Pretty straight forward process.
The only thing I did differently was cut the front spacers down to 1.25” instead of keeping the full 2”. Ideally if you’re doing this you want to use a bandsaw as it’s the safest and easiest way to cut it. I couldn’t find anyone with a bandsaw close enough to me so I just used my sawzall, was not a clean cut and very dangerous considering I didn’t have a vice… I do not recommend this..
The reason I did this was that my WJ already has the factory ‘Up Country’ susp that gives 1” of lift (arguably it would’ve sagged a bit over the years, but so would have a stock susp so its relative), and if I had just added the full 2” then it’d be sitting approx 2.5-3” higher than normal. This would put it right in the danger zone for front driveshaft issues and DW when only upgrading the springs/spacers and shocks without touching anything else.. And considering that my WJ has over 250,000km on it the tie rods, CA bushes, and trackbar bushes would not be up to the task. So just wanted to keep things as simple as possible in order to gain a little lift and also get the new (to me) shocks in. I kept the rear spacers at 2” to get some rake on the WJ when its empty but to also compensate for the extra sag that my stock rear springs has compared to the front.
Cutting the spacers down was fun as they normally fit on the front upper soil locator on the WJ’s but this is not straight forward as the locators have a cone shape to them and the spacers incorporate new locators etc. It would be very difficult to successfully cut them down to fit in this location safely. So I cut them down and just fitted them under the front coil instead where they fit much nicer around the lower coil locator.
The new shocks are Skyjackers and the fronts are 23” long fully extended and the rears are 25” fully extended.
Hub to fender measurements:
Before:
FL = 470mm, FR = 445mm, RL = 475mm, RR = 455mm
After (this after approx 30kms of driving around including deliberately on the side of the road on dirt at speed to try and settle the susp a little):
FL = 495mm, FR = 490mm, RL = 515mm, RR = 515mm
Because the right side of my WJ was lower than the left, I swapped the front coils around to try and get it level again, which I came close but ah well (didn’t swap the rears over because I didn’t want to go to the other extreme and have the left side sit lower than the right).
Some important measurements for susp setups that I made while doing this:
• If you have the rzeppa to rzeppa style front driveshaft, you can only allow the front left shock to extend 20” before the front driveshaft CV joint max's out (at the TC end the shaft will bind on the cap resulting a cut CV boot)… This is bad news for me as my front shocks are 23” long (maybe need a limit strap). The way around this is to get a upgraded driveshaft with at least a ‘double carden’ joint at the TC end and a slip joint on the main shaft (more $$$ to spend
).
• With the stock rear swaybar endlinks, the rear susp will only extend 22” before the rear swaybar hits the lower coil seat. The way around this is to get longer swaybar endlinks to reduce the angle of the rear swaybar at full droop.
Also fitted the Tough Dog RTC steering damper. Pretty straight forward, nothing special here.
I also swapped my JKS discos to mount on the outside of the swaybar so that they would clear the chassis at less than 2” lift when trying to disco (although by lifting my WJ I now didn’t need to do this, but thought I’d do it anyway).
Also made a way to secure the swaybar when disco’d by drilling a couple of holes in the wheel well and will just cable tie the bar up there when needed. Will cost me a couple of cable ties each time but I always carry a bunch anyway.
Totally stoked with my purchase, best $100 I’ve ever spend on a vehicle
. Its given me some extra much needed ground clearance and drives sooo much better than before. I didn’t think my WJ drove bad before, not great or anything, but it was sloppy and wallowing (thanks to the rear Addco swaybar and waterbed like, but the new Skyjacker shocks (even though they’re not rated as a top of the line shock) were so much better than the garbage Aussie no-name-brand shocks that were on there. And according to my Jeep’s service history these Aussie aftermarket shocks were fitted by Ultratune 18 months ago and when I pulled them out, the rear right was completely stuffed, a baby could’ve compressed it, it had absolutely no damping force whatsoever, and not to mention my front shock’s stripped thread issue! Also the TD TRC steering damper is a interesting unit, never had one before and the extra coil really makes a difference to the steering feel. The steering literally just wants to return to centre all the time, and the further you turn the steering away from centre the harder the resistance. Its not a bad thing and its not overbearing, but you can def feel the diff. not sure if I love or dislike it.
But hey, I would not have personally chose any of the above myself if buying new, but $100 for the lot, I’m not complaining!!
Next on the list is along these lines are:
• Adjust bumpstops to suit shocks (just didn’t have time and the resources to get it done all at once, so have to take it easy offroad so I don’t hammer the shocks in their compressed state)
• Source a double carden front driveshaft
• Keep an eye out for new bigger tyres (mine are almost illegally bald, and they don’t grip on anything..)
Pics:
The ceased/rusted front lower bar pin shock bolt that I cut off in order to remove the front right shock:
2” front BB spacer cut in 2 pieces:
Here’s the x2 new front spacers cut down, one upside down to show the bevelled inner edge (this bevelled edge fits perfectly around the lower front coil locator – without it and the spacer would not fit at all on the lower coil locator):
The cut down spacer’s measure 1.25”:
This is the lower coil locator where the spacers will sit, they are just under 2” tall and with the 1.25” spacer mounted there will be 0.5-0.75” exposed that the lower coil isolator will hang onto and locate the coil:
Front shock side by side (Skyjacker shock = 23” fully extended, and 14” compressed):
Fronts done:
Rear 2” spacer fitted as normal, at full droop with the rear swaybar connected showing where it binds using ‘standard’ length endlinks (will only allow the rear shock to extend 22” with this setup, therefore need longer endlinks to get around this):
Rear shock side by side (Skyjacker shock = 25” fully extended, and 16” compressed):
Rears done:
Tough Dog steering damper fitted:
Holes cut for the cable tie, did this on both sides, these cable ties will remain here permanently and another cable tie will be used to loop through the disco and the permanent cable tie to secure the disco:
Disco secured out of the way:
How the WJ sits now:
Fitted BB
2006 Jeep WH Grand Cherokee
Sargent Gutsy
SOLD 06 Limited G/C QuadraDrive II Lovells 2"Lift +30 rims 265/70/17 Imported Saguaro Bar Stedi
