So I'm halfway through installing my FT Ultimate 3" kit, and I'm very impressed with it so far, but last night as I was painstakingly torquing my lower control arm bolts to 125 ft-lbs, I was thinking about how I just kind of picked a length that seemed right (a little longer than stock?) for that arm, and what a pain in the arse it's going to be to pull it back off to adjust it.

Basically, the kit is so adjustable between the eight control arms and two track bars, that I'm not sure where to begin. It seems like each tweak could take hours by the time you drop several arms and adjust them.

I have two questions. One, is there a good writeup somewhere of how to do this? (I'm thinking for a similar kit from the TJ world? I haven't seen anything JK specific.) Two, would a shop be willing to dial in the geometry at the same time that I have them do the wheel alignment? Presumably this shop would need to be 4x4 or ideally Jeep specific. If I go that route, any idea how much it will run me?

 

Great question something I should be working on NEXT WEEK,NEXT WEEK,NEXT WEEK,NEXT WEEK,

 

What you need to do is make sure to install your lower and upper control arms before you install your coils. This way, you can relocate your axles location, dial in your pinion in the rear and caster up front, test them out by jacking the axles up until they touch the bump pads and making sure they make the proper contact. If you do this all ahead of time, you most likely will not need to make any other adjustments once everthing is on.

I just got done installing a 3" Ultimate lift and can tell you that the front lowers needed to be extended about 3/4" longer than stock, the uppers needed to be about 1/4" longer than stock to get 6°-7° of caster. The rear was a little more tricky and needed about half the amount of adjustment. Actually, I initally gave it more which pushed the axle back nicely into a more appropriate location but then found the rear track bar to be too be making contact with the rear coils so I had to bring it back in.

In the end, making adjustments once everything is done isn't too hard but it isn't exactly a snap to do. Any good 4x4 shop should have any problems doing for you but I would still recommend doing it yourself.

 

Thanks a lot -- at least that gives me something to shoot for. Great suggestion about doing the control arms first. Inidentally I am finding the Full Traction instructions very lacking (or perhaps I was spoiled by your FT Economy writeup). They have these steps in the other order, and they say things like "go ahead and install all of your control arms, they have left and right versions, so make sure you get them on there properly" but they don't tell you which is which, and they're not labeled. I found myself back at Northridge's site looking at the various pics of the control arm pairs to sort it out

Oh well, onward and upward...

 

I ended up pushing the rears out all the way to fix the caster,

This is on a 2 door, with a stepper driveline...

What did you do about the front upper control arm bolt?
Did you guys actually have instructions?

 

You pushed the rears all the way out to fix caster? Do you mean the lowers or did you mean the pinion angle of the rear?

As far as the passenger side upper front control arm goes.... well.... I pulled a pinginajeep and hacked it off and replaced it with a new bolt

 

LOL!! Well, I'm flattered that you like my write-ups and if you could have waited until I got back from Moab, I will have one for the Ultimate lift as well

 

I should have been more clearer..

bottom were in all the way in, tops are out.... The pinion angle seems just about right with that set up.

Before I was binding up and making a hell of a snapping noise on acceleration. Now it running smooth.

 

We cut mine, just like you. We tried everything, prying etc, but figured just cutting was going to be quicker than messing with the exhaust.

 

I will be curious of what you think of your ride now with all that caster. The drive up to moab should be far enough to test it out.