[johncanfield]

Thinking about sway bar options and I've done lots of forum reading. I like the Quicker Disconnects since I don't want to sacrifice on-road performance.

Our Rubi has 33" tires and a 3" lift - would it be necessary to extend the brake lines?

Also, I don't see many kits available for the rear sway bar - what's up with that?

 

[bob1340]

Thinking about sway bar options and I've done lots of forum reading. I like the Quicker Disconnects since I don't want to sacrifice on-road performance.

Our Rubi has 33" tires and a 3" lift - would it be necessary to extend the brake lines?

Also, I don't see many kits available for the rear sway bar - what's up with that?

I have about 3" of lift and the stock lines work fine when discoed. The rear sway bar is a lot smaller than the front and flexes more, not need to disconnect them.

 

[johncanfield]

Ah - good deal! Thanks Bob.

 

[bob1340]

I may be wrong but, if you decide you do need longer hoses up front the stock units from a YJ (square head light Wrangler) are longer and cheaper than getting fancy afte market units.

 

[KaiserJeep]

The usual threshold for longer brake lines is 4" or more of suspension lift. I run my 33's on 2" suspension lift and 1.25" body lift, so I have a little more slack in my lines than you.

Got the new gears in yet? I would advise strict adherence to the gear break-in reccomendations from the manufacturer, and even advise that you have the same shop that installed it do the lube changes, so that there is no question about the fluid or when it got changed.

Going forward, you can do lube changes very easily yourself, the Rubicon is the only Jeep I have ever owned with drain plugs for the diffs. But for the first lube change, the shop should remove the cover and inspect the gears. After that, just use the drain plugs, and if you find more than a little metal on the magnet in the plug, that is the clue that you may need to inspect the gear pattern again.

 

[johncanfield]

Got the new gears in yet?

Yup, sure did Gary - the Rubi is on the lift! The mechanic called me and said both rear axle seals were leaking , so there goes a few more bucks out the wallet for maintenance and not upgrades!

I asked him about oil for the differentials post gear install and he said with good quality gears (which I bought from Dave at Northridge), a quality oil is okay right off the bat and break in is not necessary. He said with cheaper gears and synthetic oil, they do need a break-in period but won't break-in due to the synthetic's 'slippery-ness.'

With it on the lift, he was concerned about the length of the front driveshaft - it was compressed all the way and suggested I get the splines lengthened allowing it to compress more, or use longer control arms allowing the front axle to stay more forward when it drops. There is no driveshaft shop in town - the nearest one is an hour away so I guess I'll look into longer control arms. I have an acetylene torch and a mig/stick welder (I'm not an accomplished welder, just okay), so I suppose I can tackle that project

 

[warsw]

I asked him about oil for the differentials post gear install and he said with good quality gears (which I bought from Dave at Northridge), a quality oil is okay right off the bat and break in is not necessary.

I would question that. I have never heard that before from any installer or manufacture. I may be wrong but I think a proper break-in is very important.

 

[KaiserJeep]

Yeah, I would question that too. Dana is the only gear manufacturer that I know of that hones the gear faces after heat treatment. Everybody else leaves the black oxide in place on the gear faces which rapidly ends up in the two magnets on the fill plug and the drain plug. Getting that fine black stuff out is critical to long gear life in my experience. I have in the past changed lube at 500 miles (with gear tooth inspection) and again at 2000 miles, and then gone back to the Jeep change intervals.

Don't pinch pennies on the gear lube. Make sure the actual container it comes in says "meets or exceeeds API GL5" versus the lesser claim "reccomended for applications requiring API GL5", or similar weasel words. Use only synthetic 75W-140 grade.

I also specificly reccomend against using lube with the Trak-Lock LSD additive. It is not necessary in the Rubicon TFS diffs, and sometimes causes the lube to foam at highway speeds and puke out of the axle vents. Yet some people have used the additive with no problems.

 

[johncanfield]

Sounds like I need to play it safe and do a fluid change at 500 miles. I was going to use a synthetic - somebody here recommended Royal Purple.

Thanks guys!

 

[Red Dog Leader]

My post here didn't get in...I'd simply move the front brake lines down. There is a tab and a screw hole. Move the tab into the existing screw hole and then drill a new hole and use a self tapping screw. This will move the brake down 1 to 1 1/2" giving you that much more room.

