Had the whole thanksgiving week off work so I got some more stuff done.
First, headed back to the audio shop and they swapped out the temporary sub box for the JL Audio Stealthbox that is made specifically for our Jeeps.
I chose the left side location. It's nice to have my full cargo space back and it sounds awesome.
The only thing to note is that is mounts to two of the stock hardtop bolts. This probably adds an extra minute or so if you are going to remove your top.
You'd have to swing the brackets out of the way, then once the top is off, put those two bolts back to secure the sub.
Other than that, I'm very happy with this sub and I highly recommend it. Takes up space that would otherwise go unused and leaves the storage area under the floor available.
I'm still amazed at the CLARITY of this whole audio setup. Even standing outside the jeep it sounds incredible.
Then finally... I installed a lift! I went with the AEV 2.5" with their geo correction brackets.
Install wasn't quite as painless as I had hoped... but figuratively and literally! lol
The rears went fairly smooth. I did have to make one quick call to AEV because there was a missing detail or two in the instructions pertaining to the rear track bar hardware. But the major problem I encountered was with the rear sway bar links. First, the AEV instructions say to remove them completely. You don't really need to remove the links from the sway bar. The problem was that these bolts were a BITCH to get out. Then later when I went to put them back in, the left side would not thread! The nut would go on about an inch and then just bind. Both the upper and lower bolts. The end of one bolt stripped a little. Spent some time cutting off the first couple threads. Still wouldn't work. Then the inner nut against the busing stripped. I'd say I lost a good 2 hour or more fighting with these things on the left side. The right went back on easily. So now I'm sitting there with one sway bar link missing. I gave up and started searching for a replacement. It was now 3pm (I started at 8:30am and skipped lunch) and I missed the cut-off for overnight shipping from most places. Found the Rugged Ridge rear links on Amazon and they come with new hardware. So i was able to get those with 2nd day delivery. AEV recommends keeping the OEM links because they are built tough, but oh well. I'll have shiny new ones.
I was told later by another forum member that the upper and lower bolts are threaded with a different pitch, so I may have had the wrong nuts on the wrong bolts. Why Jeep would do this I have nooooo freakin clue. And I really thought I had put aside the correct bolt with the correct nut when I removed them, but who knows. What's done is done and I have new rear links.
Meanwhile, I was able to move on to the front. No major issues here! Just time consuming. The biggest pain was the front brake line brackets. That's some thick-ass steel. I just couldn't pry them open. Ended up carefully scoring a line all the way across with a dremel cut-off wheel, cutting into it at least halfway. Then they pried open fairly easily with my vice grips. The other issue I ran into was the top nut of the front shocks. I also had to call AEV again because the illustration on the instructions shows the rubber bushings and cup washers stacked. It does not show the stop shock mount between them and it doesn't say to get rid of the oem top bushing. So i had to confirm all that. Then trying to tighten the top bolt, the allen wrench thing just wasn't working, even after cutting away some of the plastic fender liner. What I found worked really well was using a vice grip with some protective rubber or duct tape on the shaft of the shock to hold it. Doesn't take a lot of pressure. Then I was easily able to tighten the top nut with a ratchet. AEV does not say how much to tighten. I tighten until the rubber bushing looked compressed a bit and I had at least 1/4" of threads visible. After that, everything went back together smoothly. The jeep was put back on the ground, wiggled around a bit and everything torqued. By this point, including the time wasted on the rear links, I probably spent about 15 hours on install.
Then finally, I installed the AEV geo correction brackets. This was the easiest out of all of it.
Spent almost two hours on this part including torquing everything.
The problem I had with the AEV instructions is their lack of details.
I know some things may be self explanatory to someone with a lot of experience but you know there are a lot of newbs attempting this, some more green than myself, so put in a little extra effort and address these.
Now, onto the ride.
I have to admit, I'm pretty disappointed.
During my research I kept hearing how great the AEV on-road ride quality was. I have to call B.S.
Handling is most definitely improved. Body roll is greatly reduced. But the ride quality is much harsher than stock.
And yes, everything was torqued while back on the ground, no bushing binding.
One reason I got the jeep was because I was tired of my lowered euro sedans rough ride over crappy city streets and now I'm back to that.
I even feel like there is a deep bass while going over bumps that I can feel in my ear drums... Like I feel like i need to crack the windows open or something. That's the best way to explain it.
So I've already ordered some Rancho 9000xl adjustables to replace the Bilsteins.
After further research the last couple days it seems I am far from the only one with this issue, especially on a light jeep with no aftermarket bumpers, winch and other gear. From what I've read, the rancho's really help. I want to keep the springs. So hopefully I'll end up with a nice compromise of handling and ride comfort. After an Amazon discount for using some credit card points to order, it only cost me $247 out of pocket so if they help it will be more than worth it.
My next step will be the JKS front links with yellow springs.
I've also seen people mention that you can try using the middle set of holes on the geo brackets since a light jeep probably ended up with more than 2.5" of lift.
Would that improve ride comfort?
I'll report back late next week on the shocks. They should be in on Wednesday.
Here's a before and after of the lift!