'22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread

[Roky]

Just a note, rear TB brackets are fine, but you don't want a front one. In the front a TB bracket whithout a drop pitman arm will change the alignment of the drag link vs the track bar, and can induce bump steer.

If you’re using an adjustable track bar, as long as it’s adjusted to the same length as oem, you can use the front bracket to raise track bar it will center the axle and stay parallel to drag link….. up to 2.-2.5”.

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[GATORB8]

If you’re using an adjustable track bar, as long as it’s adjusted to the same length as oem, you can use the front bracket to raise track bar it will center the axle and stay parallel to drag link….. up to 2.-2.5”.

Good point, that makes sense.

 

[Roky]

Thinking on it, I may modify my lift install plan to do back-to-back testing with and without the front bracket, just to see if JLs are any different in that regard than any of my past Jeeps. Wheels and tires are being delivered in the next week or two and so I may do comparisons stock everything, stock suspension & 37s with stock trackbar, lift & 37s with JKS trackbar, and lift & 37s with JKS trackbar and Teraflex front bracket. Run a small loop around town or something and see how the Jeep responds.

Always had to lift JKs higher to get same results as JL with 2.5”. JK 4” lift equals JL 2” lift ish……..

 

[Remorseless]

Always had to lift JKs higher to get same results as JL with 2.5”. JK 4” lift equals JL 2” lift ish……..

Yeah, I very much appreciate the fact that the JL lends itself to bigger tires on lower lifts. Getting 37s on the JK I basically had to build it out like a JL in terms of flares and run smaller 37s to avoid hitting everything. Wider axles and more room under the flares is great.

And yeah, that's basically my plan with the trackbars - lift came with a rear bracket, and that stock trackbar will get replaced with an adjustable one to fine tune it, and then when I run/test front w/ bracket it'll get set to roughly stock length, depending on adjustment needed to get it fine tuned. But just as a point of testing I'll run it adjusted to the stock axle bracket first.

 

[Remorseless]

And tires just showed up. Wheels slated for early next week, garage and shop gonna get crowded.

 

[Remorseless]

Been a bit since the last update, finally had a chance to start putting wheels and tires together. Went pretty smooth, just a couple hiccups. Turns out valve stems aren't included (though nobody ever said they were, but I had the idea in my head for some reason) and found out the stock TPMS stems are too big for the 0.453" holes in the rim.

Stock TPMS sensors are ~0.590":

Once I raided the local auto stores I was able to get enough 0.453 standard stems and TPMS stems to swap the stock sensor over to the aftermarket TPMS and build two wheels. More stems are on order to finish the other 3.

The Grabbers set down perfect around the ring bead, very minimal fussing with the tire:

And of course once done I had to roll them in front of the Jeep for pictures of how she'll look with the new wheels:

So, this being my first time doing beadlocks, a couple pointers out there for anyone else who is interested but hasn't done it before:

• A little bit of dish soap rubbed on the beads of the tire goes a long way. Extra smooth seating of the rear bead, helped the beadlock ring settle down fantastic.
• KMC recommends tightening in a circular pattern on their instruction placard provided with the wheels - ignore this and do a star pattern for all tightening passes. First wheel has a few bolt pedestals with 1-1.5mm gaps because I followed their circular pattern instruction. Second wheel is perfect, and so first will have the ring redone because I'm too anal to let it slide.
• It's really as simple as shove the wheel in the tire, plop it all on a bucket, seat the bead around the front, and spend forever slowly tightening the ring in successive passes. The KMC spec is 32ft-lb, I did a pass at 10, then 15, then 25, then 32 and then rechecked all bolts are at 32 again after that.

 

[yokramer]

Such a perfect build I hate that everything I have planned I get to watch you do first lol.

 

[Remorseless]

Such a perfect build I hate that everything I have planned I get to watch you do first lol.

lol, if it's any consolation - I die a little every single time I go in my shop and look at my suspension sitting there on my bench, collecting spider webs. Probably mid/late March it'll go on, but man, feels like it's taking forever.

 

[yokramer]

lol, if it's any consolation - I die a little every single time I go in my shop and look at my suspension sitting there on my bench, collecting spider webs. Probably mid/late March it'll go on, but man, feels like it's taking forever.

Yea things move so slowly even when you have all the parts. My RX7 has a new motor sitting in the engine bay but still need a bunch of little stuff to finish her up.

I'm finally going to order the Rancho Diff and shock skids this Friday and the Rustys LCA ones. Get them all painted black once I get them.

37's is a long way off but she'll get there for sure.

 

[Remorseless]

Yea things move so slowly even when you have all the parts. My RX7 has a new motor sitting in the engine bay but still need a bunch of little stuff to finish her up.

I'm finally going to order the Rancho Diff and shock skids this Friday and the Rustys LCA ones. Get them all painted black once I get them.

37's is a long way off but she'll get there for sure.

Good luck with the skids, and the engine lol. Swap in something crazier than the rotary engine or just a fresh rotary?

 

[yokramer]

Good luck with the skids, and the engine lol. Swap in something crazier than the rotary engine or just a fresh rotary?

Fresh rotary, Im all for crazy engine swaps in anything other than RX7s lol. Coyote in a Camaro go for it, Hemi in a Civic that sounds bad ass, LS in an RX gross. Its the one car that has something unique going for it why ruin that.

The guy that built it said its good for ~575 to the wheels with the right fuel system and turbo and my goal was 375-425 so Ill be super happy with it.

 

[Remorseless]

Fresh rotary, Im all for crazy engine swaps in anything other than RX7s lol. Coyote in a Camaro go for it, Hemi in a Civic that sounds bad ass, LS in an RX gross. Its the one car that has something unique going for it why ruin that.

The guy that built it said its good for ~575 to the wheels with the right fuel system and turbo and my goal was 375-425 so Ill be super happy with it.

Sounds like a badass project man.

 

[Remorseless]

Alright, 37s bolted onto the Jeep and test driven. They weren't balanced, but are completely smooth up through at least 70. Maybe a slight vibration at 75, but we'll see how that shakes out - I only had a limited amount of time testing, so I don't know if it's just shitty road surface or actually a tire vibration.

The 2.0T handles the weight of the KMCs + 37s really well, still saw 8th gear cruising down 55MPH country roads. No issues with power delivery or anything, but I also drive it like it's a Jeep and not a sports car. Given that, probably will stick with 4.10s for the time being. Didn't feel any need to upgrade. Still averaging around 18.5 MPG, just like I was with the stock 285/70/17s.

Used ECRI as my programmer, went super smoothly aside from being a pain in the ass to get the security gateway plugs undone even with the panel under the steering wheel removed. Really dig the GPS tire size calculation feature of that programmer - though I ended up not really needing it, using a tape measure and measuring the difference in height from floor to diff skid both before and after the 37s, I managed to calculate out the tire size using that value and the value that Jeep configured for the stock tire size and came within 0.05" of what ECRI calculated using GPS, but was nice to confirm that I was close enough.

Anyway, next step will probably be the Teraflex spare tire carrier during the week sometime soon, and then the next weekend where I can align schedules with my wrenching buddies we'll be putting on the lift. Coming along, hoping to be able to start doing shake down runs before we get too far into April. Goal is Windrock in either April or May after shaking down at Uwharrie - never been to Windrock, looking forward to checking it out.

 

[AdamG]

How did you decide to go with the JKS trackbar over other companies? Trying to decide myself.

 

[Remorseless]

How did you decide to go with the JKS trackbar over other companies? Trying to decide myself.

It came with the lift lol. It's pretty heavy tube and Clevite rubber bushings, so that's nice too.

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