What have you done to your JK today?

Chris4x4 I will post my experience with them.
OFFGRID. I will post more on this. But it turns out, you lose the same amount of clearance with adjustable control arms. Your still dropping down to the factory settings. It's about 3 inches based on your lift. Your just moving your control arms to take up more of what your suspension should be taking up. I still can not beleive the difference.

 

Will do. As soon as I recover. I have more aches and pains.
I love working on my Jeep. But I hate laying on my back doing this shit. Lol.

 

Man I have this creeper that I bought at least 20 years ago. I fell asleep on it once. I don't mind working under my vehicles. I'd rather work bottom side than standing in a chair bent over the hood all day.

 

Stay tuned. Sunday night. Tired.will post again. Still in awe how these brackets changed my ride. . And you will not beleive how I figured out how to install these brackets. I was taking a break and eating a PB & J . Anyway. Still can't beleive how much it changed my rig. Sweet.

 

OFFGRID. I hate using creepers for just that reason. Lol. Seems i need to take a nap during upgrades. Getting old..ya know. Lol.

 

Ok...here's my experience. Overall. Great. Here's how it went and what I found out.

With my Jeep OCD, I search, research, and then research again. So I did all the leg work on these relocation brackets. And made the comparisons. And what I found out. Most on the market are all the same. And just because they cost more. Doesn't mean it's a better product. I first learned about these from a Quadratec video on JKSs bracket. Which is a one piece bracket. Most all others are a 2 piece. Which works out just fine. The reason I picked up AEV'S. Because it was in Stock are Quadratec.

Installation was a breeze with the usual unexpected issues when you work on any vehicle. But nothing to extreme.
So you unbolt the upper and lower arms at the frame one side at a time. And loosen the axle mount bolts. Which I highly recommend. If you don't loosen the axle bolts. The arm won't drop down out of your way to install the bracket. Which I learned mid-way through the first side, which was the drivers side. Now bolt up the bracket. What I did was put the top arm bolt in to hold it up, and put in the lower arm bolt. And I will get in to why in a second. The lower arm is a breeze. It wasn't that far off, and I just pulled the arm in and bolted it up. Now the upper arm. The head of the bolt is on the inside of the frame. And the nut, outside the frame. But fortunately its nut with a tab welded to it.(I'm sure there's a name for it). And when you loosen the bolt, you can grab hold of the nut. Now what I did after several minutes of figuring out I can't get my fat fingers inside where the nut should go and especially with the bracket there. Fast forward. Theres a hole on the outside of the frame where the nut should be. What I did was take a 6"extension with the socket and the bolt, and just stuck the bolt in from that side. Good thing it's not threaded. Cause there is no way to get your hand in there. And with mother extension and socket. Theres a good chance you could cross thread the bolt. But it worked out great.

Now the passenger side. I saw several videos where on older Jeeps, the upper arm bolt will only come out so far because it hits the exhaust. And you have to cut the bolt. From what I found out. Some kits come with a replacement bolt. But it wasn't an issue on my 16 JK. Every thing went faster now that I did one side. But when I went to bolt up the lower arm. There was a good 3 inch gap between the bracket and the arm bolt hole. After about 15 minutes of trying to pull the axle back to bolt it up. I gave up and went and made a PBS & J sandwich. When I take a break. I never really take a break. And I'm sure there's a lot of you do the same. So I'm standing there thinking(what my next move is) how I should have made 2 sandwiches cause it was really good. Lol. Looking at what I need to do next. Well, I put my foot up on the tire. The tire moves backward an inch or so. So the light bulb goes off. I push the tire back. And the axle moves back. (Stop laughing) and I realize I can line up the arms if I push the tire back far enough. Which I do, put a brick under the tire, finish my PB&J. And crawl back under the Jeep. 15 minutes later, I was putting my tools away.

