wayoflife

oh, i didn't realize you had a 2-door. with the amount of lift you will get out of this kit, you should know that your rear drive shaft will sit at a much greater angle and this will put the cv boots in a constant state of pinch. sooner than later, this will cause them to fail and subsequently, cause the bearing inside to fail as well. in spite of what aev will try to tell you, you will need to think about replacing your rear shaft with a u-joint style one. you may not need to do it now but you will need to do it and, when you do, you will need to install adjustable rear upper control arms as they will be needed to set your pinion angle.

this write-up should help you out:

http://project-jk.com/jeep-jk-write-...e-installation

nodor

I have to do it first because they prevent me from dropping the axle low enough to get the stock coils out =(. Thanks for the info I'll do a search.

wayoflife

no need for ratchet straps, simply turn the steering wheel to help out up front and have someone push on the side of your jeep for the rear.

JTURBO

You could always rent a set of spring compressors from your local auto parts store.

Only 1

Or just unbolt the calipers from the axle

nodor

Ended up doing that. Just returned from the autoparts store with a tierod puller. I love this forum you guys respond quicker than anyone. Will keep you updated on how it's going.

rinkishJK

u dont need to use the "fork" to separate the tie rod ends and drag link... looosen the nut till its flush with the top, then hit with a hammer.. it will come right off.
u use the nut to make a flat surface so u dont mess up the threads when u hit it.
those fork tools will distroy the boots.

wayoflife

or, you can just hit the front of the knuckle with a 3 lb. hammer - this will effectively "ring" out the TRE...

nodor

Thank you all for your help. Today we got the new coils and shocks installed and all the necessary brackets on to reassemble the rest of the front. Will finish that and the rear hopefully by tomorrow. Ran into a few snags here and there trying to get the shocks to go into the brackets on the axle end and with the coils but managed to get it done. I'm worried we may have dropped the axle down too low when trying to get the coils in. Is it possible to mess anything up doing this? There doesn't seem to be anything VISIBLY damaged. We're not sure what to do about the rear drive shaft either. We'd like to order that and the rear upper control arms and install it ourselves but I'm not sure how much time we'll have to work with after we finish the lift. Will most local off-road shops have quality drive shafts and control arms in stock that they can install quickly? I move back to school next week and my father is too busy with work without me around to help so if we don't finish it this week it probably won't get done until the summer

Also, heres a picture of what we're working with

NH-JK

Call north ridge 4x4 Dave can get you a shaft asap. I'm sure there's a bunch in stock. He will help you figure which shaft will work best for your set up. Good luck!