TJ / LJ Lower Control Arm Bolt Hole Relocation

[tobyw]

No rocket science here, but keeping flatter control arm angles is usually beneficial for a bunch of reasons. In a TJ/LJ, the control arms are so short that it doesn't take much lift at all to make things really funky... Luckily for us, the factory frame mounts have a ton of meat on them below the original hole, and I spent a few minutes with a template and a step bit to relocate my frame side LCA holes 1-1/4" down. Based on some quick ciphering, in my case the net gain here was 5* lesser control arm angle, which is significant. For reference, I've got approximately 3-1/4" of total lift up front, so here is what the math says:

LCA Angle Comparison.jpg (134.82 KiB) Viewed 475 times

And here's my template and the finished product:

IMG_5421.JPG (1.21 MiB) Viewed 475 times

IMG_5422.JPG (1.23 MiB) Viewed 475 times

IMG_5424.JPG (1.32 MiB) Viewed 475 times

A brief test drive before diving into other alterations revealed a night and day difference in handling and overall behavior over small bumps and road imperfections, which is where steep control arm angles can lead to sketchy handling. I'll make some doubler plates to beef up the mounting bracket in the near future

[Roman]

You crazy mad man...