Starting point for setting up and tuning EVOLever

[dchew]

I am finally at the point in my install where the Jeep is supporting itself from the rear axle instead of the frame. This is a pretty exciting day for me. :yup:

Everything is welded on and I've assembled it all back together with the coilovers but without the bypass shocks. I haven't painted anything yet, I'm just making sure everything goes together as it should and cycling the suspension. My question is, where should I set everything to start with? Here's basically where I am:

• End links on the lever are bottomed out as short as possible (as low as possible).
• Coils have about 1/2" of preload beyond where the coil naturally engages when everything is hanging. That's a total of about 2" I think. Since I have the King bump stops, this gives me about 2" of air gap below the bumps. I'm sure that will get lower pretty quickly as I drive and things settle in.
• I have what looks like about 1/2" of space left in the drive shaft when it sits normally. Hopefully that's enough so I don't have to cut down the drive shaft.
• My long arms are as short as possible.
• The track bar just misses the pivot arm, but looks like it will be ok.
• I haven't measured the axle center yet but it looks close. I have an adjustable track bar if needed.
• I just put the cross braces in so they would fit naturally; there is no tension or compression. I assume that is correct?

Is this a reasonable place to start? I assume I can lift the Jeep either by extending the end links or by dialing in preload. From what I've seen no one extends the end links but I'm not sure that's true. I like the jeep as low as possible so will probably keep it around 1-1.5" above the bumps once it settles in. I might also extend all the arms a bit since I might be close on the drive shaft.

Curious if anyone has other recommendations, or if there is a standard process of "set this first then dial that..."

Dave