Advice for YJ with 35's

[tweakeyjeep]

My Yj has a 4" lift right now with 33" tires. I am currently bending out my quarter panels when I fully articulate (bump stop fell out of position so I overarticulate). I have a Skyjacker 6" Monoleaf kit which I plan on installing. I also have a Dana 44 which came from a Scout, it has been relengthend 1" on either end... Will it fit correctly or is it still too small? Will I need to buy wheel spacers.

Another factor is the 44 has 4.10 R&P and an ARB, my 30 is stock, but I have the 4.10 R&P for the 30, but don't have the install kit. The 44 has 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern, my 30 has 5 on 4.5. I plan on installing the Warn Hub Conversion which will change the bolt pattern, but that goes for about $250 (last I saw)

SuperGpr, the previous owner of the 6" lift told me that the 6" would run fine with 35" tires, it would only rub on the stock fender flares. He did not have any axlewrap problems, but he had the inline 4. I have the inline 6. I am not sure what he was geared at. I will have stock gears until I can afford axleswap and gear changes.

My problem right now is my 33's are extremely bald, and I don't have a dime to my name, and don't have a job for after-school reasons. So what I am thinking is what if I just keep the dana 35 in the rear put on the 6" lift, and 35" tires (I already have them all.) And then when I break an axleshaft worry about changing the axle then, or replacing it, I heard D35 axleshafts are cheap.

I have the NP231 short shaft kit for my YJ along with a CV driveshaft, so I will need the rear one relengthend, the front I am not sure if it needs to be relengthend, SuperGpr said his front driveshaft worked fine with no binding or vibration problems.

Please give your feedback and let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

[mbryson]

I think you can get by with the lift springs and the stock axles for a while....get some spare D35 shafts as you mentioned. You'll need them sooner rather than later. Be mellow and you might not even have to get dirty....but then you'll come down off of a rock and suddenly, you get to change an axleshaft....(no biggie, just know how to do it and have the shaft with you)

 

[Caleb]

I think what Marc said is great advice to get you by...as soon as possible I would get the rear axle in but you should do fine with the stock axles if you're not locked and you're easy on the skinny pedal...another option is to find a whole new front 30 out of a 4 cyl YJ...you will prolly spend about as much on that as you will on the install kit for the gears you have...I know I gave my stock axles away cause I couldn;t sell them for much and I wanted them gone./..I am sure there are others like me out there...

 

[spencurai]

I have not heard good things about the monoleaf system. I am sorry you got talked into it. Real world wheeling is not it's forte'

a discussion on the pirate board
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30645&highlight=mono

a write up of the install
http://www.off-road.com/products/reviews/skyjacker/monoleaf/

a testimonial of a design engineer that worked for rancho that says the kit is crap and a safety hazard
http://jeepsunlimited.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=355096&highlight=mono+leaf

and another
http://jeepsunlimited.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=281967&highlight=mono+leaf

I feel bad that someone conned you into that kit. There may be 1 or 2 good experiences out there but that kit is a turd. run it, you are stuck with it now.....

supergper is the only person I have found that likes the kit.

 

[crimsonride]

You would do fine to run the 35's on the Dana 35, it's okay as long as you don't bounce or wham your way up a hill. Then if you do you can get a new shaft for something like $35. That's what I paid for mie when I broke one. Just be carefull, your axle's a c-clip style and that means the shaft can work it's way out after breaking so don't think of driving home on it. You will lose your brakes too if that happens. My brother and I just bought a TJ from a guy who had that happen to him. It caused him to roll end over end.
Spencurai was right. A friend at my old work had one of the first monolinear kits and had to send it back because all four springs bent. They redesigned the kit after that but I still don't trust them.

 

[Caleb]

like I said on that POR thread spence posted...how many people are speaking form personal experience??? in all those threads spence posted I counted three including myself...of course you're going to assume a single leaf kit is going to sag and bend easily but I seriously doubt that many people have truely seen someone bend one...and BTW that is THE first kit to come to the Salt Lake valley and I ran it hard and have had zero sag and zero bends...lets see if Tweaky keeps the record going

also like I said, for a 6" lift it does ride awesome and my Jeep never felt more stable on road (including in stock form or with 2.5" Rancho lift SUA) and it did awesome offroad, but I wont ever get it again and especially for what I paid ($1100) I could do whatever leaf setup I want and still have money left over...oh well you live and you learn

 

[crimsonride]

Ya, like I said, they did redesign it after he bent the springs, but I did see them for myself and they sure were bent. It wasn't the six inch kit though.
To add to that, he was pretty hard on it too, bounces around and stuff.

 

[spencurai]

Originally posted by supergper
like I said on that POR thread spence posted...how many people are speaking form personal experience??? in all those threads spence posted I counted three including myself...of course you're going to assume a single leaf kit is going to sag and bend easily but I seriously doubt that many people have truely seen someone bend one...and BTW that is THE first kit to come to the Salt Lake valley and I ran it hard and have had zero sag and zero bends...lets see if Tweaky keeps the record going

also like I said, for a 6" lift it does ride awesome and my Jeep never felt more stable on road (including in stock form or with 2.5" Rancho lift SUA) and it did awesome offroad, but I wont ever get it again and especially for what I paid ($1100) I could do whatever leaf setup I want and still have money left over...oh well you live and you learn

well let me add another one through personal experience. my buddy matt in our 4X4 club was one of the first to run them up north here and he used two full sets before phasing to spring over. he killed a front set, got replacements, killed two rear sets and then sprung over the rear, then killed the last front set and decided to do a tear down and build a buggy. He wheeled it HARD and they did not last.


I have bent twisted and busted too many multi-leaf packs to put my trust in a mono-pack. you can have it!! maybe it would hold up to a light weight like a samurai?!? who knows...I wont be running it good luck

 

[tweakeyjeep]

Hey well thanks for all the info guys. This hopefully will work for me. I have it in my garage and it looks like it is in good shape, no problems, only a bit of rust. I have a lot of experience in leaves as well... I had an add-a-leaf pro comp lift on my jeep when i bought it, and one of the stock springs was snapped, so i replaced it with real pro comp lift springs. It rode so rough, I trashed them and got the RE 4" Super Flex (before they made the 4.5" kit) It rides awesome and does pretty good for flex, I am bending out my quarter panels in the rear with 33's. The front doesn't flex that well, but I still have the front track bar on, which I need to ditch soon. My rear track bar broke a couple of years ago. I want to go bigger, but SOA is too expensive and this lift I got a good price from Caleb, all it is, is 24 bolts. 6 per spring! I've done enough spring changes on my Jeep I could probably get it done in a day, except I'll need to relengthen the driveshaft, and install brake lines.

I'll try this for a while, and if I don't like it, well after my Mission I can do a SOA. It's always worth trying something!

 

[Vonski]

Originally posted by tweakeyjeep

I'll try this for a while, and if I don't like it, well after my Mission I can do a SOA. It's always worth trying something!

I actually received a vision from God. He wanted me to tell ya that you need to do the spring over now or He will smite you.

 

[tweakeyjeep]

Well Von, if you can Carl would like to do the work as a favor... "From God" Then yeah sure thing I'll do the SOA right now!!

I'll need you guys to build me a rear track bar when I get a little bit of money.