Add A Leaf Ride Quality

[TipsE-Z]

I'm planning to do a Super 30 and 35. I have 4:11s for the 35 and am ordering some for the 30 along with a lunchbox locker soon as I'm working again. My goal is indeed 33s. What bar in the back are you talking about? The track bar? I have a telscopic track bar in the front, and the sway bar is listed on Craigslist sitting in my storage unit. In regards to the slip yoke, as you have a YJ, what sye would you say is best for us. I'd like to do a solid shaft front and rear when I put the lift and tummy tuck on since I'm going to be relocating the perches to allow for proper geometry.

Oh ya, my buddy in Ohio with the 7 or 8 inches of lift on his TJ seems to think a spool (he runs one) is better than the locker in the rear. He said he's had less hassle with it then he did his Detroit, but they did do a great job of replacing it right away when he shredded.

[6spdYJ]

For the expense of the super 35, you could easily do a 44 or 8.8. Play your cards right and you could get one with the gears you want and with discs. Keep in mind, going to 4.10's in the 30 will require a different carrier. The official name of the track bar is panhard bar. As for the sway bar, I had better luck giving it to a scrap recycler that drove past my house. Regarding the SYE, any quality kit should be fine. Aim for the shortest tailshaft length possible. "extreme" short or "mega" short seem to be the buzz words. Focus on the axle strength and flex before reaching for the sky. As long as you have within 1 1/2" of stock, you should be able to get away with the slip yoke for most situations. Collect your parts and do the build in small(ish) steps.

[TipsE-Z]

Sounds like a plan. Does the rear track, err, panhard bar not play as much of an important role in keeping things stable as the front one does? And how would it affect any axle wrap situations? I'm already going to be under the rear end tomorrow putting a new tank in so I'll probably pull this off then. Far as the 1.5" of stock, I'm near that now with just a shackle lift. I got an email from "igotthere" confirming that the RE 4.5 lift would be the best bang for my buck. With this in mind I'm going to need to have the perches adjusted and run the SYE kit as well, correct?

[6spdYJ]

The panhard has zero to do with axle wrap, don't sweat that. My experience was, with a hammered 2 1/2" Rancho lift on stock shackles with 31's - it was awesome without it. Lots of flex and no quirks. Enter 5 1/2" shackles and 33's - Scary! It would wobble from side to side at anything over 30mph. I put poly bushings in the frame and added stiffeners to the rear shackles and it has been fine ever since. I didn't even bother adding a bracket for it on my 44. Regarding the front, again I had a bad experience removing it. As I drove straight and turned to the left, about three seconds later the suspension loaded up to the left and unloaded all of it's energy by throwing the front over to the left - farther than what I had intended. Actually, it was right on as far as steering input, but the nose swung over the springs and then back a bit to the right and settled down. So it was really just a delayed reaction to steering on the street with the body and frame over-reacting and looking really scary. Some guys say they run without it up front. I don't know what springs they have, apparently the right ones. Or they have nerves of steel. Regarding the SYE, Just remember that you have to buy a new CV driveshaft too. You have to keep asking, does it fit the budget? It never seems to for me. If you go this route, grind out the perch welds and leave the axle in place, but not tight. Put a bottle jack under the pinion snout and raise it to the point you want it. Tack them, pull the axle and burn them on. It would be better however IMHO to do either a 44 or 8.8 swap first. Putting this kind of work into strengthening the drivetrain ahead of the most notorious axle in history seems risky. Yes, the 231 slip yoke is weak. Yes, I have seen pictures of them grenaded. However, I have seen more and been there - done that with the Dana 35 self destructing. If you get lucky and only frag the spiders, you can limp the 35. BUT you can't pull the driveshaft if you have the slip yoke. I had this happen, and while limping a piece of the spiders floated up into the ring and pinion. BANG! There went my tailshaft and pinion yoke. Also with the 35, if you break a shaft, you're done. That's it. Why not invest in a solid axle that most likely will not break, so you have the ability to have trail strength? This way you have the option to upgrade when you can, as opposed to repairing or replacing when you have to. JP Magazine said it best - the Dana 35 is like driving a grenade with the pin pulled. It's not if, it's when.

[TipsE-Z]

I like the JP reference... I pulled the rear track bar today and left my telescopic one on the front. I'm for sure going to look into some sway bar disconnects soon as I did notice a little more rockin and rollin on the freeway to San Diego today. Far as the rest of the build it looks like I'm probably going to be lifting it first then doing everything for the drive train all at once whenever I get the misses her new car and no longer have to drive my Jeep on a daily basis. Stoked for that day to come, not so much for having a car payment again...

Oh ya... Mine with the sway bar off didn't do much rollin on the freeway till I put my shackle lift on... Maybe some disconnects are inline for you as well? Also, I have spoke with and ran with a few guys with no front track bar... they drive short distances and take their time when they do drive to the trail.

[6spdYJ]

Look into the poly frame bushings and spring eye bushings. You'd be surprised how much they help. I had a buddy with a Pro Comp 4" and disco's. Looking back at the pictures, he barely had more flex disconnected than I did on 2 1/2" Rancho and connected. Last I knew, 4wheelparts gave a 10% discount to active and vets. Helps a bit when the bills outweigh the Jeep budget. Keep us posted and keep rockin'.

[TipsE-Z]

Will do! I'm sure I will run a thread for my build and experience as I'm a first time builder and will be needing lots of advice from experienced folks like yourself and everyone else on MJR. I plan to take my time and do it right once I have a garage. For now it looks like slowly putting together all my parts and running 3:07s open open on a 2" shackle lift is what I must do...

[6spdYJ]

I don't have a lot of experience. I've just broken a lot of stuff.

[TipsE-Z]

Sounds like experience to me. "Accident is the mother of invention". I think that was Einstein.

[Tumbleweed13]

Sounds like experience to me. "Accident is the mother of invention". I think that was Einstein.

Necessity is the mother of invention - Plato and thats even paraphrasing.

I had a yj on 33's, and 4.5" lift, as a daily driver for years. IMHO, Ditch the front sway bar. Keep the front track bar. With a taller lift I say keep the rear panhard bar. Greaseable rubber bushings in the springs flex better. Thats been my experience.

[TipsE-Z]

Good call, I never have been good at remembering quotes. Except it's better to be... Ahh this is a family site but it ends with "on". Glad to hear that that's a good route to go for my YJ. The sway bar is gone, track bar is there, and the rear pan hard is zipped tied out of the way. I'll keep that in mind for once I get it up in the air a bit.

[Jason]

After awhile, you wont even notice the sway bar is gone. Just don't take a corner like you're in a Corvette.
The sway bar disconnects I told you about on Miller are yours if we can ever get together. That is if you wish to put the sway bar back on.

[TipsE-Z]

I think I'd still really like to get them if I can. I used to own a couple of 2 seat sports cars that I raced around in and I must be honest and admit that sometimes I find myself getting into corners a little hot at times... I sent you a PM so we can work something out.