Lifted CJ5 questions

[Total Chaos]

I am new to the forum. It has alot of good reading material.
I have found a few threads here that have somewhat answered my questions, but I want to make sure I am on the right track.
I have posted some pics of my Cj, 1 after I got it, during the rebuild stage and the rest after I finished (never finished).

Here are my questions:
1. After doing some measuring to determine the current lift(as described very well in one of the threads,). It appears to be to be 2.5". Does it look right?
2. It also looks like a body lift as well or is this stock? I measured the spacers between the body and the frame and came up w/ .75". There are noticable gaps from the splash pans in the fender wells to the frame.
3. The original tires(when I bought it) were Q78 Buckshots on 16" rims (see pic during paint work). The rubber cleats on the sides rubbed the front springs on a hard turn, which ruined the springs(loose & shifted). Since then I replaced w/ 15" deep dish on an economical set of 33x12.5 A/T's. I want to move to ProComp Xterains 35x12.5's, after replacing the lift w/ the same height. Do you think I'll have the same problem? Any other potential rubbing problems?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Sasquach]

Very nice looking CJ!:drool:
I'm not seeing the lift, stock shackles and stock looking springs and body lift is nill. What does look lifted about it is the steering drag link angle.
I think 35's will give you fits and rub the springs regardless of lift without using wheel spacers as well as rub the fender wells and fenders.

 

[BusaDave9]

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Nice CJ5 !
It's hard to say how much lift you have from pictures. 2.5 may be right. Take a look at this:

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I also have a '79 CJ5 with a AMC 304 . I have 36 inch tires but I have about 6 inches of lift and a lot of fender cutting. I get a lot of articulation and that's why I need extra room for my tires.

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[Old Dog]

Like Dave said the tires will hit the springs without wheel spacers, they will also rub the fenderwells.
Time to get the saw out.

 

[7D8CJ]

I like the Rubicon Express 4.5'' lift. I have this with 33x12.50 Pro Comp X terrains. No rubbing what so ever.

 

[Total Chaos]

Thanks for the responses.
I was wondering the same, if there was a lift at all.
I did the measuring from the diagram and came up with 2.5" from the top of axle to a straight line drawn from top of spring at ends. What was stock?
Both the rear and front springs have 5 leafs each, stock? Diagrams in Chilton's manuals show 6 or 7, not sure if that's correct.

The pic during the rebuild has the buckshots on, the only place these tires rubbed(while on flat surfaces) were on the springs on a hard turn, allthough I have not used these tires off road, where the real test would be.

 

[BusaDave9]

I did the measuring from the diagram and came up with 2.5" from the top of axle to a straight line drawn from top of spring at ends. What was stock?

Stock axles have 0 inches.
Sounds like you have a 2.5 inch lift.

 

[Germy]

Great looking cj!!!!

 

[IOPort51]

just to put my .2 into this old question once more. I have 2.5 lift with 1 inch of body lift. I have run 35x15s with small offset rims without rubbing the tires on anything. I find that 31 inch tires are more "comfortable " to drive than 33s and I don't think I would ever put 35s on my CJ5 . I really don't see what they would get me. I do like to drive mine on the street and being that tall at highway speed is fun for a while but just too much work to be fun for long.
the good thing about the question is that there is no wrong answer.

 

[mylittlecj5]

LOl and I take the opposite side here...I like my 35" tires and couldn't see trading down on this CJ for anything smaller...lol There is always another viewpoint, yet we all get along! Thats the great thing about the CJ crowd!

 

[Kane]

I have been riding on 33's for so long I almost do not remember what my old Jeep felt like with 31's. I was considering 31's for the Scrambler but that Jeep is soo long that it almost needs 33's or 35's to look the part of being a bad <-BAD WORD-> Jeep. I actually started looking around for cheep 31's just to try out on my 5 and get a feel for them again.

 

[Petescj]

I dont even know what the question is. Im still eyeballing the pic of that clean straight CJ5 .

If your not wheeling this Jeep stuff some 35s on and be done. If you want to articulate the axles at all time to step up to a 4 in lift and deal with a little rub. Me personally ? I think 33s are the right size Jeep tire , especially a CJ5 . 35 is the upper limit. Either way try not to slip in my :drool:. Love what youve done so far.

