Spoke to a jeep tech, he advised anything over 3.5 you need upgraded driveshafts. $600 a pop, looks like I'll be taking my leveling kit off and sticking with the 3.25 lift.
That makes no sense? What is the reason given?? I can see the rear if you don't have a sye but why the front??? Sounds like this "jeep tec" needs to explain the reasons a little more.
IMHO this is what happened to me. The DS angled down and rubbed the Tranny skid bar.
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Unbelievably, this boot is not available. The entire DS needs to be replaced. Incredible. You can replace the boot on a CV joint, a much more complicate item. Yet a slip joint, not so much. I might try to use a shock cover instead if I can find one the right diameter.
It's not the slip yoke dust boot that's the problem.
There are two DS problems to contend with regarding 3.5" and up lifts.
1. The length of the slip yoke itself. The stock DS is engineered to a certain length overall to allow for suspension movement through the engineered geometry of the suspension. When you install a 3.5" lift (with all other aspects remaining stock) you necessarily push the limits of the length of the stock DS since you are pushing the transfer case up and the axle yoke remains in the same relative position. In this situation, the slip yoke may now only have (for sake of argument) 1 inch of travel before it separates from the DS body whereas in the stock configuration it might have 3 inches of travel before it separated from the DS body.
2. The stock driveshafts are built with conventional CV joints at the yokes (instead of double cardan CV joints). With this design, there is a dust boot to protect the bearings. When you install a 3.5" or larger lift, the operational angles at each respective yoke becomes smaller and larger (depending on which plane you measure the angle in) which introduces both extreme (relative to engineered design) pinching and stretching forces on the CV dust boot which will cause it to fail sooner than it normally would allowing contaminants into the joint causing premature failure. This change in the operational angles of the CV joints also puts more stress on the bearings themselves.
If you want to go with a 3.5" lift or higher, replacing the driveshafts is actually the cheapest option to take care of these problems as the only other viable option (in my opinion) would be to replace the stock axles with aftermarket high pinion axles.
Another option would be to use a drop kit to lower the T-case. I never have used these and never will because I don't like the idea of lowering one part of the primary drivetrain in relation to the other two pieces of the primary drivetrain. Others have used them though and there is some good after market support for them so this pretty much comes down to a matter of opinion.
And instead of figuring for 3 1/2" of lift; figure anything over 2 1/2".
With my 2 1/2" RK MaxTravel, I got about 4 months before I started to hear the squeaky-squeaky of the CV joint going bad in the front shaft. I got another 2 or 3 months use out of it because it is not a daily driver.
But then, I just have a 2 door, 4 doors might go a little longer, and you might get away with a little more lift. Good luck. Stock shafts and cv joints are kind of shit anyway. Hang tough-- there is one of the vendors here that are coming out with new drive shafts with US made spicer u joints and are a very well made shaft with a short turn around time in the very near future for quite a bit less than the $600 you are seeing.
And you don't need to worry, if you put a 3 1/2" lift in today; your stock shaft shouldn't fail you completely tomorrow. With my 2 1/2" lift; I actually gained over 4 1/2" in ride highth initially, and finally settled in around 4 to 4 1/4"--- that is with a heavy home fabbed bumper and front skid plate and a 12k winch.
I stick with ~3.5" being the limit. It seems like about 30%-40% of JKs with that much lift go through stock shafts. It's not a guarantee, but not too unlikely either.
I'm at 60k on mine; 40k with 2.5", 20k with 3.5"..original shafts. I have serviced the joints, but they are holding together fine.
Yep, the tech is right, though you don't need to spend that much on aftermarket shafts. You wouldn't want to get the replacements through a dealer.
Exactly when your stock shafts will go versus exactly how much height you've added varies some, but 4" of lift on a 4 door is as a general matter going to put your shafts on a limited lifespan. 2 doors do worse because of the increased angle.
The tech is right. I am at 3.5" and my rear went out first. My front is still here but the boot is torn. I went with Adam's 1310 driveshaft. You can get both shafts from Adams from about $600 and I put them up against any of the others, Woods, JE Reel, Coast.
The tech is right. I am at 3.5" and my rear went out first. My front is still here but the boot is torn. I went with Adam's 1310 driveshaft. You can get both shafts from Adams from about $600 and I put them up against any of the others, Woods, JE Reel, Coast.
Thanks for the info, that price I a lot better!!
:thumb:
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