Rubicon Spring Swap

[20-Willys]

Hey Guys,

I picked up some Rubicon take offs for my JLU Willys. The spring numbers are two up on the front and four up on the rear from whats on there currently. I also picked up some .5" Teraflex front spacers to hopefully keep it level. Do you need to or should you loosen all the control arms during the swap or can you skip this? I am thinking I would or should also pick up some mopar or adjustable lowers as well? Thanks in advance for your advice!

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[blnewt]

Hey Guys,

I picked up some Rubicon take offs for my JLU Willys. The spring numbers are two up on the front and four up on the rear from whats on there currently. I also picked up some .5" Teraflex front spacers to hopefully keep it level. Do you need to or should you loosen all the control arms during the swap or can you skip this? I am thinking I would or should also pick up some mopar or adjustable lowers as well? Thanks in advance for your advice!

You'll be ok leaving the UCAs & LCAs as-is for now, and then just loosen the LCAs once & for all when you change them out. Unless you plan to lift further than 2" down the road those Mopar lift LCAs will work just fine, just be sure to have your suspension loaded when you change them out. I had good results using ramps, kept the suspension loaded but easier to get leverage to loosen and re-torque those bolts.

 

[20-Willys]

You'll be ok leaving the UCAs & LCAs as-is for now, and then just loosen the LCAs once & for all when you change them out. Unless you plan to lift further than 2" down the road those Mopar lift LCAs will work just fine, just be sure to have your suspension loaded when you change them out. I had good results using ramps, kept the suspension loaded but easier to get leverage to loosen and re-torque those bolts.

Okay, thanks.

 

[omnitonic]

I did get the Mopar LCAs, and I did install them. I went with 0.75" Fishbone spacers in the front. I didn't bother to loosen anything except the LCAs I changed out. Both axles shifted out of alignment sideways. This was most evident when installing the rear coils, as one of them was nearly touching the frame at installation. After I drove around a bit and cycled the suspension, all of that took care of itself, and the spring in question is now a comfortable distance away from the frame.

If I had it all to do over again, I would have buttoned it up and taken it for a drive with the stock LCAs. I wish I had collected data so I had a basis to compare the new springs with the old arms vs. the new springs with the new arms. I feel like the new LCAs were probably slightly too long for the amount of lift I got, but maybe not. Maybe they were needed after all. I don't really know, and I just took it on blind faith that I needed them, which annoys me slightly. Not enough to swap the arms back to collect data though. I'm just going to roll with it as it sits.

In any event, steering is fine, there are no annoying vibrations, and I ended up with a good stance. The job was a lot easier to do than I anticipated, and it was a good way to get a little lift cheap while keeping unwanted factory parts from taking up space in a landfill.

 

[20-Willys]

I did get the Mopar LCAs, and I did install them. I went with 0.75" Fishbone spacers in the front. I didn't bother to loosen anything except the LCAs I changed out. Both axles shifted out of alignment sideways. This was most evident when installing the rear coils, as one of them was nearly touching the frame at installation. After I drove around a bit and cycled the suspension, all of that took care of itself, and the spring in question is now a comfortable distance away from the frame.

If I had it all to do over again, I would have buttoned it up and taken it for a drive with the stock LCAs. I wish I had collected data so I had a basis to compare the new springs with the old arms vs. the new springs with the new arms. I feel like the new LCAs were probably slightly too long for the amount of lift I got, but maybe not. Maybe they were needed after all. I don't really know, and I just took it on blind faith that I needed them, which annoys me slightly. Not enough to swap the arms back to collect data though. I'm just going to roll with it as it sits.

In any event, steering is fine, there are no annoying vibrations, and I ended up with a good stance. The job was a lot easier to do than I anticipated, and it was a good way to get a little lift cheap while keeping unwanted factory parts from taking up space in a landfill.

Thanks for the details and I'm glad it worked out for you. I think I will likely install the springs first, see how it feels and go from there. I was going to go with a larger spacer lift at the same time but I'm trying to make sure it will still fit in the garage (6'6") so one step at a time.

 

[omnitonic]

Thanks for the details and I'm glad it worked out for you. I think I will likely install the springs first, see how it feels and go from there. I was going to go with a larger spacer lift at the same time but I'm trying to make sure it will still fit in the garage (6'6") so one step at a time.

A truly devoted Jeep owner would jack up the house to lift the garage.

I was being silly, but in all seriousness, for reasons too complicated to elaborate here, I once tried to jack up a floor joist in a house with a 12-ton bottle jack. It was one of the closer near-death experiences I've had. PTOOOO! The jack just shot out, straight for my head, missing by a slim margin, as the joist slammed back down after having been moved maybe 1/16" at most. That was a really, really stupid thing I did. Fortunately, learning this life lesson did not cost me my life.

So. Uh. Ignore my joke about jacking up your house. Do not try this at home people! It's harder than it looks on TV!

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