Rock Krawler 2.5" lift install - post mortem
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Joined: Aug 2010
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From: Royersford, PA
Rock Krawler 2.5" lift install - post mortem
Here's a summary of how my install this weekend went down. A big shout out to everyone who helped me out with my prep questions earlier last week, particularly View Profile: Slupe - JK-Forum.com - The Ultimate Jeep JK Wrangler Bulletin Board and View Profile: Smashboogie 4x4 - JK-Forum.com - The Ultimate Jeep JK Wrangler Bulletin Board. See these links for more details:
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-s...stions-270357/
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...2-days-270761/
So I thought I'd give back some tips. First, I don't have much experience but can follow directions with the best of them. I had swapped out my springs and shocks for Rubi hand me downs in the past so I had some idea of what I was getting into. So, in no particular order, here goes:
1. The RK instructions are written for someone who has some experience. I was ok given my previous experience swapping out the shocks and springs. But they are generally of the level of "remove the shocks, then replace the springs". Easy enough if you've done it before, but don't expect a more detailed step by step, blow by blow like you see on the Project-JK write ups. Reading through any of their suspension install write ups will give you a good background, see for instance Project-JK.com - Jeep JK Wrangler Resource » Old Man Emu Jeep JK Wrangler 2″ Lift Installation Write-Up.
2. Rear coils were a piece of cake. Front passenger one was not (already had driver one in). I couldn't drop the axle any farther without dorking up the brake lines. In hindsight I might have considered just disconnecting them since I was going to replace them anyways. I ended up renting a strut compressor kit from Advance Auto to compress it the extra 1.5" I needed to get it in.
3. Tools I didn't have: a 17 and 21 mm wrench. 17 mm for the front Bilstein shocks and the 21 mm for various suspension parts (I think it was the track bar).
4. I was mostly on my own with sporadic help from my son and a friend. So it was slow going (interrupted by trips back to the forum to look stuff up). Much time spent keeping track of my tools and sorting out metric from standard sizes depending on whose bolts I was using. I had the bolt upgrade kit from Northridge and was substituting them in as appropriate. I chose not to drill out the RK lower control arm bushings to make them 9/16' compatible and just reused the OEM bolts. Total time spent was about 20 hours, 15 on the front, 5 on the back. 3 of the 15 on the front was spent futzing with the one spring. Someone with more experience would be much faster.
5. I installed the RK front spring retainers. The instructions are very clear for the driver's side install but then state the passenger side install is "on the opposite side". On the driver's side, this puts the hole right next to the where the end of the coil sits in the notch in the axle. On the passenger side I tried doing the same thing, but it just seemed to place the clip too high in the air where it would compressed by the coil itself (inside front corner). So I ended up drilling another hole on the inside-back corner where it seemed to fit nicely. I didn't have a 10 mm bit so I ended up using a slightly larger standard size (I want to say 3/8 but don't recall for sure).
6. Brake lines went very smoothly, thanks to a friend who had done brakes before. The new brake lines have plenty of play in them. Not so much the OEM ABS wires. The instructions say to zip tie the one to the other but it seems to me that the ABS lines won't be able to flex as much as the new hydraulic lines.
7. The instructions tell you the appropriate torque settings for the jam nuts on the LCAs and trackbar (200 ft-lbs) but don't give you any clue as to how to achieve this. I couldn't figure out how to a. hold everything in place while I start torquing it and b. actually measure a torque that strong. I did not have any power tools so perhaps this is just a personal limitation. My torque wrench only goes up to 100 ft-lbs and it's a ratchet style that doesn't work for the jam nuts. The instructions are also not clear on when to torque everything up. They spell out the proper lengths to adjust the LCAs and trackbar too, but then leave it to the imagination/experience to understand when to accomplish the final torquing. I decided to just snug up the jam nuts and install everything, then once I had full weight on it all I would go back and try to tighten it all up. I am not confident I was able to do so anywhere near the values specified so I'm taking it in to my mechanic to double-check the alignment and retorque everything. He'll also do weld up the rear track bar bracket for me.
