A not-so-great picture of the anti-wrap
spring perch and the track bar mount
extension
Rob Bryce lends a helping hand
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Rubicon Express Spring-Over Kit
Preparation
Parts
For the relatively small number of parts which came with the
Rubicon Express (RE) lift kit, it took a remarkably long
time to install. The parts included:
- 4 Doetschtech shocks
- 2 Front shock tower mount converters
- 2 Front brake line extensions
- 1 Rear brake line extension
- 4 Anti-axle-wrap spring perches
The anti-wrap spring perches are basically perches which
have 8"x2"x1/2" thick plates welded on top. These plates
press against the spring to limit axle twist.
- 1 Track bar axle mount extension
- 2 Transfer case lowering bars w/6 nuts & bolts
I also recommend that you buy a complete set of spring
u-bolts so you don't have to re-use your old ones and set
aside cash for getting the rear driveshaft lengthened after
the lift. Some rustproof paint would be good, too.
Tools
To do this job without losing your sanity, I am going to
list all the tools we used in order to do the installation.
Some are required, some aren't but are highly recommended.
- Pitman arm puller
- Complete set of wrenches and sockets
- 4 Jackstands
- Floor jack and a standard scissor or bottle jack
- BFH (aka: a large hammer)
- Torx bits (for the brake line mounts)
- Large adjustable-grip pliers (for the parking brake
line)
- Drill (preferably a half-inch)
- Drill bits
- Sander or wire wheel on an angle grinder
- Welder (or the services of a welder)
- Measuring tape
- Angle finder
- Needle nose pliers
Before You Begin
Unless you're working on a new vehicle, I suggest that you
spend the weekend before the installation inspecting your
vehicle's brakes, steering linkage, and other parts to see
if they need to be replaced. In my case, I discovered that
my rotors were badly gouged and the brake pads were
destroyed. Another set back occurred when I was about to
install the new pads and discovered that they gave me a
mismatched set. That is not the kind of event that is
helpful when you've spent days working on your vehicle and
you're getting blisters from the knurled handles on your
ratchet wrenches. Avoid my mistakes: take care of the
little stuff the prior week if you're hoping to have the RE
kit installed in a single weekend.
Friends
Unless you enjoy doing things the hard way, you will NEED
friends to help you
install this kit. Commit yourself to the fact that they
will one day call upon you for a similar favour and if you
don't comply, you'll wake up with a horse head in your bed
one morning. But I digress...
Work Area
I was expecting this installation to take at least 10 hours
so I cleaned out the shop (a big job in itself) to make room
for my Jeep. My anesthesiologist for this most difficult of
surgeries was my good friend, Rob Bryce, who came over for
the weekend to help me with the installation.
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