So I got one of the "Deeke's" lift UCAs in today, first time doing UCAs on a Liberty and man, it is a pain in the ass! Getting to the rear driver side UCA bolt is a right squeeze between the steering shaft, brake lines, and everything else in there. I ended up loosing one of the nuts for the UCA down into a hole in the unibody frame rail while doing it. Talk about a stupid design by Jeep on that one! They put a hole, just bit enough to loose the nut, RIGHT under the rear driver side UCA bolt! So of course as soon as I tried to pull the socket out with the nut in it (and because of the awkward maneuvering with a socket on a 12" extension), the nut fell into the hole and disappeared into the frame rail! That noise is going to bother the hell out of me as it rattles around in the frame rail when driving.
Other than that though, the control arm seemed to fit well, I still have the ball joint disconnected as I didn't get the coilovers installed today, but did get the old ones disassembled and the new ones assembled.
The grease fitting on top of the bushings though, are poorly placed, I removed them and plugged the holes after greasing them, because it appeared as though they could snap off when the suspension fully articulates. I just filled the hole with a dab of silicone, so if I need to in the future, I can put a grease needle through that and grease them that way still.
The arms themselves seem of decent quality, not JBA quality, but decent. The biggest concern I have is with the quality of the ball joint itself. I am going to use this ball joint that came with it, but I may swap it out later for a better known name brand one. They do appear to accept the standard Moog K292(I think that's the part #), that JBA arms or some Silverados take. It would be an easy swap. The hardware holding the ball joint to the arms seems of fairly low quality, despite apparently being grade 8, so anyone considering these arms, may want to order some Moog K292 ball joint and them and the hardware before installing the arms. The arms themselves seem good enough, so if you're okay with swapping the ball joints, or concerned about the quality of them (like I am a bit), it's still a significantly cheaper option to buy these and swap in the Moog ball joints, and have basically JBA UCAs for half the price. ($150USD for the arms, $100-$150 for 2 Moog K292 BJs).
Here is some photos of them newly installed.
The blue springs are OME 927s, I tried painting them blue to match the blue metal mesh grill I put in, and my blue row hooks, but the springs for scratched up pretty bad when trying to assemble the new coilovers. Shocks are Rancho RS5764 if I recall correctly. Bilsteins are expensive up here in Canada, and my fiancee is starting to get mad at me spending so much money on my old jeep, and not on her
Other than that though, the control arm seemed to fit well, I still have the ball joint disconnected as I didn't get the coilovers installed today, but did get the old ones disassembled and the new ones assembled.
The grease fitting on top of the bushings though, are poorly placed, I removed them and plugged the holes after greasing them, because it appeared as though they could snap off when the suspension fully articulates. I just filled the hole with a dab of silicone, so if I need to in the future, I can put a grease needle through that and grease them that way still.
The arms themselves seem of decent quality, not JBA quality, but decent. The biggest concern I have is with the quality of the ball joint itself. I am going to use this ball joint that came with it, but I may swap it out later for a better known name brand one. They do appear to accept the standard Moog K292(I think that's the part #), that JBA arms or some Silverados take. It would be an easy swap. The hardware holding the ball joint to the arms seems of fairly low quality, despite apparently being grade 8, so anyone considering these arms, may want to order some Moog K292 ball joint and them and the hardware before installing the arms. The arms themselves seem good enough, so if you're okay with swapping the ball joints, or concerned about the quality of them (like I am a bit), it's still a significantly cheaper option to buy these and swap in the Moog ball joints, and have basically JBA UCAs for half the price. ($150USD for the arms, $100-$150 for 2 Moog K292 BJs).
Here is some photos of them newly installed.
The blue springs are OME 927s, I tried painting them blue to match the blue metal mesh grill I put in, and my blue row hooks, but the springs for scratched up pretty bad when trying to assemble the new coilovers. Shocks are Rancho RS5764 if I recall correctly. Bilsteins are expensive up here in Canada, and my fiancee is starting to get mad at me spending so much money on my old jeep, and not on her
