Teraflex 3" Lift Kit
After talking to a number of people and seeking the advice of many people on the rec.autos.makers.jeep-willys Internet newsgroup, I ordered a Teraflex S3T 3" suspension lift from Trail Quest, Inc. of Plain City, Ohio. A lesser kit was available, but by all indications it is inadequate for good offroad performance. Upper control arms are also available. but are not part of the kit.
At the same time I ordered a set of B. F. Goodrich 33x12.50 Mud Terrain tires mounted on 8" American Racing Outlaw II wheels. The tires and wheels arrived in mid-May, but the lift kit was back ordered. Since Cec and I were traveling to Hawaii to be married in late May, I requested that the lift be shipped in early June.
My 4WD club, the Wolverine Four Wheelers of suburban Detroit, kindly offered to hold a "work day" to install the lift kit. It took us several weeks to find a time we could all get together, but several of us (Paul, Rick, Tom, Bill, Mark, Rick,and I) assembled on July 4th at Paul's well-equipped shop to do the deed. When I drove into Paul's shop, I was stunned. Man what a shop--it had everything you would want to work on cars, and it was N-E-A-T! (By neat I mean orderly as well as "cool") We, of course, teased Paul about having the neatest shop in North America, thereby establishing our jealousy of his accomplishment, we got to work.
Before
you knew it, the group had the Jeep jacked up, on jack stands and had the
tires off. We had a team up front and a team in back both working at the same
time. Off came the shocks, springs, control arms, and Pitman are. We even
followed the instructions, which proved to be very good. Before long on went
the new springs, flex arms, drop Pitman arm, shocks, etc. Finally we lowered
the transfer case and installed the spacers. Back on went the tires and out
came the jack stands.
And five after starting, there it stood--Lee's Jeep reborn!
I can't say enough good things about the Wolverines. They sacrificed their Fourth of July holiday for me, and I am very grateful. The experience of working with a talented group of people was priceless. It was like the barn raisings of old when neighbors got together to help each other other out. What a great memory!
After thanking all the guys, Lee jumped in and headed home. The ride was slightly stiffer than stock, but it was not objectionable. There was a slight vibration, just a brief shudder, when starting in low gear, but that was it. It seemed to work well.
The steering wheel was rotated counterclockwise about a quarter turn because we forgot to adjust the front track bar. When the frame rises, the end of the track bar on the driver's side rises also, which pulls the suspension slightly left with respect to the frame. The solution is to redrill the hole in the mounting bracket on the driver's side or use a press to straighten and thus lengthen the track bar. We got that done in a quick return to Paul's shop a couple weeks later.
As soon as
I got the Jeep home, I brought the 33" tires up from the basement and
put them on. Here is the result. It looks a lot beefier and now looks like
a real Jeep. I like the higher view of the world, but I've had to relearn
how to enter and exit the driver's seat. The best result it that I haven't
ripped a belt loop on the door latch like I did at the stock height. I did
scrape my knee cap on the rear fender flare and had to be doctored by Cec.
Now I understand the phrase "Just Empty Every Pocket", but fishing and golf are expensive too.
I have had two trips since installing the lift kit, one with the old tires and one with the new tires to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. The vehicle handles well on the highway and pulls my Aliner trailer very nicely. Offroad it worked great, and I am very pleased with Teraflex lift and MT tires.
Addendum
Unfortunately th eTeraflex control arms did not last. After only about 3 years the threads connecting the two halves of the flex arms together began to strip out. That caused a clunk every time I engaged the clutch. So I replaced them with Rubocon Express upper and lower cotrol arms.