Spring over 69 cj5 looking for thoughts and materials list

[JoshGregerson]

I've got a ground up rebuild going on with my. 1969 CJ5 . Wondering about people's experience with a spring over on that era CJ5 . If people have had success with a spring over could you let me know what parts it took for the steering and etcetera. Anything will help.

 

[PistolDave]

Well,

Since no one else has replied, I'll throw out my 2 cents. I have a 76 CJ7 that I did a spring over conversion to. With standard height YJ springs (no lift), I still ended up with a pretty extreme rear driveline angle and had to switch to a CV style drive shaft. This problem would be worse on the considerably shorter wheelbase CJ5 . 5" - 5.5" minimum lift is a lot for a CJ5 . It is also taller than I would like which makes it a liability in some situations off road, like traversing steep off camber hills and whatnot. On the plus side, it does ride really nice and articulates extremely well. I am running wider that stock axles also, 56" rear WMS and 58" front. Front axle was a Chevy Dana 44 that was already set up for spring over, which is a lot easier and much better than trying to cobble a stock CJ SUA axle into SOA configuration. If you want it done right, expect to completely re-engineer your steering linkage and shock mounting scheme also. I would absolutely steer clear of the spring over junk (imo) offered by rocky road. Also, don't know if this is consideration for you, but I found the stock brakes to be awfully marginal for 35/12.50-15's and so I also upgraded to rear disc's and Hydro-boost master cylinder which fixed the weak brakes problem. I think I am starting to ramble here, so...

I guess it boils down to what your goals are for going SOA in the first place? Done right it is neither cheap nor easy, contrary to interweb opinion.

Dave

 

[cglax6]

This problem would be worse on the considerably shorter wheelbase CJ5. 5" - 5.5" minimum lift is a lot for a CJ5.

You're probably going to get more opinions than you want on this one.

I don't have SOA on my CJ5 . I have a 2.5" SUA BDS spring lift on 31" tires and I feel like I have plenty of clearance...and the ride and height feel perfect. I think I'd be a bit too tall if everything was 3" higher.

I looked into it when I started researching lifts, but I don't think I'd like being that high. The articulation would be awesome, but not worth it for what I use my rig for.

 

[coldair]

I had a spring over lift CJ5 with a cv rear driveshaft it was more then the cv could handle degree wise. It would shake when you drove it down the rode and the u joints wouldn't last long.

 

[JeeperChris]

Have you checked out Rocky-Road? If nothing else they might be good for a parts list and some 'food-for-thought'.