Raising my Eagle

[AlexH92]

Im going to raise my eagle but im not sure how to raise the front. Im going to get blocks for the back, but will that work for the front?

[Mechanic]

The front of an eagle is difficult to raise because of the independent front suspension. you can only lift the front of an eagle 2.5 inches before you have a dangerous angle on your half shafts. to get that 2.5 inch lift, I've heard most people use a 1 inch coil spring spacer to get 2 inches out of the front.

someone else will chime in for other ways to lift the front.

[Whuntmore]

Yeah, that's what I have heard also.  Unless you can fab new mounts, and change the bolt on positions to all the arms, and then get custom bigger/longer coils for the front, spacers are the easiest way to do it.  It sounds mickey mouse, but it works well.

the back is alot easier.  just get a more arch on the back leafs, or helper spring thingys, or even to weld a very secure leaf spring box in the back,  there are different changes for that.  but you still have to be careful not to raise it over that 2-2.5 inch mark.  Any higher, and you're talking about redoing the whole suspension/drive system for like what the guys who take their eagles mudding/rock-crawling.

[AlexH92]

Thanks guys, do you know where i can get 2" coil spacers for a good price? Also, how do you use the compresor under the hood to air up the back air shocks? sorry i dont know the technical term, I orders a chiltons manual but wont be getting it for a while because the company has to print the book before it ships out.

[IowaEagle]

The Chilton's may or may not help. But they do make good door stops.  Consider purchasing a factory AMC TSM or MR.  We sell a '82/83 TSM in the Eagle Nest store and you can sometimes find them or the later MR's at a certain auction site.

[thereverendbill]

The Chilton's may or may not help. But they do make good door stops.  Consider purchasing a factory AMC TSM or MR.  We sell a '82/83 TSM in the Eagle Nest store and you can sometimes find them or the later MR's at a certain auction site.

I use mine as coaster ...... you can put a whole 6 pack on that sucker

[landphil]

The air pump under the hood is part of a load leveling sytem. If it is  complete and working it should level the back on it's own.  if not working you may have to pipe new hoses to the back and pump it manually , there is a switch to turn it on to pump manually

[IowaEagle]

Yes, there is an axle height sensor that is part of the system.  You may want to check to see if the switch is turned to "auto".

[redneckjames]

ive thought about the spacers to but i wanna clear 31s.. whats the shaft you talked about having a bad angle? the driveshaft to the front? or the cv axles? i also heard you can replace this shaft with one from an older s10.

[Whuntmore]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but the front CV joints won't handle anything past 2-2.5 inches.  I think the back will handle a bit more, but if you're looking at raising the car alot more, you'll probably want to check out posts on what people have done to jack their eagles up quite a bit to clear big tires.

From what I understand, if you're gonna raise up the car like 4, 6 inches or more, you're probably looking at converting the front to a straight axle to start with.  check out Altered eagles on this site, for conversions.

http://forums.amceaglenest.com/index.php?board=43.0 

or try more posts under 'The Shop': Drivetrain, or suspension.

[mick]

The problem with CV's is the working angle of the shafts is super limited.  They are strong as can be, I would trust them running tires up to 33's and possibly 35's, the problem is just keeping them in the correct range of motion.  If someone were to build a taller steering knuckle, leave the upper control arms in the stock location, and drop the lower control arms and front differential, you would have the ability to lift and maintain the correct angles.  I just don't see anyone who would be willing to put that kind of money into designing and casting the steering knuckles.  That's why I go straight to the SAS.

[boreddead88]

OK, I may be new to eagles, but I'm an old hand at lifting, and here is the point were you have to ask your self what am I gonna use it for? If you go Wheeling every weekend, or keep it as a hobby car it might be worth it, but if it spends the majority of its time on pavement you'll likely wind up with some lift regret. I see the cheapest way to be the spacers in the front and shackles or blocks in the rear. However given that the CV shafts have a fairly extreme angle in the stock position I'm imagining your gonna go through CV joints like crazy. if you want to keep the independent front end. You could do one of 2 things.

You could leave the diff housing were it is, pull both control arms, and fabricate a pre-runner style suspension. if your not familiar this involves lengthening the control arms, and using a longer spring. basically the idea is that you wind up with a less extreme angel on the CV shaft. Obviously if your not a master fabricator its probably way out of the question seeing that it involves building completely new control arms and getting the CV shafts lengthened along with a long list of steering mods.

The easier method is to fab a drop for the front diff housing. You would then have to take the entire front suspension and at all the mounting points make some sort of spacers or brackets to drop the whole suspension equally you could then use longer springs to raise it up, and get the CV shafts to a point were they would be at a reasonable angle. Then the rear is pretty straight forward, you could get new spring packs or use add-a-leafs or blocks or shackles things to watch in the rear are drive shaft angle and length it I'm not sure how much travel is in the slider, but if your bottoming out you could destroy your rear or your t-case, ask me how I know that.

The logical way, and probably the way I'd do it is get a d30 from a Cherokee, and do a solid Axel swap, alot of fabrication, and alot of builder parts from Rusty's, but your lift is only limited by your drive shaft angels, and your imagination. plus then you can eliminate that air actuator on the front Axel. Ive seen threads on this swap, they all involve a massive amount of fabrication, and I wouldn't recommend welding to the uni-body (just a general bit of advice)




 

[A-A EAGLE]

Hi,

I lifted my 1983 Eagle at the rear with much longer shackles and at the front with aluminium rings that fit on the top of the coil springs. You really need a good springcompressor as the coils are pretty strong!
I have 1" rings in the front which will cause a 2.5" lift. My Eagle was not sagging but the 215/75/15 BFGoodrich AT's rubbed the wheelarches when sharp cornering

I am very, very happy with the result!  You can buy a set on the big Bay for a resonable price.

Anjo
Holland

[Whuntmore]

@ boreddead88

pretty much YES to what you said.

The only thing to lifting the eagle 2", is to be able to get a slightly bigger tire on it, without having it rub on those fender skirts.

Now from what I understand, there shouldn't be (hardly any) loss in handling if you do it right.

Then you can go with 235's truck tires, and that will give you a bit more clearance in the snow, or for minor off-road.

For street driving, IIRC it shouldn't make that much of a difference.

[A-A EAGLE]

Hi,

I lifted my 1983 Eagle at the rear with much longer shackles and at the front with aluminium rings that fit on the top of the coil springs. You really need a good springcompressor as the coils are pretty strong!
I have 1" rings in the front which will cause a 2.5" lift. My Eagle was not sagging but the 215/75/15 BFGoodrich AT's rubbed the wheelarches when sharp cornering

I am very, very happy with the result!  You can buy a set on the big Bay for a resonable price.

BTW the front tires don't rub anymore and the handling is unaffected. Fitting those rings on the front is an easy job, just do it carefully!

Anjo
Holland