'99 Lift questions (1 Viewer)

[Adam R]

If the wife will let me, I'm considering upgrading her '99 with about 2 inches of suspension lift and some larger tires. Since we live at nearly 7000 feet, a gear change will also be necessary since it is already a little sluggish at that elevation.

Some have mentioned shifting point problems with LC's that are not re-geared when they go to larger tires. Are there any downside to running 33's with 4.88's aside from the speedometer being off a little.

If she'll agree to 35's do they rub anywhere when off road with only two inches lift.

Lastly, will this lift be sacrificing any longevity to her LC with normal maintenance attention.

Thanks,

Adam R.

 

[spressomon]

Adam,
Install the OME lift kit with fr/rr shocks, rr springs (model dependent upon your overall accessory load and driving applications), Slee diff drop kit and OME t-bars. The 4.88/315/75R16 is win-win...no downsides that I have found (other than the wallet lightening issue ...my MPG even went up 1.5mpg) When I ran the 4.88 with 33" it was the same issue as 4.30 and 33"...the shift points were off and the powertrain felt "slow", "tired", "sluggish"...mostly not in synch with the powerband of the engine.

The only mod you will need to do to gain extra clearance is to trim the front plastic inner fender wall to clear the 315's and also to fold over the body inner fender seam so that it doesn't rub the front tire...both a simple fix.

While you are at it be sure to install an ARB locker up front when you do the 4.88 conversion. Yesterday Campfire and I did some fairly aggressive trails (3 to 3.5 in sections) and the difference between the rigs became apparent on two sections: The ARB front locker + 35" + 4.88 made the difference!

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

Adam...315s and only 2" lift is not a good combination in my opinion. Too much rubbing. Rubbing on:

Front upper control arms
Wheel well guards
The actual fender-well top (painted body panel) when turning sharply and compressed. Possible damage.

Bad rubbing in the rear fenderwell unless you lower bumpstops by 2+ inches.

You can in fact build your truck to this combination, however it's not the best (or proper) way to do it IMO. At the very LEAST you should have:

20mm trim packs on the rear 100 springs (or use an 863 80 spring if you have a steel rear bumper...or will add one).
T-bar the front to 2.75" lift.

Then...after those changes you still need to do a few more things. Like:

Adjust your front turn-stops
Lower your rear bumpstops by an inch to 2-inches depending on your rubbing tolerance.

If you want to run 35's and spend time on the trails I highly suggest you not cut corners. In the end you'll be happy...not rebuilding your truck a second time.

 

[spressomon]

Adjust turn stops or run wheel spacers up front...with my 1" wheel spacers the tire doesn't rub the A-arm nor did I need to adjust the turn stops...

...sorry I did make certain assumptions regarding bumpers, etc. to run 315's.

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

Adjust turn stops or run wheel spacers up front...with my 1" wheel spacers the tire doesn't rub the A-arm nor did I need to adjust the turn stops...

...sorry I did make certain assumptions regarding bumpers, etc. to run 315's.

Yes....though at only 2" lift, with or without wheel spacers, on compression and turned sharply (common off-road) the tire's top will catch the top of the body (the wheelwell) and it can dent it....pull it away from the rest of the truck as the tire turns forward snagging the metal. Here was a pic I found quickly...I'm sure I have better. Even at 2.75" and the fact I'm not fully compressed front passenger...look how close the wheel is to dragging the fender with it.

So you'll see....at 2" and fully compressed you risk damage to that well.

 

[Adam R]

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. I thought 2 inches was the 'reasonable' upper limit for the front suspension. I guess another .75 is necessary to keep the tire out of the sheetmetal?

Also understand that the lower bumpstops in the rear need to be extended. Can you extend the bumpstops on the front to ensure the tire doesn't come into contact with the fender? I like to lift vehicles as little as possible, but I can't tolerate it rubbing anywhere.

I plan on running rear airbags with a two or three inch rear spring. That way I can adjust ride height/carrying capacity to the situation at the time and keep the rig slightly tail high or at least level.

This rig will see mostly Colorado mining/mountain pass roads instead of severe rock crawling. It's the family cruiser, but I'd like a little more clearance afforded by the taller tires.

For the really tough trails, I have way too much money put into an '01 TJ. Although I do have to admit, I haven't recovered a LC off the trail yet. Also, the leather seats and butt warmers are a nice feature that my jeep doesn't have.

Thanks for the info.

Adam R.

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. I thought 2 inches was the 'reasonable' upper limit for the front suspension. I guess another .75 is necessary to keep the tire out of the sheetmetal?

Also understand that the lower bumpstops in the rear need to be extended. Can you extend the bumpstops on the front to ensure the tire doesn't come into contact with the fender? I like to lift vehicles as little as possible, but I can't tolerate it rubbing anywhere.

I plan on running rear airbags with a two or three inch rear spring. That way I can adjust ride height/carrying capacity to the situation at the time and keep the rig slightly tail high or at least level.

