1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Suspension - Project Ain't It Grander

13. Because we moved the axle assembly rearward, the coils had to work at an angle. To correct this, the first-generation coil buckets were cut off and replaced with new ones of an offset design. Bob also installed new bumpstops inside the coils, similar to the factory ones up front. Also shown are the mounts on the sway bar and axle that hold our Teraflex links to the Addco sway bar.

13. Because we moved the axle assembly rearward, the coils had to work at an angle. To cor

On day two, the lower control-arm mounts on the rear axle were cut off, and newly designed ones that offered better ground clearance were installed. The axle-end shock mounts also went the way of the "hot wrench." The new shock mounts offered more clearance around brake calipers, as well as slightly more wheel travel. New forward-offset lower coil-spring pads were installed that allowed us to move the axle rearward without having a rearward slant to the coil spring. The geometric design of the new control arms, plus having more triangulation, will eliminate just about any rear axle roll or rearward walk. The rear is an opposite triangulated setup, with the upper bars coming off the top of the axle truss at the center mounting and going forward to the far outside of the unibody. The lower arms are mounted to the outside ends of the axletubes and near the center of the rear crossmember.

The front is a parallel four-bar setup with some pretty fancy bends in it to offer more ground clearance as well as clearing the front driveshaft and exhaust headers. It uses the original factory axle mounts and the new front crossmember.

Mike and Bob also had to redo the exhaust system for proper clearance (an exhaust system option will be available with the T&T kit). With the arms adjusted for proper caster angle up front, pinion angle at the rear, the thrust line centered, and axle set back equal, we were ready to head out the next morning.

But wait, a major snowstorm had rolled in, shutting down most of the area's roads as well as the Interstate. Not being able to leave for at least another day, we decided to make a few more modifications.

At the rear axle, the factory-located upper bumpstops with Teraflex extension blocks were eliminated and the axle pads cut off. A new style that T&T Customs had designed was pulled off the shelf. These mount within the coil, similarly to the ones on the front. By doing this, we were able to maintain the same amount of articulation and direct compression travel. The benefit was that the spring could now fall out of the upper mount during full droop, but the inside bumpstop mount would direct the coil back to the proper mounting location on the unibody.

While his crew was working on the rear, I went up front, took off the front skidplate I had built earlier and had Bob punch some 1 1/2-inch holes in it. We then dimpled these. The inward flare greatly strengthened the flat metal surface, allows some better air flow, and well ... looks cool.

On went the shocks-a set of Rancho 9000XLs to try (we are also trying out both some 5100 and 5150 Bilstein shocks), all the nuts and bolts were given a once-over, out came the rattle can for a quick paint job, the rack was lowered, the Jeep driven out of the shop for a fast trip around the block, and yes, everything seemed to work perfect. On the trailer it went, and we headed for Moab the next morning.

How did it all work out? We'll let you know in the following months, as well as going into a bit more detail on the front and rear axles, steering and track-bar mount, as well as some of the other stuff we installed.