Lift kit opinions...

[A-A EAGLE]

No, you don't have to move anything. You only have to remove the shockabsorber top bolt, lift the front of the vehicle, remove front wheels, place a suitable spring compressor. Compress the spring until it comes loose enough to place the lift rings on top of it. As allways you have to push and fiddle a bit. Pushing down the front suspension system can give you just enough space to place the ring easily. As said use a suitable spring compressor cause it needs a lot of force to compress the coil spring. And be very carefull. Lifting the backside is really easy.

Anjo
Holland

[Crandall1]

The spring compressor makes me nervous; I think I'll seek professional help for that bit. But otherwise, it seems very easy. I'm going to do your method. I think those rings are the commonly available SPC ones, so I can just get them at AZ or O'Reilly's or whatever. But I'm gonna order the rear ones from the Bay and do that myself.

Thanks for the advice. I'll provide b4/after pictures.

Tonight, however, I have to replace all the belts. Took it out last night to test the 4WD and threw the belt that drives the water pump and power steering. Since I didn't bring any tools with me (forgot my bag) I had to call a tow truck who came like 5 miles off road to get me. It was funny. Go, Roadside Assistance!

[Crandall1]

This appears to be the same as the evilBay one:

http://ow.ly/5Y3Qn

But direct from Superior, at 1/3rd the price. Does anyone disagree with this assessment?

EDIT: I found the same exact kit as the evilBay / Amazon one at O'Reilly's for $13.99. Easy peasy. They didn't have the coil spacers, though. (The woman driving their computer must have gone through the whole "coil" section, with me repeatedly telling her that it was for springs, not the coil. Unbelievable.)

[maddog]

when i went to get some of the coil spring spacers for Eagle Eyes i was told they no longer carry them because of safety issues and i went to o'reilly's, advance, and autozone.

[captspillane]

@eaglefreek Do you think P225/75R16 would be an option? According to the Tire Size Calculator, that'd be 29.3". Those are stock size for a Jeep Wrangler, and are readily available as that's the first thing Jeep owners seem to change.

You don't need a lift kit to install those tires. I have 235/75 R15 tires on all my Eagles. That’s a stock Cherokee size of 28.9" diameter. I remove the plastic flare and cut the fender back. I crimp the rough edge with vise grips to give it rigidity and to eliminate the sharp edge. I install the fender flare again. The fender flare has a depth of about four inches. I trim the flare so it has a depth of about an inch. On some of them I didn't trim the flare at all and after a week of the tire rubbing the soft flare it was trimmed automatically. If you do this there will be no difference in the fender externally, since all the modification happens out of sight inside the fender flare. For some reason I only have a picture of my red SX4 with the fender flares off, but they are back on it now. 

I also did this to my Spirit GT to put on 205/75 R15. It didn’t take much trimming at all. I was careful and when I was done the thin little aluminum trim piece stretched across the new wider arch and everything looks entirely stock.

Don’t install a spacer until you’ve replaced your coil springs. None of us should have the same coil springs the factory installed. Most of you have totally flat control arms and bumpers nearly touching because your coil springs are 25 years old. If you replace them with 1970 plus Javelin springs the wire thickness is slightly bigger and more robust. Most of you will see at least a one inch lift with just new springs.

If you buy Javelin springs they will come in pairs, so your Eagle will lean because the engine is offset from the centerline. It’s minimal, but some people fix it by installing a spacer on one side. For me I searched Rock Auto until I found two slightly different sizes and then ordered a pair of each. That’s actually how your Eagle came from the factory.

I have put my Rubicon 33x12.5 R17 rims on an Eagle before. With the fender removed and the rocker panel trimmed flush with the rest of the body (it points out on its own like a spike a few inches) even those will work just fine.  Of course with those you’ll have to make visible changes to the fender. I believe you can put 33 inch tires on an unlifted Eagle and still retain most of your fender flare and respectable stock appearance. Specifically I want to cut off the outer flat area of the fender flare and then stretch it to give a bigger arch.  If I can ever find those skinny 33x9 R15 or even 33x10.5 R15 tires I’ve heard exist, and mount them on regular Cherokee rims with normal backspacing, I’ll do just that. The backspacing on this tire obviously won’t work.

[shaggimo]

 If I can ever find those skinny 33x9 R15 or even 33x10.5 R15 tires I’ve heard exist, and mount them on regular Cherokee rims with normal backspacing, I’ll do just that. The backspacing on this tire obviously won’t work.

You mean these?

 
BFG AT 33 9.50 15 They work very well in the snow when new, decent offroad too, but quite pricey  . I believe the other manufacturer that offers the skinny 33 is procomp, not as good of a tire in general though. The down side to the narrow tire, you had better make sure your front end components are in tip top shape, they are much less forgiving when it comes to death wobble (unlike a 33 12.50). These tires are fairly tough to find too, pretty much anywhere you'd go they would have to special order them, so get 5, lol.