 

[Total Chaos]

Thanks for the comments. I spent alot of time on it. It took me 2 years, off and on. Did everything myself, actually learned how to paint on it, my first paint job. Got lucky. I pulled it home(pulled) in peices. A friend had it in his garage for about 5 years, in peices. It took me that long to talk him out of it.
As Johnboy saz "ya in ya out". Not sure which way I want to go with the rubber. Since I live near the beach, there is sand, sand, water and more sand, so not much need for alot of articulation. I like the way the old buckshots lifted the jeep(16" rims, Q78's, believe they were about 36" tall). I have the Lemanns A/T's on now, they run very nice on the road and pretty good in the sand, mud, forget it.
How much wheel spacer do you think is needed to keep from rubbing the springs if I go w/ the 35's? I assume I will need to do all 4?
Either way I need to replace the springs, front and back. Any preferences for the CJ5 ?

 

[Total Chaos]

BusaDave, I ran into a snag that's just confusing me. Please let me know what you think.
I remeasured using the method from your diagram and came up with 3". I looked around to find a few kits avail. I was settled on Black Diamond, called the factory to make sure their 3" kit fits the '79 CJ5 . He confirmed yes, then we got on the subject of, is it a true 3" as compared to what I was measuring. They have a different method that's just confusing me.

"From a straight line drawn from the center of the spring front & rear eye mounting bolts, measure down to the top of the spring in front of the axle." This is the lift height. If that is true, I have a 5" lift. Does not make sense as I have stock length brake lines, no drop pitman. My jeep pics that I showed surely does not support that much height, right?
Help!!

 

[BusaDave9]

"From a straight line drawn from the center of the spring front & rear eye mounting bolts, measure down to the top of the spring in front of the axle." This is the lift height.

If that is true a stock CJ comes with a 2 1/2 inch lift.
I need to do some more checking. If anyone else has some insight please chime in.

 

[BusaDave9]

"From a straight line drawn from the center of the spring front & rear eye mounting bolts, measure down to the top of the spring in front of the axle." This is the lift height.

This can't be right. It's impossible. They want you to measure past the axle tube to the top spring pack.
That distance is the spring arch, not the lift. Imagine a stock jeep CJ.
If you were to follow their instructions and come up with a measurement of 0 then you would have perfectly strait springs. They wouldn't even fit if the axle was on top of the spring.

 

[Total Chaos]

Thanks for response BusaDave, what you are saying makes perfect sense.

Maybe one way to look at it, is to find out what the arches are from the different spring manufacturers and find the one that is in comparison with my current one? That's if they all measure the arches, I would think they have that info.

If I am not mistaken, the guy at Black Diamond (I believe it's a brand of "Super Lift") told me their arches are measured the same way I wrote it in the thread yesterday. If that were the case, then their 3" lift spring would have a straight line of 1/2" over the top of the axle tube(axle tube at 2-1/2"??)? Pretty much stock, right?
BTW, I am using stock shackles(3" Center bolt to center bolt).

I might have to contact these guys again.

 

[Total Chaos]

Here's the latest after talking to Super Lift again.

I was originally inquiring about the 3" Black Diamond brand, he did not have the specs. on hand for that, but did say they were in comparison(only with deflection amounts) w/ the 4" Superlift springs.

Their(Superlift) 4" lift springs for CJ's that cover the 1979 CJ5 , measures 6.75" of free arch(no load). Measured from a straight line from center eye to eye to the top of the spring pack. Estimated measurment after load is 3.875", measured same way in front of the axle.

My installed springs currently measure 5.5" using same method to measure above. The guy told me that the est. after load measurement came from the companies experiences with that series of jeeps vs their springs.

The big question is how true is the after load measurement criteria from Superlift in my situation. Will I loose close to 3" of spring distance?
A 6.75" free arch spring will flex to 3.875" when loaded, that seems to be alot.

Is it possible my CJ has springs that were customized? From the pics that I provided, does it look like their could be 5+ inches of suspension lift(don't forget about the 1" body lift that's on as well)?

What do you all think?

 

[Petescj]

Just by eyeballing your pics ( wich again I dont mind one bit ) I think you have 4 in lift springs with the stock shackles and the afore mentioned 1 in. body lift.

Its going to be kinda hard to see in my pic but my 78 had 2 1/2 in. springs with another 1 in. for the aftermarket shackles. Looks pretty similar to yours , slightly lower.

 

[Old Dog]

It does look like you could have a 4" lift, the bottom of the body is pretty high up on the tires.
You may not have a drop pitman arm but you need one from the angle of the drag link you got now.
Just for S&G I went out and measured my springs with a piece of weedwacker string, it was 5" from the top of the spring eye to the top of the spring. the spring eye is app. 2" so that would give me 4" to the center. I have 4" superlift springs and a 1" body lift.
Heres a pic of mine on 33's