I am in a dilemma...

The stock control arms on my XJ are popping and binding and make all sorts of bad noises while I drive. A little disconcerting. Both on the road and on the trail. Only under braking or going slowly uphill or hitting shit on the trail. I have a few different directions that I could go.

Ive always wanted longarm offcourse, so I could use this as an excuse to get rid of the terrible ride that the XJ has and get someone to fab up a longarm kit or buy the kit from RockKrawler. Can people post pics of good setups? I have already done alot of searching and found alot of good info but I would like more.

I could do a leaf spring converion in the front and use this opportunity to swap in a 44. But this kind of negates the purpose of buying the XJ to begin with. Is it necessary to do crossoverw/ this swap?

Or, I could just buy some used RE udjustable lower control arms for $100 with rebuilt joints. And just live w/ the terrible ride.

Im just looking for your opinions on what you all would do w/ a tight budget. This is not my daily driver, and I really don't need anymore flex in the frontend right now. Just looking for your opinions. It is an 87 XJ w/ 5" springs in front.

the easiest fix for you is to get the adjustable ca's and also get RE's ca drop brackets. they will give you good angles to improve the ride and eliminate the popping from your stock ca's. my brother has them on his cherokee and feels they were a damn good buy, he's got 8" of susp.

stay away from RK, enough said...

quality longarm kit. I have it. love it. rides like a champ on road and flexes real well off.

http://www.claytonoffroad.com/

:beer:

Originally posted by big4294x4
I am in a dilemma...

The stock control arms on my XJ are popping and binding and make all sorts of bad noises while I drive. A little disconcerting. Both on the road and on the trail. Only under braking or going slowly uphill or hitting shit on the trail. I have a few different directions that I could go.

Ive always wanted longarm offcourse, so I could use this as an excuse to get rid of the terrible ride that the XJ has and get someone to fab up a longarm kit or buy the kit from RockKrawler. Can people post pics of good setups? I have already done alot of searching and found alot of good info but I would like more.

I could do a leaf spring converion in the front and use this opportunity to swap in a 44. But this kind of negates the purpose of buying the XJ to begin with. Is it necessary to do crossoverw/ this swap?

Or, I could just buy some used RE udjustable lower control arms for $100 with rebuilt joints. And just live w/ the terrible ride.

Im just looking for your opinions on what you all would do w/ a tight budget. This is not my daily driver, and I really don't need anymore flex in the frontend right now. Just looking for your opinions. It is an 87 XJ w/ 5" springs in front.

Try the easiest, cheapest thing you can do first... LCAs. I've got the adjustable RE lowers w/ 5" and I can attest that they are worth the money.

Also, you need to crawl under the front of that Heep of yours with a bottle of degreaser and clean the f**k out of it one weekend. Once you get that rig clean under there, hit all the zerks with grease and tighten every nut and bolt you can find under there. I'll bet my hard-earned mod money that it will ride 100x better that it does now.

One question though, you mentioned a front leaf conversion and 44s. Why would you NOT wanna go crossover with that? :confused: (assuming you do know what crossover is...:flipoff2: )

Yeah :flipoff2: you too newbie. :rolleyes: I am fully aware of what crossover steering is, but I have little to no $$$ right now and cannot afford to do the crossover steering the right way. So, if possible, I would leave the steering stock until I could afford to really make a nice system out of it.

Ok. I have access to a set of used RE adjustable lower control arms for $100 w/ the joint rebuilt. This would not solve the problem of having a terrible ride and would also not fix the issue of the control arms taking the hits as opposed to the springs. What if I simply cut the RE lower arms in two and lengthened them by sleeving the whole unit. How succesfull have people been w/ this?

I have sleeved tera arms for my rear 4-link, no complaints here...

Originally posted by big4294x4
Yeah :flipoff2: you too newbie. :rolleyes: I am fully aware of what crossover steering is, but I have little to no $$$ right now and cannot afford to do the crossover steering the right way. So, if possible, I would leave the steering stock until I could afford to really make a nice system out of it.

Ok. I have access to a set of used RE adjustable lower control arms for $100 w/ the joint rebuilt. This would not solve the problem of having a terrible ride and would also not fix the issue of the control arms taking the hits as opposed to the springs. What if I simply cut the RE lower arms in two and lengthened them by sleeving the whole unit. How succesfull have people been w/ this?

Buwahhaha, I just like giving "wheelers" a ration of shit.:flipoff2:

Ok, lets ditch the crossover idea, cause you don't sound like you're ready to fab up leaf hangers and drop in 44s.:D

What makes you think that the RE adjustables aren't gonna atleast make the ride feel better than a two-horse carraige? The RE adjustables are meant to be used with all types of lift heights. If you have them adjusted to the propper lengths, they won't need to be sleeved. If you wan't, I'll go out in the driveway and measure mine, eye to eye. I've got mine dialed.

If I were you, I'd get the adjustables and go this route first.

I think he getting at if he wants to go to long arms later he would be able to use the same arms if he sleeved them...:D

Originally posted by P&T jeeps
I think he getting at if he wants to go to long arms later he would be able to use the same arms if he sleeved them...:D

Hmm, not a bad idea... Ok, so wait to sleeve them when you're ready for longarms.:p :flipoff2:

ben's daddy says "do leaves" :flipoff2:

seriously though, you could do the leaves on the 30 if you want and i have a friend who needs some people to test out his d30 crossover steering setup. looks pretty stout to me. or just get peter to build you some crap for $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 haha jk let me know if you wanna try that. i could hook you up with my ideas for the brackets if you want. peace

I don't know of many lifted rigs that ride that great anyhow but seeing as how you give a crap fab up some long-arms and be done with it. Don't do the little halfstep your wasting your time;)

Honestly I don't really give a crap about the ride on the street; however, the way that the control arms are angled now, the spring is not taking the majority of the hit when running over a bump. The force is put through the control arm causing the jarring ride. If I went to long arm, I feel that with the better angle, my springs would actually be able to work like the should. By simply changing the Lower Control arm to an adjustable unit without changing the mounting point, how would this affect how the force of hitting a bump is distributed?

Thats a descision that you'll have to make. There is no question that the longarms will ride and feel better. And I realize what works for some won't nescessarily work for others. Just seems like trying the easiest thing first would be advisable.:)

At 5", the CA angles aren't terrible, but they sure aren't stock. If you do longarms, you might wanna add a few more inches to gain some grould clearance for the arms.

Originally posted by big4294x4
By simply changing the Lower Control arm to an adjustable unit without changing the mounting point, how would this affect how the force of hitting a bump is distributed?

If you're still using stock CA's at 5" then RE adj.'s will definitely help some because you can lengthen them compared to stock. When you do that, the angles will become less severe and thus give you a better ride. Now how much of a better ride I can't say, but it will make a difference, and be the cheapest route for you, and if you really don't care about the road ride like you said b4, then you may be happy with this setup.:goofball:

Bottom line: It's not the length of the control arms that matters, it's the angle. RE drop mounts will work fine. Leaf springs in the front is a step backwards. I've got a crossover steering setup in my Cherokee with spherical rod ends and it works great.

Get the RE setup with the Johnny Joints or whatever they're calling them and fab up a crossover steering (make sure your steering box is bolted tightly and consider beefing up the frame there) and hit the trail!

well... the length of the arm changes the angle. :rolleyes:

no, simply lengthing a RE arm won't make a significant difference but it is a much better ca and can effectively be modified later (lengthend) to get the improved ride "big" is looking for along with other advantages

Originally posted by MistWolf
Bottom line: It's not the length of the control arms that matters, it's the angle. RE drop mounts will work fine. Leaf springs in the front is a step backwards. I've got a crossover steering setup in my Cherokee with spherical rod ends and it works great.

Get the RE setup with the Johnny Joints or whatever they're calling them and fab up a crossover steering (make sure your steering box is bolted tightly and consider beefing up the frame there) and hit the trail!

This is what I was trying to say. If the ride quality is not a factor here, then the RE arms are the way to go. Get the arms, tighten every nut, bolt and anything in between under there and grease your zerks and be done.

Mist, I'm about to start building my crossover and I'd love to see some pics of yours.

Mine isn't gonna be true hi-steer though, I'll be running 1.5" OD knuckle-knuckle tierod (under the knuckle) w/ Dodge rodends. The drag will be linked to the tierod via two 3/16" boxed tabs tapped for a 5/8s heim. The drag will link to the pitman by another Dodge rodend and the angles will be set in correspondence to the track-bar angle. It looks like this will work fairly well and should be enough beef to take a beating.

I was looking through BillaVista's website the other day and noticed that his custom rock-buggy is running pretty much the same thing that I'll be doing. Except his is over the knuckle and runs heims all round.

Here is a front shot of Bill's bad ass buggy.:eek:

http://www.rightcoastcrawler.com/billaVista/Buggy/front_view.jpg

Check here for more pics of Bill's buggy. (http://www.rightcoastcrawler.com/billaVista/Buggy/Buggy.htm)

Yes, lengthening the control arms, all else being equal, will change the angle. But the amount of change is dependant on how much length as well as mount location. Do you raise the mounts so they're protected by the frames and increase angle, or do you mount them lower to improve angle and expose them to damage from rocks?

Or can you achieve better angles with shorter arms and drop brackets? Longer arms will not make your lifted Cherokee ride smoother. Improved angles will regardless of length. The RE drop brackets & arms WILL improve the quality of ride.

If anyone is interested in pictures of my crossover steering, please email me your snail mail addy. I have no way of posting pictures or sending them overthe internet to anyone who can. I don't have a scanner and unfortunately other more pressing priorities prevent me from getting one.

But basically what I've done is run a tie rod from the top of one knuckle to the other, the drag link from the pitman arm to the top of the tie rod at the right knuckle, made my own spacers where needed and using a die grinder & a sawzall, cut away the sway bar mounts and trimmed the botoms of the coilspring mounts until everything cleared. I used DOM (forget the OD) thick walled enough to ream & tap the ends for 5/8 x 5/8 rod ends with plenty of material to spare, drilled out the knuckles & pitman arm and bolted it all together. I use Honda silicone spray to lube it up. It's what we use to lube the rod ends on our aircraft