FREEBIE!

 

[johncanfield]

FREEBIE!

Free is good - great tip!

 

[MPETE]

yea I want to add my .02 here as well. when I bought my jeep it already had a 2" BB and 1.25" BL. it also had Rubicon Express gen2 disco's on the front. before I went wheeling the first time I took the jeep to a local warehouse that had a loading ramp, disco'd and flexed it out
this was the end result

needless to say I did not disco while wheeling. I am lazy and have yet to relocate the stock lines lower as mentioned above, I just dont disco while wheeling. flex is over rated when you have lockers! I will say that disco'ing for me is more about smoothing out the ride on the nasty access roads, than it is about flex on the trail.

 

[Red Dog Leader]

flex is over rated when you have lockers!

That's just a dumb and a very unsafe statement. :jpshake: I'd much rather have all 4 on the ground because I can flex than be trying to figure out where and if my tire is going to come down.

 

[MPETE]

flex is over rated when you have lockers!

That's just a dumb and a very unsafe statement. :jpshake: I'd much rather have all 4 on the ground because I can flex than be trying to figure out where and if my tire is going to come down.

I am not trying to start a bickering match because its all in preference for the kind of wheeling you do.
when it comes down to it in a perfect world I would prefer to have lockers AND flex. but if I had to choose between the two I would much rather have a rig with lockers, than an unlocked rig with good flex. a lot of time flex is just a gimmick, just because a tire is touching the ground doesnt mean it has traction. if a tire/wheel is flexed all the way out the only weight it has on it is the actual weight of the tire and wheel and a little bit extra. in an open/open rig that isnt really going to do you much good.
like I said when it comes down to it, if I had to choose I would rather have a tire in the air and power being split between both ends of that axle evenly, than to have it just barely touching the ground and showing off some impressive flex

 

[3rivers]

With it on the lift, he was concerned about the length of the front driveshaft - it was compressed all the way and suggested I get the splines lengthened allowing it to compress more, or use longer control arms allowing the front axle to stay more forward when it drops. There is no driveshaft shop in town - the nearest one is an hour away so I guess I'll look into longer control arms. I have an acetylene torch and a mig/stick welder (I'm not an accomplished welder, just okay), so I suppose I can tackle that project

Welcome to ROF!!!
(3 weeks ago... I've been busy lately and not online as much. )

I'm a little confused by this part of your post.
With 3" of lift adjustable control arms would be ideal but you wouldn't be lengthening them that much any way.
I have a little over 2" and my lower arms are set to 1/8" longer than stock - maybe.

I guess I haven't heard of people bottoming out their front drive shaft with a 3" lift and stock arms.
That combo is so common around here, I would think the topic of "front drive shaft adjustability" would
come up more often if it was a problem.

I appreciate your can-do attitude, you'll fit right in around here, but just out of curiosity,
how do you plan to address this [perceived] problem with your stick welder?!?! :wink:

EDIT: As mentioned, I have 2.5" of lift or so, and I just pull the bolt out of the brake line
bracket when I disconnect, which isn't very often.

This isn't the "right" way to deal with this issue, but I always seem to find other places
for my jeep money to go...

 

[johncanfield]

I guess I haven't heard of people bottoming out their front drive shaft with a 3" lift and stock arms.
That combo is so common around here, I would think the topic of "front drive shaft adjustability" would
come up more often if it was a problem.

Yup - not a problem now. The mechanic and I had a long discussion and the conclusion was with one wheel up and one down, there is no drive shaft compression problem

I appreciate your can-do attitude, you'll fit right in around here, but just out of curiosity,
how do you plan to address this [perceived] problem with your stick welder?!?! :wink:

Yeah... I took a 12 week adult-ed welding class a couple of years ago and boy did I learn a bunch. I want to address my 'problem' with some metal projects :cheesy: . I'm okay with the stick welder on horizontal surfaces, but when I get into odd angles (odd = anything other than horizontal), I struggle a bit. (I really want a 175-200 amp MIG setup - my MIG is only 75 amp (at least it has shielding gas) which is good for up to 3/16" stock.)