Hi folks, new guy here. I bought this 2013 Rubi yesterday and it’s my first Jeep. I’m trying to educate myself on the suspension, specifically trying to identify non-stock components to plan for future upgrades.

Is anyone able to give an educated guess on the type and size of my life based on the pics below? I’m willing to crawl under it and take more if needed.

I’m ticked to be a part of the Jeep community, any help is appreciated.

 

Welcome and congrats on the new Jeep. I can’t tell you what lift you have but taking some pictures of the control arms and a front view of the suspension will help. From what I can tell, all the track bars, drag link, and tie rod looks stock.

Your rear axle has a raised track bar bracket and your front does not, your roll centers will be a bit off due to that. Also, your left rear brake line is chaffing on your shock so you may want to address that.

 

Don’t be so upset….we’re a pretty friendly group.

I agree all steering up front appears factory. Can’t see full shot of that passenger ball joint…..if there’s no zerk on the top of the upper it’s factory as well. It appears as though your front passenger axle seal might be leaking. You might clean that mess and keep an eye on it.

I’d say someone threw springs and shocks on it, added rear TB bracket and called it a day. You can Google factory JK height and find couple of pictures showing you where to measure your actual net lift vs. stock. Correcting caster after a lift is a big thing that is often overlooked. We can’t see your lower control arms to tell if they are factory, if you have cam bolts, if you have control arm brackets, or if there’s nothing and you just have low caster.

 

Thanks for the replies gents. Here’s another couple shots I just took. I’m interested in hearing recommendations on what to replace first.

 

I see no caster correction. Does not appear to have cam bolts, no control arm brackets, and those are factory control arms.

First order of business is to determine actual lift. Based only on the pictures and how far that rear tire is pulled to the front of the wheel well, I’m guessing that could be 3-3.5”, but that is really just a guess.

If you have no caster correction, which it looks like you don’t, and you have ~3” or more of lift, your caster is probably around 2.8°-3° (ballparking on guestimates). From the factory you have 4.2° of caster. That might not seem like a big difference, but small changes in caster can have big effects, specially when it gets low. I’d suggest you focus on caster correction to start. If you’re not going to wheel in the rocks and do very technical things, control arm brackets are a great option for $100-$150 (1-piece brackets are nice but on the higher end). If you think you’re going to grow this lift, a full set of adjustable control arms will allow you to position axles and rotate the pinions (correcting caster). They would get back that wheel base you’ve lost. Stay away from cam bolts. Food for thought here…..when you push the rear axle back to where it was with longer arms, your spring perches will likely not line up well, and you may need to move your sway bar mount back a bit. (things that seem like easy changes typically have a waterfall effect to other components).

I’d focus on steering. Get a high quality adjustable front track bar…..keep in mind this is one of the most important components in your system as those two joints and bolts are very often the cause of death wobble woes. Stick with a bushing for that application (metalcloak and synergy joints are great for this).

Ball joints are an issue in these axles with larger tires. You might budget for an upgrade there along the way. They are also right up there as a leading cause of DW. If you don’t know how to check ball joints, watch a few videos and make it part of regular inspections, like at oil change intervals. Tie rods and drag links are a nice upgrade but not as important. The factory TR will bend easily if banged around on too many rocks.

 

Awesome post, really appreciate the detail. One question, when you say regarding the track bar to "stick with a bushing for that application", is the track bar below okay?

Here's what I came up with based on your info. Seems like a great place to start assuming everything I picked out is adequate.

 

There is nothing “wrong” with your front TB so to speak, but when the jeep is lifted the front axle will shift to the driver’s side unless the TB is extended longer. (fixed points of attachment on axle and frame and a fixed length bar). An adjustable TB will allow you to get that axle centered under the jeep. This isn’t the end of the world, but you are probably shifted .5” or so to the driver’s side.

You can do worse than Teraflex, but you also won’t find many of us suggesting their items. My preference is Metalcloak, and you should spend a little time on their website looking at their material. Here is their TB –

https://metalcloak.com/durotrak-trac...-wrangler.html

Many new to the jeep game are not familiar with MC as you don’t see their things at most retailers. You’d buy direct from them. They make great products. You can decide if you buy into their marketing material or not.

Synergy is another great TB, but overpriced IMO –

https://metalcloak.com/durotrak-trac...-wrangler.html

They pump their “adjustable while installed” double-barrel feature which they charge a premium for if you ask me.

A lot of people like SteerSmarts. I’ve always thought a bit pricey, but I have no first hand experience with em.

As far as ball joints go, this is one area I'd say maybe TF has the best mid-range product. There's a big jump from the $200-250 options up to $500-600. If you do end up with a bad BJ, there is no sense replacing with another factory, Moog, or similar OE equivalent. This is what is inside those factory BJs -

 

Is there a handling or steering problem you are trying to fix? Or money is just burning a hole in your pocket?

What is the tire size stamped on the sidewall?

Start with this. Specifically, both ends of the front control arms (from the side), and the frame end of the front trackbar/draglink/pitman. (just to verify you don't have a drop and a frame-side bracket there...)

If an alignment printout happened to come with the sale, post it for us. (some shops will even do free 'before' printouts. Might be something to check into if you have some free time.)

And yeah, you could do a lot worse than Metalcloak.

 

Hey guys thanks again for the tips and advice. Your comments pointed me in the right direction, and after watching countless YouTube suspension videos I believe I have a rudimentary understanding of where to go.

I'm going to start by replacing all 8 control arms and both front and back TB's with Metalcloak components.

 

It will be nice for you to have a full set of arms and be able to gain some wheelbase back. The front is very straightforward. When you push the rear axle back out and get the pinion pointing at the TC, you might notice your rear springs will have a nice banana bend in em as the perches on the axle don’t line up well with the top. This is common. Some folks will use a little correction wedge on the axle perch to help position the coil. That helps a tiny bit. Some will cut off the axle side perches and use a bolt-on perch they can position, and if you can weld/fabricate there are a few options as well. Just keep this in mind.

Also, when you move the axle back, sometimes the sway bar links lean a bit forward….sometimes enough that they tap the upper control arm mount (axle side sway bar mount is moving back while upper sway bar mount is staying put. If you run into this situation you can relocate the sway bar mounts on the frame back an inch. They make little blocks for this, or you can drill and tap some new holes in the frame rail. Sometimes this can start getting REALLY close to that big factory muffler.

When you install the rear TB on the frame side, don’t push the bolt through like you typically would. As you sit behind the jeep, reach around and insert the bolt through the bracket and towards you. This orientation will give you a little more clearance. If you put the bolt in the other way sometimes the extra threads hanging out can hit the bump stop pad on the axle when the passenger rear is stuffed.

Anyhow, not saying you will certainly run into those issues, but keep them in mind if you do.

Here’s another tip…..it is helpful to have the 2 proper sizes of crows foot wrenches for the jam nuts on the MC arms. I believe I bought mine on eBay and can’t search back that many years in my history to tell you the sizes. You might ping MC and ask what size the jam nuts are. Once the arms are under the jeep the proper crows foot on a torque wrench gets you perfect access. The nuts on the front upper, specially the passenger side, can be a little cumbersome to get to…..but maybe my tranny side just gets in the way on mine. In a real pinch, Harbor Freight sells a monster 2’ crescent wrench for ~$20, and that is big enough to get on those jam nuts as well. The nuts are too big for the standard 14” crescent most people have.