Ordered some parts

[first&lastKJ]

Stopped by NAPA and picked up the passenger side remanufactured CV on my way home from work. UPS dropped of the intermediate shaft today. And most importantly ordered some OME 927's and Bilstein shocks for the front. All this for my Wife's 02.
The Rusty's lift on it will be taken off, well just the front for now. It,s about 9 years old and still at 20 3/4 inches. Ready for new shocks and springs.

 

[tommudd]

Stopped by NAPA and picked up the passenger side remanufactured CV on my way home from work. UPS dropped of the intermediate shaft today. And most importantly ordered some OME 927's and Bilstein shocks for the front. All this for my Wife's 02.
The Rusty's lift on it will be taken off, well just the front for now. It,s about 9 years old and still at 21 1/4 inches. Ready for new shocks and springs.

Will ride soooooooooooooooo much better
Never seen a Rustys last that long , usually a year or so is about it before rear shocks are blown and front springs are toast
Now you have an hours worth of work to do

 

[first&lastKJ]

So with OME 927/Bilstein and 1/4 inch top plate and no clevis lift I assume that will give me 22 inches.
So with this set up will the stock upper A arms be OK?
And the stock CV's are good till 23 inches correct?

 

[tommudd]

so with ome 927/bilstein and 1/4 inch top plate and no clevis lift i assume that will give me 22 inches. yes
so with this set up will the stock upper a arms be ok? will be ok if they are in good shape, but i would start saving towards a pair of jbas
and the stock cv's are good till 23 inches correct?
i've ran stock cvs at 23.5 , but cvs enjoy being about 21.5-22

ok ?

 

[first&lastKJ]

The upper A arms were replaced about a year and a half ago.
And thank you for the info.

 

[JasonJ]

ok ?

The upper A arms were replaced about a year and a half ago.
And thank you for the info.

You should be fine... but it would not be a bad idea to start working towards and planning for the upgraded upper control arms.. this is my plan. I'll be doing 927 springs with a 1/4" top plate in front as well, but stock control arms.. balljoints are good to go for now.

BUT, I am under no illusions that the better setup will include JBA control arms, so that will be the next front end upgrade asap.

Rear I'm doing 948 springs, an extra iso or two and putting in a new or low mileage mopar rear upper control arm at the same time. Will consider the Y-link extension to correct pinion angles if needed, but the articulated 4-link is simply out of the budget for the short-medium term.

 

[u2slow]

So with this set up will the stock upper A arms be OK?
And the stock CV's are good till 23 inches correct?

There must be some variance in KJ production tolerances. Even when I first lifted 2", I needed corrected UCAs. Top of the tires were cambered out significantly, and couldn't be adjusted out.

I feel I'm pushing my comfort zone of the CV angles with the specs in my sig. And that's with the cradle-drop alleviating the angles a bit.

YMMV.

 

[tommudd]

There must be some variance in KJ production tolerances. Even when I first lifted 2", I needed corrected UCAs. Top of the tires were cambered out significantly, and couldn't be adjusted out.

I feel I'm pushing my comfort zone of the CV angles with the specs in my sig. And that's with the cradle-drop alleviating the angles a bit.

YMMV.

There will always be some variances, BUT out of all I have lifted, very little as far as we have found, what works for one works for all. 2 inches is not much at all really. Out of 56-57 for others and 4 different lifts on the 04 and one on the 03 995 were at over 3 inches , of course with JBA arms after they came out but only one had issues with alignment. After looking it over we found that at one point it had a hit a curb or something and shoved the cradle back a bit, took care of that and no more issues.
All of those were done without a cradle drop even at 4.5 inches on the 04.

 

[u2slow]

Ours is an odd-ball then. There may be others. After UCAs, it was alignable before and after the cradle drop. Like i said, YMMV.

Not the first time popular-consensus forum tech hasn't applied to my ride...

 

[tommudd]

Ours is an odd-ball then. There may be others. After UCAs, it was alignable before and after the cradle drop. Like i said, YMMV.

Not the first time popular-consensus forum tech hasn't applied to my ride...

Was yours ever wrecked / slid into a curb etc ?
Could be something small that just has something off a bit

 

[u2slow]

Was yours ever wrecked / slid into a curb etc ?
Could be something small that just has something off a bit

Bought from a dealer in 2012, very clean. Nothing came up on history search. No evidence of damage that I can find.

 

[first&lastKJ]

Just picked up the front shock and spring assemblies. Had a shop assemble them for me. I would rather pay someone to put them together, I don't trust spring compressors. Now waiting for the wife to get home so I can start taking the front end apart.

 

[tommudd]

Just picked up the front shock and spring assemblies. Had a shop assemble them for me. I would rather pay someone to put them together, I don't trust spring compressors. Now waiting for the wife to get home so I can start taking the front end apart.

Pictures in an hour , come one the hard work is done ! :gr_grin:

 

[first&lastKJ]

Started at 5:00 and done at 8:30. Intermediate shaft, passenger CV, OME 972's and Bilstein front shocks installed. Evything came apart and went together easy.
Front sitting at 22 inches exactly both sides.
Rear still has the Rusty's springs and shocks and sitting at 21 inches.

 

[first&lastKJ]

How long or how many miles should I drive it before getting an alignment?
Should I wait and install OME rear springs and shocks first? I don't know if that would affect the alignment.

 

[first&lastKJ]

Drove around all day, got an alignment and measured the front. It is at 21.5 inches.

 

[tommudd]

Drove around all day, got an alignment and measured the front. It is at 21.5 inches.

Right were it should be

 

[first&lastKJ]

Right were it should be

That makes me feel better. I hope it stays there.

 

[first&lastKJ]

I ordered some bilstein 24-185240 4600 series shocks and OME 948's for the rear.

 

[first&lastKJ]

OME 948's arrived waiting on the shocks.