well im not sure thats a really safe combination....

2.5 body lift, plus 2 inch spacer lift, and then 4" suspension lift....thats a crazy setup. i'll get to that in a sec though.

for your axles if they are stock w/ D35, then yes...upgrade your rear axle...it'll break very soon if you dont...though street only use would be fine....but really lame. if you have the factory D44 in the rear ...then yur OK. the D35 is an oval cover in case you dont know..

back to the lift.....that combo is not a good idea...
if you want to clear 35's or 36s.......go with a 4-5 inch lift kit that includes the control arms.....otherwise you'll be in trouble.... 4-5 inches should be enough to clear the 35s no problem, ditch the body lift and avoid the spacers

the "short arm" control arms are really only good up to 4 inches....if you lift more than this you'll want a long arm kit....those can be had in some big lift amounts. so if you do decide to add a 2" spacer to a 4" lift despite it being a bad idea.... do it to a long arm lift.

Axles......anything you buy will be expensive....a Ford 8.8 rear axle can be had and set up for 700-800 assuming you buy the new suspension mounts for it and have someone weld em up to a junk yard axle.

id you buy a new axle, like from currie or dyna track...you will be spending about 3000 per axle

 

Thanks Jeep'n Greg. Are you sure i can clear the 35x14.50s though with just a 4"? Or would i have to shave a bit?

 

well...i have 31's with no lift right now........so if you lift the suspension 4"s and go to a 35" tire...that means the radius of the tire only increased 2" so you have 4" more of suspension and 2" more of tire in that space...

hope that makes sense...i ramble a lot...but yea.....it can be done w/o trimmming...looks good too i think

what kinda wheeling you gonna do, or is this a street mobile ?

 

well i go to school, so during the year it will be a street vehicle, but weekends or summer/vacations i will take it anywhere. My first question was would i be able to drive the jeep with its stock axles for a while on the street?

If so I'm thinking to put the lift on now and during the next school year buy some new axles. If not i will have to wait a long while for axle money.

About that, would i need to replace the front and rear or just the rear?

Also the width of the 35s... would that be a problem? (14.50) Or am I going to have to resort to the 35x12.50.

Thanks.

 

if yur easy on it and dont peel out a lot then the axle will be fine with 35's, street only. not that you are gonna have a power loss, especially if you have the 4 cly......if you have the 6cyl you'll be OK with your 4.56 gear

the front D30 tends to be a little stronger than the rear D35....the 35 is crap....i blew mine up with a 4 cyl and 29" tires....its that bad.

for tires, it depends on the back spacing...but you should be OK with an appropriate wheel/tire combo....you'll prolly have to adjust the steering stops so it doesnt rub the control arms

also...you might want to rember that since your in school you proly arent gonna have a ton of money......you MIGHT want to think abotu opening a seperate account for jeep savings purposes.....keep the jeep as is now...and just put the money you have into an account.....save it till yur ready to do it all at once....

the reason i seay this is because your gas milage is going to drop like crazy which costs $$, also if you go bigger now, you'll prolly re-gear....which means you are spending money on axles you are going to swap out later....

i say save up...get a nice lift and have some local welding shop weld a junk yard axle with suspension mounts from M.O.R.E.... if you research enough maybe you can fnid a rear that has 4.56 already.....and save yurself a lot of work and money

i just got out of school so i understand money and trying to do things one at a time...

 

Yea i know what you mean about the money. Right now i have enough for the lift, tires, wheels, and gears. So i could get it all done now. My only concern is that if the axle breaks, I cannot buy a new one.

You said I would only need to upgrade the rear right?

Another note about the tires. What backspacing do you think i would need to use. Im thinking of going with either 35x14.50 Thornbirds on a 15x12 Rock Crawler Rim, or 36x13.50 IROKS on a 15x10. Either one will do, but i would prefer the IROKS.

I'm pretty new to the whole 'off-roading' thing. I've been doing my research on practically everything out there, and I am slowly learning how things work for a Jeep.

I'm not familiar on how the backspacing works, however. The Series 97 rims go from 3.75 to 4.5 backspacing.

Thanks for your help Jeep'n Greg.

 

the front would last longer than the rear.....unless you thrash it the front would be OK.

if you REALLY want the wide tires go with the least backspacing. remember that some states require your flares cover the entire tire....so keep that in mind, you might have to get wide fender flares.

dont get thornbirds, they suck a lot. other Mud terrain type tires are usally pretty good...as are super swampers and the IROKS you mentioned.

rule of thumb for back spacing, the less spacing you have, the farther the tire sticks out.

i still stick to the save-your-money-and-wait idea, theres a lot of added costs when you do stuff.... did your emeber to add in cost of longer driveshafts with the lift? longer brake lines? added cost of gas (cuz yur MPG is gonna go down), Bigger fender flares?

