My Jeep 89 YJ Wrangler

I have recently acquired a 89 YJ Wrangler for 1000 bucks . Its got 130k miles, and some kind of procomp lift rocking bald Goodyear allterrians. I plan on making this thing semi trail ready and not such a street queen.



Currently as you can see it has about 0 flex, I really dont think the suspension actually moves. I have replaced the shocks with some rancho adjustable shocks and they are set to 0, but the ride is unbearable and still no flex. It has some sort of procomp lift on it, (the guy I bought it from got it this way) and its just awful.

Does anybody know anything about this kind of problem. here is some shots of the suspension. My ideas are the shackles dont look stock and may not be letting the suspension travel, loose the sway bar, or the leaf packs are just super duper stiff. I know its not going to ride great, but this is insane, chicks cant go in it cause it hurts their boobs .





Thanks for the help peoples.

 

I6 or 4 banger?

 

$1000?! how the heck did you manage that? i'd love to get me a jeep...

 

4.2 I6. Its not quite the same as the taco haahah

 

close friend wanting to get rid of it, and it had no interior I put new stuff in but still a bargain.

 

Still not a bad motor. Check compression and for excessive blow by. Put a Flowmaster 40 series muffler on it and everyone will think you have a V8 under the hood.

 

my friend has similar yj. I've seen pics where its "flexed out" and the thing reacts just like urs in that mud pic. hers has a 2.5" lift with General grabber at2's so fairly similar to urs but with the 4cyl

 

I got an 1990 Jeep Wrangler and any questions I have I go directly to www.jeepforum.com the guys there will be able to point you in the right direction.

Here is my Jeep:

 

Those are stock shackles - they're probably 'frozen' and aren't flexing as much as they should. Typicle.

The YJ's have trac bars in the front & the rear. Does it still have the trac bar in the rear?? It'll be a 1.5" round tube that attaches to the frame rail and to the rear axle. You can remove this thing and you won't notice much difference in handling at all. You can also remove the front trac bar but it might cause some handling issues - it all depends.

I've had two YJ's that I built into trail rigs with Dana 44's, ARB's, roll cage, etc. and it still went 70mph down the highway. I sold it last summer.
This was my first one (92) - was totalled on the highway and we bought it back from the insurance company.

All the good parts were ripped off the first one and swapped over to the 2nd one.


But yeah, removing the trac bars and getting some new leaf springs, new greasable shackles - can make a world of a difference in how it rides. The stock ride in those things sucks!

What exactly are your plans for it?

 

Awesome jeep, I have always wanted a jeep so I can ride through the mountains with the top off.

 

Thanks so much for the info, very useful.

The trac bars are still there both front and rear, as well as the sway bar, Im going to take all three off tomorrow, take off the shackels, see about cleaning them up and greasing them, and order new things as needed.

Oh and this thing cant make it to 70mph so I dont think it should be a problem.

Im taking it to tahoe this summer and going to see about some offroading there, some new tires, a rear bumper and what ever else it "needs". I pretty much want to have it as a reliable beater so I dont thrash my truck on the trails. I have it set up so I can tow it with my truck so it should be fun.

 

I hate you


Congrats on the score. The guy was an idiot to sell it that cheap. His loss is your awesome win!!!

 

Thanks I feel like it was a major win as well

haha I have been trolling for a couple weeks, I might make a account there.

 

I had a 89 Wrangler back in the day. It was a lot of fun and the I6 4.2 is pretty sweet. You got a good deal.

 

Take the trac bars off but don't remove the sway bar - atleast not yet. Get some sway bar disconnects, so you can disconnect them while off road and re-connect them when you're onroad.

I can almost quarentee you won't be able to get the shackles off without destroying them. There's a metal sleeve inside the rubber bushings. The sleeve & the bolts rust and fuse together. In 90% (or more) of the time, you have to cut off the bolt heads to get the shackles off. Soo...before you even attempt doing this - make sure you have a new set of shackles with greasable bushings & bolts ready to replace them with.

Just an FYI - If you attempt to take off the shackles in the rear (near the gas tank) - you DO NOT have to lower the gas tank to do this. You'll probably read on the internet of people who complained about needing to drop the gas tank to get the shackles off. They were obviously mis-informed.

 

How would you get the bolts out without dropping the tank? cut them?

 

Remove both the nuts on the upper & lower shackle bolts. Remove the outter shackle plate. The bushings are in halves - so you gotta pry the outter half (nearest you) out. Once you get that half bushing out, it should give you enough clearance to angle the bolt downward to slide it out. It might be tricky.....but it can be done (without removing the gas tank).

Aside from any rust related issues... and dirt wadded up in there....

 

cool, I cut 3 of them, and Ill try taking the bushings out on the 4th my sawzall is getting dull.


Ill update and make this a build later, but so far I have removed both trac bars gotten OME greasable shackles and some brand new 33/12.5 BFG Ats

 

Sweet!