So I put in a 5.3 in my 91 YJ. I have fairly new Old Man Emu 2.5 lift springs in front, but they are starting to sag and cause my drag link Tie rod,(edit) to bump. Should I get add a leafs, heavier duty springs or what?
I would not be surprised if the 4.0 is heavier than 5.3 . . .
More lift will not solve much. At full bump you will still rub. Sounds like you need to fix the link geometry. Or shit can the sway bar.
I have no sway bar. the 2 year old old man emus are flattening out. I don’t think i should adjust my steering linkage to a flat spring. I just wondered whether an add a leaf is a temporary fix, or should I get a heavier duty spring?
and my linkage was fine when i had the 2.5. I think the 4.0 and 5.3 are roughly the same, you may be right that the 4.0 is heavier.
Oh, I said sway bar, oops! I meant Drag link and Tie rod! Sorry!
Either way, nothing should touch throughout the suspension’s range of travel.
Are you spring under axle or over? What pitman arm are you running?
I just recently did some leaf spring work on the front of my YJ, well i’m still tweeking it because i have the same problem. so i might beable to give some insight. I just bought new leafs from General Spring and they are beefie. I’m going to be running waggy springs, spring over with a shackle reversal. I also swaped over to WJ knuckles for the raised steering setup but i had to,get a flat pitman arm to make it work.
I’m spring under. I actually just switched my pitman arm from drop to stock to help with the angle when I noticed it starting to sag. But it has continued to sag further and my tie rod and drag link are on top of each other now. It’s no biggie. I’ll lift the front of this sucker back up one way or another. The leafs I have are not that old and rusted yet so they should come off ok. I’d just prefer to remove the front leafs once.
Again, lifting is not the solution. . . . at least not without also extending the bump stops to prevent interference at full bump. The steering geometry should never interfere throughout the full range of travel.
Post a picture of what’s hitting
I’ll get a picture tomorrow. And Eric, I’d still like to get some lift back, the springs have gone flat and my tires are kinda stuffing the wheel wells.
I got some pictures.You can see the drag link and tie rod right on top of each other, whereas there used to be a nice triangle of seperation.https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2SWnNj4eB5PSXROT2dTdnN4R19pM2JkZDRaZ1lFZkxIcnJV/view?usp=sharing
[url][drive.google.com/file/d/0B2SWnNj4eB5PSXROT2dTdnN4R19pM2JkZDRaZ1lFZkxIcnJV/view?usp=sharing/url] not sure if pictures are working. drive.google.com/file/d/0B2SWnN … sp=sharing
Looks like you need to get rid of the drop pitman arm.
I’d say the same thing.
As far as the lift, my waggy springs cost me $350 for the pair with bushings installed and new ubolt. There are probably cheaper ways to do it but cheaping out has never worked out in my favor. The waggy springs would push your axle forward a bit giving you an extra 2” of wheel base. And yes 2” makes a difference… plus the waggy springs give a little bit of lift over stock spring.
I already replaced my drop pitman arm. The one in the picture is stock. I suppose I could look for a flat one, but I don’t think that’s the answer. I see what you’re saying Derrick, the waggy springs would move the tie rod forward out from under the drag link. I ordered some add a leafs, we’ll see what that does.
A flatter pitman arm would defiantly help to create some separation. I bought mine with a recommendation from another club member. I went through Parts Guys Mike and went with the flat pitman arm which they drilled and tapered for me since I’m running 3/4 ton GM TRE’s. Well worth the 100 bucks I spent. At first I baulked at the price but in the end I think it was the right way to go. I haven’t looked but an upward bent pitman arm would really help my application. I need another 1/4”-1/2” for separation for my drag link to clean my passanager leaf spring.
This something else at play here. I’d love to see a picture or more pictures of the entire set up from the knuckles all the way into the box. The way mine is set up, and the way it was set up previously, the drag link is never on top of the tie rod.
If it is, then your steering box needs to move forward and/or you need to get a shorter Pitman arm. The Parts Mike arm that Derick mentioned is certainly a possibility, as when I bought mine, I drilled it exactly where I wanted and ground it down so did not interfere.
If your drag link sits directly above your tire rod, geometry is going to be such where you will always have some form of bump steer.
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These pushed the axle out 2" ?? I had heard that the centering pin was in the same location but the front half of the spring was longer which would offer more droop. But who know that info it came off the interwebs.
Moving the box forward is not nearly as hard as you think. There are a handful of companies that make up products that will easily accomplish this. A quick Google search uncovered this:
advanceadapters.com/products … mount-kit/
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