8. The Project-JK writeup on front end alignment Project-JK.com - Jeep JK Wrangler Resource » Basic Do-it-Yourself Jeep JK Wrangler Front End Alignment was a big help for centering the steering wheel and checking the side to side alignment. I had a hard time getting the turnbuckle on the drag link loose enough to rotate. I WD-40'd the heck out of it and easily loosened up the clamps but it just wouldn't turn. I ended up using a regular pipe wrench and mini-sledge to get it to rotate. Once it had turned a bit the WD-40 kicked in and it was much easier to turn.
9. I installed Teraflex front and rear bottom bump stops. There are NO directions with them, but if you generally follow the RK bump stop instructions (what little there is) you'll be ok. Just be careful that you drill the right sized holes for the front ones. The RK instructions said 7/16" but I think the Teraflex ones were a little smaller. The rear ones have some sort of preferred alignment but it's not clear what it is (they are asymmetrical). After some searching I found some pics here Jeep Articles / Technical and Installation (Teraflex 3" JK Lift Installation) - MoabJeeper Magazine and some instructions from Quadratec here http://www.quadratec.com/Assets/Installation/98209.pdf that show the lip is facing forward.
10. I replace my existing Teraflex sway bar quick disconnects with the adjustable RK ones. I found the Teraflex ones to be much easier to connect/disconnect and they have a mount to hook them up to when disconnected. The RK links involve sliding the lower heim joint over a threaded bolt vs. the Teraflex ones that slide a metal bushing mounted in a rubber joint over a smooth aluminum stud. I'll see how I feel about the RK ones after a few wheeling trips. The Teraflex ones were too short now so I didn't have a choice.
Overall I gained 2 3/4" in the rear and about the same in the front (I forgot to measure the front pre-install). I'm generally happy with how it all went although I think if I had gone with a higher lift that I might have exceeded my skill level. I don't mind drilling holes into metal but for bump stops and spring clips precision is not so much an issue. If I had to cut/weld something I would have been in trouble.
Thanks also to Dave at Northridge for putting a package together for me for the lift and shocks.
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-s...stions-270357/
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...2-days-270761/
So I thought I'd give back some tips. First, I don't have much experience but can follow directions with the best of them. I had swapped out my springs and shocks for Rubi hand me downs in the past so I had some idea of what I was getting into. So, in no particular order, here goes:
1. The RK instructions are written for someone who has some experience. I was ok given my previous experience swapping out the shocks and springs. But they are generally of the level of "remove the shocks, then replace the springs". Easy enough if you've done it before, but don't expect a more detailed step by step, blow by blow like you see on the Project-JK write ups. Reading through any of their suspension install write ups will give you a good background, see for instance Project-JK.com - Jeep JK Wrangler Resource » Old Man Emu Jeep JK Wrangler 2″ Lift Installation Write-Up.
2. Rear coils were a piece of cake. Front passenger one was not (already had driver one in). I couldn't drop the axle any farther without dorking up the brake lines. In hindsight I might have considered just disconnecting them since I was going to replace them anyways. I ended up renting a strut compressor kit from Advance Auto to compress it the extra 1.5" I needed to get it in.
3. Tools I didn't have: a 17 and 21 mm wrench. 17 mm for the front Bilstein shocks and the 21 mm for various suspension parts (I think it was the track bar).
4. I was mostly on my own with sporadic help from my son and a friend. So it was slow going (interrupted by trips back to the forum to look stuff up). Much time spent keeping track of my tools and sorting out metric from standard sizes depending on whose bolts I was using. I had the bolt upgrade kit from Northridge and was substituting them in as appropriate. I chose not to drill out the RK lower control arm bushings to make them 9/16' compatible and just reused the OEM bolts. Total time spent was about 20 hours, 15 on the front, 5 on the back. 3 of the 15 on the front was spent futzing with the one spring. Someone with more experience would be much faster.
