what length do I make my control arms????

[samurai615]

hey guys I'm a newbie to this forum but not to jeeps. I am somewhat of a fabricator and would like to make my own control arms. I bought a jeep from a friend who started ripping it apart and put rustys offroad 8.5" coils under it but never made the control arms for it.
-My questions are can 8.5 inches be done without a long arm kit??
-Also If any body has this setup without long arms what are the lenghts??
-does anybody know the lenghts of the arms for a 6.5" lift??
-is there a calculation to figure this stuff out?????

I was considering running 6.5" coils the front instead of the 8.5"
thanks guys and let me know if there is any info out there??

[Sierra Drifter]

Originally Posted by samurai615

hey guys I'm a newbie to this forum but not to jeeps. I am somewhat of a fabricator and would like to make my own control arms. I bought a jeep from a friend who started ripping it apart and put rustys offroad 8.5" coils under it but never made the control arms for it.
-My questions are can 8.5 inches be done without a long arm kit??
-Also If any body has this setup without long arms what are the lenghts??
-does anybody know the lenghts of the arms for a 6.5" lift??
-is there a calculation to figure this stuff out?????

I was considering running 6.5" coils the front instead of the 8.5"
thanks guys and let me know if there is any info out there??

With that much lift you need control arm drop brackets to lower the frame side mounting points. (unless you decide to go with long arms.) This is necessary to keep the control arm angles for being to steep. You will also need adjustable uper control arms so that you can adjust the caster setting of the axle. Buy a set of drop brackets and install them. Then center the axle and measure from the drop brackets to the CA axle mounts. Make the uper CA so that you have a couple inches adjustment each way. BTW 8.5" lift is too much. You can clear 35" tires at 6.5", even less atually.

[XJLI]

i must see pics of this xj lifted 8.5" on stock arms.

[srmitchell]

x2.

10 char

[CJ7-Tim]

The lowers to set your wheel base, the uppers to tune your caster.


Lift...........Lower Control .............Upper Control
...............Arm Length ................Arm Length

................Decimal--Fraction.....Decimal--Fraction

Stock........15.75.......15 ¾........15.00.......15
2”.............15.92.......16............14.88.... ...15
3”.............16.09.......16............14.92.... ...15
4”.............16.33.......16 3/8......15.03.......15
4.5”..........16.47.......16 ½........15.11.......15
5”.............16.62.......16 5/8......15.21.......15 ¼
6”.............16.97.......17............15.44 ... ...15 ½
7”.............17.36.......17 3/8......15.74.......15 ¾
8”.............17.81.......17 ¾........16.09.......16
9”.............18.30.......18 ¼........16.50.......16 ½
10”...........18.82.......18 ¾........16.96.......17

[samurai615]

thanks guys. No the xj doesn't have stock arms it has no arms!!!! My friend i purchased it from is a scrap guy so if its metal and its sitting there (weather he may need it or not) it goes to the scrap yard. Imagine my surpise when I went to hook up the wiring harness to a new motor he had halfway installed and there was no knock sensor, o2 sensor, or speed sensor because he didn't take them off the old motor and scraped it.

Anyways. The numbers listed with the lifts above are pretty accurate?
I was planning on doing a solid lower arm and adjustable upper.
I have had 2 other people say 8.5 is too much (driveshaft angles) so I think 6.5 is a better avenue?
anyones thought on height???

[broncofire75]

If the XJs been hacked up already and is pretty much a toy. I'd just go with some 4.5" coils, make your control arms, a TC drop, and anything but blocks for the rear.

What tire size are you planning on running?

[samurai615]

well I almost got it all back in one piece so it will be a daily driver/ weekend mudder.See, i wouldn't have bought it but It was $600 for the jeep with a good motor and tranny recent tune up , and rustys 6.5" leafs with 2.5" blocks and rustys 8.5-9" coils in the front. The parts plus shipping would have almost cost me as much as the jeep!!!!!
I would like to run the 8.5-9" lift but don't want to dump too much into it.

If i do this can i run my front driveshaft out back with an sye kit. the thing pretty much fits perfect.
What do you guys think about the lift and driveshaft issue??
Oh and I'm also looking for long arm measurements if anyone has them??

[samurai615]

bump guys do you have any answers for my driveshaft question or long arm lengths????

[Jason, aka: Jeepin.com]

For that much lift you need to either run drop brackets or long arms. Period. Most long-arm kits (ie: RE, T&T, Rusty's, Clayton, etc) mount their arms to a custom replacement crossmember. You should be able to figure out what length arms you need to build for your rig and suspension height from there (if you can't then maybe building your own suspension is beyond your skills, and I don't mean that offensively, building this stuff yourself is not for everyone). You'll need to figure out what type of suspension you'll do -- radius arm, 3-link, 4-link?; where/how you'll mount the arms -- new crossmember, arms even with the crossmember, arms below the crossmember, brackets on frame?; Those are the things that will determine your lengths and geometry.

And at that much lift, I think a front DS would be WAY too short to use with an SYE, safely anyway. Maybe as an emergency trail spare.