wagonwheel
New member
I bought this JKUR used about a month ago. it came with an AEV 3.5" lift, in which i have been less than happy with. it rode incredibly stiff on and off road and made the JEEP miserable to drive. When i called AEV for suggestions, there reply was to throw 500 lbs of rock in the back. (That wasn't going to work for me). the JEEP also had some pretty significant wandering issues. Over the weekend i would find it to be a combination of incorrectly installed parts, mis alignment and worn parts.
This a reminder to ALWAYS go through a used JEEP and inspect everything. The geometry correction brackets were set to 2.5" lift even though this was a 3.5" kit. same with the rear track bar.
top hole is for 2.5"
Middle hole is 3.5"
lower hole is 4.5"
These holes are responsible for caster
Before i moved the location to the lower hole.
After i moved the control to the proper hole it changed the caster to 6 degrees. obviously this fixed a lot of wandering.
I aligned the rest of the front end. i replaced the weak factory track bar with a JKS tract bar and centered the JEEP. it was shocking to me how weak the factory sway and tract bar are.
I Then moved on to TOE and so forth. almost all the wandering was gone now. but it still felt "loose" or "bendy" as my daughter calls it. so i put an order into RuffStuff and got the 1 ton steering kit. and got to do the alignment all over again lol. Its always a little nerve racking drilling into hard parts of the jeep. take your time and make sure your bit sharp, your using cutting oil and your drills chuck is straight.
Apply anti sieze and Slip in the tapered sleeve. it should be snug but not so tight you have to beat it in
Next was the pitman arm. i opted to reem the pitman arm with a reeming bit instead of using a sleeve. the reason being is if you use a sleeve on the pitman arm you have to weld the sleeve to the arm. seems like a lot of excessive work for a weaker result than reeming the arm. That damn Pitman arm was a beast to get off. i suspected this would be the case so i ordered a used one and reemed the the used incase i destroyed this one during the removal process
The end result is so fun to look at
And im pretty sure my helper will sleep good tonight.
Conclusion. The AEV lift isnt for me. ill be replacing it piece by piece as finances free up. the EVO springs made a huge difference and the FOX shocks made an equally big difference in ride quality. it makes the JEEP soooo much more comfortable to drive. the alignment issues made ALL OF the wandering issues go away. the sluggish and loose sterring was all corrected by 1 ton steering. i think i spent my budget well for what i was trying to accomplish. anyways thanks for letting me blog a bit about it
- installed EVO 4" plush ride springs
- Installed FOX 2.0
- installed JKS track bar
- installed 1 ton steering from RuffStuff
This a reminder to ALWAYS go through a used JEEP and inspect everything. The geometry correction brackets were set to 2.5" lift even though this was a 3.5" kit. same with the rear track bar.
top hole is for 2.5"
Middle hole is 3.5"
lower hole is 4.5"
These holes are responsible for caster
Before i moved the location to the lower hole.
After i moved the control to the proper hole it changed the caster to 6 degrees. obviously this fixed a lot of wandering.
I aligned the rest of the front end. i replaced the weak factory track bar with a JKS tract bar and centered the JEEP. it was shocking to me how weak the factory sway and tract bar are.
I Then moved on to TOE and so forth. almost all the wandering was gone now. but it still felt "loose" or "bendy" as my daughter calls it. so i put an order into RuffStuff and got the 1 ton steering kit. and got to do the alignment all over again lol. Its always a little nerve racking drilling into hard parts of the jeep. take your time and make sure your bit sharp, your using cutting oil and your drills chuck is straight.
Apply anti sieze and Slip in the tapered sleeve. it should be snug but not so tight you have to beat it in
Next was the pitman arm. i opted to reem the pitman arm with a reeming bit instead of using a sleeve. the reason being is if you use a sleeve on the pitman arm you have to weld the sleeve to the arm. seems like a lot of excessive work for a weaker result than reeming the arm. That damn Pitman arm was a beast to get off. i suspected this would be the case so i ordered a used one and reemed the the used incase i destroyed this one during the removal process
The end result is so fun to look at
And im pretty sure my helper will sleep good tonight.
Conclusion. The AEV lift isnt for me. ill be replacing it piece by piece as finances free up. the EVO springs made a huge difference and the FOX shocks made an equally big difference in ride quality. it makes the JEEP soooo much more comfortable to drive. the alignment issues made ALL OF the wandering issues go away. the sluggish and loose sterring was all corrected by 1 ton steering. i think i spent my budget well for what i was trying to accomplish. anyways thanks for letting me blog a bit about it
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