Suspension and Chassis
Front End
Out of all the details of this build, we have spent the greatest amount of time trying to define the new suspension. There are so many choices to look at; Tubed arms, boxed arms, adjustable arms, tall ball joints, standard ball joints, stock coils, cut coils, lowering coils, coil-over's, re-valved shocks, adjustable shocks, rapid ratio steering box, Grand Cherokee conversion, etc... Ultimately, we pulled the trigger on a set of tubed upper and lower control arms with a QA1 coil-over conversion from
SpeedTech Performance. The control arms will accept the coil-over's or can be converted back to standard coils and shocks if we can't get the ride height where we want it. Ultimately, if we had it to do over, we would look at the Hiedt's control arm and coil-over conversion package with their drop spindles.
For the spindles, we ordered a set of standard height spindles from Ground-Up. They are from Right Stuff Detailing (GetDiscBrakes).
Our original spindles had some pretty good discoloration and pitting so rather than risk the whole build, we will suck it up for the $200 and not worry about it.
Since the front end is completely torn down, we elected to go with a full steering rebuild kit from Hotchkis. After pricing everything from Moog individually, the package price
from Frank and Lisa at GPSuperstore. They have saved us quite a bit. It should be noted that
Hotchkis has tie-rod sleeves in their picture, but they are NOT included with the kit. I was a little disappointed to say the least! To their credit Hotchkis offered to get me a 'special' price on the adjusting sleeves.
Steering will be helped with a new AGR 12:1 quick ratio steering box. They aren't cheap, but we shouldn't have to worry about it going forward and the higher T-Bar ratio will give a firmer feedback.
To finish off the front end, we will use a new UMI Performance sway bar.
Rear End
The rear end suspension will be a full rebuild as well. Starting with the control arms, we will use a UMI Performance tubular control arm kit and control arm reinforcers.
The next order of business will be a UMI Performance rear sway bar to tie everything
together.
We originally planned on the new SpeedTech Performance non-welded coil-over conversion using QA1 shocks like the front-end kit, but ultimately, we were concerned about the geometry of the shock placement and side loading. Instead, we are going with a set of 2" lowering springs from BMR Fabrication and a pair of QA1 Single Adjustable Shocks.
Brakes
To stop all this new found fun, we will be installing a Wilwood 4-Piston Dynalite disc brake conversion
kit (again in black). If we were to do it over again, I would look more seriously at the KORE3 conversion kits, but we got a good deal from the
GPSuperstore, so here we are. We also upgrade to the tandem master cylinder for a little more pop under the hood.
Chassis Re-Assembly
Wheels
Wheels on order as of July 1st 2011. The final selection is a set of Rushforth Wheels SuperSpoke. Fully polished 18x8 Fronts (4.75"BS) and 18x10s (6"BS) out back.
Tires will be the Nitto NT555 in 245/45/18 and 285/40/18.
