Old Man Emu?

[notwaiting]

Greetings to all CJ brothers & sisters from a new member!

I'm getting ready to upgrade the suspension on my '80 CJ5 and I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with the Old Man Emu springs and hardware?
I'm looking at three different levels from light to heavy.
My CJ has the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l C.I.D. inline 6 with a 4 ton winch and a 3 speed tranny.

The CJ presently has a 2.5" lift kit with the 2" wide springs. I have no idea what manufacturer or how old it is, but I'm primarily wanting to improve the ride, and I'm seeing several manufacturers of upgrade and I'm just looking for some good advice.
This is my 4th jeep and I purchased it about 3 yrs. ago.
Thanks!

 

[Peanut Butter]

In what way do you want to improve your ride? In general "lift kits" make a stiffer ride. This is because of the increased arch of the spring, which in turn rises the height of the vehicle. Also you sometime get additional leves in the spring which makes for a stiffer rough riding spring. If you look at the difference between the CJ and the TJ suspension, you will see what was done to make a smoother ride. Almost the complete opposite of a lift kit. The TJ suspension was designed for a smoother more stable ride. Hope this helps some, Rod.

 

[007]

Greetings to all CJ brothers & sisters from a new member!

I'm getting ready to upgrade the suspension on my '80 CJ5 and I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with the Old Man Emu springs and hardware?
I'm looking at three different levels from light to heavy.
My CJ has the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l C.I.D. inline 6 with a 4 ton winch and a 3 speed tranny.

The CJ presently has a 2.5" lift kit with the 2" wide springs. I have no idea what manufacturer or how old it is, but I'm primarily wanting to improve the ride, and I'm seeing several manufacturers of upgrade and I'm just looking for some good advice.
This is my 4th jeep and I purchased it about 3 yrs. ago.
Thanks!

Hey - I'm in Southern Indiana too - Washington...

I don't have a lift kit, but when I do - I'm going with the Rocky-Road / Old-Man Emu / YJ conversion. 2.5" lift and the ride and articulation you're looking for. I've not heard anything bad about the Emu setup, regardless of vendor.

 

[PaRenegade]

I can't give you personal performance insight but I can with parts and hardware for the OME conversion setup. I've installed them on my build but I'm still working on other things.
I went with the heavy rears (CS036) on all 4 corners because I have a heavy front bumper and 8k winch, and I have the hardtop on 8 months of the year. I got the greaseable OME bushings (SB87) and the bolts and sleeves I got from OK4WD, although I had to drill a grease hole in the sleeves (they may have remedied that by now). I also went with the M.O.R.E. front shackle mounts which are for the wider 2 1/2" springs in the front. The rear is already 2 1/2" on Jeeps. They made the Wrangler models with 2 1/2" springs all around for a softer ride. Wranglers were designed with the Cherokee in mind and hence it's smoother, car like ride.

 

[Fastatv]

Greetings to all CJ brothers & sisters from a new member!

I'm getting ready to upgrade the suspension on my '80 CJ5 and I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with the Old Man Emu springs and hardware?
I'm looking at three different levels from light to heavy.
My CJ has the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l C.I.D. inline 6 with a 4 ton winch and a 3 speed tranny.

The CJ presently has a 2.5" lift kit with the 2" wide springs. I have no idea what manufacturer or how old it is, but I'm primarily wanting to improve the ride, and I'm seeing several manufacturers of upgrade and I'm just looking for some good advice.
This is my 4th jeep and I purchased it about 3 yrs. ago.
Thanks!

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/new-lift-real-soft-21139/ Here's JR's thread, currently just above your thread, might be some good info for you there, but you may have already seen it. Keep us posted as to what you do. Rick

 

[notwaiting]

That's what their telling me from the supplier. I was just looking to see if anyone had actual experience.
The lift kit that's on my rig right now has the 2" springs and supposedly the overall control and ride improvement is worth the money to upgrade to the 2.5".

 

[notwaiting]

I appreciate the info.
I'm staying with the height, but I know the existing springs are not top of the line.I'm trying to find someone who has converted to one of high-dollar kits with the greaseable shackels from O.M.E or another manufacturer that are wider and can attest to any improvement.

