First off I did a search and after spending EONS sifting through the info I still have a question.

I am building up a 8.8 for my ZJ and right now I am running the stock five link shit.

Well I am moving all the LCA mounts above the bottom of the axle tube. My question is this.

Does the LCA center have to be below the rollcenter of the axle? I seem to think that it does, but I keep confusing myself so I thought I would ask before I went any further.

I feel comfortuable doing this but it is my first major suspension mod (I know some of you would not even consider it a mod) so I would like some better qualified input.

I will also be dumping the TB and triangulating the UCA. If that matters (which I don't think it does).

Thanks for the help. If my wording is off please forgive and correct me, if I need to explain something please tell me to explain.

I would figure that this is a simple question for one of you super suspension guys.

We all have to start somewhere right. I am trying to learn here and have found this site somewhat beneficial. Please answer if you can. If not:flipoff2:

Well, I'm not one of those suspension GURU's you are talking about, but I have also read quite a bit on here about link designs and it appears that some are actually successfully running both upper and lower links ABOVE the axle tube. Many years ago I moved the upper and lower links on my front D30 axle up 2" so that the lower arm centerline was just below the centerline of the axle tube and I recently did the same treatment to a front D44. This has worked just fine for me, so I would say if you do the same thing on the rear axle in your ZJ, it should work fine. Jeff

Thanks man. I knew that if I keep it below the centerline I would be fine, I was just really wondering about having them both above the tube.

I guess this is a little complex for this board. I guess I would get more response from asking if swampers are good tires or what winch to run. Fawk:flipoff2:

Well I have noticed that the new trend is to put all the control arms above axle centerline. That's how I built my suspension, but I haven't tested it out on the trails yet, that comes in 2 months. But you have to be carefull of how close it would be to your upper control arms now... Obviously if you had all the control arm endpoints on top the the axle and they were all 4" off the axle, you won't get a heck of a lot of axle control there :eek: So you need to keep them separated a decent amount, YMMV.

Also, bear in mind that the pinion angle will change at a different rate if all the other arms are the same as before and you only move the lower mount to the top of the axle. The best way to illustrate this is to just draw a side view on paper with the length of the links and the axle centerline... draw some arc's with a compass on the control arm frame mounts and see what happens.

Squash

yes you can move the arms above the axle, but it will change the way the force is seen by your controll arms, the lower arms will still receive push and the upper pull but these forces will be stronger than the stock setup due to the leverage the axle now has on them. it does make more ground clearance.
I would personally suggest putting the lower links no higher than the axle centerline that way all the forward force is transmitted thru the lower and all the axles rotational force is taken on the upper but thats just me.

Now that's what I am talking about! Thanks alot guys.

I will be putting the lowers right on the centerline. This is the kind of tech talk I was hoping for.

:beer: :beer: