Topic: TJ 3" coil lift necessities

[emersonwaite]

IT'S GETTING TALLER!

well, only with a little help.
Need to know what needs to go into replacing my tj's springs with zj (grand charokee) coils in front, and either putting my tj front coils into the back (some say bad idea) or swapping in some crown vic coils back there.

It's mostly a daily driver. I cant lie. I want it to look good, and start on the path of being a good jeep and play in the dirt with the rest of them. But baby-steps here.

Got no armour (im canadian, so we spell it with a U), winch or anything. Want and planning, but been tweaking with the engine first. So it's bone stock light.

It's on new'ish (6months) 31x10.5 goodyear AT's.  So i figured for looks and function, 3" lift is good. and I could go slightly bigger later. 32's, 33's....something And then a 1" body lift comes later.
but I digress.

For now, if I was to throw those springs (lets just say zj and crown vic's) into my tj, how much lift should I be looking at? (i hear lots of variations, but still somewhere around 3") and what do I need to do so it runs just fine. I hear a lot of different things and its not easy to sift through the flood of info, especially when its not for my specific situation and jeep. I've done my research, but now need pinpoint info.
Hear a lot about track bars, disco's, drop transfer case, pitman...etc. I don't want to stress the jeep too much so

I'd like to know the MINIMUM I should do so its running and not damaging itself, and some helpfull improvements that I could do after a little while. As we all know, it gets done in stages.

lastly, I've heard a zj pitman is a good 4" drop pitman to a tj. True?
is this something I should be grabbing at the wrecker for this lift if I'm already grabbing the springs?
is 4" what I'd want? or too much for only a 3" lift?

Thanks guys. couldnt get along without this site.

[Bounty Hunter]

Installing stock front coils in the rear works great, I've lifted several jeeps in this manner and they perform well.  Then just buy a pair of 3.5" or 4" coils for the front, check www.rustysoffroad.com for good prices on springs only.

You can run stock lower control arms but you will want to adjust the caster in the front so it pushes the bottom of the front axle as far forward as possible.  You will need adjustable cam bolts on the axle end of the lower control arms to do this, only older TJ's came with these, newer models did not.  Longer fixed lower control arms for a 4" kit are the ideal method.

You will need a 1" transfer case drop.

Longer brake lines or move the front hardline further down the frame.  YJ front lines work well.

Longer shocks.

Redrill the lower mount for the front trackbar approx. 3/4" toward the driver's side.  Once you get it lifted and back on the wheels, make sure the front axle is centered and use the trackbar to verify where to drill.  You will need a bracket to relocate the axle end of the rear trackbar.

The XJ and ZJ pitman arms provide some drop over the stock TJ arm, but I wouldn't change it until you get it lifted and aligned.  Chances are you won't need it.

[emersonwaite]

Bounty Hunter to the rescue again!   
Dude you're awesome, thanks for the info.

You not a big fan of scrapyard lifts? They just dont sit level with two different types of coils, or it just seems sketchy?

And it seems like you'd expect an impressively tall lift from this (3.5" - 4")
Is that really what I'd be seeing? I started out looking for 2" - 2.5" and kindda accepted this as close enough. I didn't really want to push 3" originally, ....

Got a 97 TJ so i'll assume I can do the adjustable control arm thing for a little while. Never heard anyone fiddling with that, though. No one mentioned any need for that. Guess it makes sense, since you're angling the top of your axle permanently forward like that. It can go as far as I'll need? or just make do with as far as it can?

When redrilling the trackbar: Put everything in, have the rear relocated via the new bracket, set the jeep down and have a ratchet strap anchored to the frame to inch the axle over toward centre. Measure it, make sure its perfect centre, then mark and drill? Or is there a better way?

All the rest seems fine, sounds workable. But I'm still wondering, there seems to be a bunch of people wth solid success on zj/crown vic springs (or the front tj's in the back ) I'm not decided yet on which way I'll do it...

...but still wondering, how much lift could I really expect from this method?

Does anyone actually have something like this running that they can give me a pretty solid answer on?

and does anyone have a simple/cheap way of doing a 2"-2.5" suspension lift as an alternate option to this?
I'm pretty excited about this scrapyard lift if it's only 3" or so I'm looking at. But hey, look at all the options, right?
It'd have to be awesome and easy to sway me from this coil lift idea...but I'd like to hear tham, and maybe some pics on 31" - 33" tires would give me a look to the future.

I know this kindda thing has been covered numerous amounts of time, but I havent found much info thats not convoluted and lost in the mix of all the various types of jeeps, weights, engines, add-ons.
So that's why I'm pinpointing it to 4cyl early tj's with little weight add-ons, to get some solid numbers, if anyones got them.

thanks all

[smashcoast]

I have a 3" lift with 33's and it looks good. I think 4" and 33's is too much wheel well gap.

If your looking for coils try BDS suspensions. Lifetime no ?'s asked warranty and great coils better quality than Rusty's.

Some Bilstein 5100's make for a comfy ride.

[smashcoast]

Also i still have the stock arms. it works great but cant get full flex because the lower front arms bind.

You also need sway bar disconnects in front for a 3" lift and extended in the rear I went with the JKS's and love them.

You will need a T/C drop or SYE/CV DS. For those driveline vibes.

Brake line extensions are also a good idea.

Also rear trac bar drop bracket and Adjustable front trac bar as well.

Got it alinged and i have no problems.

[Bounty Hunter]

I'm all about cheap lifts, always run my YJ on the cheap.

That's exactly what you need to do for the front trackbar in order to properly locate the axle.