[Crandall1]

I ended up going with 235/75/15 Goodyear Wranglers. They wouldn't even go on without putting a longer shackle on the back and spacers on the front. But once I got that all sorted, and took all the flares off (which I intended to do anyhow) they fit okay. I'm getting some rubbing on the fronts at the lock when I go forward, and somewhat sooner in reverse. The backs aren't rubbing hardly at all. The rims are stock Cherokee 15".

My general opinion on the matter is that this vehicle has settled quite a bit, since everything I've read said a 1" spacer in the front would give me plenty of room for this tire size; I'm going to do an add-a-leaf in the back to get another inch to stop the back rubbing entirely. I'll leave the fronts as-is for now, but I may still cut away a bit of the fender. This Eagle is pretty cashed, body-wise, and I got it for throwing around the desert, so I'm not going to bother with a solid axel swap. We're working to get to Debt Zero this year, and assuming we get there, my reward is going to be another Eagle, with which I plan to essentially clone Pepper. But this one I have now, it would be throwing good money after bad.

[carnuck]

 If I can ever find those skinny 33x9 R15 or even 33x10.5 R15 tires I’ve heard exist, and mount them on regular Cherokee rims with normal backspacing, I’ll do just that. The backspacing on this tire obviously won’t work.

You mean these?

 
BFG AT 33 9.50 15 They work very well in the snow when new, decent offroad too, but quite pricey  . I believe the other manufacturer that offers the skinny 33 is procomp, not as good of a tire in general though. The down side to the narrow tire, you had better make sure your front end components are in tip top shape, they are much less forgiving when it comes to death wobble (unlike a 33 12.50). These tires are fairly tough to find too, pretty much anywhere you'd go they would have to special order them, so get 5, lol.

I have come across at least 3 other 33/9.5/15 manufacturers than BFG (I have a set of those for my '82 Honcho). One was a Les Schwab supplier (didn't find out who). Another is Trail Maker (I scored a barely used set for $200 then it cost almost $100 to have them mounted and balanced) Big O used to make them (I got almost 60,000 miles out of a used set on my '87 MJ)

[shaggimo]

Are either of those still being made?

[carnuck]

I miss my Kelly MSR Safaris with this pattern

Trailcutters not trailmakers. Also listed as High Traction Tire (not sure what manufacturer but it's what's on my Jeep right now)

I see the 33/9.5/15 BFGs on Evilbay for $175 each

[shaggimo]

175 isn't too bad, but I'd hate to see the shipping cost  . I think I will cheap out this year and buy snow tires, lol.

[mick]

A bit off topic but.......Rubber is going to do nothing but go up in price.  I watched prices go up around 30% in the 5yrs I had my shop, to the point we quit carrying tires.  I now horde (FOR THE HORDE!) every decent tire I can get my hands on (in pairs minimum).  Keeping an eye on Craigslist can often yield good deals.  I would always ask customers who were having us install a lift what tire they were going to run, and ask what they were doing with their old rubber.  I got a 60% tread set of Rubicon MTR's for $150 which I put another 30,000mi on, and now the wagon is sitting on a set of Rubicon wheels and tires that have less than 500mi. I traded a small job for them.  The Black car is on a set of 225's on Jeep wheels that I gave $200 for, the tires are 80% or better.  A friend of his was going to give him $100 for the set, and I was just getting ready for a Moab trip and wanted the extra height over my 215's so I offered him $200.

I can't even imagine buying 40's these days.  I'd have to put a second mortgage on the house.

Back on topic I had a set of 33 10.50 BFG M/T's on my J10, LOVED THEM!

[shaggimo]

  Whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that, hahaha. The sx4 is sitting on free sneakers, as was my jeep last fall. Anytime a customer comes in to buy new tires similar size to what I run, I look at what was taken off at the end of the day, and if it's better rubber than what I have, on they go, lol. 

[JCJones]

Hello all, so I'm new here, and although I have wanted an Eagle for 20+ years the opportunity never arose until last week. I picked up an '83 Limited wagon.

On the subject of lifting these, there are some serious limitations with the IFS as far as lift but looking at the exploded view in the service manual and inspecting the car itself, it seems that with three custom brackets the differential could be lowered 2" or 3" and solve the problem with the CV angle. With 1" spring spacers (should give ~2.5" of lift), and a custom 3" ball joint spacer for the top ball joint it seems that 5"+ of front lift could be achievable with only minor other modifications on the cheap (custom strut bar, and possibly longer tie rod sleeves).

It also seemed that custom tube control arms could be fairly easily made that incorporate 3" to 4" of drop, heim joints for the steering to handle the angle since a dropped pitman arm and dropped idler arm would be problematic, long links for the stabilizer bar, and custom dropped strut bars.

Has anyone done any of that to get a nice lift (~6" or so) while keeping the IFS?

JC Jones

[rmick]

Check this thread with photos http://forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=36720.0