This rig will see mostly Colorado mining/mountain pass roads instead of severe rock crawling. It's the family cruiser, but I'd like a little more clearance afforded by the taller tires.

For the really tough trails, I have way too much money put into an '01 TJ. Although I do have to admit, I haven't recovered a LC off the trail yet. Also, the leather seats and butt warmers are a nice feature that my jeep doesn't have.

Thanks for the info.

Adam R.

1. You said it better!

2. Not everyone has lowered their rear stops, though I did because rubbing was bad. You don't want to mess with front stops (IMO) because you need all the travel you can get. 2.75" and turn stop adjusts will do it.

3. I don't have experience with the bags. Sorry.

4. Gotcha on the medium-duty trails. You'll most enjoy 100-series OME components then. Just add 10 or 20mm of trim packs to the rear so it doesn't sit low when air bags are deflated.

5. Wranglers rule the trails...BUT...when you finish your 100 you might re-think it's use. I'd not 4-wheel it though until you replace the front diff. Another 98-99 2-pinion diff was destroyed on our run Saturday (on a 99). What a mess getting it out of the trail. Do not wait. Add an ARB front locker ASAP.

 

[hoser]

Can you extend the bumpstops on the front to ensure the tire doesn't come into contact with the fender? I like to lift vehicles as little as possible, but I can't tolerate it rubbing anywhere.

Yes, you can lower the front bumpstops (while sacrificing some travel) but there isn't that much thread on the current bumpstop. Use maybe a 5mm washer/spacer. What that equates to in wheel travel? Maybe 12mm? You would need to swap out the OEM bumpstop for something else if you wanted to extend it anymore. Probably not recommended anyway.

For more clearance, it has been said you can do a 10mm body lift using the existing nuts/bolts and 10mm spacers. The only problem being the gap between the bumpers and body.

 

[Jim_Chow]

Do you expect to still use the AHC in L, N, and H mode, but just in each mode, the car is 2" higher than before? If yes, you need to do more than simply tweaking the AHC sensors. If you look at the 2" Keepslant lift, there are a lot more parts...
http://www.keepslant.com/shop/product_info.php/cPath/21_27/products_id/30

Besides the diff drop and AHC sensor extensions, you need shock brackets (the rear ones are the smaller U-shaped ones in the pic, front ones are the larger gold-colored ones), a different lateral rod (I think the LC mag that features this says it's dynamically adjusting or something; I'd imagine if you had a slightly longer one, it would do just as good; remember, when the AHC is in H in low gear, it rises up more than 2" above the setting in N, so it would be like trying to use the stock lateral rod w/ a 3" lift on a LC!), plus some stabilizer extensions. This is all to maintain stock driveline angles/performance.

The good news is, it looks like one can order most of this stuff (except the rear coils) from the keepslant webpage w/o having to buy that pricey lift kit, then get the slee diff drop kit. The additional advantage of this is your suspension compression/extension should close to equal since the shocks have been physically moved up by 2" (otherwise, you'd lose 2" of extension right off the bat).

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

WHOA! This is about a '99 LX470? I missed that. Please igno re my posts. Sorry!

 

[spressomon]

WHOA! This is about a '99 LX470? I missed that. Please igno re my posts. Sorry!

Ditto for me...I saw the references to LC and assumed it was a '99 LC we were talking about.

 

[hoser]

I'm pretty sure Adam is talking about an LC. From another thread:

My wife has a '99 LC and I have a 01 Jeep TJ that has been heavily modified

Jim, as for that keepslant AHC lift kit, I was planning on using the rear shock brackets but wasn't sure about the front. I'm not sure if the front ball joint could handle the angularity when the shock (w/ the extension bracket) is fully extended.

 

[Jim_Chow]

Hoser, the front shock brackets are totally different than the rears. Check out the link in my previous post. AdamR, if your 99 is a LC, disregard my comments. Somehow, I saw another post (maybe it was Hoser's) on AHC and this one right next to it which got me into thinking yours had AHC.

 

[hoser]

Yes, these are the fronts, correct? I'm guessing the extension is somewhere between 1.5"-2"

http://www.keepslant.com/shop/images/IMG_0019.JPG

Can the upper ball joints take the extra angularity with these on?

 

[Adam R]

This is indeed for a Land Crusier. We found a '99 in 2004 with 40,000 miles on it. I just couldn't bring myself to say I drove a Lexus.

Lexus and 4 wheeling just don't seem to go hand in hand. We almost considered buying a Lexus, but I was going to change out the badging so it looked like a Toyota.

Not trying to offend anyone. I understand that they are nearly identical vehicles, but I grew up in the sticiks and it was bad enough that we bought such a nice vehicle in the first place, but it was the heaviest and safest vehicle my wife would drive when we were expecting our first child.

For the first two months we owned it, the LC sat parked in the garage until we sold our 10 year old Honda Accord because "it's too nice to drive".

Sad but true.

Adam R.