Man, I'm sorry to hear about your problems and to be quite honest, it's things like this that got me to learn how to work on my own Jeeps.

Your sway bar is held in place by rubber bushings and it can slide side to side in it. If your track bar was off that much, your sway bar most likely shifted over to one side causing the problem that you have now. Give it a closer look and I think you will see that I'm right.

Hmmm, I just checked my rear sway bar links and I do not have this problem. Is this just on one side or both? I'm wondering if the sway bar shift caused the bolt to dig in like that.

Just out of curiosity, did the rubbing occur only on one side? Is it possible that your axle shift due to the improper adjustment of your rear track bar cause the rubbing?

Also, going back to my original question about how loaded up you were on the trip, you are aware that the yellow bump stop does compress quite easily right? I mean, the rubber can literally squash down to half it's height or more and when you've got a real heavy load, it will. Is it possible that if you were loaded a bit lighter, the bump stops would have done their job without the extra help of the washers?

 

Just checked mine. I have a big ole' washer on that bolt.

 

I would agree a big ol washer comes with the kit and is needed there.

David

 

Yeah, the ironic thing is that I took it to them because I wasn't confident in my own skills, but at this point I'm thinking I'll do pretty much everything myself. Would be good to have a shop lined up though in case things go horribly wrong


You're right, and like I said that was my original theory. However, it didn't seem to be resolved even after fixing the track. Could be that I didn't drive it enough to let it re-center itself before I checked it again. I'll let you know in a few days.

The rubbing occurred, fairly equally, on both sides on all three walls of the fender (back, top, front).

You know, I forgot to mention this, but I also did some "simulated flex" experiments yesterday and I could not replicate the rubbing in the driveway. Basically, I took one of the springs out, installed the tire, and jacked that half of the axle all the way up as far as it would go. The bump stop bumper compressed quite a bit, as you mention, and I kept going until it lifted the frame off the jack stand.

Then I made sure that the other half of the axle (spring installed, no tire) was sagging as far as the shock would allow.

Under these conditions, I could spin the tire freely in the wheel well, and I probably had 1/2" between the front edge and the metal tire gouger (but less between the top and back of the fender).

I figured the bump stop bumper might compress a little bit more if I literally dropped a full Jeep on it, so I assumed that's when the rubbing on the top of the fender well occurred.

I could not, for the life of me, figure out how the control arms would allow the axle to move far enough forward to rub on the front or back of the fender well. There is a tiny bit of compression in the rubber bushings, and maybe an aired-down tired might deform a bit from centrifugal force, but other than that, wtf?

To answer your question directly, I had a fair bit of gear in the car, but it was all pretty standard stuff. Cooler, sleeping bags, handful of tools, water. The Jeep was not sitting noticeably low or anything. I would ask again though: why should it matter?

 

Correction: a big ol washer comes with most kits. Could you send me a pair of these since I did not get them?

 

Did you install this kit?

 

Yes. If I recall correctly, it just said "install the sway bar links using the included hardware," so I didn't think much about it at the time. There was no hardware left over when I was done.

 

Sorry, but what I was suggesting is that you recenter it yourself by hand. All you need to do is disconnect the links and force it over. It shouldn't be too difficult to do.

Well, for one, you said that you "could not replicate the rubbing in the driveway" even after the bump stop compressed and your frame lifted off the jack stand. And, all I'm suggesting is that maybe under most conditions, this is all that would happen on the trail. However, with the extra load, the bump stops might be squashing down even more under the heavier impact and thus cause a tiny bit of fender rub. I don't know, maybe I'm stupid and don't know what the hell I'm talking about but as I said before, I have not had the problem you experienced and so I was just trying to help figure things out.

 

I think the load should matter. Obviously, the different loads will affect the compression of the bump stops, springs, etc. I think under most circumstances the 3" lift and 35's is not causing this problem with many other Jeeps, at least none that I have seen. If you are going beyond what people normally wheel with you should take that into consideration and get heavier duty springs, etc. But then you will screw with the comfort of your daily drive. My house is wired for so many lights, outlets, etc. but if I bring in a few bigscreens, a soda machine, karioke machine, etc, etc for superbowl sunday, I am going to be popping breakers.

I am just saying that it shouldn't really rest on Full Traction to provide a lift that works under every type of load condition. I know my Jeep sits quite a bit higher than a lot of others that have their hard tops installed and have aftermarket steel bumpers/tire carriers.

Sorry for rambling.

As far as your washers go, pick a couple up at the hardware store. The guys that installed your lift probably still have yours in a pile somewhere. Its just a regular washer.

 

I think you're exactly right on both counts.

Re: the sway bar, I'm just hoping the recentering will happen naturally (it seemed very hard to slide by hand when I tried it). It does not compress enough to get the sway bar to brake hose rubbing on the street, so I'm not too fussed about it for the time being.

Re: the loading issue, I think that's exactly what's happening (the bump stop just compressing more), so that's why I'm hoping my shims will work.

Again, I feel like I should say that I'm overall very happy with the whole setup, and this thread is not meant to be taken as an indictment of Full Traction. If you're been following along at home, you'll note that many of the issues I've raised were either self-inflicted, the result of a negligent shop, or a simple problem of my expectations being in the wrong place relative to marketing materials, etc. and not the fault of Full Traction at all.

In a nutshell, I understand that I'm an "early adopter" here, so my only hope is that others who are considering the same setup will have a few more things to know and watch out for when they do it themselves. That's why the forum exists, right?