TJ Rear Suspension

shawn

shawn

running dog lackey of the oppressor class
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Joined
Mar 13, 2005
Location
Raleigh, NC
Our TJ has a 2.5" spring lift... all stock links and mounts otherwise. I'm getting ready to make a set of lowers for it, but I got to thinking that... while not *terrible*... it still does the typical TJ torque jacking/pick the left front tire thing, especially if the right rear tire is drooped out.

So... I think that a typical long arm setup would be more trouble than it would be worth. It would be a pain to work the clearances out, and probably makes the belly break-over worse. It just doesnt have enough spring under it.

What's the hot ticket? Can I add a few inches to the lowers and improve the situation? Or does it all need to change? Triangulate the uppers, move the axle brackets, etc. Basically trying to figure out if there are some minor changes I could make now that would significantly improve the performance without rebuilding *everything*.

I looked around for the stock measurements, but haven't found anything yet.
 
Ehh its 499. I hate the stock set up of our tj's. I figure if your going to do any modifications then shoot for a 4 link rear. Allows for much more articulation.
 
Is it just a long arm four link kit? Because I've got joints and twenty feet of dom... I can build a true four link, but don't necessarily want to bother with ditching the track bar until I'm ready to replace the d35.
 
I mean, I think to do it right is going to involve moving the uppers and using some longer lowers... I'm just trying to figure out if I can get some of the benefits by only doing a fraction of the work. And... Considering I'm building lowers anyway...its really just moving the mounts.
 
I forget but do you run the front and rear sway bars at all, on or off road? I had the torque jack thing a lot when my front sway bar was disco'ed for off road, when I went to the antirok it helped. Im not even running a sway bar on the rear and it does good enough for me on the road. But as said before doing anything major to the rear suspension with the d35 still back there would just be a waste unless you don't want to run a bigger tire later.
 
Doing longer lowers only will give you pinion angle issues during droop.

Not sure what the name of the kit was but one if my friends ran a long arm kit that had bent lowers for clearance. It worked really well & would be the ticket for low lift
 
The only true solution to this problem is to triangulate the uppers and lowers and eliminate the trac bar. With longer lowers (a lot longer) you could help it but as paradise mentioned when the rear droops the pinion will drop to the point you'll need a very expensive driveshaft.
I suppose you could leave the uppers as they are and triangulate the lowers to get your lateral support and not need the trac bar. I recently triangulated the lowers on a TJ a used fairly short lowers. Maybe in the 24-27" range. I bent a cross member that welded from frame rail to frame rail just behind the factor belly pan and made a bracket similar to Barnes or anyone else's that attaches both lowers close together just under the rear output yoke. It worked very well for getting rid of the problems you're having. You will need to remake the lower mounts on the axle as well to handle match the angle of the new lowers.


Sent from the MarsFab Off Road mobile response unit.
 
MarsFab said:
The only true solution to this problem is to triangulate the uppers and lowers and eliminate the trac bar. With longer lowers (a lot longer) you could help it but as paradise mentioned when the rear droops the pinion will drop to the point you'll need a very expensive driveshaft.
I suppose you could leave the uppers as they are and triangulate the lowers to get your lateral support and not need the trac bar. I recently triangulated the lowers on a TJ a used fairly short lowers. Maybe in the 24-27" range. I bent a cross member that welded from frame rail to frame rail just behind the factor belly pan and made a bracket similar to Barnes or anyone else's that attaches both lowers close together just under the rear output yoke. It worked very well for getting rid of the problems you're having. You will need to remake the lower mounts on the axle as well to handle match the angle of the new lowers.


Sent from the MarsFab Off Road mobile response unit.
Click to expand...

x2. You could put a bend in the lowers at the axle side to eliminate welding on new brackets, but could potentially limit the travel in the joint, and put added wear/stress on the joints/shanks.
 
MarsFab said:
The only true solution to this problem is to triangulate the uppers and lowers and eliminate the trac bar. With longer lowers (a lot longer) you could help it but as paradise mentioned when the rear droops the pinion will drop to the point you'll need a very expensive driveshaft.
I suppose you could leave the uppers as they are and triangulate the lowers to get your lateral support and not need the trac bar. I recently triangulated the lowers on a TJ a used fairly short lowers. Maybe in the 24-27" range. I bent a cross member that welded from frame rail to frame rail just behind the factor belly pan and made a bracket similar to Barnes or anyone else's that attaches both lowers close together just under the rear output yoke. It worked very well for getting rid of the problems you're having. You will need to remake the lower mounts on the axle as well to handle match the angle of the new lowers.


Sent from the MarsFab Off Road mobile response unit.
Click to expand...
Shawn, the TJ Chris is talking about is mine. I had a 4-link that Chuckman and I built with triangulated uppers. I always had the rear walk or whatever you want to call it on the road. I had MarsFab triangulate the lowers and it does so much better now. Chris did an amazing job.
Now I just need to do something about the bump-steer.
 
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