2005 Rubicon LJ

[jscusmcvet]

Got front springs and shocks on this evening. Too darn tired to do any more so tomorrow holds at least the rest of the lift. We'll see about the locker relocation and the belly up.

Install went good. No pics since I left the camera down in the house. Had my big helper (who you see in my avatar) spinning wrenches... getting in his blood early.

Assuming I finish the lift tomorrow, I think we'll work on Ann a bit to head to either Uwharrie or to the Sandhills Game lands for a little exploring.

John

[jscusmcvet]

Finished lift this morning. All went well. A few pics:
genius 2.jpg
My new method for installing lift springs when working on my own. Used the stock bottle jack between the axle and frame and forced them apart. Made the install easy.

lift 2.jpg
lift 1.jpg
Finished product.

Test drive went great. Really like the small lift as far as stance and handling. Belly up tomorrow or next weekend.

John

[dumprat]

I had the rough country 2.5 in my 05 unlimited. Worked good and the ride was super. Only one problem was the load capacity on the rear was very low. With my small trailer hooked on thee rear would bottom out on the bumpers on the shocks. It looked like the shocks were too long and the springs too soft.

I have since upgraded the front and rear to 4" springs, but still have the rough country shocks. Rides awesome, I will be buying new front shocks and relocating the rear mounts to work with the 2.5" lift shocks.

[jscusmcvet]

I will definitely keep an eye on it when I hook up the trailer. Thanks for the heads up.

John

[jscusmcvet]

First road trip with the new springs and shocks today. Headed to Boone, NC to pick up my son from App State wrestling camp. Jeep rode great. I was really very happy with ride.

Also got to stop in and ride some of my favorite MTB trails at Kerr Resevoir in North Wilkesboro. Rode all of Overmountain Victory Trail and Shiners Run... What is great about these trails is that they are just plain fun. Honestly, not challenging, just swoopy, flowy fun. Rode my singlespeed On One Summer Season and had the trails to myself. Loved it. Jonah had a great time at wrestling camp also.

John

[jscusmcvet]

Reolcated locker pumps and added belly skid this morning. Locker relocation went fine. Took me a while because this kind of thing is not my forte. Thanks for all the suggestions earlier. I located them on the inner fenderwell as you can see in the picture below. This leaves my tray next to it open for future?
locker pump relocation.jpg
Belly skid is a model that I had for my 2003 Rubicon. It was manufactured by Rock Krawler, but they do not make it anymore. Clearance gain is 1" (from 12" to 13" in my case). The skid is a hefty 1/4" steel and "hides" the tranny mount bolts providing a smooth underbelly. In it's previous life it spent many hours pounding rocks with the 2003 Rubi scraping along as we crawled all over the east coast. Should be light duty this time around, but gives nice peace of mind.
belly up.jpgbelly skid.jpg
For those of you doing a similar project when you have to remove the xfer case skid and do it alone, I just rolled down windows and used ratchet straps through the cab and under the transmission. Held the guts in place while I switched out skids.

[jscusmcvet]

Had to make a few adjustments to belly up skid. Things I should have done going in, but forgot.

I had a terrible rattle and some drivetrain noise, not vibration but noise that did not sit well with me. Last night put the jeep back in the barn and took a few important steps.

1) I loosened the transmission mounting nuts
2) I loosened the six xfer case skid bolts
3) Started Jeep and drove out of the barn and a few yards, then back in.

This helps, IMO, align everything in it's best situation. I forgot to do this when I put the skid on over the weekend.

I could see where the catalytic converter and the muffler contacted the heat shield in a couple spots. This of course, resonated the sound of the exhaust through the whole tub. so...

4) I used the crowbar to push the heat shield up a bit and the exhaust down a bit. Did not take much.
5) Before tightening down the whole set up, I added a washer in between the skid plate and frame at each location.

Seems to have done the trick. We'll see how it does at hwy speeds this morning.

John

[Bigjerm]

I had the same issue along with my exhaust hitting my front upper control arm. To get it all lined up I removed the exhaust hanger that is connected to the transmission mount. Then I cut the hanger in half and put a bolt through existing holes on the bracket. All rattles are gone!




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[jscusmcvet]

Excellent work BigJerm. So far it looks like my crowbar fix worked. I may back up and replicate your fix on a free (!) weekend...

I still had a bit of rivetrain noise but I think I am satisfied with how it sits right now. Meanwhile, the bracket part I needed in order to mount my Skid Row Engine skid.

Ann, little Joe and I are going camping this weekend, so it will have to wait.

[Bigjerm]

If you do I will warn it is a tight fit! I ended up having the use a floor jack to jack the transmission way up so I could get the exhaust hanger back on and bolt the trans mount back on the transmission. Then when I lowered it back into place it was good to go. It did drop the muffler down some which for you isn't a big deal. I'll eventually tear it up on a rock and will head to an exhaust shop to weld up a new smaller muffler.


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