 

I can only speak from my first hand experience with my Jeep. I have a 6 inch long arm lift and I BARELY clear the 35 MTRs... The 35 MTRs actually only measure 34 inches. I really can't say with your setup if you add a 4 inch lift... I ran my Wrangler for almost a year before I did any of the work so I could save up the money to do it the right way instead of opting for the cheap options of a body lift and/or coilspacers for clearance.

With that said if I had a 4 inch lift I would definately be rubbing my 34in MTRs...

I hope this helps...

On a side note I say go for the 35s and start practing how to use a SAWZALL!

 

everything but the longer drive shaft was added in. I'm thinking I could just buy a ford 8.8 rear axle or Dana 44 off ebay or go to the junk yard. The ford 8.8 would work right?

Yea I'm going to save my money and get everything all at once. I'm almost there. That rear axle will probably cost me around $600+

So what about this longer drive shaft? I'm guessing it is necessary haha. What brand and where can i get one of these guys?

---- How do you know so much about all of this anyways? I've been learning little bits at a time.

 

everything i know about jeeps (which isnt much) i learned from this Message board! , I've been here 5 years now!!!!

Check www.car-parts.com my ford 8.8 came from a 97 explorer for 300, then add in mounts and welding. mine had rear disc brakes...which is nice

for drive shaft, get an SYE (slip yoke eliminator) and a CV drive shaft ....SYEs range from $200 for a hack 'n tap type to more for one that comes with a new tailshaft...then the driveshaft can run an other 200-400 bucks.....i'd look in yellow pages for a shop that does shafts

Scott, 4x4 garage. im not sure what you have set up on yurs but theres a few local guys here that i've talked to in parking lots that have 4" and 35s and they have some room left, granted they will never make a perfect X with thier axles but they seemed like they had enough room for average use, not sure why yurs would be different ???? i am confused

EDIT: thinking more....the guys i talked to were in TJs, not YJs since that makes a difference with the wheel well size, but you have a TJ too....hmmm i dunnow...i think it'd fit unless they had something like a body lift or soemthing else i mgiht have missed..... i could be confused so if anyone else wants to chime in that'd be great....im going to bed soon anyways /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

What I'm about to say is only my opinion, and so it's probably not worth too much. But I figure I'll throw it in anyway...

If I were you I'd take that jeep out wheeling a few times and get some experience on the trails before doing any mods to it. You'll be quite suprised at what it can do just set up stock if you have some people around to keep you out of trouble.

Jumping straight into 6 inches of lift and 36" tires with no real wheeling experience is a good recipe for breakin' some stuff. Those bigger tires put a lot of stress on drive train parts, especially if you're powering over stuff that you might want more experience for.

That's just my experience as a fellow beginner to off-roading. I'm running a pretty much stock (as far as suspension and tires go) CJ. I think that what I've learned wheeling easy trails in that 20+ year old stock jeep will be invaluable when I do have the money to move up to big tires and lifts. If I'd jumped straight into 35's and all that, I'd have just breezed over the stuff I was on, and I'd have had to learn these lessons on more dangerous obstacles, and probably broken a lot more stuff in the process.

So my advice is to take the Jeep out wheeling while it's still stock and you can do your learning on stuff that wont break your rig.

Just a thought to consider. Whatever you end up doing though, I hope you love Jeepin' as much as the rest of us. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/RockOn.gif

 

Just another thought.

If you're going to all the trouble of swapping axles and setting gears and all that, you should probably consider putting in a locker at the same time. If you're already setting up your gears, or paying someone else to do it, then it can be done at the same time for the same labor charge.

I just figured if you're jumping up to an 8.8 or D44 and 4.56 gears with 36inch tires, you'll probably end up wanting a locker at some point. Would be easier to save up and do it all at the same time.

That's what I'd do, anyway.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

Thanks Rabid Tortoise. Yea I'm planning on saving up for everything. I have almost all the money that i need for everything. My only problem is that I'm still unsure of all the NECESSARY parts that i need, and where to find them for somewhat of a cheap price.

I know now that I'm going to need a new axle, but what kind? Where can i find it?

Also you said i need lockers... what kind? I'm new to all of the "parts" thing. So help me out please.

