaft was 'big' money.
I've recently done a Toyota FJ60 SOA for a buddie, and it works great.
I have a lot of SOA information on my website if you'd like, including step by step instructions:
http://homepage.mac.com/jefe/
You can spend a lot of money on a super sano SOA using ss. braided brakelines, new driveshafts, high arm steering, anti spring-wrap devices, etc. but you don't have to.
For the cost and amount of lift, clearance under the axles, and flex, you still can't beat a clean SOA.
regards, as always, jefe

Buy the skyjacker springs they are the best way to get a good ride out of an old jeep

if you have the ability to weld and can find some stock yj springs and mounts as well as shackles. you should be ok. I would not run the stock springs soa because they will fatigue quickly. having your stock drive shafts lenghtened only costs (at least here) about $65 a piece. it will cost more than $200 but will be far better than the lift kit.

i did mine for less then $200. you dont need any new spring perches. you can make them out of 2x4x1/4 box steel. dont need "jeep extended break lines", get them off a full size blazer. they cost prolly round 40 for the whole set. you can get a drop pitman arm off a TJ or Cherokee from the junk yard for next to nothing and it is about a 4" drop. my drive shafts fit no problem. i wouldnt recomend using YJ springs over CJ springs because they are flat from the factory where CJ springs are slightly arched. Also i know people that have went through several sets of YJ springs on SOA setup. and shocks can be had for cheap. I think i spent about 100 doing mine. i didnt run shocks for a while cause i liked the way it rode. i only have them on my jeep now cause they were given to me and my friends put them on.