 Before |
 After |
  Height before and after the lift. It is more than 2.5 inches after because I haven’t had a chance to drive it and get it to settle. |
Today I went to a L.O.S.T. KJ West Lift Party at Clint‘s house out near Wrightwood, CA. Donna and I had previously been given a lift kit from the Lost KJ West club when we went on our first run with them in June. Today we installed the lift. The kit is a Daystar 2.5″ puck lift. This type of lift uses the original spring with a puck underneath it to give added lift. New front struts and rear shocks are required due to the gain in height. I bought Rancho RSX 17004 shocks for the rear, and the kit came with new struts.
 Comparing the two struts |
 Strut Installed |
We first did the front end. It is the more difficult of the two. We had no major problems except that it takes a while to compress the springs even with an air powered wrench! You have to compress the springs in order to replace the strut.
 Jeff getting ready to install the rear puck |
 Rear end after the install. Notice the broken wheel stud. Oops! |
The back end was much easier. It is lifted by placing another puck under the back spring and replacing the shock. Unfortunately while we removed one of the wheels one of the wheel studs broke. Jim gave me a ride to the local auto parts store to search for a replacement while Jeff and Clint continued working. Unfortunately they didn’t have one. I’ll have to replace that myself later.
The total height gained was a bit more than 2.5″ but this will probably settle down after a bit of driving. The height gain is noticeable when stepping in to the car. The key though is that now we will be higher than a lot of those rocks! The ride seems the same to me, higher, but it drives the same.
We also looked at Jim’s Liberty. It turns out his front locking differential is broken. They decided to just leave it in until a replacement can be obtained and then swap the diff in one shot.
 Jeff Clint exchanging Jeff’s strut springs. |
 Comparison of the original spring with Daystar Puck vs OME Spring & Puck |
On Jeff’s Liberty we swapped out his front springs and Daystar pucks for an OME spring and puck setup. As you can see in the pictures, the OME spring is longer and the puck correspondingly shorter. This should give the same lift, but will give him more travel since his spring is longer. The ride will be different too due to a different spring rate.
I had a great time and really appreciate the help! Thanks Clint, Jeff and Jim!
Kirk I know of a web site that sells tubular upper control arms for you Jeep. The site is jeepinbyal.com
hi im in Marina Del Rey, wanting to lift my KJ as well. wonderin how things are after the lift?
Things are fine. With the big tires on I get a little rubbing on the inside of the plastic fenders when at the extremes of turns, but otherwise all is OK. A little higher of course. My mom uses the hand holds to get in.