Lifting an 06. Just want to double check my parts

[NickSuark]

Howdy! I'm looking to get my 06 65th Ann. KJ lifted. I just want to double check everything and get advice before I start so here's the run down:

Bought a donor 2003 Limited and stripped all the parts I needed as well as a JBA 3.5 Lift that I was told was professionally installed. I have the rear Y Link extension bracket minus the two-hole piece bc of a stripped bolt (I measured and plan to recreate the piece out of 1/2 steel). Front End was really ****** up bad, cracked JBA arms (cashed in warranty luckily new ones are on the way), Coil strut wasn't assembled properly and the shock rubbed for years and dug a groove in the rubber bushing, slanting the shock and causing the spring to warp and smack the arms. It has a clevis spacer and top spacer. Coil springs seemed to be fine after disassembly, but I decided to just get fresh and grab new OME927s as well as new Bilstien 24-139168 shocks.

The rear end had OME948 springs, two top spacers, the Y Link extension, Bilstien 24-185660 shocks (which I will re-use since they seem fine), hockey puck stops, and a beefier looking boomerang (moog I think).

I really want to make sure I assemble the front coil and shock the right way since what I saw was knarly and ended up causing the coils to bend and smack the arms. When I took apart the assembly, the bottom washer seemed to be in the wrong spot underneath the blue protector boot. Not sure if that's apart of the problem or not, but it goes against the install instructions included in the bilstien package.

I'm not 100% sure how to approach attaching the rear JBA Y-link extension with the line-up and angle calibration and washers etc. Need some help there.

Parts to be installed summary:

Front:
OME927X
Bilstien 24-139168
Clevis and Top Spacer
New generation JBA arms
TeraFlex Bumps
Moog LBJs

Rear:
OME948X
Bilstien 24-185660
2 Top spacers each
3 Puckers each side
Y-Link Extendo Bracket
Moog A-arm

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[tommudd]

WOW
well first that is not a JBA lift, its a common OME lift
may have been bought from JBA but not one of his signature coilover lifts
You will need new upper mounts for sure in front as well as what you have listed
How high are you wanting to go ?
reason I ask is with top plate and clevis you are going to be at 3.5 inches or so ????
what size tires are you looking to run ?
For the rear tri link its a hit or miss on your first few tries
If I was there take just a few minutes but ....
Best to bolt the bracket to the diff , sit the rear diff to the proper angle and then figure out how many washers you need and start from there

Those rear shocks look sketchy

 

[NickSuark]

I'm going for 3-3.5", and ready to sacrifice the top plate if I need to level the front. The 03 Came with some sweet silver Moab wheels and nearly new 245/75 R16s. Gonna slap those on.
So for the front shocks, I'm pretty much going to be tightening that nut as far as it wants to go right? At one point I was wondering if I needed a special cup shaped washer or something to stop it from drifting like it did.
Also what angle am I looking for? Is it the same as stock? And how can I measure it?
I'm ready to replace the rear shocks if I need to, but for now I'm just gonna see how long they last.

 

[tommudd]

Personally I would do away with clevis, and just use the 1/4 inch thick top plate
That will give you a solid 3 inches of lift
Great buy on the Moabs and 245-75-16s, they work ok, but when they wear out go with 265-70-16s, same height but look way better on those 8 inch Moabs
Yes look at the way the diff ( pinion ) sits stock and try and get close to that when lifted
you want where the front of the driveshaft comes out of the transfer case the same plane as the pinion coming out of the rear diff

 

[NickSuark]

I knew I would run into problems near the end of the project, always do

So I got everything put in and it all went smooth just been working on it slowly after work last week and yesterday. Last thing for me to do is put in the Y-Link Extension. Front shaft angle is 2.5, I jacked up the pinion to match it. Here's where I'm having trouble, can't manage to get the UCA BJ into the mount. I tried bolting the extension bracket to the differential with the UCA BJ already attached and that worked but then my angle is jacked up too high at 6.5 degrees and I have no idea how to get it down since adding washers increases the angle (I tried adding washers anyways just to try it out and ended up at 8.5 degrees). I'm at a loss of what to do other than trying to modify and mount the bracket in front of the Y link since that's just about how far back I need to go to get that BJ in (about half an inch).

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[tommudd]

You have it on right , just need to get the rear diff in the right position, THEN figure out your angles
Do not modify it as then you'll really be in a mess
Never had one that did not work

 

[NickSuark]

I can't figure out how to get in the right position no matter how I look at it. The only way I can get it to fit and bolt up is by jacking the pinion up, but that throws the angles off out of acceptable range, and wont come back down when let go. Is it possible to pull the diff back a tiny bit somehow? Are the control arms from year 2003 different than 2006? There's just no way I can see this bolting up without wedge-shaped washers or something. How do you personally go about installing one?

 

[tommudd]

Lower control arms from 02-07 are all the same length
You do not want to move the diff back any, bad idea
You have something off somewhere there, can not tell from the pictures you posted
I've personally installed a dozen or so of the JBA brackets like you have with no problems
just takes a bit of time with higher lifts like 3.5-3.75
Have you mounted it and let it down with full weight on it ?

 

[NickSuark]

Yessir. I first tried it on jackstands with tires juuust above the ground, then started over from square one with full weight on the ground. Ended up in the same situation where I could get it to bolt up only by forcing the pinion up and afterwards getting a bad angle when weight was back on it. Something I left out is I also have 2 each of the bottom rear spring isolator too. And decided to delete the sway bar to see what that's all about.

Felt like I was going crazy trying to get it to work earlier today. I lost my patience and did a no-no. Cut a notch in the bracket to mount it in front of the ball joint mount just to try it out. Good news is it fit, and bolted up perfectly. Put me at -3.5 on front and +3.0 on pinion. No vibrations, no clunks, A-arm looks good and neutral, everything seems fine so far. Only drove up to 50mph though. Gonna take her in to get an alignment tomorrow.

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Fingers crossed no problems in the future...

 

[tommudd]

Two on the bottom doesn"t work as well as 3 on the top ( up to two plus original )
just weakened the bracket

 

[NickSuark]

I might just give that a shot at 20 bucks a pop. I hope I didn't remove a critical amount of strength, but I guess we'll see over time. I will definitely be sure to share the aftermath if it fails