Help 10mo old OME lift and struts have gone bad?

[abominablesnowman]

I have an '05 liberty (130k), which had stock suspension and tires on in until last July. I bought an OME lift kit from rocky-road.com for a gas-engine Jeep with standard bumper, which got me the light duty springs for the front and the medium duty for the rear. I got the lift installed along with 245/75R16 Goodyear Duratracks at a local shop. The install shop was expensive but they were the 4th shop I called after the others all declined to install it (I'm in Albuquerque).

Now its April, and I could tell the alignment has been out for a month or two (vibrations coming from the front tires). I finally got around to taking it to the shop (different from the install shop). My new mechanic thinks the struts are shot and showed me at least 1/4" difference in wear on the front tires. Now these parts are only 10 months old with maybe 8k miles on them. My new mechanic seems trustworthy but I doubt he sees many lifted Jeeps. His recommendation is to install stock parts again, which would mean I can't run the 245/75R16 tires I want. This makes me sad.

I've been reading up on OME lifts here, but am obviously still new to all this so I figured I'd ask here for some advice.
1) How can I determine if the struts are bad or if alignment is the problem?
2) The front tires have uneven wear, but the backs are OK. The new mechanic seems the think the back struts are bad too, but that seems unlikely that I got 4 lemons in one batch.
3) Based on all the chatter I see on the forums here it seems that I can make the OME lift and the 245/75R16 tires work. My question is how can I avoid getting burned again. Where should I be looking to buy parts from and how can I know that my install shop is competent?

Basically, I just want to get this setup working without too much more $$$ wasted, so any advice would be appreciated.

 

[tjkj2002]

You have waited to long between alignments,the coils have settled and wore your tires.Get new tires and get the alignment set.Get the alignment checked,and set if needed,at least every 6 months along with proper tire rotations every 3k or so.




The RRO lift will use OME front coils and shocks but not OME rear coils or shocks unless you paid extra for them.Look at the shocks,if there leaking there bad,do the jounce test(just google it,not going to explain it).

 

[tommudd]

Light duty springs
RRO
Not getting an alignment when needed
3 reasons there
plus how often did you rotate?
After tires set a wear pattern no matter what you do they will continue to wear that way
Shocks should not be bad unless you have really beat on your rig hard , well rears maybe if you did not get the OME rear springs and shocks

 

[abominablesnowman]

Thanks for the reply's. Now with a cooler head I am remembering that I have forgotten to include some other pertinent info.

Last fall I had a bit of an accident where I was in the left lane passing a large truck at night, but behind a bit so It was screening my view of the right hand shoulder. Just as I put down the gas to pass a large coyote / small deer runs right in front of the truck and right under my left front wheel. Was doing about 60 mph and the whole front of the car was heaved up and tossed back down. Managed to keep control (maybe thanks to the lift) and pulled off. Did not notice any direct problems other than a broken bumper and copious coyote guts, but now I am thinking that could have blown something internally in the strut.

Got the car back from the shop today after getting the A/C fixed (unrelated). Definitely I'm thinking the front struts are blown. Now that I am thinking about them, they are reminding me of the old stock parts I replaced last summer.

Now, it looks like I will at least need new front tires and new struts. Going outside to test the backs now. My question is if I'm already needing to replace the front shocks should I replace the Light Duty springs with the Medium/Heavy duty as well, since the marginal difference in price is small?

Also in regards to tjkj2002 all 4 shocks are OME including rear. My hope is those the rear are still good.

 

[abominablesnowman]

Okay. Did a bounce/jounce test. Got up on the back tire grabbed the roof rail and got the whole car bouncing. Definitely the front left strut is bouncing 3+ times after I stop the back seems to have about 1.5 bounces. The front right was in-between. The front left also has greater amplitude than the other corners. Going to guess that since the front left was the primary wheel involved in the accident and has the worst bounce characteristics that that one is definitely shot. I suspect the backs are good, and the front right is hard to tell if it is just bouncing a bit more cause it is being affected by the bouncy left side.

 

[Jo6pak]

Do you have extended bumpstops installed?
The jarring form the coyote could have bottomed out and blown the shock seals

 

[abominablesnowman]

I don't think I do, cause I don't know what they are and they did not come with the OME kit I got. Just 4 shocks and 4 springs.

Which is getting me to my next question, what should I do to get this fixed right. If I am going to buy new parts and try to be smarter about things what should I be looking to get?

 

[tommudd]

get some 927 front springs and also new OME or Ironman front shocks. While you are in there install some Teraflex front bumpstops
Then a new set of tires/ another alignment
after that rotate tires every 4-6000, miles, alignment "at the least" twice a year

 

[abominablesnowman]

Okay, I was able to pick up 927 springs, 90009 Nitrocharger Sport OME front shocks and Teraflex bump stops from Jeepin by Al. Do I need to worry about bump stops for the rear?

 

[Jo6pak]

You can make them out of hockey pucks.
I thought there was a "How-to" thread about it, but damned if I can find it right now.

Basically, you stack 2 hockey pucks, drill a hole thru the centers. Drill a hole in the center of you coil perch. Then bolt the hockey pucks onto the perch inside the coil. Do this on both sides, and it will keep your chocks from bottoming out.
Sounds silly, but it seems to be the way everyone does it.

 

[Gyro]

Here is a pic for reference.

Gyro

 

[abominablesnowman]

Update

Thanks Jo6pak and Gyro for the hockey puck references. That looks easy enough to do.

I just got the front suspension parts in (took 2+ weeks and an email!)

The one new OME 90009 shock feels very nice, but the other while smooth in compression will not decompress on its own. It just stays stuck at whatever position it was compressed too. Is this normal?

 

[abominablesnowman]

Also here is a picture of the Jeep in my driveway, which is the only place its gone since the end of ski season.

You must be registered for see images attach

Fender height above ground is 34" for the front wheels and 35" in back before any repairs.

 

[profdlp]

...Fender height above ground is 34" for the front wheels and 35" in back before any repairs.

Measure from the bottom of the fender to the center of the wheels.

 

[abominablesnowman]

OK, right so as to account for tire height. It is ~ 20 1/4" in back and 19 1/2" in front from the center of the wheel to the fender.

But my real question is about this new OME 90009 shock that won't return to normal position. Tried to capture the problem on video, but took a while to figure out how to post it. Let's see if this works:
[VIMEO]94284467[/VIMEO]

What is wrong with that one?

 

[tommudd]

The one that won't come up is " d.e.a.d. "
Need another new one,
Appears you are about stock height in front

 

[abominablesnowman]

Bummer. Looks like that will slow down my repair process even more.

On the plus side I'm getting more informed about what to be expecting from the shock operation.

I'm thinking it would be usefull to also test the operation of my current rear shocks when they are off the vehicle as well. Looking underneath it seems there are only 2 bolts attaching it. Since I'm already planning to take off the rear wheels to install the hocky-puck stops, is it really as easy as it looks to remove and test the rear shocks?

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Yep. Though to recompress the shock to get it back on, put the top bolt in loosely and then use the stock scissor jack (or just a jack small enough) to help you compress it.