 

[notwaiting]

Checked it out. He didn't post which load rating he bought, but there was good information all the same.
Thanks!

 

[billyballer]

I'm in the process of doing the conversion you are thinking of. My CJ had an old 2.5" lift with 2" wide front springs from the '80s. Ride was jarring even by CJ standards. I added greaseable shackles and that helped, but now I'm adding OME YJ springs at the same lift height. They should be in after this weekend and I will report back. I'm using greasable shackle bolts, and urethane bushings with metal sleeves. I'll give you and update once I'm driving around on it. I'm using the mid-weight springs and have a hardtop on 75% of the time, but nothing else is super heavy on my jeep.

 

[PaRenegade]

Just a note on the bolts, sleeves, and bushings. The wrangler springs use the larger 1 1/4" bushings as opposed to the 1" Jeep bushings. When using sleeves these are clamped tight between the shackles sides when the bolts are tightened (also keeps from over-tightening) and the bushings rotate on the sleeve, as opposed to the Jeep bushings rotating on the bolts. Therefore when using greaseable bolts, the grease needs to get to the rotation point which is between the sleeve and the bushings, so the sleeves must have a holes or holes to allow the grease to pass thru. Grease them up well during assembly by hand. Once together and torqued, then grease the bolts with a gun. The OME bushing have a side lip design that seals the side against the shackle.

 

[notwaiting]

Good deal! Hope everything turns out great and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks!

 

[hole]

I did the OME heavys in all 4 corners, got 3+ inches of lift and it rides better than ever. You wont regret using OME

 

[billyballer]

I had a little set back which is why I haven't given an update yet. When switching to the wider spring perches on the front one of the nuts captured inside the frame broke it's welds and came loose so I had to do surgery and cut into the frame, reweld the nut in place then patch the frame up. I'm also doing new ball joints on the Dana 30 that I just regeared. So things have taken longer than expected but I hope to have it wrapped up soon (maybe by this weekend) and I'll absolutely pass along my results.

 

[PaRenegade]

That's usually the way it goes. One thing leads to another...... then another.... then another...... till your wallets empty and your contemplating selling some blood to the plasma center!

 

[billyballer]

I finally finished! Axle is back in with new 4.10 gears, truetrac, ball joints, braided brake lines and the OME springs and new spring perches.

I haven't driven it much but my initial impression is that the springs feel a lot softer than what I had on before which was a much older 2.5" lift. There wasn't a gain or loss in lift when compared to my previous 2.5" lift and there is great clearance for my 31" bfg's. I'm gonna try and find a place to flex it a bit so see how it does as I do want to step up to 32's or narrow 33's.
Again these are the medium duty OME's, and they are the older version, made in Australia, not the newer Dakar version. They are mated right now to Rancho RS5000 shocks, which I've heard are on the stiff side so I may try to find something a little better.

So I guess the answer to the initial post is that the ride is much improved.

 

[JPSOUP]

I'm cutting into the Jeep this weekend to install the OME and Rock Granite kit from OK4WD.

I am also mounting new front and rear bumpers from Ground Pounder Fab so there will be modifications I'm sure. I went with heavy-duty spring all around due to heavy bumpers and a hard top in the in the winter.

 

[hole]

You wont regret the heavys

 

[JPSOUP]

Finally finished. Installation was a snap, removal posed a few issues, but nothing most wrenchers couldn't handle.

Jeep is starting to look like I want it to.

Here is a before and after:

 

[mtnwhlr]

Looks good. did it changed the way it drives down the road?

 

[PaRenegade]

Man I wish I had seen the above post a bit earlier JPSOUP. I like the OK4WD kit but they have a flaw and I hope they fixed it by now. Did the steel sleeves have a hole or holes in the sides of it? The problem is the greasable bolts, when used with OME bushings and sleeves, don't allow the grease to get to where it is needed. Neither the bolts nor the sleeves turn (they are clamped between the shackle), the bushing turns on the sleeve. So the grease needs to get to that intersection and without a hole the grease stays on the inside of the sleeve and not the outside where it's needed.