Overall experience. I highly recommend installing this bracket. They have pre-drilled holes for several lift Hights. Just take a measurement and bolt up to one of three holes. S you can see from my pic. It is up out of the was so any chance of dragging it is impossible. And as far as the lower arms. They are pretty much back in the stock position. So if your doing extreme off roading. You will drag them. But over all. You only lose about 3 inches.

I can't tell you the difference in the ride. It's not as flighty. I'm not constantly fighting the wheel. It rolls over bumps now and not slamming into them. A much more comfortable ride. Highly recommended.

I apologize for any mistakes in ANYTHING. I fricking hate this tablet and it's auto correct. It sucks.

 

Very Nice right up.

 

Installed Mopar hood lock. To prevent any movement of the hood catch to defeat the lock, I put a stop bolt to block lateral movement. Also instead of the rivets, I threaded the jeep holes and bolted the hood lock in. Used 5/16 tap, all stainless steel bolts, lock washers & flat washers. Painted all flat black. The stop bolt cL is 1.5" from edge of housing as shown in pics. The lock can be left unlocked at all times by inserting a key into it, leaving in unlocked position. I got a key made at Wal-Mart, cut it down to fit the lock while being small enough to close the rubber lock cover on the key-in-lock. Convenient when at home doing work in engine area, for access without having to get the big key and leave it in the lock all day sticking out. I silicone seal glued a 3/8" closed foam pad inside the housing where the unlocked securement plate (the silver steel part shown in one pic.) rests while unlocked. This prevents rattling while driving with it unlocked. With wires running along the bolt area in front, put electrical tape around the wiring to add padding between the bolt rough edges and wire shell (additional tape not shown in pics). With bolts, the lock can be easily removed for fixing when it breaks. The allen socket stop bolt can be removed either by drilling a hole in the grille for wrench, or by reaching behind grille and repeatedly inserting wrench/turning to max turn until bolt is backed out to free hood latch. The hood lock isn't for all theft prevention. A determined thief can easily drill it out or break through the lock tumbler housing. It's just cast metal, not appearing to be strong steel. The lock will stop any thieves or vandals wanting quick access with few tools.

 

Front diff. Serviced after I noticed seepage., oil changed, balanced and rotated tires.

 

Nice job! I ordered the BOLT hood lock and STANT fuel lock cap before picking up my JK mainly for protection against vandalism

 

Finally saved up enough cash along with Quadratec rebates. Finally Got my 4 wheel alignment. Mechanic was impressed how close It was. Asked me who installed lift kit. Didn't beleive I did it. Without mirrors. Lol.

Finally wheeling trouble free. And I owe a lot to this site and it's members. You guys are awesome.

 

If they want it. They will,find a way to take it. Sucks...But so true.

 

could they possibly bottom out? any space left? or could you move one end out more?

 

After noticing the gap/space between the cowl and rear hood edge increase by 1/4"+ or the leading edge of the hood pushed past the grill over a few days, I quickly disconnected the struts. The OEM rubber hood catches were also distorted. The hood positioning returned to normal with the stuts disconnected. I did not experiment with drilling new holes on the fender bracket to reposition the strut as disconnecting and compressing the struts required a fair amount of muscle to compress and jam into the inner fenders. It was real neat to watch the hood rise on its own with the struts attached. Read on other reviews that JK owners experienced similar dissatisfaction with the RR struts.

 

Had a bit of a bump steer issue.
All better now.

 

Just busting your balls dude. ^^^^^^. This thread is what have you done to your JK today. You have XJs. . Again. Just bustin ya.

 

Here in Arizona we must get an early start when wrenching in the summer. For the first time on my jeep I chose form of function. I think it looks great and stout as hell, but unlike some of the other manufacturers of diff covers there is a little lip that hangs down at the bottom. There is no way I don't et it caught on a rock at some point. Anyway here is a pic.

 

[A. TTACH=full]3514[/ATTACH]painted my inside and lined

 

Are you using an insulated liner or a normal headliner? Somewhere on this forum I saw a retired vet making and selling an insulated liner and I have not been able to find his post. That looks very nice! Can't wait to see the finished product.