Also, what does a Slip Yoke Eliminator do?

Ahhh so much to learn.

Thanks.

 

I didn't mean to say that you *need* lockers, just that if you were having to replace the carrier anyway, then you might want to just do a locker at the same time. You don't have to have a locker.

As for a new axle, you have some options there. Just get on the web and search for axle swaps. There are tons of write-ups on what others have done that's worked for them.

It sounds like you need to do a lot of researching so you understand your options before going ahead with any of this. So that's my suggestions. Search all this stuff up on the web and just start reading.

Later I'll try and post with some ideas on where to start.

 

Your jeep won't automatically break and you don't automaticly have to swap axles when you go with 35's. Look at most of the pavement pounder tj's on 35's i'd be willing to be 90% of them still have the 35 rear. I ran the samll u-joint dana 30/ dana 35 combo on 35's for a season without any breakage and i wasn't really easy on them either. The open diffs and 3.07 gears saved me.

I do have to agree with getting some trail miles/ experiance under your belt before you go so big. A set of 31's or 32's with 2" of lift is a lot better/ cheeper way to learn to wheel. Get on the trail, see what other people have and how they like it. Find a club that really wheels to help you on the trail and help you build your jeep.

 

what do you mean the open diffs and 3.07 gears saved you? You drove around with stock gears? I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean.

 

I really don't mean for this to come off as rude, but...

Not understanding what he means is part of the reason we're saying you should get some more experience and do some more research before going into all these mods.

Just so we have an idea where you're starting from....


Do you know the difference between an open diff and a differential locker and a limited slip?

Do you know what's involved in swapping axles from another vehicle into your jeep?

Do you know what the carrier is we're talking about and why you'd have to get a different one if you went up to higher (numerically, lower gear ratio) gears?

I hope that didn't come off bad. I'm just curious if you know what we're talkin' about and to see where your knowledge level is.

 

Yes and no. I'm just asking about these mods because those are what I'm told I need.

When i get a response i have been looking up everything trying to make sense of what you all tell me.

What i do need is a good source to learn everything you're telling me. Anything online i can read?

 

[ QUOTE ]
Anything online i can read?

[/ QUOTE ]

Enough to make you go blind from all of the reading.

Take a look around my Drivetrain Links . That would be the tip of the iceberg.

Then try a Google Search for different things like "Jeep Axle Upgrades" or "TJ Upgrades"... use your imagination.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/40BEER.gif
Dale

 

Thanks Dale, I will read up on these things.

 

heres a great website....just some guy with a jeep who made a webpage of everything he's done.....LOTS there

http://www.stu-offroad.com/siteindex.htm

lots of info to get you started

enjoy

 

Thanks Jeep'n Greg. I'm already starting to become more familiar with things. Bascially what I'm trying to do is get more bang for my buck... spend less money but still get everything I need. It helps a lot when you can do the things yourself, versus having someone hired to install things for you.

Have you heard of the XZ coil springs going onto the front of your TJ, and your front TJ coils going on your rear? Ive heard a couple people talk about that, and they say it gives you 3-4" of lift. This also costs around $200-300... much cheaper than any other lift kit.

Tell me what ya think.

Xero.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Jeep'n Greg. I'm already starting to become more familiar with things. Bascially what I'm trying to do is get more bang for my buck... spend less money but still get everything I need. It helps a lot when you can do the things yourself, versus having someone hired to install things for you.

Have you heard of the XZ coil springs going onto the front of your TJ, and your front TJ coils going on your rear? Ive heard a couple people talk about that, and they say it gives you 3-4" of lift. This also costs around $200-300... much cheaper than any other lift kit.

Tell me what ya think.

Xero.

[/ QUOTE ]

Check Rusty's Off-Road. he has some good riding and flexing TJ lifts. and his prices are pretty good to.

 

if I was you I would ditch the body lift go with a skyjacker 6inch lift oe re(rubicon express)lift kit. I think they are the best out there. then you can fit your tires. Either do a hack and tap or heavy duty sye cv drive shaft super 35kit for the rear and 4.56 gears all around and you would be good for the drive.

 

keeping the stock gears so i didn't have as much torque going to the axles and not locking them saved them. If i was locked with lower gears they wouldn't have lasted very long.

Dude get experiance and make decisions for your sell instead of the offroad shop doing your mods and taking your $$ tells you what to do.

A newbie with a stock jeep on 35's is a horrible idea in my head and would be a pain in the rear on the trail to have following along