5. I installed the RK front spring retainers. The instructions are very clear for the driver's side install but then state the passenger side install is "on the opposite side". On the driver's side, this puts the hole right next to the where the end of the coil sits in the notch in the axle. On the passenger side I tried doing the same thing, but it just seemed to place the clip too high in the air where it would compressed by the coil itself (inside front corner). So I ended up drilling another hole on the inside-back corner where it seemed to fit nicely. I didn't have a 10 mm bit so I ended up using a slightly larger standard size (I want to say 3/8 but don't recall for sure).
6. Brake lines went very smoothly, thanks to a friend who had done brakes before. The new brake lines have plenty of play in them. Not so much the OEM ABS wires. The instructions say to zip tie the one to the other but it seems to me that the ABS lines won't be able to flex as much as the new hydraulic lines.
7. The instructions tell you the appropriate torque settings for the jam nuts on the LCAs and trackbar (200 ft-lbs) but don't give you any clue as to how to achieve this. I couldn't figure out how to a. hold everything in place while I start torquing it and b. actually measure a torque that strong. I did not have any power tools so perhaps this is just a personal limitation. My torque wrench only goes up to 100 ft-lbs and it's a ratchet style that doesn't work for the jam nuts. The instructions are also not clear on when to torque everything up. They spell out the proper lengths to adjust the LCAs and trackbar too, but then leave it to the imagination/experience to understand when to accomplish the final torquing. I decided to just snug up the jam nuts and install everything, then once I had full weight on it all I would go back and try to tighten it all up. I am not confident I was able to do so anywhere near the values specified so I'm taking it in to my mechanic to double-check the alignment and retorque everything. He'll also do weld up the rear track bar bracket for me.
8. The Project-JK writeup on front end alignment Project-JK.com - Jeep JK Wrangler Resource » Basic Do-it-Yourself Jeep JK Wrangler Front End Alignment was a big help for centering the steering wheel and checking the side to side alignment. I had a hard time getting the turnbuckle on the drag link loose enough to rotate. I WD-40'd the heck out of it and easily loosened up the clamps but it just wouldn't turn. I ended up using a regular pipe wrench and mini-sledge to get it to rotate. Once it had turned a bit the WD-40 kicked in and it was much easier to turn.
9. I installed Teraflex front and rear bottom bump stops. There are NO directions with them, but if you generally follow the RK bump stop instructions (what little there is) you'll be ok. Just be careful that you drill the right sized holes for the front ones. The RK instructions said 7/16" but I think the Teraflex ones were a little smaller. The rear ones have some sort of preferred alignment but it's not clear what it is (they are asymmetrical). After some searching I found some pics here Jeep Articles / Technical and Installation (Teraflex 3" JK Lift Installation) - MoabJeeper Magazine and some instructions from Quadratec here http://www.quadratec.com/Assets/Installation/98209.pdf that show the lip is facing forward.
10. I replace my existing Teraflex sway bar quick disconnects with the adjustable RK ones. I found the Teraflex ones to be much easier to connect/disconnect and they have a mount to hook them up to when disconnected. The RK links involve sliding the lower heim joint over a threaded bolt vs. the Teraflex ones that slide a metal bushing mounted in a rubber joint over a smooth aluminum stud. I'll see how I feel about the RK ones after a few wheeling trips. The Teraflex ones were too short now so I didn't have a choice.
Overall I gained 2 3/4" in the rear and about the same in the front (I forgot to measure the front pre-install). I'm generally happy with how it all went although I think if I had gone with a higher lift that I might have exceeded my skill level. I don't mind drilling holes into metal but for bump stops and spring clips precision is not so much an issue. If I had to cut/weld something I would have been in trouble.
Thanks also to Dave at Northridge for putting a package together for me for the lift and shocks.