tarpon4me

Very recently I swapped my rear spacer with JKS JSPEC 2" rear springs to go along with my Rancho 2" front springs. Well while I was changing my Diff fluid, I noticed the springs on both sides have a noticeable inward lean from the top, instead of being level up and down. In all my years I've never seen this before, but then again this is my first JK. Is this normal and if not is my gut feeling of longer lower control arms the solution?

Rebar-7

Do you mean as in bowing in towards frame, or bowing front to back ?

tarpon4me

It's bowing front to back so to speak, as if the spring is leaning towards the front of the jeep slightly. I can't be certain, but it almost looks like the drivers side has just a tad more forward lean. Both sides look like they are sitting on the isolator like they are suppose to. Of course the bottom there is no grey area there. I wonder if I had a longer lower control arm would it rotate the axle enough to straiten things out, or is it suppose to be that way?

Rebar-7

Any way you can post a pic ? I find it hard to believe 2" springs would have that amount of coil bow to require
Coil wedges or other, but every rig is somewhat different. Adj CA's or coil wedges would help,With Adj CA's you
Would want to keep a eye on pinion angle change's though

tarpon4me

It's dark outside now, but I will take some pics tomorrow and post them up. It's the first time I've seen a bow in a coil spring myself. The spring probably netted more of 2.5 to maybe 3" of lift. They are constant rate springs and I have a stock rear bumper. The only extra weight I have is a 33" tire and that HD hinge, which isn't much, maybe 50 pounds total. I'm concerned about having to use wedges as I've never heard of using wedges, and I wonder how reliable they are with a rig that actually goes off road. I'm all about lower control arms, but I am concerned with drive line angle as you mentioned. There is no index point in the rear for the springs like the front. Am I missing something there?

tarpon4me

Sorry it took so long to get pictures up. You can clearly see the bow in the spring. Those are the JKS JSPEC 2" coils. They've been on for about 3-4 weeks I guess. Going to Uwharrie tomorrow, so I hope that bow doesn't cause problems. I have a couple more questions.

1. If I go to a longer lower rear control arm to help with some of the bow, do I also have to go to a longer upper? Going to a longer lower would rotate the axle slightly, which in turn should correct some of the spring alignment. I figure if I also swapped the upper, the axle would push back in it's current position, which would center the axle more under the wheel well, but do nothing for the spring angle. I noticed that JKS makes a rear lower control arm designed to go along with this very spring. JSPEC model.

2. The front looks ok, but if I extend the lower in the rear, should I also do the front, or will it be OK?

tarpon4me

Doesn't look like I can use a longer lower control arm. I took a quick peek at my rear driveshaft and it has a slight upward angle at the axle. It's not bad, but if I added a longer rear it would be pretty bad. I don't know which way to go now...

tarpon4me

Bump to the top

Rebar-7

Wow that is some bow. Are you running stock upper an lower arms now ? If so if the axle looks pretty centered in
The wheel well I would do some Adj uppers that would rotate axle and pinion down. I think that would help a lot.
Most recommend when lifting a JK is Adj front lower CA's and rear Adj upper CA's to bring castor and pinion
Angles more in spec.

nthinuf

Why mess around with arms/pinion? You went with JKS coils, just grind off your perches and grab a set of their adjustable rear spring mounts to get rid of the bowing. And they have coil retainers listed on the same page, if you think you might need those.